...to expect dog owners to use leads in a park - I got bitten today and am fuming!!!

[MrsGumby]

What started off as a lovely sunny afternoon in the park with the kids ended up with me mopping up a bloody leg after some shitty little dog took a piece out of it. I'm not a dog lover at the best of times and have always had issues with owners of unruly mutts at our local park but today has taken the (dog) biscuit!!! I was playing catch with my DS and the ball went over to a grassy patch where a couple of fat salad-dodgers(sorry, but I'm raging) were troughing a bucket of KFC. I went over to retrieve the ball and this little yappy Scottie dog sprung out of nowhere and bit my calf! Rolled up my jeans to find a bleeding wound and stormed over to the owners who reeled out the usual "That's the first time he's ever done that, he's usually so well-behaved"... Demanded that they put their horrible little hound on a lead pronto (which they did - so good of them) and warned them that it would be in their best interest to do that from hereon in since it could be a child next time. Also took the bloke's telephone number although it's probably a false one. Whilst I wasn't exactly savaged (although it bloody hurts!) there have been enough sickening stories in the press about dangerous dogs and children for me to be absolutely appalled by some dog owners' disregarding and frankly disgusting behaviour, and this is just a case in point. I don't have a problem with dogs being exercised in large open spaces (preferably Siberia or the Gobi Desert) but I DO have a problem with dogs being left to run amok in public parks where children play.

Just a thought...now that we've got a ban on smoking in public places, why not a ban of marauding dogs in public places? The anti-smoking lobby have (quite rightly) drawn attention to the dangers of public smoking to non-smokers; isn't it about time we draw attention to the dangers of dogs without leads to those of us who don't want to share our public places with vicious animals?

Thats terrible

I have a jack russel pup, when he is old enough go for walks he will be on a lead & will wear a muzzel, You just never know. I think all dogs should wear a muzzel when in public, it would save alot of problems & make others feel alot more at ease in their presence too.

elasta mum - ds is 3 and usually i am fast enough to run up to him when he approaches a dog - i would NEVER put one of those harness things on a child, it isn't natural to have a child on a lead and as some parents seem to pull and push the child on a lead i think it looks very cruel, but i agree that ALL dogs should be on a lead, dogs are animals, children are not

This thread makes me quite depressed really. Obviously it goes without saying that badly behaved dogs are A Bad Thing. It's funny though, it's only on MN that the world seems to be populated by fervent dog-haters.

I guess I am one of those 'vain' city-dwelling large-dog owners, though our local walks are woods and meadows where we can walk for hours - such things do exist even away from 'the countryside'. The idea that I'm being cruel to them living in a city is... well, just wrong. They are way fitter and more active than my IL's dog, who lives on their farm. Stereotypes...

On our walks when we do go to the public park we are greeted by smiles and lots of requests to stroke the dogs. Random children often spend a while playing ball with them and when they don't have their own pets, it makes their day. Clearly none of these people are members of MN. But perhaps it is because we don't cause trouble for anyone (though they are often off-lead and always unmuzzled) and mine aren't allowed to approach anyone without my say-so. They're registered therapy dogs and IMO give a lot more back to our local community than they take. Would I keep them on lead in parks if I had to? Of course I would. Makes me sad that a few crap people with their shitty dogs manage to turn normally peace-loving lentil-weavery types into knee-jerking Daily Mail readers who look at me and label me another crap person with (two) shitty dogs.

Its ok Bitzer. We are not all dog haters. Im a big dog lover and will always have one. my dd of 2yrs adores our dog, climbs all over him and cuddles him. You cant seperate them.
He is a very big german shepherd so obviously some people automaticly judge him and are afraid, Which is sad but its unresponsible dog owners that make people think like that!
I do keep him on the lead in a park but let him off up the downs. He is a good boy.
Its good to be warey of dogs especially with kids but I wish some people would be a little more open minded that there are lovely dogs out there too. Very sad

truthfully? i like dogs very much, and i don't want DD to be frightened of them. but i don't want her just to bound up to them and expect them not to bite her either...

if i see dogs in the park, and see her making her way over to them and their owners then there is often that tense moment when i hold her back (because i don't know the dog from adam) and the owner says huffily 'it doesn't bite/loves kids/ very friendly etc'.

there follows an even more tense moment where i have to do what... insult the dog owner by disbelieving them? let dd go pat the dog, which she is too young to do with any control so am i putting her in danger?

