Just fucking sick of dogs

[crazyaginglady]

Sorry but I am. I was cycling home from
picking up DS from school with him on the back and a dog came running up beside
me snarling and snapping at my feet on the pedals. I nearly bloody went over but managed to keep my balance and get past it (electric bike). Owner called an apology and I just rode on as it was still off the lead and I was worried for DS.

This is a national cycling path and much used school route so there are always bikes and children 8-9 and 3-4.

A sausage dog decided to bolt towards my 2 year old last month in the park for no apparent reason and I had to scoop him
up to avoid contact.

And don’t get me started in the ‘oh he’s just being friendly’. I don’t want your fucking dog jumping on me or my children or scaring my kids when we are just going about our day.

They should ALL be on leads unless they are in a dog park/field.

For me It’s not individual dogs that are an issue, especially not highly trained ones. It’s the increase in dogs generally and dogs owned by people with little knowledge, experience and who don’t care about other peoples space or needs. When I was a kid in the 80s/90s I’d say only 1/10 people I knew had a dog and I don’t think any of our immediate neighbours did. Just people who actually liked and invested time in their dogs had them. If you went to the park or a walk you might see one or two. Now almost everyone I know has a dog, most of my neighbours have a dog. That’s a large increase and it is bound to have a knock on in terms of things like amount of dogs in public spaces, amount of dog mess left on walkways etc. if I go for a walk now near me I will pass many many dogs and it is almost guaranteed that at least once or twice I’ll have a dog run up to sniff at my crotch or jump up at me while their owner shouts “don’t worry he’s friendly”.

@cocksstrideintheevening the tone of these comments really annoy me because it suggests other people are lying or exaggerating. I’m glad it has t happened to you, but it has happened to many others.

So many people that can’t fathom that people may not like dogs or dogs coming up to them uninvited. A leash would sort this right out, we could all coexist in peace.

Oh and of course I deserved it for the crime of riding a bike to get my kid home from school.

They have to embellish their stories as even they realise that moaning because a dog blinked 5 metres away from them is ridiculous and unreasonable.
I did once have a dog run in front of my bike and, when I stopped, he pissed on my front wheel (owner was mortified, I found it amusing). This was probably around 1999. Nothing since.

@crazyaginglady if I go for a walk near my house across the fields, almost every time I have a dog off lead approach me./9 I agree with you completely. They’re rarely aggressive but often badly trained, no recall. Even if not aggressive it’s not nice for a small child to have a large dog jump at them or to come home covered in mud or slobber because someone’s untrained dog jumped at you.

Where do you live?

Here it's Cat's that are out of control,

Children & Toddlers without recall
Bird shit everywhere
Humans of all ages on seats in pubs & restaurants, while the pooches have to sit on the dirty cold floor.

... and worst of all families with little children taking over the park! Especially at the weekend, being noisy and leaving lots of rubbish behind from their picnics and snacks.

@StarkRealism lucky you! No embellishment here thanks.

@Dowhadiddydiddydum owners often seem unable to understand that, although they may only have a medium size dog, to my two-year-old that dog is nearly as tall, if not taller than him. If a 5’9 dog came running over to me I’d be terrified.

My four year old and I got told off by a dog owner because he showed discomfort around her dogs. She basically insinuated that dogs will hurt him if he’s scared of them. Didn’t even cross her mind that she should recall them and put them on the lead so he could play in the park in peace.

Is it the frantic covid ‘must get a dog’ thing? In France, the shelters were emptied because then there was an excuse to leave the house. I had an extremely dog aggressive dog during covid. He was always under control and we kept away from other dogs and other owners knew to not approach but omg, during covid, it wasn’t pretty. I don’t care how friendly your designer mutt is, mine was terrified of being approached. I do wish people would train their dogs to not jump/approach people/other dogs. Drives me crazy.

For many years, exceptions have been made for Guide Dogs. They are well trained and sensible.

Unlike the smelly, drooling, out of control animals now seen at a pub/restaurant/cafe/shop near everyone..🙄

Exactly. Always someone who takes it to the extreme. Guide dogs are amazing. They are well behaved and trained.

It's the sudden explosion of dogs everywhere that haven't been trained and are allows to run amok by feckless owners that people are tired of. Guide dogs aren't in that category.

I agree that if you can’t recall your dog it should be on a lead. I think that’s an awful lot of people to be honest, judging by our local parks. Our dog has excellent recall and doesn’t stray far from us, so we do let him off in the park. But, if he even looks like he might approach someone we don’t know, especially a child, he’s called back. If there’s a small child walking past, I grab his collar so he can’t approach, even though I know he wouldn’t. A past dog, while not aggressive, couldn’t be trusted so was never, ever off lead and walked at quiet times. IMHO, part of being a responsible dog owner is understanding that not everyone else likes dogs and that you can kickstart a phobia in a child if they have a negative interaction. I’ve never come across a dog park, I thought that was more of an American thing. If we had one locally, I’d definitely use it because I’m tired of untrained dogs approaching mine, jumping up at him, with no owner in sight. If it happened with my children, I’d be even less impressed. The park is for everyone to enjoy.

