To be pissed off with useless dog owners??

[Sapphire387]

This week so far:

One dog on a beach knocked my stepdaughter over in order to grab a sausage roll out of her hand. Owner came up far, far too late, to be fair he tried to offer us money to replace the food. I did say it wasn't really about the money, the dog had knocked her over (she's nine).

One dog ran up to us in a field and pissed all over my mum's bag (it was on the floor; we had stopped walking briefly). Owner not paying attention so I called him over and told him what his dog had done and he said it wasn't his fault so I told him he should keep his bloody dog under control.

I'm not a dog owner. I neither particularly like or dislike dogs. But AIBU to think that people should train their dogs out of this sort of stuff, and if they can't, they keep them on a lead? It is NOT ok to just let your dog be a nuisance to other people.

She is!

But just goes to show, nothing is ever as simple as x = y, eh?

That said, anecdotally I also think smaller dogs are more likely to cock than larger ones. Though I don't think I have ever come across any research into size as related to leg cocking.

I love dogs and am a dog owner.
I keep her on the lead in any public space and take her to an enclosed field (they are very much on the increase) for a good run.
She also gets plenty of play and exercise in my garden.
Simples 😜

Dogs need to be kept on leads in public. It's that simple.

Ban dogs being off lead in public.
Automatic £500 fine.
They shouldn't be able to run round parks and beaches.

If you want them to run free then hire a field privatly.

I feel VERY strongly about this and I have 3 dogs.

YANBU OP. Due to the nature of my job I often carry a backpack and at least one other bag, often I will leave them on the floor about 10ft away for a short period of time (I am nearby the whole time). I've lost count of the amount of times people have watched (yes, watched) as their dogs have had a good sniff of my bag before cocking their leg on them. If there is a bench I will of course leave them on there instead, often when this happens dogs will start trying to get in to the bags. I do now shout at people not to let their dog wee on my bag.

I have a dog myself. If I see people picnicking, he's on a lead. He's unlikely to approach them but I'd rather not chance it. He wouldn't wee on a bag or show any interest in them, but if I thought that was a risk, he'd be called away.

*Dogs need to be kept on leads in public. It's that simple.

Ban dogs being off lead in public.
Automatic £500 fine.
They shouldn't be able to run round parks and beaches.

If you want them to run free then hire a field privatly.

I feel VERY strongly about this and I have 3 dogs.*

I actually agree with this, as a dog lover and dog owner myself. There are too many out of control dogs now and more dogs generally.

Then there is the dramatisation. Sorry OP but however unpleasant it is to be knock over, I wouldn't think a 9 year old falling on a beach to be qualified dangerous.

I was hospitalised due to leg damaged by a friendly 40kg dog jumping up at me, and now have ongoing problems with my leg. If that was a child they could have suffered a much more serious problem.

A friend recently had her rib broken by a friendly dog wanting to play and launching in to her.

I am pregnant at the moment, with complications, and there are places that I actually will not walk now because of concerns about other people's out of control dogs jumping up at me or knocking me over. That shouldn't even be something I need to consider, but I do.
And I have my own dog who is under control.

I dunno, I'm not really a dog person. I've never owned a dog and I don't know much about them, but I imagine that there is only so much that you can do to train a dog. It probably depends to some degree on the breed and the personality of the dog. It's an animal at the end if they day, and animals do things that are unpredictable.

I don't agree with keeping dogs on leads. They need space to run around. A field seems like the appropriate place for that.

Unless there's a law which says that dogs can't run free in that area, then owners are entitled to let their dogs off the lead. It's a risk you take if you decide to go to public spaces. Same as when you cross the road, and you risk getting hit by a car.

I agree with this, although I think in practice it’s more workable if there are specific fenced-off off-lead areas that don’t need hire, because realistically no one seems to be deterred by dog poo fines so they’re not going to be deterred by lead fines – there aren’t the staff to police it. So people will just carry on as they are, especially if they can’t hire a field.

Bur provide enough enclosed off-lead spaces and it could become the norm to be on-lead except for this place. Whereas at the moment the norm seems to be a free-for-all except for Children’s playgrounds and private venues, except even then people push their luck – our playground is forever being invaded by someone with a dog, on the basis that they have a child too.