fact is, i don't have a clue whether the dog is a therapy dog or a psycho killer - all dog owners say the same thing 'doesn't bite etc'. until the dog does bite when they say 'doesn't usually bite'.

what you might not understand is that even the parents of the children who play ball with your dogs are feeling anxious about it and rather wish that your dogs were on a lead and muzzle. even if they are saying something completely different to your face, because your dogs have not harmed their child so there is no reason to say it. MN may in fact be a fairer reflection of what non dog owning parents actually think but are too polite to say.

sorry you got bit.
i have a severe allergy to dogs and have ended up in hospital too many time when one has come to close to me.
my two girls have autisn and are really really frightened of dogs one off them has run acroos a busy main road off he school bus cos she saw a dog heading her way.
we are very limited where we can go as a family. if dogs were on a lead and DD's can see they are on a lead then they are not as upset but we have had too many occasions where dogs off leads have ran over to us, we were feeding the ducks at the lake when a dog ran down for a drink it took me and DH to hold onto them to stop them jumpimg into the lake, the dog owner was no where to be seen for ages. most parks say dogs must be on a lead but there are far more off the lead than on.

"I think all dogs should be muzzled in public". nice sentiment but it really isn't that simple is it?

I have a guide dog. I have two actually. one retired, and one working. I walk them down a local cycle track (rarely used) which leads into fields so no issue with loads of children etc. But they are off leads. If I muzzled those dogs I can already hear the distressed phone calls to guide dogs complaining about the obviously agressive guide dogs they had put out as these dogs were wearing muzzles.

people see a muzzle as a sign that a dog is agressive. And not all dogs are agressive. yes some are, but most aren't. Some owners are irresponsible, most aren't.

I would have kicked the little fecker if that dog had bitten me, and that absolutely should not happen to anyone. but I think dog owners get a very unaiir bashing on here.

Dogs should not be in children areas unless muzzled....why cant there be percific dog walking areas.....what annoys me is dog mess as some people do not pick it up. What annoys me most is parents who dont pick up dog poo. I see this when I am in the gym, mums with pushchairs taking dogs out for a walk not picking up the mess...grrrrrrrrr this really peeves me off even though there are dog mess bins there. Where are the wardens or whoever are supposed to make people pick it up. I wouldnt want my child falling in it (rant) !

I also have a large dog - a red setter, so quite unusual where we are so she always attracts attention. We did training classes a she was the first dog we ever had and we wanted to know we had her under control when she was off the lead and I'm 100% confident that she will come back to me as she knows who's boss. And although I feel as though I'm in total control of her I don't like her being off the lead when there are other people around who are afraid of dogs. There are plenty of adults that are scared of dogs as well. I don't let her go up to anyone we don't know or who doesn't make the first move.
However I'm totally paranoid that I will meet people like the above posters that because my dog is in the vague vicinity of a child she is a deadly threat.
The school holidays together with great weather like we have now means that we don't go to our local park which is about 5 mins walk away. Instead we go to the local woods and river banks about 15 mins walk away so we can relax with our dog instead of being worried. So this means that my 3 dcs cannot go and play with their friends at the park because even if we had the dog on the lead we would be surrounded by children wanting to pat the dog as she is a lovely looking dog.
I think there was a thread about this before and somebody posted that we should treat dogs the same way we treat cars. We teach our children to be safe when crossing roads etc so we should also teach then how to behave around dogs, as they can also be useful and give lots of pleasure but can also kill and maim.

I am a dog owner, In the case of dogs for the blind and dogs for the hearing they obviously need to be able to use their mouth & I have always seen them wearing a jacket stating they are working dogs, but for the majority of dogs out there in public places, Yes I think they should be muzzled. Animals are unpredictable, you should never trust any animal 100%

I agree when you see a dog wearing a muzzle you instinctivley think it will bite but logically it wont - It cant! If I was walking in a public park with children playing I would rather see a dog wearing a muzzel pounding towards my dd than a dog without.

I had a friend who had a big dog, this dog was trusted, he was a lovely dog who you could do anyting with, grew up with children and everything. One day the dog was walking past another friends dd and it attacked her, out of the blue, the child did nothing to the dog merely walked past, didn't even acknowledge it!

well to be fair, if all dogs were required to be muzzled in public then no-one would be able to draw any conclusion as to their nature, so it is as simple as that.
i don't advocate the muzzling of all dogs in public, as it happens, i think that goes too far. but a lead, really? is that so much to ask if there are children about? even one of those great big long stretchy ones?

