to wish that people would keep their fecking filthy dogs to themselves?

[BubbleGirl01]

Lots of people on the school run (mainly mothers), in my area, take their dogs with them for some unfathomable reason. Most mornings DS3 and I have to dodge the fucking things as the owner has them on a long lead and they block the path with them and allow them to walk up to people.

This morning we had one pig ignorant woman let her dog almost trip DS over by the dog walking at his heels.

Another woman standing on the path talking to someone over the road, dog lead blocking the whole path, lets her dog jump up at my shopping bags, I have to ask her to move her dog.

Then further up, massive dog doing a big stinking shit (FFS who wants to smell that first thing in the morning in the street) dog lead again blocking the whole path, while woman chattering away on her phone, dog then comes to sniff at my bags.

ABU to say to people 'keep your filthy animal to yourself' and kick the next one who invades into my personal space.

Bit, I dont expect other people to love my dog as much as I do. That would be, erm, stupid. I dont expect them to understand the bond between us or the fact that he is a huge part of our family who has helped me get through some of the hardest times in my life. Hes well trained dog who doesnt bother people he doesnt know, has his crap picked up after him and does no harm to anyone. What I do expect is that I can go out and about with my dog without hysterical people like the OP threatening to harm him for simply being in the same vicinity as her. Or being given the evils for daring to take him with me when I walk my kids to school.

I completely agree that antisocial dogs and their owners are a pain, btwno argument there.

Eve I read your previous post like Liam Neeson in "Taken". "I have some very special skills as a prosecuing agency of the crown and if you kick my dog, I will find you and I will prosecute you".

FWIW the idea of anyone kicking a dog horrifies me too

Confused here's a recent example. I was in a seaside pub in Kent on New years Day . I was very cosy and full as it was the only pub in a small town serving food. I went to the bar. There was man there with dog on a lead that continually sniffed me and rubbed up against my legs as I waited to be served while hs owner chatted to his mate. Eventually the dog jumped up at me, making a hole in my tights. The owner did nothing but looked at me like a piece of shit on his shoe when I asked him to keep his dog closer to him.

Last night I went to a local convenience store to get some cash. A man was waiting outside with three large dogs who were all barking their heads off, presumably as they could see the man's wife inside. They were rather intimidating. To get past them to the cash point I had to squeeze between them and some parked cars. I tried to get as far away as I could as I went past. The man made no effort to pull hs dogs further away from me, looked at me askance as I swerved round them and said "They won't hurt you!" in a shirty voice as if I was being ridiculous to want to be 6 inches away from three large barking dogs

That's this year alone. Two weeks.

JCW I did say that "love" ws the wrong word. I explained what I meant in a second post

Reading these stories it occurs to me that dog owners and non-dog owners perhaps have different experiences because one group understands dogs and the other doesn't. For example my friend, who is scared of dogs, jumps whenever my dog yawns. She sees the open mouth and large teeth and associates that with anger or biting. Whereas I know he's just yawning and ignore it. The lady across the road has just got a new puppy and is still trainng it. I know that if I offer it my hand to sniff it's less likely to jump up at me. A non-dog owner might not know that (that said the onus is till on her to train him to stop jumping).

(Random) I remember my infant school had a sign banning dogs, it said " and exercising dogs is forbidden." and I remember thinking that an exercising dog was some kind of special type of dog, and I wondered why they used is instead of are. At first I assumed it was a special usage and then it bothered me as I thought they had made a mistake. I am an English teacher now, I suppose it started young

I don't know anything about dogs. But I know I'm scared of them. I've been jumped on and slobbered on and scratched and growled at by other people's dogs. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen regularly - for example, one of my neighbours has a huge dog that runs towards me and growls at me whenever I see it. It's really very scary, and the owner doesn't seem to know how to call it back (or doesn't care). I could never hurt an animal, but I totally understand the fantasy of doing something that would make an out-of-control dog back the fuck away from me.

I'd love to have a stock phrase handy for these situations - something polite and inoffensive, like "Lovely dog; do you think you could get his claws out of my coat?" But my inclination is to get angry and swear lots. I guess that's what people do when attacked by a big scary monster.

YANBU.

Bits, I saw your second post. As I said I don't expect you to like/love/care about my dog. But as he's no bother to you or anyone else I do expect you to tolerate him in a public place as long as he's behaving in a reasonable manner.

I'm complaining about dogs that DO bother me though JCW. Which is quite a few. Many owners expect me to just smile and pat its head when it's jumped up at me and I shouldn't care of it rips my tights because "it's only being friendly!" I don't care if it distributes soup to the homeless and has a 20 minute stand up sketch. I don't want it on / near / around me thanks. Why should I?

And as I said I agree that anti-social dogs are a pain. But many of the "anti" posters on this thread seem bothered by the mere existence of a dog - regardless of what it's actually doing. That's what's frustrating for the dog owners amongst us.

