About dogs on beach

[benten54]

We live in a beachy holiday area in Australia. It's local to a big city and it's the kind of place where people come with their family for a long extended break in the summer holidays from the city. They either come to their family beach house or rent places.

I live here all year. In the summer there are rules about when dogs can be on the beach which is until 10am in the morning and then after 5pm. The rules are there so holidaymakers can enjoy the beach without dogs. That's all fine. All of us who live here respect that and the beach is dog free for 7 hours in the day. We all have to rearrange our day so we and our dogs are off the beach at 10am.

Over the past month virtually every day there has been several holidaying families who have arrived with tiny children or toddlers and set down their beach blanket well before 10am. For context the beach is 2k long and there would probably be 40 dogs and their owners getting their morning walk in. Running after balls and playing with each other

These dogs walk that beach every morning, winter, rain, storms yet everyday in the sunny weather there has been an altercation because dogs have been running around and 'scaring' their kids. Most of them go nowhere near or just have a sniff and wander off but today a mother kicked one of the dogs because she got close to her wandering toddler.

Every day some parent has had an issue with dogs running around near their kids and made a massive fuss about it. Today I threw a ball for my dog and a toddler suddenly threw himself into the path of her running. There was no contact, and my dog has no interest in other humans but both parents came flying up and screamed at me about 'too many fucking dogs on this beach, keep your dog on a lead when there's kids around'.

AIBU for shouting back 'dogs allowed before 10am, kids allowed after that, keep your children under control'? Surely if you don't want dogs around your kids, come after 10am!!

Agree.
Yanbu OP.

Having just been in the pub for dinner with our dog (well behaved, sat under table) with a table of 6 kids nearby running riot (parents at another table getting pissed) I'd say that kids are the problem, not dogs.

To be fair, it's the parents who are the problem. Kids, like dogs, learn behaviour from "owners". Or local park is dog friendly, but play areas are strictly dog free. Which every regular dog owner observes. Who is it who takes their dogs into the play areas? Yep - parents with kids!

Lobby your council to improve signage that's what we had to do here.

www.pvcsafetysigns.co.uk/products/no-dogs-custom-prohibition-dsign?currency=GBP&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Google%20Shopping&gclid=Cj0KCQiAt66eBhCnARIsAKf3ZNGMU5zvS52bb713bMjG87eQmd12J8EaInKtBmNeoLRtDx3myWg5CSIaAhhREALw_wcB

Make them really big and have lots of them. Tourists are in dumb mode whenever on vacation.

@Quveas oh yeah I agree. There seems to be a certain breed of parent at the minute who are happy to let their kids bother other people as long as they're having fun and not having to parent their kids.

If you'd gone in the evening, drunk adults would have been the problem. Entitled adults are the problem in all these scenarios!

And a certain breed of dog owner who thinks everyone has to love their dog.

As I said immediately above, entitled humans,

You are totally unreasonable. Put your dog on a lead, or walk it somewhere else.
These people are on holiday and are trying to get to see the sea with their children. You live there, so it's not a novelty for you.
People have to take priority over dogs, regardless. Put your dog on a lead and try to be less selfish in future

@lieselotte I did go in the evening, hence I said 'dinner.' No drunk adults, just shrieking kids.

kids should always be under control, personally I think if parents can’t manage that then put the kids on a lead!

Australia is fucking enormous, lots of coastline, and very little of it available to dog owners 24/7, sometimes seasonal, often not at all.

I'm guessing the OP doesn't live near a 24/7 off-leash beach - they do exist, and I notice a relaxed attitude about dogs/children, mostly dogs couldn't care less, they're up to their doggy business, and parents are mindful. I think it might be because everyone comes to that beach fully prepared to share.

Mine isn't a holiday area, rather one that locals and city dwellers go to on the weekend and after work, so possibly not the let's get out early and get our full quota of beach.

Dogs running up to people and sniffing, approaching in any way unless invited is unreasonable, so YABU for thinking that if it's before 10am because dogs are allowed, people should put up with it. A dog should be sufficiently under control to not be able to do that under any circumstances.

