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?

The trend in Lockdown for Romanian Rescues was off the scale.

However they have all but disappeared now.

Our vets said most are not suited for life as a pet- they are escape artists , can be human and dog aggressive-

A new owner was bitten badly by one she’d taken in from Turkey -A large herding type. Kangal(?)

Cats in Turkey are everywhere- really sweet who suss out an English tourist at 100 paces.

Neutering is the only way- not exporting to other Countries-

Where have all the Lockdown “Roamies” as their new owners called them GONE?

Probably euthanised here..

I only know on one now( that one is dog aggressive and iffy with people) .

Don't people realise breeding mongrels in Eastern Europe to sell to the gullible was more lucrative than drug smuggling at one time.

I do if it's my grass.

I saw a Reddit thread yesterday, where someone was asking other dog owners for advice on cleaning up loose motions.

Most people told the poster just to leave it "because the rain will wash it away"...

Explains a lot.

I bloody hate when the neighbours' cats shit in my garden.

It’s quite easy to feel dislike when every dog is your DS allergen walking around, sometimes uncontrolled, and every building with them in means he can’t go inside.

I grew up with dogs, loved my dogs back then and I certainly don’t hate them now. But lately we encounter them more places and come across more that aren’t well trained. There’s places we don’t go anymore and have had to leave due to dogs. The recent kicker was a school trip, the whole year group went but not DS because of dogs. So it’s quite easy to feel dislike when other peoples choice of pet restricts the things we can do. Indifference, oh that would be nice, haven’t felt that in years but I can’t. I have to notice every dog, where it is and does it look likely to head towards us. Or every building/train/bus, I have to look for dogs even if there are none at the time it’s no guarantee we won’t have to leave. I feel like I’m a walking risk assessment! But anything less feels careless.

Of course I know, but the number of dogs far, far outweighs the number of foxes and outdoor cats. I don't discriminate, I hate when my children step into any sort of poo. More often than not, it's dog poo, how many foxes and cats shit on a sidewalk or in the most busy part of a park? The sheer number of people is the reason it's not acceptable for humans to pee in parks. It's ok in the wild, when there are few humans around, but it tips into unacceptable very quickly for popular attractions. I swear I loved dogs, until I had children. Seeing one and interacting with one would have literally brightened my day.
However, things change, I've spent way too much time cleaning dog shit from my children's shoes and pram wheels. Just yesterday, I had to do this. The day before, my dad took our little one for a walk in a pram and a dog stole food from the pram basket! This has never happened with a fox, and we have quite a few foxes in our area.

Wow. We park our pram in our hallway. I'm not bringing any sort of shit into our hallway. I took the wheel off and had to use a plastic knife to remove the shit from the nooks and crannies.

it’s quite easy to feel dislike when other peoples choice of pet restricts the things we can do

Exactly. My not having a dog doesn't have a detrimental impact on anyone else. It's irrelevant to a dog owner if I have one or not.

But dog owners should make sure their animals don't have a detrimental effect on others.

I also hate one of my neighbour's cats pooing in my garden/on the path and not burying it. But it's not the cat's fault, it's the breeder who let the cat go earlier than it should have done so its mum didn't show it what to do! Cats don't generally cause problems though, they are not taken everywhere like dogs are.

It's so annoying.

When my late husband was alive, he had mobility problems and macular degeneration latterly. The result was that I constantly had to watch for dog muck as we went in and out our gate because he could see well enough to get around, but couldn't spot mess. (We get quite a lot of it because of dog walkers heading up to the football park.)

To add to the worry, DH had feet problems which meant that he often wore certain sandals (on medical advice). He was diabetic, so you can imagine the worry over getting faecal contamination via badly trained dogs.

ETA I didn't post a link to the Reddit thread because I thought that it might not be allowed. It can be found by searching on Reddit for (yeuch) "sloppy poop".

Good on you and yet another example. We need a complete change in direction in this country with far more severe sanctions for owners and in particular for not being on control of a dog in a public place.

Animal abuse is definitely something to celebrate 👍 good work!

Yeah I bet you did 🙄

It doesn’t bear thinking about for diabetics like your late husband, who have feet problems. It’s another example people won’t think about. I wouldn’t have until I was diagnosed with diabetes myself.

As for the “what to do with sloppy poop” situation, the response on Reddit is so bad. What the owner should do is what my responsible dog owning friend did when her dog had stomach issues and did that on a pavement. It was also near a bus stop too. My friend went into a nearby shop, explained what happened and asked for some water. Shop keeper gave her some water and some cleaning spray. Friend dealt with it as best she could before some poor sod stepped in it/wheeled in it.

I don't have any pets, but at least cats aren't shitting on the pavement. And many cats try to go in soil or in a corner of a garden.

I'll just leave it here for the "dOG hAteRs, yoU juST haTe dogs!!" crowd:
Three children treated in hospital every day for serious injuries caused by dogs. THAT'S ONE THOUSAND A YEAR!

https://hellorayo.co.uk/hits-radio/uk/news/dog-attacks-on-children/

I actually googled this statistics last year, because I wanted to show my husband, who was refusing to have a picnic in a park because he was scared for our children's safety, that dogs are actually not that dangerous and they are very unlikely to actually hurt our children. I believe in statistics, for example, I'm not afraid of my children being abducted by a stranger if I don't watch them all the time, as it happens extremely rarely.

Well, as a mum of a preschooler and toddler, I'm now fully on the other side now. The unruly dogs we've encountered all weighted more than my older one, and their teeth are at the level children's heads. One misplaced bite and they could be killed. So forgive me if I don't jump at joy when your friendly dog who's never hurt anyone comes over.

It's all the owners.

I knew a blind person who was able to steer their dog to the gutter to do it's business, and pick up the solids afterwards. The dog would quietly guide into shops and coffee shops and tuck itself under the table.

If a blind person can pick up their dogshit, then able-bodied people have zero excuse other than being scumbags.

Clearly we all gave different experiences but this expectation for everywhere to be dog friendly is insane. A new clothes shop was opening up in our town - within 5 mins of the social media post we get 'is it dog friendly?'. Clothes shops generally aren't dog friendly places and don't need to be, other than service dogs.

Ooh, bet you felt well 'ard!

A lot of dog rescues wont let you adopt if you are going to leave it home alone for hours at a time. I also don't see the point in having a dog if you are just going to leave it at home. To you, a dog is part of your life... for your dog, you are their whole life.
Plus, dog friendly holidays are a thing. I take my dog on holiday, and go into dog-friendly shops and cafes. You are not allowed to leave them alone in holiday accommodation. My dog does not pee up displays (she is house trained so does no pee indoors), and in cafes she settles under the table and has a snooze. You would not even know she is there.
If someone who hates dogs so vehemently hates she exists in the same space as her, then I feel sorry for them, but it is also not my problem.

It wasn’t Wellhard the Eastenders dog, it was a different dog. I felt quite baffled that literally nobody else was willing to take any action at all.

I’d do it again. The White Horse in Overstrand better look out for my return, the dog marcher.

Well they live about 8 to 12 years depending on breed. So provided dog ownership rates fall to pre 'trend' levels, I'd say 2032 should see us out of the woods.

Same! She's not a hyperactive idiot either! As she's been trained and socialised ❤️

Guide dogs will have also been trained since they were puppies to do their business in a way that their owner can pick up after.
You can't really compare them to your average family dog.