Or was he? Argument with dog owner.

[Notsuretoputit]

I’ve just been for lunch at a cafe, and was admittedly in a bad temper because I’d left to find my car battery dead, so went back in to order a taxi.

Anyway, on leaving the second time my path was blocked. The path coming from the cafe to the street is lined with thick bushes on either side, and a man, presumably waiting for someone who was in the cafe, was standing with two small dogs, one of which was on an extendable lead on the other side of the path to its owner, blocking the whole path with the lead.

As I walked up he smiled sort of apologetically and shrugged. I said ‘can I get past please?’ and he said ‘I’m trying to pull her back’. It was a small dog, he could’ve easily got her back if he’d wanted to. Anyway, he pulled her half a foot back and said ‘just walk around’. As I walked around, the dog inevitably jumped up. I said ‘totally ridiculous’, and he said ‘how’s that ridiculous?’. I said ‘come on, you’re blocking the whole path’, and he said ‘it’s a little dog, calm down’.

I know I was in a bad mood because of the car, but WIBU?

YABU - the dog did no harm and you should’ve been more patient
YANBU - it is irritating that he shrugged helplessly as if his dogs are so cute no one should mind them blocking the path and jumping up

As an aside, this attitude from some dog owners (and I’m a dog lover) is really grating on me at the moment. We have a large park with signs everywhere saying to keep dogs on the lead, and so many don’t. My toddler nephew was nearly knocked off his feet a couple of weeks ago by an off the lead large dog being called over the park’s footpath from one owner to the other, and they just shrugged and shouted sorry, same as when off the lead dogs approach you and instead of an apology and putting them on the leads they just say ‘ah he’s harmless’.

I've always managed to keep my dogs under control. If not, I'd have no business having dogs. Certainly not under the feet of another person, however grumpy.

I’m a dog lover and YANBU. Absolutely sick of moronic thick as pig shit dog owners these past few years.

YANBU at all. I don’t particularly like dogs. And I definitely don’t want their smelly sh*t stained paws touching me. Regardless of the shape/size/breed of the animal. Dog owners are so entitled thinking everyone else should be thrilled to engage with their creatures 🤮

@Ohffsbarbara

you know nothing about me, except that I won't stand for people kicking non agressive animals.

you are full of horse radish. Now stop @ me im not slightly interest in any of your assumptions & nonsense.

Best make sure you keep it under control then eh?

The mental image of people bending down and making actual cooing noises at a dog like a bloody pigeon 😂😂

😂😂

Gosh thanks, I literally thought it was doing pigeon imitations.

Yeah…… any family cooing over baby pictures is not being described in a positive light in my book. But hey, carry on folks. Coo away at your babies (and dogs) 😂

Making absolutely no sense there.

Deflect all you like.

I know OP ain’t a dog lover 😂

Quite mad.

You are making yourself look ridiculous.

Nope. I’ve called it.

And now I shall go back to ignoring dog bashing threads 😂

Oh no. That’s going to keep me awake all night worrying now 😂

No, you sound like a shitty dog owner because if your dog jumped up at someone who kicked out you'd "make them sorry" (I paraphrase). And then you accuse THEM of trying to sound hard?!

That poster didn't actually say anything about the relative aggression of the dog either, did they? Not sure they mentioned the size of the dog either. Interesting that you try to minimise the dog's actions from an anonymous story on a forum. Almost like you know exactly that your dog is poorly trained and does this a lot so you have to give out to loads of strangers.

Yeah maybe she's experienced the same as me where her pup has been attacked by dogs running off leads. I've actually had a bad bite on my hand and my dogs only 8 months. Just because you are ok with your dog off lead doesn't mean others need to be ok with it near. I've had to build my dogs confidence back up with other dogs since being attacked so she's not nervous and it's not helpful that dogs are running up to us all the time, crowding her and their owner throwing a weak 'oh it's ok,they're friendly', that's great but not helpful to my dog nor me

As someone who walks two small dogs on extending leads, I’d say that you were probably a bit impatient. Sometimes people will be walking towards me and I’m desperately trying to untangle the leads and pull them in but they continue walking and make it really difficult. I often feel like I need another set of hands. Often it happens when I’m also trying to pick up poo and I have to direct them around the poo because they’re oblivious!

Anyway, it’s hardly a big deal. If you’d said “Hello my darling” and given the dog a big fuss (like I would have done), you’d have felt much better. You must be angry all the time if you feel like this about a fluffy little dog! In my (unpopular) opinion it’s rude to ignore a dog who’s just trying to greet you.

I'm a dog owner and he was being an entitled twat.

Can't stand other owners like this. Just move out of the fucking way, it's not hard.

A bit of both really. He could have done a lot better but your reactions were over the top.

Honestly your snarky “totally ridiculous” comment is what makes you in the wrong for me.

Otherwise, yeah, wasn’t great that he was blocking the path but I really hate it when people that mumble anger about mundane things and bring down everyone’s general mood.

I wasn’t in the mood to be fussing over a dog and it’s the expectation that everyone should be delighted to be ‘greeted’ by dogs that causes half the problem. It wasn’t fluffy either.

And if the extendable leads cause such a problem why do you continue to use them?

I've never used extendable leads myself, as I think only lazy dog owners use them (thread derail intended), but was the bloke actually scratching his balls whilst watching his dog sniff at piss? Coz' I bet he wanted too.

And let's not forget the other dog, patiently waiting whilst ball-scratcher, piss-sniffer and stroppy lady were having their contretemps.

I vote for the other dog as next PM.

The other dog was indeed entirely faultless throughout the episode.

The OP repeatedly said it was a small dog.

I'm imagining from the OP's stance and openness about the situation that if the dog had been aggressive she would certainly have mentioned that.

Defending an animal in your care from someone trying to harm it is a natural reaction and doesn't make a person a shitty dog owner. My dear dog is dead now, she was tiny and well behaved, I am a reasonable, middle aged, mild and gentle person but if someone had tried to hurt her I would have put myself in the way of harm to defend her and faced the consequences.

Your last sentence is quite the assumption based on nothing.

That said, extending leads are a real nuisance, they tangle with other dog leads too so ordinary lead users hate them as much as non dog owners.