AIBU bloody “dog people”

[mumof2exhausted]

Ok so I know there are some decent, responsible dog people out there but AIBU to say that there are some absolute arseholes who genuinely don’t seem to understand that not everyone loves dogs?? My 4 year old was recently bitten by a random dog so understandably is little nervous around them. A huge dog has just ran after him in the park (double the size of him) and he was petrified. Dog obviously thought he was playing game of chase. I don’t blame the dogs, I blame the owners. They didn’t call him off immediately just laughed and shouted “oh he’s just being friendly”. This happens all the time. Another big dog jumped up and pushed over my 2 year old couple of weeks ago. And no sorry or anything. Again a “he’s just being friendly ha ha” and off they walked without so much as a backwards glance to check my crying 2 year old was ok. I don’t have a dog but if I did and this happened I would be mortified and would apologise immediately and dog would go straight on a lead. Nearly lost my shit today with the owners but honestly don’t think they would have even cared.

Cantusethatname same here. Loves everyone. Takes an awful lot of effort to keep him from wandering off to say hello sometimes.

Summersnake a friend of mine has a chihuahua that doesn’t like people after being mauled once too often by an out of control child. Now whenever she takes him out she has to physically pick him up when kids approach. Sadly they don’t seem as easy to train. The kids, I mean.

Child wandering over is not a child petrified of dogs

I know toddlers biting dogs is a huge problem.

I am a dog lover, but my youngest is twitchy about dogs, only ok with certain ones that she knows well, and is particularly stressed out by dogs that jump/bounce towards her (irrespective of size) If we meet a new dog and the owner doesn’t stop the dog approaching her, I say “she doesn’t like dogs” and almost EVERY TIME the owner will say ‘oh s/he’s quite safe/friendly, she doesn’t need to worry!’

I don’t give a fuck if your dog is the softest sweetest canine that ever lived, stop it from approaching my daughter, I’ve just told you she doesn’t like it.

YANBU.

I agree with you and that’s why I keep my dog on a lead . But also parents should get their children to ask before approaching a dog , because I would say when asked , no , unless your child wants a massive cuddle and their face licked because as much as mine would sit for a while he loves children and if they pet him he will respond .

If anyone is using their dog as a threat against anyone- especially a child - and not responding to a gentle request to control their dog, then I’d call the police on them too!

I agree OP.

I’ve never been keen on dogs and my particular hate is when dog owners somehow translate this to mean that I’ve only met ‘bad’ dogs before and as soon as I get to know their amazing ‘good’ dog I will suddenly love dogs. Nope, I just don’t like dogs!

I think some dog owners, like some parents, just cannot conceive that someone just does not want to get up close and personal with your dog / child.

Definitely NOT BU. I have a golden retriever. She’s 3. Lovely big bear of a thing. BUT. I can’t trust her not to snap if people are all fussing her. People assume the breed is universally gentle and love being dragged around by the ears, by toddlers (I blame the Andrex ads). Mine doesn’t. Yesterday, walking along the pavement, a grandma was pushing a trolley and had a toddler holding on. “Do you want to stroke the doggie? Shall we go and see him?” She looked a bit out out when I said mine is often happy to be petted....sometimes not. And I wasn’t prepared to enter into any further discussion. I smiled and walked by.

Oh god I've just remembered my worst one... sitting on a park bench discreetly breastfeeding 6 week old dd. Large, labrador type dog bounds over, jumps up, barking and running around the bench.

I ask the owner to call her dog away and she replies, "Don't be so stupid. He's great with children."

Dog then tried to get his nose under the muslin square that was covering dd's head to lick/sniff her, or whatever dogs do.

Owner refuses to call dog away. I sit petrified, hormonal and weeping whilst she tells me how 'stupid' I'm being. Dog continues to jump.

That was a low point in experiences of dog owners.

I do not allow my dogs off the lead because they have a habit of going deaf when I call them back. They get so over excited that they want to play with all the other dogs and won't come when called. I tried a few times when they were pups and they would probably have learned if I'd tried for longer but I felt so awful when my dogs were clearly bothering people that I just stopped doing it. With regards to children, they've never shown any signs of aggression towards people or other dogs but they are a strong breed and would easily flatten a young child if they ran up to try and play so I'd never let that situation arise.

Yanbu I have a dog and always leash him when there are tiny kids about. And he's the size of a cat!

YANBU.
My dd aged 6 was absolutely terrified of dogs. It took a lot of persuading by my two other children to get a dog ourselves as they love them and it's been the best thing we've ever done as a family. My teenage DS now leaves his bedroom to be with the family and ask to walk the dog with us, my DD who was terrified has completely overcome her fears. I can honestly say that we are a much happier family because of our dog. I am a responsible dog owner & my bundle of furry energy really wouldn't hurt a soul! (Cockapoo)

I have a large dog who is trained to come back and walk beside me on command.

This is made so difficult by the rest of the population who smile at the dog, talk to the dog, hold their hands out to the dog and call the dog. These people are not dog people and they are the problem.

I’m glad that people like you exist holey. You seem very kind and sensible and may have restored my faith in dog owners a little!
Offred2!! That’s exactly my experience too. My daughter is petrified of dogs but will be miraculously cured by meeting this most amazing dog on the planet, who is so good with children. And it’s just my most amazing luck to come across this miracle dog

YANBU and I say that as a dog owner who is sick and fed up of irresponsible dog owners.

