Bare minimum dog ownership

[Luggagerackistopheavy]

I am a dog owner and a dog lover but as the tourists decend on my town at this time of year the appalling dog owners arrive.

Aibu to think this is bare minimum for dog ownership?

1. If your dog doesn't have bomb proof recall keep it on a lead or a long line.
2. Keep your dog on a lead next to roads. It's just idiotic not to even if you feel your dog is bomb proof.
3. Do not allow your little Fluffy to approach an on lead dog without asking. Your dog might be friendly but can you guarantee that the other dog is?
4. If your dog is off lead keep it in your sight at all times.
5. Do not allow little Fluffy to jump up at people. If you can't stop them, get them on a lead.
6. If your dog is playing with others for goodness sake supervise them and put a stop to it instantly if any dog appears uncomfortable or over excitable.
7. Your dog is not well trained just because they can give a paw, do a twirl, roll over etc. Good training is about recall, focus on their owner, behaviour while meeting others and behaviour while playing, stopping when told, not jumping up, not excessive barking etc.

Aibu to think this is bare minimum dog ownership?

Yes, those are good guidelines. Pretty irrelevant if they aren't law though.

I agree with a PP who said that it's more nuanced than people are making out. I think it's a great pity to deny a dog the opportunity to interact naturally with other dogs ALL the time just because it's a bad idea SOME of the time.

I live on the edge of a national park and take my dog there most days. We see a lot of other dogs, both on and off lead. There are lots of reasons for a dog to be on lead - they may be visitors whose dogs are not accustomed to wildlife, they may not feel safe letting a dog off lead in a new, vast open area where it doesn't know its way home, the dog may be reactive, recuperating, new to them or indeed not even theirs so its recall in these circumstances is unknown.

Some but certainly not all of these are reasons for me to put my dog on lead.

It's rare for me to become aware of another dog before my dog notices it. Normally she stops and weighs up the situation from a distance and the other dog does too, if it can. If the other owner then puts their dog on lead or takes evasive action I recall mine and keep her close until they've passed. Otherwise I keep an eye on both dogs. If one is looking stressed or giving calming signals I take mine aside, but if they approach each other respectfully they get to have a brief sniff. If one is too exuberant or wants to sniff for longer than the other I walk away with mine. If I see picnickers I walk past while feeding specially nice treats.

This does require a lot of focus on the dog but I'm lucky in that I find it fascinating to try to decode their behaviour, and my lifestyle allows for our walks to be about just the two of us, rather than being my one opportunity to catch up on phone calls etc.

I am sure if this happened and was able to be enforced, it would not stop the other downsides of tourist behaviour by too many people in the UK. Rudeness to retailers as one example.

We saw in 2020 and 2021 how bad some were when the option of a holiday overseas was not available.

It’s not a question of how well the dog is adjusted to wildlife

its how wildlife isn’t adjusted to dogs

even if the dog won’t approach a nest the bird may well abandon the eggs

You're right, but, that's a reason not to walk offlead in areas with ground nesting birds in the nesting season, not to keep your dog on lead all the time everywhere.

I know it’s ridiculous. I mentioned upthread I’ve only had a few picnics in the last few years but two of them have been interrupted by dogs. The first one was a work picnic /meeting on a hot day, and it was a staffy type dog, came and stuck its head in the large pack of crisps.

The manager thankfully very assertively called over and told the owner some of us were scared and could the dog be removed immediately because he was just standing about watching from about 10 metres away.

The second time thankfully I’d packed up all my food so it just kind of hovered around the picnic blanket but again the owners were very casual and slow in getting their dog away.

I wish there were a few dog free parks.

But you can't control your dog, they are controlling theirs by having them on the lead. If they're aggressive when your dog approaches them, it's because your dog is the problem FFS!

Bare mimimum dog ownership round my way seems to be someone turning up in a van twice a week to walk it. The rest of the time it is apparently left to bark and no doubt crap in the back garden (because it is a special breed that doesn't need walks), with the odd shout of "shut up fluffy" coming out of the house windows.

I don’t even own a dog but common sense tells me if you have one that is off leash and other people are bothered by your unleashed dog coming up to theirs, it means that you/your dog is causing the problem.

If someone recognises their dog needs to be kept on a leash for any reason that is responsible dog ownership. And the dog is under control.

Tbh I’d rather an aggressive dog on leash assuming their owner has firm control on a short lead, than a supposedly non-aggressive dog off leash that is coming up to people /other dogs. It’s the unleashed dog in that situation that is considered out of control under the existing UK dog legislation.

My neighbours “friendly” unleashed dog thought it was playing when it ran full pelt and jumped on me putting its sharp claws on my thighs. Same goes for “friendly” dogs that interrupt picnics, come up and sniff you etc.

This is exactly how I approach interactions too.

@MontyDonsBlueScarfthe problem is twatty owners who don’t know or care about these sorts of things. We’ve been walking many a time at nature reserves or specific areas know for nesting birds/livestock etc where there are signs everywhere saying to keep dogs on leads or not to enter certain areas and people just ignore them. Once in just such a place we saw a guy rock up in a van and just open the door to let his 4 dogs immediately start running around wherever they liked. Not a lead in sight, nor any attempt to control the dogs.

Not to mention the fact that weather conditions and habitat loss can cause birds and other animals to change their schedules to somewhat outside of the norm so not taking the dogs ‘in nesting season’ doesn’t necessarily mean there won’t be any there.

The middle ground here is the dog owners that do have their dogs on leads, and who say ‘are they ok to sniff’ and then the two dogs sniff about a bit s as bd then we all move on with both dogs just wagging their tails or other person says no and we move away/ their dog barks and we get out of there!! Some huge extremes on this thread!

I can control my dog. I do it with my voice. I only have to say "uh uh" to him as he approaches another dog or person and he leaves off. The vast majority of dogs and people he encounters are friendly, so I do not need to do this often. A few times he has approached unfriendly dogs before i have spotted them, which is life I guess. The only time he does not respond is when there are picnics, so therefore I keep him on a lead at those times. I have explained this three times now.

@BennyBee It might just be life, for you! So that's ok then eh?

I find it funny that you stated the following in another post:

You are the worst kind of human being, judgemental and full of hate for other people going about their lives, normally.

You have absolutely no idea what impact your dog running over to that other person and their dog might have, especially as they are just going about their lives, normally for them.

The words kettle and black spring to mind 😡