Or are dog owners getting worse? The useless ones used to be a small minority, now they're everywhere

[Greensleeves]

I go for a long walk most days, so I see a lot of dogs and their owners. I'm noticing more and more feral dogs and ineffectual or wilfully ignorant owners. Three of my walks this week have been spoiled by them! The first was a large over friendly terrier type dog who bounded up, jumped up and got muddy paws all over my coat. Owner laughed and said "oh, she likes you!". Second was a little yappy thing that barked and wove around my ankles for about 20 yards, making me struggle not to step on it. Owner only called it when I shouted to her and gave me a filthy look. The third was the worst - some sort of bull breed, very large, not aggressive but ran up to us sniffing our hands and getting in our way, I was visibly nervous and froze to the spot. Owner called out "don't worry, he's friendly", I called back "I'm not, could you call him off please" to which he replied "I've tried, he ignores me...actually if you could grab his collar for me?"

FFS! And that's aside from the epic levels of fucking dog shit all over the parks, streets and local beauty spots. I'm not an animal hater at all, but it's really starting to get me down

Yes, the after effects of people deciding that getting a dog during lockdown was such a good idea. Then realising later, that the dog would be with them for a long time and would need training and caring for, when it stopped being a cute puppy.

Dogs on leads please, unless you’re in a designated fenced field, where they can run freely without affecting anyone else. I’d like to walk along the seafront or on the beach, or in the local fields without negotiating dog poo and off lead dogs.

People generally are getting worse. More selfish, more entitled, more angry.

I’m not sure if they’re worse as don’t really have a baseline to compare but as a dog owner I find all the dog poo in the city disgusting. I actually put my hand in some the other day when I was climbing up a retaining wall thing in the park 😫. Sometimes I’ll pick other poops up while I’m picking mine dog’s poop up, but the only thing grosser than warm dog poop in a bag is cold dog poop in a bag from a dog that’s not yours. 🤣

My dog is beautifully trained with great recall and ignores other dogs and seems to assess human faces and only approach the welcoming ones to say hi (very politely will give these ones a sniff and the opportunity to pat her) and ignores the humans who ignore her or who aren’t smiling down at her. But I’m pretty sure that’s mostly a fluke and 80% her nature rather than anything we did differently to other dog owner.

Completely agree OP. Always on edge when I go for a run in case some huge dog shoots out of the undergrowth with gormless owner either nowhere to be seen or on their phone. I've lost count of the number of "oh he's friendly" etc. I just want to enjoy my run/walk in peace thanks!

I have owned dogs all my life but since Covid there are just too many of them.

I will not get another dog as there are just too many dog owners who haven't got any idea how to control/or have the etiquette to own one.

I don't want three GSDs running up to me on a peaceful walk. I just lead walk my dog, mostly around the streets now. The local beauty spots are just too dangerous.

Great pleasure?
Really?
You sound nice.

I think in general society is leading towards being selfish and having no consideration for others.
Litter in parks particularly where there are people fishing.
Our local park had disposable barbecues left in the summer
Bad driving
In our town there's a problem with teens on bikes expecting people to move out of the way in a pedestrianised street.
People on phones not looking where they're going.
I've seen dirty nappies in the bushes at our local park.
Parking in disabled spaces
The list is endless
Increased number of selfish dog owners is just one of them

This 👆

I think the dog poo issue is worse over the summer holidays as children get chucked out to walk Fido and don't pick up. Not all obviously, but there is definitely an increase.

That and the fact that many owners seem to think that training is a fixed term thing that you do for a couple of weeks and never need to do again. I was complemented recently on my Lab's obedience with the inevitable "how long did that take?" They were aghast when I said 6 months. He's not where I want him to be yet either, he's just a lot better than he was when we got him. He was a lockdown dog with no previous training, and was over 2 when we got him, so having to work hard at undoing the existing behaviours. It's great seeing progress though.

I'm another dog owner who agrees with you 100%.

If you live in a block of flats you might find that people are now allowed to keep dogs where they weren't before. Some landlords think that tenants are allowed to keep pets now, they have to let them, their 'hands are tied'. That's not actually true but getting them to see that is difficult.

The corridors are not much more than 5 feet wide, it takes me several minutes to reach the entrance to my block of flats, so I often meet someone coming the other way. It's difficult enough now but when there will be dogs it will be very unpleasant.

