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

Yesterday we had an over-friendly black labrador jump up and put it's muddy paws on my back when we were on a walk. I had my baby in a front carrier and had to turn away but the owner was barely apologetic. The dog was only being friendly but could have easily hurt or upset my child with an accidental scratch or push. The dog was on a lead and the owner was young and fit so the encounter could have been avoided if he was paying attention.

Too many people like the idea of having a pet but not the reality of the day-to-day commitment their animals need and deserve.

Dogs and their owners are like cyclists... they are everywhere but you only notice the bad ones.
People don't take to MN and say they were passed by a dog on a lead and nothing happened.

They try to make everything about dogs too and won't leave it alone.

Our village groups are awash with people going on about fireworks and pets every 5 seconds.

Plus posts about lost dogs wandering around. They can't seem to keep hold of their precious pets for too long at a time.

Then every local event, the top comment is "Is it dog friendly?" and woe betide anyone who says they'd rather you didn't bring them or kept them outside.

If all dogs disappeared from the UK tomorrow, I'd be pretty happy.