If I ever thought my dog would pound up to someone and bite then I would never have her off the lead. The dogs to avoid in my experience are the dogs on leads as they have not been trained/socialised properly and I always give them a wide berth.
Animals are unpredictable, very well trained dogs aren't, we just get the stories of the badly trained ones not the millions of ones who are fine.

but that is such a non-point. what dog owner is going to say 'yes, i think my dog will bite people'? if they're 'unpredictable' then you simple don't know.

There are dogs in my local park who stay on their leads as the owners can't control them so daren't let them off the lead.
Owners generally know if their dog is unpredictable, ie has not been well trained/socialised for whatever reason. A dog owner may not say anything but they know.
Whenever my dog is chased by another dog and the owners can't get it back then they know it's not well trained and therefore is unpredictable.

No sorry all animals are unpredictable, however much training you give them and however well behaived they are you cannot control their thoughts & actions.

I have spent a lifetime training horses to top standards, these animals were the best and well mannared around but never would I say oh he wont kick or he wont bite, you just dont know, One of our horses we bred from a foal, knew his line, he was exceptionally well behaved, didnt' kick, bite, rear, buck or anything, you could put a hose pipe over his head 100% bombproof. Once day an employee went into his stable and the horse pinned him to the back wall & bit him in the waist pearcing him, blood everywere! I would have put a child on this horse.

Sometimes we need to step back and think, we are in control of a potential killer, every animal has its first. To simply have the dog on a lead or wearing a muzzel its a small price to pay for safety & possibly the life of a child.

Mrs Gumby..hope your leg is getting better. Did you have a tetanus?
Dh got bitten last year (he was out running and the dog just ran up and bit him). He had a tetanus and the doctor encouraged him to report it. He reported it to the Police and the Dog warden. The owners had a visit from both. The police and dog warden asked him what he wanted to do about it and they said they take it very seriously when a dog has bitten.Dh said he wanted the dog on a short lead and muzzled when out.

Didn't have tetanus in the end - sister-in-law is a nurse and she said that if I've had all my childhood jabs as normal I should be immune. Hoping that lockjaw won't set in (but I think DH is secretly hoping it will so I stop nagging him to fix broken drainpipe). Will be reporting the horrible little dog to warden on Tuesday as the more I think about it the more angry I'm getting. It could have been my DS who had run to retrieve our football instead of me; he could have stooped down and his face would have been at same height as dog's mouth and who knows what might have happened. The very thought makes me shudder. Have spoken to lots of dog owners in past couple of days and every single one has said that dogs should be on leads in public parks where there are lots of kids and ball games; encouraging to hear, but there is still a significant minority of dog owners who just don't seem to give a shit

-" i would NEVER put one of those harness things on a child, it isn't natural to have a child on a lead and as some parents seem to pull and push the child on a lead i think it looks very cruel, but i agree that ALL dogs should be on a lead, dogs are animals, children are not"

Sorry! Had to join in...pmsl at this comment...if humans are not animals what are we? vegetables? minerals?...children need teaching just as much as dogs (dogs have comparable intelligence to a 4 yr old child. Unfortunately no opposable thumbs, speech ability and only 42 teeth to make their feelings known with)...It isnt "natural" to have a dog on a lead either...but dog owners use them to ensure their dogs safety ...a harness on a child can save it from a nasty fall and will certainly save it from running into a road, getting lost or being abducted like poor James Bulger (and children are not animals!)My child isnt due until October but when it is walking it will most certainly be on reins if only to save it from grazed knees.

Sorry for the OP, hope the bite is better...and particulary sorry that one pair of idiots who shouldnt be allowed a pet can give the responsible dog owning public (and their pets) a bad name.

sorry if you wanted to join in Floria, but this thread died back in April...

oops ..was looking for messages about dogs and didnt notice how old this was..oh well

no worries
there was an enormous dogs-on-leads thread earlier this week which (fortunately) got too big to post on but did raise some of the same points - have a read here if you have a spare hour or two...

Cheers Mrs B...that must have been the one that was suggested to me [rolls eyes emoticon]...Thanks for the link I'll have a glance through for now...got to go to work in a bit . See you round

Whilst I have a lot of sympathy with the OP and agree dogs should be on leads in parks (but not everywhere fgs!), I also think that quite a few mumsnetters should be leashed and muzzled. Would make life infinitely more pleasant.

lol Floria - just noticed that you resurrected an old thread...