To think dog eating my picnic wasn’t my fault

[0lgaDaPolga]

I’m genuinely interesting to know if IABU.

I was in the park with my 13 month old and 5 friends and their similar aged toddlers. We were sat on picnic blankets and the toddlers were eating their lunches.

All of a sudden a dog comes lolloping over, running all around the toddlers, sniffing them, eating bits of sandwiches out of their hands and wagging its tail in their faces. I was a bit nervous for a few seconds and grabbed my son (who was delighted by the whole situation!) until I quickly realised from the dog’s body language and behaviour that he was friendly and not being threatening.

The dogs owner came running over with 2 other dogs. She was apologetic and we said ‘it’s ok, don’t worry about it’ but she then said ‘well, I don’t know what else you expect having food open in a park’ as if it was our fault the dog ran over. So I said ‘if you can’t call your dog back and he can’t control himself around food he should be on a lead’ and she got really shirty and said it’s not the dogs fault he can’t help it around food and he is friendly so doesn’t need to be on a lead, when walked off in a huff.

Is it unreasonable to expect a dog that you can’t recall to be on a lead or is it unreasonable to eat food in a park without expecting a dog to run up to you? For what it’s worth, no one in the group I was in was confrontational or visibly annoyed when the woman came over to get her dog but she seemed very defensive and seemed to thing we were in the wrong for bringing food to the park. There were plenty of other dogs around on and off leads and none of them came anywhere near.

Are other members of the public likely to frighten other people, steal their food and piss on them? No it’s not fine for them to feed your dog or call them over, that’s why your dog needs to be on a lead. It’s fucking common sense not rocket science. If you exercise your dog on lead it cannot “forget” its recall and other people can’t feed it or call it over because you’re there. I don’t understand what is so difficult to grasp?

Actually, for some dogs, strangers are scary.

Mine will endure, but not enjoy strangers touching him, but people feel so entitled to touch him - he gets molested on the tube and elsewhere so often I've had to put an "ask before touching" slip over his lead. If I touched someone's child like they touch my dog, the police would be called.

My dog needs at least 2 hours of walks per day, or he starts to lose his sanity and generally not be an acceptable member of society - barking and lunging at his specific trigger being a key issue (oddly enough, the general public don't like that much). To get sufficient exercise, he needs to be off lead for as much as possible of those two hours.

The entitlement of some picnickers on this thread is incredible, frankly. No, I don't let my off lead dog eat your picnic, but don't expect me to compromise my dog's welfare because you want to eat in the one place he can be off lead, and I'm certainly not going to compromise his welfare because some entitled people don't know, or care, how to behave around dogs.

Then it’s on you if he gets triggered and lunges or doesn’t listen and return to you when you call him which sadly will only end badly for him. He doesn’t like being touched, what if he can’t resist a ball or ice cream and bites a kid? He’ll be euthanised. It is perfectly possibly to appropriately exercise a dog on lead. No, people should not touch your dog. If he was by your side and with you you could very easily prevent that.

She sounds like a defensive turd.

You did nothing wrong and she needs to work on her animal's recall.

Avocados
The park isn't the one place he can be off the lead (with the exception of any fenced off designated dog area or a designated off leash park). It is a place where a dog may be allowed off the lead provided they are under adequate control.
"A person shall not cause or suffer any dog belonging to him or in his charge to enter or remain in the open space, unless such dog be and continue to be under proper control, and be effectually restrained from causing annoyance to any person, and from worrying or disturbing any animal or water fowl, and from entering any ornamental lake, pond, stream
or other water."
Westminster council

The onus is on the dog owner not on the rest of the park users.

Obviously there has to be common sense on all sides. My DC were not allowed to approach a dog without the permission of an owner. The dog that nicked one of the goal keeping gloves the DC had put as goal post and resisted many attempts to retrieve it was genuinely funny: the large dog at bounding up to my toddler ignoring all attempts owner recall less funny.

@Chazs Please identify specific places that my dog can be off lead that are not in a park and are within a sensible distance, accessible by public transport on a daily basis, of my home in inner north London.

For various safety related reasons, my garden is not an answer, and secure hireable dog fields don't exist in London due to the price of land.

@Wellfuckme My dog will only bark and lunge at one specific trigger. You'd be committing an offence if you brought that one trigger item into a public park, though it's very common outside the park, where my dog is always on lead. We have worked with a qualified behaviourist to reduce instances of lunging and barking.

