To be disappointed at my friend

[Sunholidays]

Today I went for a walk with a friend and her dog. I am not a dog person but I am used to her puppy which is very well behaved.

We went to this nature reserve and there were notices everywhere asking people to keep dogs on leads as there were sheep in the fields. There were many notices around, they were impossible to miss, and quite a lot of livestock.

My friend chose to keep her dog loose and only put her on a lead when we were very close to the sheep. It made me very uncomfortable but she claims that the dog never leaves her side. Nothing happened and I saw lots of other dogs -easily 50% of the dogs we saw- not on leads, which surprised me as the notices were everywhere.

I am a little disappointed at my friend and think that we should have complied with the rules. AIBU?

This is Mumsnet, what do you think?

The thing is rules don't actually apply to some people with dogs. This also explains the dog poop I stepped in last week on the school run.

Your friend is an irresponsible fool and is breaking the law.
A farmer has a right to shoot any dog that they believe to be worrying their livestock.
Your friend did not have control of her dog and it could have ran close enough to the sheep to cause them distress.
Your friend sounds like a selfish, thoughtless idiot.

Leash laws (and pick up your dog's poop) are heavily enforced here with big fines and I'm glad. If I see a dog off lead other than the dog park, they've gotten out.

She's irresponsible at best.

did you point out said notices and suggest to your friend to put her pooch on a lead?

My neighbour’s dog got shot and killed for worrying sheep. Your friend is an idiot!

Yes, I did. Several times. she said not to worry, the dog never leaves her side.

Her dog is at serious danger of being shot. I keep my horse at a sheep farm. The grazing areas for sheep and horses are separated by solid stock fencing and netting. At the side of the farm is a PROW. Large signs each end. These signs inform dog owners to keep their dogs on leads under close control, or they run the risk of being shot and killed. One person didn't. It ran the whole flock ragged. The farm owner grabbed her shotgun and jumped on her quad bike, with her groom hanging onto the back. Shot the dog and told the horrified owner to take it off her land and never come back. They did so, at pace. Several of the sheep died: several more aborted their in utero lambs.

Well, like you I'm a rule follower OP, so I would simply have kept mine on a lead. But I have a friend who does whatever the hell she wants with her dog as well. 🙄

If she thinks that her dog would 100% not leave her side to chase livestock, then good for her I guess. I couldn't take the chance.

I see it regularly around here where there are signs for ground nesting birds and livestock. People also ignore the signs in the local park and have their dogs loose. They always claim their dog would never chase anything-until it does and then they are all 'well, he's never done that before!'. Drives me bonkers. My friend has had dogs loose chasing her sheep countless times and has shot one. You always get the answer that the dog has never done that. Always.

Is this really worth thinking about?

To me it is.

I now see my friend in a different light, and that makes me sad. She had a complete disregard for the danger we were posing for the sheep.

I love the lala land idea that these rules are "heavily enforced". You can barely get police involved in an active burglary, nobody is rushing to track down a mysterious person who may or may not have had a dog off a lead in a field 😂

Fucks sake, the world some people live in, in their heads.

Yanbu. But there is no ‘we’ here. ‘She’ broke the rules and is a complete idiot.

I got bitten by a dog who's owner said she would always put it on a lead if she saw someone coming. She didn't see me coming because she wasn't looking. I got bitten. She may well have a well behaved dog but it's just not worth taking the risk. There's always an outside chance that something could happen and you can't get the lead on fast enough.

She’s a twat, no doubt about it. I’d be so ashamed to have been with her. So many people think these signs don’t apply to their dog.

It wasn’t the most sensible choice as it only needs to go wrong once and a sheep and /or lamb dies - or her dog if the farmer shoots it.

That said it was her dog and her choice and it isn’t really your place to judge her so harshly, especially as nothing happened. You can only share your opinion with her and hope she gives it some thought.

I think if you feel that strongly about it OP, then you really should have told your friend how unreasonable she was being, and how shocked you were that she would chose to ignore the countryside rules, when ANY dog who has never run off before, suddenly might do it for the first time.

I'd have pointed out about the XL bullies whose owners always say 'oh, they wouldn't hurt a sole, until they do'! I would also have asked her if she was prepared for her dog to be shot, and to have to reimburse the farmer if her dog did the unthinkable and DID run off, causing lambs to be aborted. Then, depending on her responses, would have either walked away, or said how pleased I was that she realised she was making a mistake.

As you can probably guess, it really boils my piss when people like your friend think that the rules somehow don't apply to them. It's just a shame farmers can't shoot the owners as well as the dogs!

Did the dog leave her side?

Hate people thinking they (and their dogs) are too special for the rules to apply.

The signs are there for good reason. Your loose dog can cause enormous damage to a flock, without even touching them. (Of course, it can do horrendous damage by physically attacking sheep too).

Don't mind your dog being shot? Carry on then.

Your friend was definitely unreasonable. I would have insisted or turned back, and probably would have told everyone else to put their dogs on leads as well!

Farmers are within their legal rights to shoot dogs that are off lead around pregnant livestock.

Those farmers that lose livestock and their next generation of livestock would be devastated, not to mention the loss of the animals themselves.

I don’t think you are unreasonable to be disappointed in your friend. If you live rurally your whole life you tend to have a deeper understanding of the rules and why they are in place. There are many of us dog owners that have trained our dogs around livestock and are confident in their dog but I would still put my dog on a lead around livestock because that is the respectful thing to do.

Her believing in her dog is not the problem, it’s her disregard and disrespect for the farmer who doesn’t know her dog and could have seen it off lead in and amongst their flock! Many sheep farmers have experienced the devastation of losing sheep/ ewes to dogs who have chased and terrified their sheep to death or worse, mauled them to death.