I have a big dog. She loves people but she had a bad start in life and is afraid of other dogs. It drives me mad when a dog bounds towards us with the owner shouting it "only wants to play". Well my dog doesn't so feck off. She's on a lead for a reason - because if she was loose she would run away from your dog and I might lose her - so recall your dog.

If people can't recall their dog it shouldn't be off the lead. It's as simple as that.

My dog is great with children, which is lucky because I'm amazed how many people think it's okay just to approach and stroke her or even give her a stroke as we pass them in the street. I do warn them that she likes to lick sticky small children because they taste nice, which isn't very hygienic. Most people seem completely unperturbed by this!

Yes these - he is just being friendly - say that to other dog owners when their dog is jumping all over their petrified and very elderly dog.
And the only time my sadly dead dog looked like he was going up to children and would not come when called, he was actually after their picnic food - very greedy labrador.

I have had dogs for years. I let a family members dog near my dd as a baby against my better judgment for the sake of “family relations”. I didn’t trust the dog. The owner was supposedly holding its collar as dd gently patted it. The fucker bit my dd just above the eye. They still expected us to be ok being in proximity of their dog and were persistently nasty about it when we refused. Idiots.

There is a dog owner, who walks him in the park after dropping his child off at the same school as dd. I’ve asked him to keep his dog away from me because I’m disabled and it could easily knock me over, which would be pretty serious. I now can only manage to walk my dog a couple of hundred meters tops. He lets it bound up to us and it is really boisterous. My dog is also nervous of it and it could easily knock me over. He probably doesn’t even notice what’s going on because he walks so fast and let’s his dog goes so far from him that I’ve never got close enough to ask him to keep it away. So I asked his wife the next time I saw her. Lo and behold a few days later, he was walking in the opposite direction and made no attempt to stop the dog from approaching me. He begrudgingly put it on the lead when I asked. Then I had a panic attack. It’s really frightening for me as an adult and I can imagine exactly how a child feels.

I don’t let my dog go far from me or let him approach children. Why do owners think this is ok?

Also just to add, my dog did recall 99% of the time. But just like children, you simply can not guarantee that a dog will always obey you. That was the only time he did not recall. I ran after him and caught him - he was very elderly so could not move fast - and was glared at by the mother. I apologised profusely. But I also knew he would have ignored the kids. It was the pile of sausages on a buffet plate on a picnic blanket he was after. And even those he would not have stolen, but simply begged for them.

Offred I do not like cats. Their owners are pretty much the same.

I let my dog go up to people if he wants to BUT
He doesn’t jump up
He doesn’t lick (and naturally doesn’t bite either!)
He just trots rather than runs
He’s largely uninterested in going up to people anyway unless they are the ones to encourage him over
We have two children age 2 & 5 so I know that he’s totally reliable around kids
I know I can instantly call him off and he will obey and come back to me if needed

If I wasn’t confident in those things then I wouldn’t let him.

Aside from the dangerous habits, few things are more annoying than a dog that jumps up!

Yanbu
Recently was walking the dc to school when we walked past a staffie off lead owner shouts over to us because he is far off dont get too close shes a bitter! Why TF have you got her off lead during the school run then !?
There were quite a few other children walking near us also.

Couldn’t agree more. Sick of dog owners saying “it’s ok he/she is friendly”. I don’t care. Keep the dog away unless invited.

I love dogs but how does an owner know a dog won’t react badly to a kid freaking out at their presence?!!

The reason my son has an issue with dogs is that one jumped up at him, and I’m not even talking about a big dog, when he was small. That’s it now. He freaks out at the sight of them. So maybe dog owners should consider the impact on others rather than defending the dog.

YABU at all. Dog lovers say dogs are like people. If they are, just like you won’t appreciate a man you don’t know coming up to you, sniffing you or going round you in circles, I don’t appreciate your dog doing this. Weeks before my 1st race ever, I was running in the park early in the morning. A guy with 2 dogs starts walking towards me, dogs were off leash. I tried to keep calm and slowed to a gentle jog, the dogs went past me, owner saw look on my face and started with the usual crap spouted by some dog owners “oh don’t worry, they don’t.....” he didn’t finish the sentence as the dogs double backed and one of them bit me from behind. There was broken skin, had to go to walk in, put on antibiotics, reported to police and after the investigation, conclusion is dog cannot be let out in public without a muzzle. I personally wanted the dog put down (I know not PC) and the owner fined. If these incidents are taken more seriously, dog owners will act more responsibly! Now am petrified of running in the park and only do road runs. I really should not have to change my lifestyle because an owner can’t control their dog.

Yanbu, I like dogs but the amount of irresponsible dog owners local to us is ridiculous. We went to our local cricket pitch last week where my eldest DS plays and two large dogs off lead came bounding over and took off with one of the balls he was practicing with! I kindly asked the owner if she could get the ball off her dog and if she could put them on a lead as there were a lot of kids about, which led to her shouting and swearing in front of both kids and telling us she was ‘entitled’ to have them off the lead and that we should play ball games somewhere else if we didn’t like dogs! It’s a cricket pitch not a dog walking field fgs😠

Also went for a picnic at the weekend at a local lake/park and a dog took a 💩right next to out picnic blanket! They cleaned it up but we swiftly moved as sitting next to the ‘residue’ whilst eating didn’t seem appealing.

I really don’t think it’s asking much to keep them on a lead when other people are about, oh and just to add I never let the kids touch peoples dogs before asking.