Bloody dogs in park burst my son's football!!!

[Failingatthemoment]

6 And 7 year olds playing with their football in the park, bloody dog comes over and grabs the ball and bursts it. No sign of dog owner 2 v upset children.

OP, are dogs allowed off lead at this park?
If my kids are playing with a football in a place where dogs are running off the lead then they know they risk at best not being able to actually play due to dogs 'just wanting to play' and at worst, a decent football being destroyed.
They know I won't keep replacing footballs in these circumstances.

If they're playing at our local park which states that dogs must be on a lead and a ball gets damaged by a dog I call it out on our village FB page (my kids are old enough to not need supervision by me). The people complain, the better the hope that things will change.

My son was told that if he stopped playing ball at the park, their dog would stop chasing it. He was only about 10 at the time and didn't have the confidence to stand up for himself.

I was walking yesterday on a footpath around the fields. Dogs should be on the lead. Many aren't. Most have good recall and most owners stand aside when I go running. A dog owner was walking towards me on her phone, her big dog running ahead. It ran up to me, jumped up, pulled my top and then ran off. The owner just said 'oh sorry, really sorry'.

Well, concrete ones aren't that much fun.

Lots of dog owners are selfish, it's sad that some think children should use this as a lesson in resillience rather than feckless dog owners take responsibility for their feral dogs.

as in a beach ball

A dog was sick all over my dds coat recently. We were sat having a picnic and it ran over and trampled over the rug then was randomly sick loads of times on the coat that was on the floor next to us. I was really concerned because the dog seemed to be having some sort of medical emergency, it wasn’t breathing well and kept being sick over and over. I didn’t know what to do.
Owner eventually caught up and said sorry and tried to get something to clean the coat. It was no use as it was soaked through and covered. She explained that it’s sick like that because it’s a French bulldog so can’t breath when it runs and needs an operation but can’t have one as it might not recover. Felt sorry for it. Had to bin the coat as even after washing it smelt and dd refused to wear it understandably. It was a new coat to add insult. I was a bit annoyed but it’s life and accidents happen. I didn’t blame the owner or dog. Me and dd did laugh straight afterwards about it. I actually had a laugh with the owner about it later when I saw her again. It was a pretty bizarre situation. We shrugged it off.
I own a dog myself and luckily she wouldn’t chase a ball or anything like that unless invited to and she has great recall etc… it takes work but it’s the responsible thing to do as an owner. I’m very aware when out with her and would not allow her to annoy others or even approach them. She wouldn’t anyway without permission. Not all owners are bad and lots of dogs are well trained still.
I do think humans are a disgrace mind you. Can’t believe we have destroyed a dog so much that it’s sick because it can’t breath. Lots of humans are rude and selfish. You have to shrug it off. People are all drama these days, always annoyed, always outraged and intolerant. Sounds exhausting.

Well of course the dog just wanted to play. I'm not about to teach my kids to keep hold of an unknown dog and wait for the owner who might offer to replace the ball. Where is the logic in that course of action.
If it's a public space a dog should not be running freely where people are playing football.

@MasterBeth ... there's quite a lot of us around, and irresponsible dog owners annoy us as much as they annoy the bone dog owners!

Walking my old collie was awful, she was going blind and deaf, and would reactive if approached by a dog unexpectedly and so many off lead dogs just ran up to her with owners cheerfully shouting "she's friendly" .... that's all very well and good but mines taken by surprised and terrified.

So the new dog has been and continues to be trained regularly, she is never off lead unless I can be sure I can see her and get her back. I'm watching things in advance of her to bring her back to me safely as quickly as possible. If she stops responding to recall, she's back on her lead. It's that simple. She is only allowed to greet other dogs when an owner says it's ok. But equally no one is allowed to great her, unless she "says" it's ok. We practice petting consent and ask anyone we don't know not to pet her. Anyone we do has to get consent first.

It is however a parental responsibility to try and manage their emotions, teach them to see humour in things and not feed into everything being a Greek tragedy. It’s an exhausting way to go through life.

@Skinnermarink as expected your parents clearly didn't teach you your own advice. Just let it go! 🤣🤣

Seems unfortunate though the dog's owner should be found as suggested and cough up for a new one. Dog owners should accept responsibility for their dog's actions, however reasonable it is for a dog to be off a lead in a park.

Then the dog owner should speak to a Mr Ten Hag as the dog has a career in front of him at a field just south of Manchester!

Yeah course you would. All the owner would have to do would be to call the dog and then there’s no holding it

@Absolem76 parks are not just for children.

It’s an unfortunate incident and if was the owner I would be apologetic and offer to pay for another one. I don’t have a dog (not because I don’t like them, but I don’t have the time for one), but it’s not really the dog’s fault. They are programmed to chase balls and obviously try to get hold of it with their mouths/teeth. The dog shouldn’t have been out of sight of the owner though. That indicates a
bad owner or one who has no control over their pet.

I'm glad to hear that as it was my first reaction. And I am terrified of dogs.

Why can't both things happen?

Nobody here has said the dog owner shouldn't take responsibility but it doesn't need to be a huge drama for the child either.

This is classic Mumsnet to be honest. I’ve had time to post today as I’m recovering from surgery but it’s only served to remind me why I usually just lurk and then laugh about it on the Tattle thread. Some of these responses are frankly ridiculous.

@MasterBeth

you think you're so funny, you're not.

the owner can read & your reply about her abused & traumatised dog was nasty.

They are for children and under-control dogs (among others).

Not the tattle thread, how cool and how much better than everyone else on here you are xoxo

There IS a lot of 'oh, the dog just wants to play' and [shrug] 'these things happen'. That looks like not taking responsibility to me.

My point exactly.

Would you laugh if a child grabbed it and ran off with it and or popped it? no you likely wouldn't.
When will irresponsible dog owners stop making excuses for their dogs. A park should be a place families can play or eat a picnic without some dog bounding up and taking things from you.

Isn't Tuesday usually the I HATE DOGS, Who's With Me? thread day?

The point that you feel the need to declare how pathetic the responses are but that you usually waste time lurking and reading them just to post on tattle? That's bloody sad, and I love tattle.

@Pugglemuggle

its not either or!

better to use it to teach some resilience than to tech them to make every little thing a trauma.