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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be annoyed at dog owner whose dog followed me when running

35 replies

Flyonthewindscreen · 17/06/2015 10:17

I have just got back from a post school drop off run with a friend down country lanes. At one point a young sheepdog started following us. It came from outside a cluster of several houses so it wasn't clear which one. Me and friend are not dog owners or lovers so not sure what to do. We stopped several times and told the dog to go home but it carried on following us. We decided that if it was still following us by the time we got to the end of the lane and reached the main road, we would change our plans for a circular run and go back the way we came to see if the dog would go home.

Before the main road we passed a house with a man working in the garden and asked if he knew where the dog lived. He didn't but caught the dog for us and checked its collar but no address tag. He said he would hold on to the dog for a bit until we were out of sight in the hope that the dog would then go home.

Shortly after that, a car screeched to a halt next to us. The wandering dog and its owner were in the car. She had driven down the road and found the dog being held by the man. She was furious with us for letting the dog follow us and not returning it home. We did point out that it had been wandering free with no address on its collar and that we were not dog owners and had no idea what we were supposed to do and neither of us liked dogs and wanted to deal with her dog anyway. Also that we had been planning to change our plans and return the way we came if we had got to the main road anyway.

She was still angry and said it was not the first time her dog had followed runners down the road and they had not made the effort to return it!

AIBU to think me and friend hadn't actually done anything wrong?

OP posts:
Wishful80smontage · 17/06/2015 10:19

You did not do anything wrong the woman is daft! If the dog has form for running off surely you'd keep a closer eye on it!

JillBYeats · 17/06/2015 10:19

Loop the loop owner!! Her dog=her responsibility. I hate when dogs come out on the road when I pass - aggressive or friendly. I love dogs and always say hello to them if I pass but I wouldn't stop to pet one in case they thought I wanted them to come for a run with me!

You didn't do anything wrong.

VivaLeBeaver · 17/06/2015 10:19

Yanbu.

She needs to put an address on the collar and sort her fence out.

FenellaFellorick · 17/06/2015 10:19

No you did nothing wrong.
She could, oh, I dunno... secure her garden or train her dog instead of making this everyone else's problem.
I wouldn't give it another moment of your headspace.

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 17/06/2015 10:21

YANBU.

There is so much the owner did wrong, let it loose in the first place, not having an id tag on the dog, then having the cheek to have a go at you just trying to go about your business.

I'm a dog owner, and would fully take responsibility if my dog got out and started chasing someone.

FarFromAnyRoad · 17/06/2015 10:21

You did too much explaining. A swift but meaningful 'FUCK OFF' would have done.

I am a dog lover and owner of two - both collared and chipped and secured within the grounds of the house. She sounds like an irresponsible idiot.

NeverGoOutOfStyle · 17/06/2015 10:24

She's a bloody idiot YANBU!

I love dogs, and have many, and they all have microchips and address collars, how stupid of this woman to think its your responsibility to look after her dog!

Tinklewinkle · 17/06/2015 10:29

We'll, if it's not the first time, then she should be taking more care that her dog doesn't get out.

My dog has once managed to escape from the house, with the best will in the world it happens, but I took full responsibility, was very apologetic and grateful to the person who bought him back and we checked and doubled checked the back fences to make sure it couldn't happen again

It is also a legal requirement that the dog is wearing an ID tag when out in public.

chocolateyay · 17/06/2015 10:32

Its a sheepdog... its what they do - run!

They need loads and loads of exercise, so if it were mine, I'd be paying you to take him along on your jog!

BaronessBomburst · 17/06/2015 10:35

DH got followed by a cow once.

Original poster
Flyonthewindscreen · 17/06/2015 11:04

Thanks for replies, glad consensus is that IWNBU. Great thread ending BaronessBomburst Smile

OP posts:
SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 17/06/2015 11:36

No - that can't be the ending - we need more details, Baroness! Why did a cow follow your dh? What did he do? If it had followed him home, would you have let him keep it?

Kamer - the woman was a wankbadger of the highest order. Her dog's safety is not your responsibility, it's hers, and if it runs after runners, she needs to make sure a) she's done all she can to ensure it can't escape, and b) it's got its address on a tag on its collar, so if it does do a Houdini, it can be brought home (dogs do sometimes manage to slip out, despite the owners' best efforts, so it behoves us to make sure our dogs can be identified easily - ours have our phone number on the tags).

MelanieCheeks · 17/06/2015 11:39

I've taken photographs of loose dogs that follow me and forwarded them to the local dog warden.

ShaynePunim · 17/06/2015 11:41

YANBU. The dog owner is clearly deranged.

TriJo · 17/06/2015 11:41

Owner's responsibility to keep their dogs under control, simple as that. Not OP's fault or problem at all.

chaletdays · 17/06/2015 11:42

She sounds totally mad. YADNBU.

GRT · 17/06/2015 11:44

"OK, well since you want to be rude about it: Aren't you lucky YOUR failure to control YOUR dog didn't lead to it being killed? YOU could have got YOUR dog killed through YOUR neglect. Next time I will run to the local RSPCA and hand it in."

14Elephants · 17/06/2015 12:11

So she got her dog then put it in the car and drove to find you?! OMG definitely a fruit loop.

BaronessBomburst · 17/06/2015 12:19

No, I would not have let him keep it! A pig, maybe. Grin

He was running along and he said he became aware of something behind him just at his left shoulder. He looked round and it was a cow. A small one, not a baby. (Do you mean a calf? No, he said, bigger than that but smaller than a proper cow.)
So, he stopped, and the cow stopped. He glanced around, but couldn't see any obvious fields or open gates as he was in the wooded bit of the lane, and not being an animal person thought, oh well, someone's lost a cow and just jogged off again.
The cow followed.
He speeded up a bit and broke into a sprint in the hope of leaving it behind but the cow speeded up too and started galloping. (Do cows gallop?) He figured this wasn't good and that he ought to Do Something.
So he stopped again and the cow stopped and stood looking at him. He then said that he heard a vehicle approaching from around the bend and started to panic as the cow was in the middle of the road. But the vehicle turned out to be a 4x4 buggy thing with two men in it. One jumped out, and without saying anything to DH, tied a rope around the cow and led it off back down the lane with the chap in the buggy just pootling along behind.
And DH went back to his run.

IrianofWay · 17/06/2015 12:24

YANBU. I am a runner, one who happens to own and like dogs but even I get the wind up when I see a sheep dog approach me in a country lane. So many semi-feral farm dogs are left to wander and they aren't always the nicest.

tabulahrasa · 17/06/2015 12:29

WTF? She expects people to return her dog for her? As if they've somehow borrowed it rather than she's just lost it.

No, YANBU at all, she definitely was.

Sparrowlegs248 · 17/06/2015 12:42

Excellent cow story.

Yanbu OP. And the dog owner is clearly nuts. Probably what I would have dine was knock at one of the group of houses and ask them where it lived, and returned it home then carried on with my run. Certainly not your responsibility to do so but I would have worried about it getting run over.

MythicalKings · 17/06/2015 12:46

I'd have carried on running. Not your dog, not your problem.

hiddenhome · 17/06/2015 12:59

Lol at jogging cow Grin

mousmous · 17/06/2015 13:01

yanbu
did you take the car registration? I would think of reporting her