But, if the dog is just doing it's own thing and doesn't approach (chasing a ball thrown away from the people present as OP describes, or just walking along/running in a different space) and then one of the people goes into the area of the dog, and then has an issue with the dog just being there, then they're being unreasonable if the dog continues to ignore and doesn't approach.
That's up to the person/parent to make sure if they have an issue with dogs, they don't intersect their path and then complain about it.
If you don't like dogs and go to a place that is dogs are allowed, YABU to then effectively approach a dog and moan and shout that it's there, you can see it's there, it's allowed to be there, it hasn't approached you. Sounds like the toddler approached the dog in OPs situation, and the parents had an issue because the dog didn't just vanish the moment the child decided to run towards the area the dog was in - if the dog didn't change course, approach or engage then it's up to the parents to keep the child away from the dog if they don't want one near, not expect the dog/owner to anticipate where the child will decide to go and make the dog disappear if the child wants to approach the dog or go to the same area the dog is occupying at that time.

Eh? The op has explained the child approached the dogs space. The op did nothing wrong.

I would keep shouting back what you did. Your dog is allowed on that beach until 10am. If people are going to use the beach at that time they need to accept there will be dogs running around.
Perhaps contact your local council to request better signage so that it's clear to all that dogs are permitted before 10.
And if someone kicked my dog I would kick them right back! I'd be livid.

@lieselotte · Today 08:51

And a certain breed of dog owner who thinks everyone has to love their dog.

As I said immediately above, entitled humans,

Oh what a load of rubbish. Responsible dog owner here, mother and grandmother.

Not really what the OP is about, but I assumed dog bans on UK beaches was to stop dogs soiling where kids are likely to be digging/playing in the sand. Tends to be sandy beaches in Devon for example where dogs are not allowed after Easter, rocky/pebble beaches not so much. Not sure I see the point of a timed system 🤔

This.

And I'm a dog owner.

Two separate issues here.

Parents expecting this beach to be dog-free before 10am are being unreasonable.

Dog owners who have no control/recall with their dogs need to ensure they don't bother any other beach users (not just children). It sounds like these are the people causing problems for other dog owners.

Yes, I agree. If dogs are allowed on the beach before 10am, then people will just have to accept there will be dogs on the beach.

I live in a holiday area, and during the summer most of our beaches are completely off limits to dogs, apart from a few where there are small areas where dogs are allowed at each end. It is all very clearly signed. There’s still a huge amount of complaints from parents moaning that a dog is in the vicinity of their child.

My dog isn’t interested in people, she wants to swim, dig and play with her ball. She doesn’t approach people and if children approach her she gives them a very wide berth. Her recall is fab and she doesn’t stray very far from me unless she’s running after her ball.

My nearest beach is about a mile long, with a small bit where dogs are allowed. I just repeat constantly that they’re in the area where dogs are allowed and if they don’t like dogs they should take themselves off to the huge area of beach where they’re not allowed. I did have an argument once with a woman who wanted me to leave the beach as her son liked that part of the beach but he was scared of dogs. I refused, pointed out the mile and a half of beautiful sandy beach where dogs weren’t allowed, and just kept repeating myself every time she shrieked at me.

Dogs on a beach is disgusting. Don't mind dogs but they shouldn't be allowed on any beaches, ever

YANBU

Locally the only beach that's accessible by public transport bans dogs from May to September, even though there's few families there in the evening when it's light until 10pm. It would be great if it was open to dogs after 6pm.

Ostensibly it's because dogs might poo. In reality the beaches are far cleaner in the winter; in the summer there's everything left from dirty nappies to hot disposable BBQs buried under the stand (very dangerous if you step on it in bare feet!). It's sometimes so disgusting I'd think twice before taking the dog there for his safety.

Very occasionally I've come across someone with an equally hysterical reaction to my dog (small, uninterested in strange humans) including, memorably, 4 young men who simultaneously jumped on top of a park bench because my dog ambled past.

Fair weather park / beach users frequently give me the rage too. The entitlement! The litter! The bizarre desire some picnickers have to feed my dog from their picnic, thus making him think the next picnic is worth investigating...

The most ridiculous thing I've ever read on here 😂😂

What a stupid comment. Beaches are disgusting without dogs ffs.

Please, tell me more about how dogs make beaches look like this
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-44041347.amp

Control your dog. It's clear you think you're more entitled to the beach because you live there. You're not.

We're in Wales too have a beach in the village. Volunteer litter pickers are there often we pick up say 14 sacks of litter regularly. We're talking plastic bottles, broken glass, dirty nappies, disposable BBQs, picnic waste. All in the summer. We go to the local cafe at the end of it for a warning cuppa. The council kindly send a wagon to take the bags away.