I don't want to have to come within 5 feet of someone else's dog. At least on the street you can give them a wide berth. A dog will regard its house and garden as its territory. In a block of flats it will regard its flat and corridors as its territory.

I went to the door of one of the communal lounges. There was a dog off its leash in the corridor. It could see me through the glass and started barking at me. I don't know what would have happened if I had gone out. I waited till the owner had put it on the leash then went out.

She said that I had startled him, and that is why he had acted aggressively. She apologised, but their apologies never seem to mean a change in behaviour. Fortunately she only has the dog one day a week but I'm not looking forward to the future when there will be more dogs in my block.

I’m sick of entitled, selfish dog owners who think it’s ok to let their dogs harass mine, unfortunately this is getting all too common so yes I do take pleasure in putting someone in their place if they are an irresponsible dog owner

It's the general entitlement of people these days. Their right (or rather their dogs right) to run wild trumps the right of someone who just wants to enjoy a peaceful walk.

I have two dogs who are always on lead in public places. One of them is a bull breed. It wouldn't be fair on anyone to have a dog like him run over to them especially given all the bad press at the moment. But the amount of people who give not one shit about their dogs approaching us is ridiculous. My dog is friendly and has never attacked another dog but if he turned there'd be very little I could do. And yet we'd be in the wrong I suspect despite him being on a lead.

Actually @Cosyblankets the poster @Validissue179 is being nice.

Or would you prefer that more dogs get hit or kicked by strangers who want the yapping/barking/jumping thing kept away from them?

@ElonGates666 you have to prove an individual dog is out of control or causing an nuisance. Just being afraid of dogs, cats or any other animal isn't enough. So a dog barking when it notices you or the fact you don't like crossing dogs an entrance isn't enough.

So for example if a dog jumps on you more than once, dog jumps on you an knocks you over once, you see it pooing and the owner doesn't pick up, or hear it barking all day then you need to tell your block management in writing the type of dog and who the owner is. Only if they get sufficient complaints can they tell an individual owner they can't have dogs.

I have 2 dogs. One has no interest in other dogs whatsoever but is a fiend for runners and cyclists so when we see them we put her on her lead and distract her, then reward her for not reacting. She's a puppy and it's getting better. The other has little interest in other dogs and doesn't like other dogs to come into her space. Again, when we see another dog we put her on her lead and she stays at our side.

The amount of times I have to tell someone to get their dog away and they tell me not to worry, he's very friendly and just playing or just saying hello drives me apeshit.

If another person came over to you all up in your face and wouldn't let you move away you probably wouldn't like it so why do you expect every dog to feel overjoyed when it happens.

It really irritates me because we're good owners and we keep our dogs under our control. Once or twice we've been caught unawares and been profusely apologetic, then worked hard to remedy it with our dogs. We actually enjoy walking with them and watching them run around happily so I don't really understand when people are out with their dogs and just ignore them.

I absolutely love LOVE dogs. Love them.i get dog broody every single day

But I too am fed up of it all..last week at work a husky was brought into the office, barked all day and bounded over to me sitting at my desk. I swivelled slightly around to acknowledge the owner (my colleague) and the dog jumped up, ripped my trousers at the knees and headbutted me with excitement

The response? "Oh he's just excited to see you" - wtf......

Last job: 3 office dogs who would chew the cables, spread fleas, piss on the floor "aww they're just lockdown puppies. They don't know"

It wasn't an issue pre covid

YANBU.

As I always say on these threads, dog owners need to keep their animals to themselves. We get it, you love your mutt. But don't assume everyone else loves your mutt or indeed wants to be anywhere near your mutt. Don't let it run at people, jump at people. Whether it has a friendly personality or not is neither here nor there.

Just one more thing - there are many quite large poo bins in my area which are normally emptied regularly (still poo left on the pavements though) and if a bin gets missed - along comes Fido and his minder - poo bag in hand but the bin is full (to overflowing.)
What do they do - leave it on the ground next to the bin - just take it home with you as it is your dog and you are responsible for it!

Pointing it out is one thing. It was the taking pleasure in it that got me.
If someone's dog harrasses mine of course i will say something. But it gives me no pleasure.

I take my dog on walks twice a day. In the street and park in the morning and in the country in the afternoon. Those things have happened to me maybe once or twice in.....years. certainly not happened in the last month.

Different areas, different focus?

