Woman taking her phone for a walk this morning

[SmellyToilet]

Just got back from walking the dog. At one point a woman emerged with her face buried in her phone … she also had a little dog on a retractable lead wandering around behind her. I was walking behind this woman for 20 minutes and I swear to god she never once looked up from her phone in all this time. She didn’t interact with nor even look at her dog once. The dog was more interested in us than her and as it was on a retractable lead it kept walking back towards us … this woman had literally no idea that her dog was bothering a fellow dog Walker (with a reactive dog). The dog had a shit, she didn’t notice. I honestly believe that if I’d gone to the dog, unclipped it’s lead and stole it she wouldn’t have even noticed until she got home.

What’s the point??!! AIBU to have been hoping she accidentally stood in a huge pile of horse shit so she actually started to pay attention to her surroundings?

I think you should mind your own business. Its a woman doing a bleary eyed morning dog walk and scrolling her phone. Sometimes i interact lots with my dogs, and have a lovely time, and other times the dog walk is the absolute last thing i want to do and its a real chore. If i am not interacting particularly with my pets one time a stranger sees me, why on earth is that an issue? Id have mentioned the dog had pooed, but the rest of it, is a total non issue.

So much judgement on here. What you're seeing is a snapshot, and not necessarily indicative of someone's whole life ... dog owner or parent.

could you have walked elsewhere? if youre walking up behind her, making her (on-lead) dog unsettled then surely its you that should probably hold back or take a different route

I can’t say I could get that pumped about a stranger using their phone how they wish around me tbh it’s none of my business and doesn’t affect my life I wouldn’t give it a second thought. I would have shouted excuse me your dogs done a shit about the poop tho

The not picking up poo would bother me because it's disgusting. Providing the dog gets interaction at home, it's fine. Maybe she's preoccupied for good reason and has something going on in her life that means talking to the dog isn't her priority. The dog wasn't being abused so in this instance you are unreasonable because you can't judge based on a one off instance.

So why on earth didn't you speak to her??

They’re addictive
It’s a shame

You didn’t have to put up with it - you could have pointed out the poo, given her a bag and got on with your walk.

I would have told her about the poo, but the phone - I don't know. If that was just a snapshot as opposed to someone you see every single day then you can't know.
I was meant to take my FIL to a hospital appointment. I had to be at the care home to accompany him on the hospital transport 2 hours before. We soon learnt the transport wouldn't make it. I then spent the next 2 hours on the phone, trying to get through to the clinic i.e. on my phone while my ailing FIL sat with me.

I am sure people wondered why on earth I'd bothered to come and visit him if I was just going to sit on my phone.

Be kind is just a way of telling other people you will do as you please and you will judge anyone who dares to suggest you may need to consider others.

If you're taking a break from interacting with your child do you just let them do what they want? If they were hit by a car or approached by a stranger would you defend yourself by saying you just wanted some time out from the relentless demands on your attention? Of course you wouldn't. Taking a break from interaction does not mean relinquishing all responsibility and not observing where your child is or what they are doing.

Phones have alerts to let you know if there is a call or a message, looking at your phone won't make that happen any quicker and still does not absolve you of responsibility. Urgent messages and bad news happened before the advent of mobile phones and people seemed to manage then without 24 hour connectivity. There is probably a good argument to be made for people being less stressed before the tyranny of the mobile phone.

If someone is walking a dog they have a responsibility to know where the dog is and what it is doing particularly if you are walking your dog on a trip hazard lead or it is shitting somewhere someone might walk in it.

People can make all the excuses they want for irresponsible behaviour because some people choose to live there live through a mobile device which means their attention is often in a different place to their body but most of them are bullshit. There is almost nothing which cannot wait for you to stop and deal with it in a place and manner which does not inconvenience or endanger others.

So much judgement on here. What you're seeing is a snapshot, and not necessarily indicative of someone's whole life ... dog owner or parent

This with bells on.

You could have told her about the poo and you could have told her her dog was bothering yours.

Er - mind your own business !

She should have picked up the poo. Other than that, it has literally nothing to do with you.

This is why I hate having to check my map, bank, email etc. when I'm out with dc. Because I know little miss judgy pants thinks that because I've answered an email sitting in a cafe and have DC with me then I must obviously be a very neglectful parent. You have no idea what she was doing on her phone, you have no idea what's happened to her lately, you have no idea how she interacts with the dog at any other time. Don't look at strangers if it makes you fall into a tunnel of despair and outrage.

That’s why they have ring tones and alerts, etc, so you don’t have to walk along actually looking at your phone while waiting for someone to contact you. I do hope you eventually got good news.

You could have held back or sped up and passed her rather than follow for 20 minutes.
That way her dog wouldn't have been able to interact with yours and disturb your walk.

Sounds a non-issue

Yeah because before mobiles nobody waited next to the house phone, nobody kept checking the letterbox for post, nobody kept peeking through the blinds to see if the postman was coming. 🙄

People have been doing this since the dawn of mobiles, either glued to phones, or have head phones clamped over their ears. Any visits from Martians will, or who knows, have been, entirely missed. It is an odd way to go about things, but we are an odd species.

You’re getting a bit of a pasting here but I agree with you!

My dog and I were harassed by a Labrador at the beach recently, owner was miles away chatting on her phone and oblivious to the fact that her dog was being a nuisance, I couldn’t throw my dog’s ball for him because the Lab was constantly trying to steal it and my dog does not like to share. We put up with it for a bit in the hope he would get bored and also to keep an eye on him so he didn’t run away.

My dog started to get a bit pissed off so we started walking the dog back to his owner and called over to her to recall him once in earshot (he didn’t go back so we walked him all the way over, she didn’t come to bloody get him!) and she had a go at me asking me ‘what my problem was’ and when I explained that her dog had been bothering us, unnoticed by her, she told me to ‘keep my dog on a lead if it was so unfriendly’ with no acknowledgement that she had zero control of her dog.

The dog was on a lead so yes, I would feel the same if it was a Rottweiler. You didn't want to be near it so drop back, overtake, change direction. You react to the situation since your dog was getting upset..

This is true but they weren't out with their dog on an extendable lead, shitting where ever it liked and paying no attention to it.

Oh for goodness sake you know exactly what I meant. Or didn’t you? Are you so dense you can’t see the difference between walking along the street with your gaze entirely on your phone and nervously awaiting the post? If not, sort yourself out.

Fuck the ‘be kind’ nonsense.

Funny how it’s always said to women to shut them up and prevent anyone listening to their legitimate complaints. 😡

The reactive dog could also have gone for the dog and/or the woman. You really do need to be aware of surroundings when out. When my kids were younger I never used to answer my phone when out unless we were somewhere enclosed like a park. Two children with special needs and son was a runner. It's the same with dog's you need to pay attention to what they are doing at all times. Especially to clean up they're shit. I would have tapped her on the shoulder.

And so, another row erupts.