In Cornwall many beaches ban dogs from 1st July to September 1st and quite a few allow dogs all year round

I have a small dog who, due to be attacked once by another dog, can be a little bit nervous. She's happy to trot past other dogs when the other dog is doing the same and pays no attention. But some hyper off-lead dog with no owner in sight bounding over to her and jumping on her will make her growl and snap. When you finally see the owners you just get 'He's friendly!'.

Lots of people are assholes. Lots of people have dogs. There’s going to be some overlap of those groups. Just like some parents change their babies’ dirty nappies on the table in a cafe or some drivers speed and tailgate.

This site would fold if there was a ban on having a moan about arsehole behaviour

Incidents with dogs on beaches are easily avoided by going to one of the many, many beaches where dogs are banned in daytime throughout most of the spring/summer/early autumn.

Oh so people should be scared of dogs and keep away from anywhere they might legally be off the lead ?

I'm looking after a lovely whippet at the moment. When she pees, she does this weird half-squat, half-cocking leg thing.

It's very strange!

Yes, I agree. Cornwall has dog friendly beaches all year round. Not many uk beaches are dog friendly throughout the summer months though.

Most of the beaches in Wales have restrictions from May to October. But not all.

Out of three adjoining beaches in Porthcawl one is dog friendly all year round. It isn’t the best beach out of the three but great for dog walking. Some people use it and complain about dogs being on the beach. If they walked a few yards to the adjoining Sandy beach there are no dogs allowed during the summer months. Even when it’s pointed out to them they’d still rather picnic or BBQ on the dog beach. It baffles me

Theres nowt as queer as folk 🫣

’steal his McDonald's out of his hand whilst we were sat on a field’

Stay classy

I was at a beach at the weekend where there were clear and multiple signs explaining that dogs were banned. I counted four off lead dogs on the beach.

So no, it's not easily avoided because of the entitled attitude of many owners.

I'm not a dog owner and I haven't experienced this ‘all the time’ at all. In fact I can’t remember it happening at all when I've been on a picnic. The only problem I encounter on picnics is wasps!! (I'm afraid of them so I'm really notice them.)

Your children and simply aren't as important as other peoples dogs- haven't you got the memo? Remember if a child Jesus maimed or killed by a dog it's all their fault or their parents fault. It's absolutely never the dogs. Poor furbabies only attack and kill when the child isn't taught how to handle dogs. Even infants and small toddlers who can't even talk.

I'm sure there is a mental health issue with these obsessive, selfish and entitled dog owners. I would happily round the mutt lovers up and put them on an island where they can be maimed and killed and where the other mentally ill dog fanatics blame the victims- even if they are victims of their own choices.

A dog owner near me walks his dogs off leash, allows them to attack the neighbourhood cats, and encouraged them to piss on the neighbour's garden (it was caught on doorbell cam). It was so bad the police anti-harassment team got involved and told him to stop walking his dogs down our street for a few months. Sure enough two or three days later his wife is bringing the dogs down, off leash, and they go into my neighbour's garden. They started looking over the small hedge into my garden so they obviously considered that as their next destination. I stared at the dog and as I give off serial killer vibes it returned to its owner who got an icy 'good morning' from me. The next time I saw her she had the dogs on leashes.

I hire out my services at fifty quid an hour, or zoom training for basilisk stares at 30 pounds an hour per person.

I suspect that there's a strong correlation between the dog owners that don't believe that such things happen fairly frequently and the owners of poorly controlled "friendly" off lead dogs that don't witness their dogs being anti-social nuisences. Certainly on many of the occasions I've been jumped up at or had picnics raided, there's been no obvious owner to match to the dog. Then there's the minimisers (occasionally aggressive), or more commonly the limply appologetic who still fail to put the disgraced dog back on a lead.

Owners like this are also a PITA to responsible owners as well as giving dog owners in general a bad name.

I have a dog, and im a huge dog lover, but youre not being even slightly unreasonable.

Owners who cant/wont control their dogs give us all a bad name.
If you cant control it to the second, use a lead.

@ShakeYourFeathers I think there are a number which have year round dog bans. Polzeath springs to mind as an example. But I stand to be corrected on that

That is really interesting!

My younger dog does cock her leg sometimes (and it looks really funny) but I always assumed it was because she was copying my older dog who is male.

She's from a litter of 5. 3 girls and 2 boys.