Strangers who think we all love their dog

[MaisieMouse87]

I'm a bit pissed off and need a rant. Sitting on the park with my kids, we had a large bottle of water nearly full, next to us on the grass. The top was off as one of the kids had just had some. The park is a large field and we were not near anyone else. We were minding our business.
These two women walked past with a dog on a lead. I didn't expect them to get as close as they did. They came literally right up to us. The dog (on the lead) came between me and the kids and licked the rim of the water bottle. One of the women did a tinkly laugh and I said " oh no" in an annoyed tone and told one of my kids that the water would have to go in the bin now. They just walked off grinning and I heard them say something like " imagine being like that over a dog."
I did not say anything but got up and threw it in the bin. If they'd said sorry it would have been alright or if the dog was off the lead I would have been annoyed still. But the way they actively led it over to us and allowed it to do that, then laughed about it. Aibu for being annoyed? It's not even really about the water. It's about having personal space invaded needlessly when I'm minding my own business by people who are nosy and need to see what I'm doing. And partly people with dogs who think it's acceptable because the dog likes people making a fuss of it. By the way I actually like dogs and have 2 but I have never allowed them to do this and actively keep them away from people in public.

I’ve never seen kids regularly run onto someone’s picnic and randomly lick their drinks or steal their food. Never seen them regularly curl one out onto the grass. Never had one walk up to my stuff on a beach and randomly piss on it. Never seen them stand up tall and dig their nails into a stranger’s flesh while randomly shouting at them and licking them. Never seen a child cause a horse to throw its rider. Never seen a child maul a lamb.

All this negative, intrusive behaviour is inherent to dogs, not children.

Pigs are intelligent.

Where I live people completely ignore the no dogs rule on the beach and there are always dogs running about all summer. There are plenty of beaches nearby where dogs are welcome but they don't care. When one inevitably runs up to my picnic and sniffs or slobbers I tell the owners their dog has just eaten chocolate cake or grapes. They haven't. Let the selfish pricks fork out for the vets and get upset about their stupid animal potentially getting ill or dying and it might teach them a bloody lesson. And yes - they do blame me for it/shout at me for letting it happen and I couldn't care less. Put it on a lead and take it somewhere else.

My comment was specifically aimed at the poster who said they saw a dog chasing ducks.

Why should I have put the lid on it? It was off for a few seconds. I wasn't expecting 2 people and a dog to be all over us within a matter of those seconds. If the lid was on and it licked it im not sure if I'd still want to drink it.
And why so nasty to me? I don't think I've said anything horrible or aggravating on this thread and where possible I've given dog owners the benefit of the doubt. And they clearly did lead the dog over, with big stupid grinning faces. They had the whole frigging park to walk on yet they just had to be right there. I can't think of a single occasion I would allow my own dogs to do that.

@MaisieMouse87 you were completely in the right have been completely reasonable. This is the problem. Bad owners and the most extraordinary entitlement that people should alter their behaviour to suit dogs.

Thank you

And mine was specifically aimed at any dog owner who instinctively and fallaciously attempts to draw an equivalence between dogs and children in any form.

A dog peed up the side of my baby sons pram on the beach I was furious tried to stop him and the owners just laughed at me desperately trying to shoo the dog away from the thankfully empty pram. No offer to clean it and to make it worse my son is highly allergic to dogs.

I still get jarred thinking about the time I took my kids crabbing( standing on the beach) a woman had a dog not on a lead and it kept trying to run over where we were and getting tangled in our crabbing line, whilst she left it off the lead and went in the water. She did stop it a few times but she got fed up of getting out of the water to get it. It came over and shook water all over us and she said " don't come near the water if you don't expect to get wet" . We then moved off down the beach away from her lovely but over zealous dog. What happened, 20 or do minutes later it ran all down the beach to where we were and ate all our bacon. I'm more angry at myself that I didn't tell her to control her dog. If I let my kids just run up to people and splash water all over them or eat their stuff whilst I stayed in the water I'm sure she would be annoyed.

