DOGS

[Getmeoutofhere2019]

At the beach with my 5 and 2yr old today. Sitting by the wavebreaks building sand castles. Too many dogs off leads coming over and invading our space. Trampling our area and getting in the children's face. Closely followed by an owner saying "oh its ok ... they are friendly " AIBU to be totally annoyed by this. I never know how to respond to the owner. NO Its not OK .... or just smile and nod.

I put my 8 month old pup on the lead if I see anyone at all because she’s just not reliable yet. I 100% don’t let her nest other people’s kids.
YANBU

There’s a dog owner I see alot who can’t control her dog even on the lead. It jumps all over me and covers me in mud. She laughs and says “our dogs are friends” well my dog hasn’t made any contact with you....and I wouldn’t let her.

I am a responsible dog owner. Have trained my boisterous, supposedly untrainable breed to come back, or at least stop dead in his tracks and look at me, when his name is called.

To my horror yesterday he bounded out if the car, down to a stream, splashed around like an over excited puppy and the disappeared.

I called him, nothing. Called again, nothing. Then a very young voice shouted "he's over here". We walked on to find my dog and a young boy delightedly turning stones in the stream. The boy's parents, with 2 toddlers, looked on in amusement.

Horrified doesn't cover it!

But they weren't bothered. Dad said it wasn't quite nice, all the benefits of having a dog without having to take it home. So we let them play until they got too cold!

But it won't happen again. The dog has lost that bit of freedom until he learns to respond even if all four paws are in water!!!

@Kpo58

There should be designated places for dogs off lead

You mean a park then? Unfortunately there aren't many of these because they keep being built on them for new houses because they apparently aren't important enough.

I am worried that we are going to get a generation of dogs that aren't good with other dogs/people because they wont have had a chance to be properly socialised as puppies with people and other dogs.

Designated places as a fenced-off area where dogs can run off the lead. I can see them now and then but it's quite rare,not as popular as in other countries.

As to socializing,there are puppy classes and dog groups

I'm wondering if a lot of these new incidences are from new dog owners in the pandemic?

Honestly I rescued a dog in July 2020 (long history of owning dogs) and I've never known such widespread poor owner behaviour.

We live near farms, and many owners are happy to allow their dogs to run off lead through the fields, near cows and other livestock with no recall ability. The owners say "oh yes their recall is awful I don't know what to do!" perhaps the lead in your hand might be useful??

I have never experienced this before.

Too many dogs off leads coming over and invading our space
Your space? There is no such thing. If you are building castles in the middle of people walking along the waves, then they could claim you're in their space.

Unless the dog comes right to their faces or pushes them, then you need to accept that the space is shared and your children don't get a private beach area.

There are areas where dogs are not allowed on the beach. Stick to these. Dogs are allowed to run free and not assume that everyone they meet are dog haters.

I tend to keep my dog on the lead most of the time because he is very scent driven and won’t let something like a road stop him from pursuing his dream. If he’s off the lead and people are coming towards us without a dog then he gets called back until they’ve gone.

I did get annoyed though the other week when it snowed. The local open space was absolutely packed with families who were complaining about people walking their dogs. Most of us are there every day, most of them don’t use the space from one year to the next.

As to socializing,there are puppy classes and dog groups confused
Why should my dog, who has never do e any harm at all be only entitled to socialise when I am able to book a place to a dog group?

My dog actually gets frightened by kids. As he's cute, kids live to come to him running and shrieking which freaks him out. Should I demand all kids oy socialise in kids groups?

I'm amazed at the number of people who think they are the centre of the world and everyone else should live up to their rules to suit them.

I think no one should be allowed to buy a dog without having a test (like the driving test) where they are asked basic question about training and socialisation of dogs. If they don't pass, they don't get the certificate allowing them to buy the dog.

I don't know whether most dog owners are sensible and courteous or irresponsible and selfish, I'm not aware of any research on the subject.

But the commitment of having to prove you actually know how to look after a dog and will do so, might cut down on the number of twats in charge of dogs.

YANBU, I have a nearly 1 year old dog who has just gone back on the lead where she'll stay til I'm confident, after a blip where she ran after a walker and his on lead dog yesterday (usually her recall in these situations is flawless) I apologised profusely, my pup can be lead reactive too so I know how annoying it is. I'd never let her run up to a playing child (or anyone). Just because I love my dog doesn't mean every does or should.

So if you were happily sunbathing on your holiday it would be fine for me to come and sit on your towel with you ?? Maybe touch your face and shout in your ear ?? Spit in your food.. as a dog would slobber over my childs snacks?? There is such a thing as personal space

What a ridiculous statement about phobias!