Other people's dogs bother me, especially when they think it's perfectly reasonable to let them chase my pregnant ewes! On occasion they have been in the fields my horses are in scaring them shitless. People then get arsey when asked to control their fucking dogs! If they are on our land, worrying our livestock and owners can't control them they will be shot. If owners can't control their dogs it's not our problem, it's theirs. Our livestock are our livelihood.

We have 8 dogs, 3 working dogs and 5 pet dogs. All of our dogs recall to a whistle, it's not hard to teach them.

I love all 8 dogs BUT I would never allow them to jump up on people. Why the hell people insist on taking dogs on school runs I can't understand, especially into a playground where children may be afraid of them.

Well I'm talking about nuisance dogs. That's what the OP was complaining about too

And I imagine it is frustrating for dog lovers if people have decided that they hate all dogs. But it is equally bewildering for non-dog lovers that we are expected to put up with dogs without complaining because if we don't we are dog haters.

I don't think there's that many jumpy dogs about. It's more that the ones who do jump stand out. We've probably met over 100 dogs over the past 5 months since getting our puppy and other than my puppy, exactly two dogs are jumpy dogs. I feel very sorry for their owner- seemingly his first dog never used to jump but then his owner got a teeny tiny dog as well (first dog is a black lab). The teeny tiny dog is jumpy but because he's so tiny, lots of people think he's the cutest thing they've ever seen and encourage the jumping. The black lab sees this and now he thinks, "Ooh, attention! I'll have some of that!" The owner has spent the past few years trying to stop the jumping with absolutely no luck.

You see Taz, I couldn't really give a toss how hard the owner has been trying or for how long, if a black lab jumps up at me, I'm not going to be happy!

Bit I wouldn't be happy either! I have been jumped on by this dog (which is why I know the story and we see them regularly so I know to stand like a statue around them). I just mean that I do have a fair amount of sympathy for the owner who is doing his absolute best and is mortified when it happens. I was covered in mud after his dog jumped on me!

I have a dog and therefore encounter plenty of them daily on walks and luckily have never ever been jumped on by one. My dog is not a jumper either.

I hope I'm coming over as a rabid dog hater, I'm not at all. And I would never ever harm one. Just I don't like badly behaved ones who scare me or rip my tights or get hair on my coat or mud on my trousers, that's all. And I don't like dog owners who couldn't give a toss how their dog behaves because they love them. I don't!

I know good dog owners like to be in denial that these kind of dogs exist but they do - I have two examples from this year alone earier and so its easy to see how all dogs get tarred with the same brush

"Well I'm talking about nuisance dogs. That's what the OP was complaining about too"

Well they weren't really nuisance dogs. They were all on leads and one had a shit that was picked up. They weren't jumping up, snarling and biting or festooning the pavement with heaps of shit. The OP was about dogs simply being in a place that she didn't think they should be. That (and the irritable intolerant tone) is what struck me and clearly others on this thread.

Apologies! I thought the poop was scooped - she didn't mention whether it was or not.

So I'm a bad owner while my puppy is still a badly behaved jumper, even though we spend time training him to ignore people every day, but I will become a good owner the day it finally clicks in his little head that jumping gets him nowhere? lighthearted, I'm not being snarky!

Taz1212 If your dog is jumping but you are trying to train him then that will be obvious to anyone around you. I'm sure you would warn people if they approach your dog and I'm sure you reprimand you dog if he jumps. Its dog owners that don't care that irritate me.

The owner of the large dog that kept up on my friends back while we were out walking didn't give a shit. The dog was unleashed and had muddy paws.

The owner didn't bother stopping and hardly said anything to us or the dog. She muttered sorry as she dashed off. She pissed me off - someone with a dog 'in training' wouldn't at all.

I put him on lead as soon as I spot anyone around us (he's only off lead in quiet country/wood areas), but sometimes I miss. The last time he jumped on someone was a couple of weeks ago when he jumped on a jogger. I was horrified and could only keep saying sorry once I got him back. We were on a path between a field and some woods- not a proper path, one that was formed by people walking there. It's pretty overgrown with brambles going across it and I have never come across anyone else on it so it never occurred to me that there might be a jogger. Nevertheless I know it was my fault! My puppy was behind me and I turned to call him to me and there he was bounding up to the jogger. Awful! Fortunately the jogger was really nice about it.

I hate the 'she won't hurt you....she's friendly' I'm sure she is but I didn't want muddy prints all over my cream Parka

I don't think there has been anyone posting on this thread who had not acknowledged that a jumping dog/ out of control dog/ rubbish owner/ dog mess not picked up etc is ok. In fact as far as I have seen (and I agree I may have missed it somewhere here) everyone thinks that it's not on.
However when people post things like I hate dogs! as in SamiBE's post its just horrible.
Dislike them... fine, not be a dog person..fine but come on HATE is rather a strong word here.
Dogs can be a life line to many people. There are millions of dog owners out there who mostly do the right thing.
Allergies well that's a totally different topic to bad ownership. I have a dog and am fine with him but am very allergic to cats...such is life! I do still like cats though!
To be honest this is all getting out of hand and very nasty...not MN at it's finest hour really is it