A lot of dog owners shouldn't have dogs, children or anything else. The way people are these days, entltled! (Got a dog myself so not a dog hater, just a people hater).

indulge their dogs behaviour and I just can't 😅

A friend got a cavapoo, sweet little dog and everything but when it sees you it jumps up with its muddy paws WHILE she's holding the lead, smiling indulgently, and then gets offended if you try and avoid it like you've been mean to it.

I absolutely hate dogs near me. I hate dogs on stupidly long leads so they can get near me. I hate dogs off lead with a firey passion. I hate the owners of these dogs even more. Why on earth do these stupid people think that strangers minding their own business want their hairy, smelly, drooly, bitey animals near them? It's rude, intrusive and entitled

Well trained dogs on short leads I can put up with. Trained service dogs I think are amazing.

Maybe the proliferation of 'dog hating' threads might make you reflect on why that might be. Could it be that people complaining about dogs and their owners doing something that is anti-social might just have a point?

I find a dog manners tend to match the owners these days. My expectations are quite low.

If some people weren't such irresponsible dick-heads with their dogs, there wouldn't be any threads like this at all.

Of course there would. There’s a section of MN that thinks dog should become extinct.

I’ve noticed a trend developing, where I am at least, that takes irresponsible ownership up a level; it now seems fashionable to walk your dog off lead on the street (middle of London) to show off how cool you are. This specialism used to be reserved for hard men but now the field is open to all.

I think that may require some reflection.

And I'm sick to death of dog haters and prissy people who make this type of comment.

It speaks volumes doesn't it, about just how many poorly trained dogs there are out there now, and how inconsiderate many dog owners are being, that there are so many of these threads appearing.

People do not have to be tolerant of poorly trained dogs. Dogs owners are not entitled to expect everyone to like their dog, or excuse it's behaviour.

If you feel like you are seeing a lot of these threads with people concerned over dogs behaviour, ask yourself why.

I love animals, including well behaved dog (owners!) But there are a lot of entitled dog owners who I do have a problem with. I've been on the receiving end of:

• Dogs on those long leads, allowed to jump up at me while I was jogging (no effort on owner's part to stop this)

• Friends/ family who pitch up at my house with their dogs, even though we have two cats who become distressed.

• A dog not on its lead running into my path whilst cycling, forcing me to stop suddenly to avoid hitting it.

• An escaped dog on the A1 (yes, the A1) which unfortunately ran out in front of me. I hit the poor thing (obviously i stopped to find its owners) and it had to be put to sleep. Very sad, very traumatic - owners were pissed off with me for hitting it and asked for help with vets bills. They had failed to secure their garden properly (hole in fence) and were lucky the dog didn't cause a pile up.

• Woman allowing her dog to jump up (whilst on a lead) at my daughter who is scared of dogs because one bit her when she was younger, saying "oh it's ok, he's very friendly". 🙄

I'm not a dog hater, I'm an entitled dog owners hater. There's a difference!

People are perfectly entitled to dislike dogs, especially when so many dogs behave so poorly.
Why do you take such offence at people disliking dogs? Your dog isn't an extension of you.

No, we think they should be well trained and there should dog free spaces /parks /restaurants to enable those who do not like dogs to avoid them.

Why is that so unreasonable?

Most dog owners are absolutely fine - the vast, vast majority. There are so many dogs in this area and most of them are absolutely no hassle, well trained and kept on a lead.

The rest are absolutely not fine and it's ok to complain about them. The ones that leave their dogs barking in the garden as if other people don't exist - the guy who let his dog off the lead in a busy park which then ran directly towards a group of kids playing on the ground at the playpark area and shat right beside them - the ones who let their dogs shit everywhere and don't pick it up - the ones who do pick it up and leave the bags on the ground or hanging on trees - the ones who let their dogs off the lead in residential areas. They're all worthy of complaining about. If you aren't being a responsible dog owner and are too lazy to train them then you're a dick and that's it really.

Edit: also my daughter's school has put out multiple communications reminding people that dogs aren't allowed on school grounds because people keep bringing their big mutts in - even after reminders that some children aren't used to dogs or don't like them. Multiple dogs have fouled in the school grounds AND right at the school gates. What possesses people?!