My DC has a dog phobia after being attacked in a kids playground by a dog off a lead. Totally unprovoked, she was actually standing still when it ran over, circled her and bit her arm.

This was 3 years ago. We’ve worked so hard with them on this, staying calm, talking them through things etc. It takes one idiotic dog owner to set them back again. Usually the ones that let their dog approach even though my DC is standing behind me shaking.

We are a family of dog lovers and are gutted they are so afraid. With lockdown etc we haven’t been able to spend time with friendly dogs we know.

If you can suggest anything we could be doing differently then please tell me.

*I am not getting why so many people think that being fearful of something so everyday is OK. If I was frightened of cars for instance I’d seek help, I wouldn’t want cars to not be around, changing the environment to cater for my phobia would be unthinkable.

The vast majority of dogs are absolutely lovely. I’ve got two and each child that visits who is fearful by the end wants a dog. It’s not difficult to stop this phobia in children, who are really only learning it from fearful adults.*

I’m not scared of dogs. My DH loves them. My DS has always been scared of them. We have not passed this fear onto him. It stems from the dozens and dozens of times that off-lead dogs have rushed up to him in the park or on the beach, jumping up, paws on his legs/torso. No amount of “He’s friendly, he just wants to play” from the owner will reassure a frightened child. “Max, get down” and an apology would be better. DS is 11 now, and taller, which I think helps. He’s not so scared of unknown dogs, but still very wary.

Re your car analogy, I don’t want dogs not to be around, but I do want their owners to take responsibility for training them, and keeping on a short lead if training is beyond them.

It sounds like the dog is just being friendly. Just give it a pat and send it on it's way. Look at it as a good opportunity to teach your children about dogs.

My dog is lovely and friendly but I wouldnt trust him not to steal someone's picnic or invade their space to say hello so I keep him on an extending lead or long line on the beach, that way I can control how far he can be away from my side. His recall is good but not perfect when he gets excited (still young and learning).

I think most dog owners are very responsible. Sadly we only notice the irresponsible ones

Exactly! The same as we always notice noisy, disruptive children. The quiet, good mannered, well behaved children don’t bring attention to themselves therefore go unnoticed by others•

I think no one should be allowed to buy a dog without having a test (like the driving test) where they are asked basic question about training and socialisation of dogs. If they don't pass, they don't get the certificate allowing them to buy the dog

Just because someone has passed a driving theory test doesn’t mean they can drive a car 🙄

Everyone who “wants” a dog knows it has to be fed, watered, walked and trained. The posts on this thread alone will tell you that being responsible for a dog isn’t as easy as they thought.

I’m out walking with my dog everyday. Sure, we come across some out of control dogs and their useless owners but on the whole the majority of dog walkers are out walking their dogs without incident.

The singularly best thing any dog owner can do is invest the time and patience, when the dog is a puppy, to train it a solid recall and socialise it. This is where most out of control or reactive dogs owners have failed. They know the dog has to be trained but once the puppy arrives they don’t want to put the effort in.

It's not acceptable.

However - is there any part of the beach where dogs aren't allowed?

Seriously, what was the point in making this thread? Was it to meet and discuss with everyone else from the anti dog brigade? Because of course you KNOW you were not unreasonable, no decent dog owner would say that you were, and neither would any non dog owners. This topic of dogs wandering up to random people has been done to death. No, they shouldn't do it, yes the owners was at fault, yes you have a right to not be interrupted by dogs and to tell the owner as such.

Wouldn't bother me.

Avoid dog friendly beaches.

This happened to my 5 yr old last week. A lady just let and watched her two big boxer dogs chase him on the beach, he was screaming for his life and she didn't even try to stop them! The inconsiderate ones make me so mad!

Irresponsible dog owners are in the minority. Beaches are for everyone. Dog shit should be picked up and no dog should be off its lead without having good recall. However, lots of people posting that their kids are scared of dogs. Maybe an idea to encourage them to interact with friendly dogs? Not good to have wee fearties for kids.

Old thread I know but probably still a hot topic seeing as it's now summer.
For the record I get annoyed by out of control dogs too, I've got 3 dogs of my own and am a huge dog lover and get so wound up by people giving us owners a bad name.

Last year on the beach we had two Cocker spaniels run straight across where we were sitting on the beach, right across our towels, knocking everything over, they went into a rock pool then back across to their owners who gave a cheery "sorry".
Then the following day someone let their terrier come over and piss up our beach bag!

It's no better this year, we took the kids to the beach yesterday, clear signs about dogs only being allowed to the left of the pier but they were all over the beach.
It's people like that who will get dogs banned from all beaches and spoil it for us responsible owners.