To wonder when the excess of dogs will die down

[OptimismvsRealism]

There's so much shit everywhere

There are so many feral horrible dogs pissing on front doors or prams or shop displays and barking terrifyingly at kids

I am sick of them!!!!! Is this it or will people learn their post COVID lesson and only get pets they can actually handle in the future?

This would never have happened if the law stated that all dogs are muzzled in public. The same with attacks on children.

There was also that case of that young woman who was posting videos, saying 'I don't care if you think my dog looks aggressive' and when she came back from shopping her XL Bully dog mauled and killed her.

Define 'need'.
People don't need to play sport or go on holiday or have spa days or put a hot tub on the patio. A lot of motorbikes are just ridden for pleasure. No one needs a sailing dinghy, never mind an ocean-going yacht.

My dogs provide me with a lot of exercise which, realistically, I wouldn't take without the obligation to train and exercise them. They are wonderful for my overall mental health. Most dog food is made from the crappy end of the carcass that won't enter the human food chain.

I'm in a similar position. My old boy has been the light of my life and brings me so much joy every day. Dogs are so special but luckily it's only on here that you get this kind of attitude so don't worry. MN is full of dog haters who make things up to justify their stories of evil dogs.
Just remember, we knkw the truth and dogs are better than humans

I feel like people have gotten worse about picking up after their dogs. Here they are mainly good about it in residential areas but if you go anywhere "off road" even if it is a designated path or a park people just don't bother.

I was in a well known pub in Cornwall last month, a dog pissed on a barrel indoors. . Staff member resignedly mopped it up while telling us it happens “all the time, dogs piss on everything “
Dogs snapping at each other across hot crowded streets.
people letting dogs run free on “dog free” beaches.
At a restaurant-two dogs tied to different table legs cross the room barking and whining at each other straining to get free throughout the meal.
none of it looked much fun for the dogs except the beach of course. That will just be shit for people that were there cos dogs weren’t supposed to be.
if it’s just “bad owners” there’s fecking lots of them.

What confounds me is the owners who only clear up the dog poop in their garden every week....or month!
Sometimes these are people with kids as well. How do you do that? I keep poo bags in the garden and clear it up as I see it, usually about 3 times a day. Just leaving it for days on end is absolutely minging.
(only time I did this was when I had covid and couldnt physically walk as far as the garden...after 10 days I was horrified at the state!!LOL).

A spaniel kept jumping up on me a few months ago and I made ready to kick it off, hard, and the owner looked aghast (it ran away when it saw my posture change). I don't understand why owners don't get that (a) piss and shit is disgusting and other people shouldn't have to put up with it and (b) physical contact from your stupid mutt HURTS. I wouldn't let a human repeatedly hit me in the legs so why would I let an animal???

It's like getting a dog comes with a free empathy excision.

The more dog hating threads I see on here......the more I prefer my dog. All dogs.

This reminds me of something a comedian said, that if aliens visited this planet and they saw a human being dragged along by a lead and picking up dog shit, who would you presume is the superior being?!

No feral dogs here. The farmers would shoot them.

@ShouldhavebeencalledAppollo I am a dog owner and I agree with this vetting process !

Me too. Some people are so miserable.

I love dogs but even I am fed up of them encroaching into spaces that used to be dog-free - shops and cafes. I've seen people arguing to be let in with their dog like it's a human right, or pretending their badly-trained mongrel is some sort of therapy dog. I liked dogs when they were just dogs, not indulged pretend children.

My local coffee shop has banned children but still allows dogs. The owner said the other day their business has become so popular since they stopped allowing children that they can't cope with demand 😁

A few other local businesses are considering it as well - I live in a popular (touristy) village - because of the amount of destruction/damage children cause and their parents being unwilling to pay for broken items or clean up after them.

Got to say, I'm enjoying this 'dogs everywhere, children nowhere' trend that many shops near me are leaning towards and, given their businesses seem to be thriving, I can't be the only one!

So you cannot see the problem with the ever growing population?

