To wonder why the UK became so dog friendly?

[LancelotsLeftArm]

I have had several dogs in my life but I'm finding recent events in the last 2-3 years baffling.

Local ice cream shop lets dogs in - no longer go there as last time there was a massive dog blocking serving place where DC choose flavours, not sure what breed but size of a Labrador. 2 year Old's face ended up getting licked and knocked over,now DC doesn't feel comfortable around dogs. Always dogs there now but usually not that bad.

Family member has 2 labs that hate each other (no idea why) plus a history of "nipping" each other (?!) and recently they were growling at each other, teeth bared, lips rolling back. Toddler right between them with a toy. Heard the growling, got worse for about about 2mins, decided to tell toddler to move away quietly and calmly. Put myself between toddler and dogs. In law Relative went ape shit , offended. FFS. Decided we're not welcome in future if we don't accept that the dogs would "never harm a child" (like that's a reassurance).

School (primary school) is dog friendly and allowing dogs on leads in playground at pickup times which would NEVER have been accepted in my school. Including larger ones, not terriers etc - more Pointers etc.

My dd is exactly the same.

Yeah it annoys me too. We have dogs. We take them for long walks along the beach/across fields - and then we leave them at home so we can go out and do our shopping, have a coffee, whatever.

Why would I want to drag my dogs around the shops with me? It's no fun shopping with them and they don't enjoy it. I feel the same way about other people's dogs as I do about other people's children, frankly.

Annoying when you've left your own at home for some peace and quiet;

This makes sense especially after the lock down, many shop/cafe, etc owners are looking to maximise sales/profit and I can hardly blame them, though I'm not entirely happy about it either. They're damned if they do, damned if they don't.

I was walking on a narrow pavement and a woman and her dog were taking all the space up. She refused to move and basically thought me and my DC should walk in the gutter..she got a piece of my mind.

I love it. Meant I never need to sort dog sitting because he comes everywhere with us. One exception of the Trafford Centre just means we don’t go there as often now.

I think it's both that more people have dogs, and that a lot of new dog owners are people whose lives aren't very suited to dog ownership/who don't know how to train their dogs. So they end up taking the dogs everywhere, either because it's part of their lifestyle, or because the dog can't be left.

and worse, the increasingly amount of entitled, inconsiderate owners.

Indeed. This is the crux of the matter.

We were in Whitby today , M&Co clothes shop was dog friendly - our patterdale was obviously overwhelmed at being in a clothes shop and took a particular liking to the bobble hat display

Dogs in clothes shops .. wtf

And no, I don't have any issue with assistance dogs obviously

The other day a massive lab had its big, stupid, slobbery head in the fridge at Pret. Disgusting.

It really is!🤢

I think it’s great! I’m dog free now as want to be able to travel a lot but when i did have dogs it was really hard to find places you could go with them.
Goes without saying that owners should keep an eye out and make sure they’re behaving - same rules as ( should) apply to children out in public.

According to MN because they're better than people (including children).

Business owners are taking advantage of that.

I don't mind well behaved dogs in pubs, cafes and certain shops. But I've been in the situation where in a restaurant a huge hairy dog put it's slobbery mouth on my ds' knee while he was eating and left behind a trail of saliva which is absolutely disgusting. DS is also terrified of dogs which made it worse. Owner laughed and said "he won't hurt you".

I don't think it's hygienic to have dogs around food level eg Pret unless you can 100% guarantee that your dog will sit obediently and not go near it.

I've also witnessed a woman taking her dog on an escalator in a shopping centre causing it to cut its foot. The poor thing was visibly terrified. Owners also need to consider if what they're doing is the best thing for their dog. I honestly felt this was borderline animal cruelty.

John Lewis even had meet Santa experiences for dogs ,including a little gift.

Wow, this isn’t my experience at all. Yanbu about the experiences you’ve had though, that’s awful.

We have dogs and while they’re allowed in local pubs, they always have been. Still not allowed in most garden centres, shops etc (fine by us). They are also not allowed on our school grounds at all. I’m surprised the head would risk an insurance/suing issue if there was a problem.

There’s been a recent increase in some owners seemingly thinking their dog deserves to take up space over humans here ie letting the lead stretch right across the path and sighing if asked to move their dog so someone can get past.

It comes alongside some just letting their dogs run about madly on paths tripping people up or jumping all over them. No one would let a child act like that but the owners get really pissed off at you if you comment about being tripped up / clothes muddy 😵‍💫

Wheres the responsibility? Why are their dogs more worthy of space?! I love dogs - I just don’t like not being able to walk down the street or in the park without having to repeatedly stop. Obviously this is not all owners by far - I see many beautifully behaved dogs or ones who gently approach for a stroke (dogs not owners 😂) but there’s an increasing entitled minority 😵‍💫

I'm not afraid of dogs but I don't like to be near them. It's much harder than it used to be to avoid them.

I had my crotch and shopping bags thoroughly sniffed by some kind of middle-sized dog in White Stuff before Christmas. The dog's owner and counter staff found it hilarious.

100% this

It deeply annoys me. I don't want dogs panting/wagging their hairy tails/sometimes barking when I'm eating food. Same goes for them being near new clothes. It's unsanitary.

Some people don't mind shedding fur or dog saliva where they eat, but I do. Not to mention other people's fears and allergies.

I was amazed when on a London bus a man brought his large but very well behaved dog and had him sat on the seat next to him. My son was very scared and moved seats. This guy was talking about drugs and also nasty to his dog, heard a smack and simpering. I reported him to tfl, with photos and the time on the bus, but I don’t know if they actually do anything. Pretty disgusted to be honest and felt sorry for the poor dog.

It's some kind of mental illness.

Yanbu. But look what's showing on my screen.... so oddly coincidental ......

A woman let her extremely dirty looking dog on the train seat today, it's been raining here and I imagine dog had had a long muddy wet walk. Gross.

The problem is not having dog friendly places , the problem is people who have failed to train their dog properly using dog friendly places . If everyone had well behaved dogs nobody would moan .

I love dogs, my dogs and everyone else's - but no way I'm taking them clothes shopping.

No fun for me, no fun for them. I might take them to an outside cafe in summer, but that's about it.

Dogs needs to be ok with being left alone. No wonder so many have separation anxiety.