He endures being touched, but does not enjoy it. Given a chance he will move away; he doesn't bite in such circumstances. He's yet to steal ice cream or knock over a toddler, and he has excellent recall - can can be running off in one direction and do a 180 degree turn when he hears me call.

My dog is such a high energy dog that he has had multiple previous owners that have been unable to cope with his needs. He gets a minimum two hours a day (often 3), of which all but 30-45 mins is off lead. Given how much he races around, it wouldn't be possible to adequately exercise this specific dog with him on lead all the time - I simply don't have the time or energy, and evidently other people have tried and failed too, because he had no recall before he came to me.

There should be dog parks where people with no pets dont have to encounter dog poo and the like. Dogs should not be kept in cities without a license imo. That way only responsible owners would prevail and there would be much fewer problems. Similarly toddlers and children shouldnt enter the dog areas.

I think, in your shoes, I wouldn’t have got a dog. You have to take him on the tube, you make it sound as though designated off lead areas are hard for you to reach from your inner London home. It sounds as though your circumstances are unsuitable to own a dog let alone one with issues. And you say they have yet to lunge...that’s a massive yet. You do not ever know a dog 100%. Yes, you know his main trigger (which from your above post you are unable to avoid while he’s on a lead?!). He may well have excellent recall but all it takes is that one time he doesn’t and chases a kid or trashes a picnic. If you insist on walking him off lead in public areas it is on you and your fault if he gets triggered or fails to recall.

And if you can’t exercise him appropriately on lead maybe you aren’t the right owner. Run, cycle, rent out a field. It isn’t rocket science.

Yanbu OP. Accidents happen with the best dogs getting a sudden whiff but that should lead to a very shamefaced apologetic owner. And if a dog has form for poor recall or getting a whiff and running then the owner or dog walker is very irresponsible letting her or him off lead.

I've never had a picnic stolen but when we were walking my brother's dog we had a really irritating dog owner whose dog had barely any recall and was after my brother's then pup's treats. They were these dog sausages and after one jump up too many i vowed never to buy them again and shouted at her to control her dog given that the puppy was more well behaved.

That is incredibly entitled, Avocado, and I say that as a dog owner.

Muzzles should be apart of the dog owners' kit.

a part* not apart.

Muzzles should be apart of the dog owners' kit.

And they should strap one onto any ignorant twat who makes sweeping statements like the one above.

Muzzles should be apart of the dog owners' kit.

And they should strap one onto any ignorant twat who makes sweeping statements like the one above.

why?
muzzels are pretty standard dog-keeping kit. they are not cruel.

if dig owners don't like muzzels maybe they shouldn't keep a dog.

“Dogs should be on lead in public places. End off.”

The problem with this sort of statement is that you’re essentially saying that people who live in cities shouldn’t have dogs.

Dogs do need off-lead exercise. I too live in London and renting a field (!)is not an option. Like Avocado the park near me is basically off limits for my dog for months of the year. It’s annoying. At dawn, there is still detritus from the day before (cooked chicken bones, revolting piles of god knows what, etc). It makes walking my dog an absolute misery.
So as I said before, YANBU OP, but I really don’t think that the “keep your dog on a lead AT ALL TIMES” is a workable solution. It just isn’t.

Sorry, forgot what I was writing halfway through - at dawn/early morning, there’s food everywhere from the day before. By mid morning, the park has been cleared but a new crop of picnickers are already in situ. By evening, the park is like a festival ground a lot of the time. And then the cycle begins again.

The beach local to me is in 2 halves in the summer, half for dogs, other half dog-free. So I take my dog on the dog half where people have set up camp without dogs, so when I throw the ball for my dog and it accidentally goes wonky and near them, or the dog tries to catch it and knocks it off course, they give me evils (this doesn't happen regularly, but now and then) when my dog retrieves it. She's totally not bothered about anyone else or other dogs, she just wants her ball. Just go sit in the dog free bit!

What a moron that dog owner is ugh

I dont think dogs should be allowed in cities.

So many dog owners think: dogs allowed = dog part/dog park/dog section. It doesn’t and you still need to stop your dog from being a twat.

My dog isn't being a twat, she's being a dog in an approved area. Fetching her ball.

“I dont think dogs should be allowed in cities.”

In which case you are havin an entirely different argument, all on your own.