Dogs are not better than humans.

For jnstance, I have never in all my years witnessed a dog perform surgery on someone. Nor have I seen a dog develop a space program, and send a probe to another planet. I’ve not seen a cathedral “made by dogs” nor heard a symphony composed by a dog

I’ve only seen them getting dragged around on bits of string with their anuses on display, squeezing foetid shit out of their arses in public, pissing on literally anything including my towel, invading personal space and leaving hair everywhere.

It’s not just the endless bags of dog poo littering every path and byway round here. There’s a constant stream of Facebook posts on every local board…

’Please help me find my furbaby’
’Whose dog is this?’
’Spotted this greyhound/cockapoo/ small hairy terrier thing running free but couldn’t get close’
’Dog bothering sheep on xyz, no owner in sight’
’Oh help, my dog ran away and I have no idea what to do’

Random, loose dogs are a pita. No recall, very little training and their owners are always surprised and upset when their dogs run and don’t come back.
’

I really think people who favor dogs over children are very strange and lacking empathy. I'd avoid. Just my 2 cents.

The last few hundred years shows conclusively that to reach a stable population you merely have to provide food, shelter, work and security for a population. They will then stabilise their growth below replacement levels.

Hoorayyyy for extortionally expensive vets - is all i say!

I love dogs, haven’t got one currently but would like one at some point.
I do agree though, we have just come back from a week away in the uk, popular area in Wales, everyone seemed to have a dog or two, dogs in cafes/pubs, places selling doggy ice cream and making a fortune from it. Dogs out in hot weather being dragged around various ‘dog friendly’ places, dogs on beaches. There does seem to be a lot of them. I think covid lockdowns made people less sociable and more aware that something was missing in their lives, getting a dog helps with loneliness, gets you out of the house and helps to meet new people.

I'm hoping we see a lot less "dog friendly" places in the next few years. Around us there is a sizeable minority of irresponsible owners who are very much spoiling it for everyone else. We have a few owners of XL bullies who refuse to muzzle them and insead claim them to be "staffy crosses" even though they look and are the size of an XL. The owners are not the rough estate/ drug dealer type but instead are the idiotic "they are nanny dogs and I would happily leave my children unsupervised with them" type. We then have a size able minority of owners who are low level ignoring rules and restrictions - dogs in children's play parks, dogs not on leads where signage asks for dogs on leads, dogs with very poor recall approaching and jumping up at strangers, dogs allowed to chase wildlife and tinkly laughed at as "playing", dogs on cafe tables and chairs despite cafe signage asking them not to be, dogs on long leads roaming around cafes sniffing other customers food, dogs peeing on shop stock, poo not picked up.

There is a cafe in town who has decided dog friendly seating is outside only in the summer and they have said it will not return indoors in the winter due to hygiene reasons with dogs on tables and furniture. Another pub (known locally as a food destination) has done the same with dogs only allowed outside all year round. A few of the independent shops have also retracted their "dog friendly" status and returned to assistance dogs only after people bringing huge dogs into narrow shops and dogs fouling on stock. A local landowner has retracted access to the river along his land (shallow and slow and became very popular with dog owners for doggy swimming) due to fouling and owners allowing their dogs to chase his sheep.

We then have a size able minority of owners who are low level ignoring rules and restrictions - dogs in children's play parks, dogs not on leads where signage asks for dogs on leads, dogs with very poor recall approaching and jumping up at strangers, dogs allowed to chase wildlife and tinkly laughed at as "playing", dogs on cafe tables and chairs despite cafe signage asking them not to be, dogs on long leads roaming around cafes sniffing other customers food, dogs peeing on shop stock, poo not picked up.

It’s the same here, and I think if there were fewer of these type of dog owners about then there wouldn’t be so many people moaning about too many dogs!

If I opened a cafe I would make it both dog-free and child-free. Heaven for people tired of all the noise and disturbance caused by both.

If you can also make it free of people on laptops for hours then I’m there!