I have a dog, she's almost 3 and being honest, I couldn't have got a dog before lockdown as I worked in the office all week. Now I WFH , as does my partner so we were able to get a dog. Best thing I've ever done, love her. Unexpectedly love her, by the way. Before, I was very much in the camp of not quite realising how much these creatures steal your heart.

But! We've put every effort into training from day 1. We've done the classes, the 121's and the homework and it's paid off with a great dog, great behaviour.

However, I completely get that not everyone loves dogs and I'd never allow her to run up to anyone. She's allowed off lead but back on to pass people or dogs.
So many idiots though have no clue about training or basic manners for others. A neighbour has a massive deerhound, which is off lead and crazy. She came flying round a corner towards me and my dog. No recall whatsoever. Had I been nervous or with a small child, it would have been a really awful situation.

It's not everyone, but there are plenty of idiots.

I'm allergic to dogs and shitty owners who won't keep their dogs away from other people are everywhere. Dogshit all over the kids play areas too.

I wish we could remove dogs from anyone who lets their dog shit without cleaning it up or run up to people in public (and ban them from dog ownership).

Blame Covid. People who would never had had dog otherwise bought them and then didn't train them. And in fairness, could not socialise them properly.

I'm sick of it too and we have a dog.

Ours is an 8 y/o rescue, only had him a few years. We've put a lot of time and effort into training him and he's pretty good now, walks well on the lead, recall is good etc. We still don't take him to places with us though (like cafes etc) and rarely have him off lead unless it's in a huge field at a quiet time of day to play fetch. Always put him back on if we see another dog/people approaching.

Walks are regularly spoilt by dogs bounding up to us, boisterously jumping around our dog who doesn't really like that sort of thing, or just following us.

A lot of owners seem completely ignorant (e.g. don't even bother attempting to recall), and often use "they're friendly!" as some sort of get out of jail free card, as if it makes up for the fact that their dog is completely out of control with no recall. I've noticed the owners of smaller dogs in particular are bad for this - the vast majority of dogs who come bounding up to us are cockapoos, small spaniels etc.

Our dog trainer said that off lead walking is an 'ego trip' for dog owners. It's already illegal for dogs to walk off lead on public roads, and we see that quite a bit round here.

This thread is no doubt going to descend into the usual acrimony, but you’re spot on.

There are a lot of really responsible dog owners. There are also a LOT of completely irresponsible ones, who don’t get it at all.

Absolutely. There are an awful lot of very poor dog owners. So many people bought dogs in lockdown as an excuse to go out and because they had always wanted a dog but their lifestyle wouldn't allow it. Training classes were cancelled.

So many have dogs incompatible with their lifestyle. So many working/ guarding breeds bought without really thinking can we really meet this dogs needs? Many working dogs need mental as well as physical stimulation, they are bread to work. So many owners complaining their terriers rip toys up completely forgetting they were bread to be working ratters. My collie runs and runs and heards us all up and can nip at legs - yes they were bread to help herd livestock. Because of the demand backyard and puppy mill breeders absolutely raked it in breeding dogs without proper knowledge on breeding for temperament/ health etc and absolutely will not take back.

Real life came back and dogs aged and now they are stuck with a 2/3 year old full size dog with health/behaviour problems that are too old for the village hall puppy classes so owners are turning to tiktok/ Instagram and YouTube for advice before paying for trainers and behaviourists. Unfortunately anyone can call themselves a trainer or behaviourist on social media and there are some with quite frankly awful advice. Plus owners mixing and matching advice on social media without really following a program properly or with the correct support then claiming nothing works.

These lockdown dogs were accustomed to long leisurely walks with multiple members of the family who all wanted an excuse to leave the house meaning the dog was sometimes walked multiple times a day so they got fitter. Now real life is back they are getting a quick stroll around the block/ dragged on the school run or pack walked with a dog walker and a quick game of ball on the park off lead because we don't have time to have 5 walks a day but my god you have too much energy.

There needs to be some massive owner education program about what a well trained dog looks like and how it behaves in public (not bothered or approaching other people/ dogs), not jumping on people, not sitting on tables and chairs in cafes, good reliable recall ect. There also needs to be some village hall style basic classes for these teenage and young adult dogs that missed out in COVID and have poor excuses for owners. There also needs to be more education on recognising behaviour in dogs (resource guarding, showing discomfort in situations etc) and what you should do. There is so much ohh "so funny/ cute/ how silly" responses to dogs who are showing discomfort in situations.