This is also my experience. Adults who ride their bikes on pavements are dangerous and a menace. On the whole, most dogs and their owners where I live are fine. Rarely see dog poo on the pavements, all these extreme stories are just alien to me and. It my experience at all.

@Ohhelpicantthinkofaname rarely seen an adult ride their bike on a pavement round here. They stick to roads and cycle paths.

Things must vary across the country as where I live there aren’t really the issues with dogs you describe, but flipping loads of entitled adults and teens riding bikes on the pavement, which tbh is far more dangerous than someone’s cockapoo getting a bit of mud on your leg.

one side of our road is a pavement and one has a cycle path, so often adult cyclists are on the pavement only side because they can’t even be bothered to cross the road to use the cycle path, causing old people and people with pushchairs to have to pretty much jump into the hedge to let them past. Now that’s entitlement. The dogs around here are fine and on the whole pretty well behaved.

My quickest and safest route to school and work is through a park where people let their dog off lead all the time. Also in a part of town where gardens are mostly pretty small.

I've lost count of the number of times I've had unwanted interactions with dogs off lead and also stepped in dog poo.

Lucky you. It's happened to my child countless times leading them to be scared of dogs. Pretty terrifying when a puppy bigger than you knocks you over.

@Missingmyusername well yes, I'm sure your lab would rather be left alone, which is why I would have removed both the child and the ice cream. You chose not to and allowed the child to rub ice cream into your lab.

who said you should be childcare? Certainly not me. As I said I'd have removed the child. If the parents didn't like that they should be watching their child.

🙄"Countess times"?

I walk my dog every day in different parks and I have never seen a child being knocked over by a dog. Ever.

Anyway, my dog gets chased by badly behaved kids who want to catch and pet him when he's in the park sniffing around and doing his own thing. Parents don't bother to recall their kids. Thankfully, he's an absolute sweetheart and takes it in his stride.

And they’re paraded into the pub and greeted like some sort of returning hero. We don’t all like dogs. Pubs are not for dogs. Bugger off with them

Just to show that kids and dogs can co-exist very happily together... (pics are from when our dog was a puppy- both my daughter and the dog are older now)

🤣🤣🤣

Somewhere up thread someone asked how come so many people suddenly got dogs in the last few years. Well I can answer this quite full I think:

During lockdown when we weren't even allowed out of our homes, one exception was to walk a dog. Some people got dogs as an alibi for being out the house and also to ensure being able to go out in future if further strict lockdowns were imposed;

Also during lockdown some people got dogs for company to help with their isolation;

Also during lockdown and a trend in general, some households flout their housing rules to get dogs to breed so they can make money from the pups. I think this was connected to lockdown insofar as some people wanted to think of other forms of income in the case of a financial crisis;

Some people who breed dogs in estates pressurise neighbours (esp leaning on their kids) to buy a dog. Some people who breed dogs in estates end up not being able to sell them and give them away (to neighbour's kids). They encourage the idea that you can always breed a couple of litters. Before you know it, it's an escalating issue.

The worst reason IMO - there is a false rumour that is literally not true that there is now something in law classified as an 'emotional support dog'. There is no such thing as an 'emotional support dog' but all the people on my estate who got dogs also got their GPs, social workers, kids teachers, etc to say their child would benefit from having a dog. This has no medical standing, it has no standing in law. Also people were a bit too keen to pathologise their child and say my child's got special needs. Just to cover the fact they actually broke their tenancy agreement.

Adults with any form of health problem also did the same.

In order to prop up their own bending of the rules and deception, the people in my estate who got dogs encouraged other households to get dogs by sharing the above false information. I guess people who know they're doing wrong prefer a whole crowd of people also doing wrong alongside them. This mean even more people got dogs.

The only grounds anyone is allowed a dog in the estate I live is if it's a legal assistance dog (all of which are trained by specialist organisations). The thing that annoys me the worst out of all of this is that the selfish, thoughtless, people have made it really difficult for an actual guide dog to do it's job in our buildings.

Now of course everyone is bored of their dogs, they can't get vets, in my area we aren't covered by any of the low cost charities because our gentrified whole post code is classified as 'business district' and deliberately exempted by the charities. They know our buildings are zero pet policy and nobody has a letter of permission for their dog. The residents know they're not supposed to have a dog so they send the kids out after dark to toilet them in the public gardens. We only had weird little man made curated areas of plants and they send them in the bushes to toilet and don't pick up the poo but they're on CCTV, overlooked by thousands of flats, and we have private security on foot. On sunny days people bring their toddlers to the so called 'safe, secure, and clean' little fancy gardens and they run around and roll in the gardens. It makes me feel icky.

The dogs barely see daylight and are not socialised or normally behaved. It's heartbreaking and it all came down to one thing: SELFISHNESS I don't think the dogs are even wanted any more.

That's completely false. I don't have a dog and never have.

This isn't Wuhan. We weren't locked up. We were allowed out to walk once a day. But the reality is who checked? Who knew if it was twice or cared?

I did a long bike ride and a walk in the evening.

It's bollocks to say you needed a dog to be allowed to leave the house.

That made me dry heave.

That's a shame as both (now adult) dog and my now teen are still best buddies and neither have any issues 🤷‍♀️ Dogs make a house a home.