Dog ate my picnic

[givingitupok]

Had a picnic with my child today in our local park. Random dog (Shar Pei) appeared out of nowhere and ran over to us. I stood up and picked up my child and ran in a panic and stood behind a tree (probably looked like a total fool doing so but there was nowhere else to go without running towards the dog!). No idea where the owner was at this point. Watched the dog eating our food and also drooling all over our lunch box. Owner suddenly appeared from a path that lead into the park screaming at her dog to 'get here now'. Dog totally ignored her and she had to grab it and literally drag it away and put the lead on it. She apologised but when I asked her if she was going to pay for our food she actually had the gall to say 'you should have picked it up when you saw him coming' !!! I have just got home and this literally only happend 45 mins ago so am still fuming. She did not pay for our food and despite initially apologising, was incredibly arsey and walked off in the opposite direction. My child is very upset and the worst bit is, he has SEN and made everything in the lunch box himself (spread the sandwiches, cut up the apples, broke the chocolate into pieces to fit it in the container, etc). This was quite a big thing for him and he's really upset. I am also on a low income and spent a lot on the food. I took a photo of her and it clearly has her face in it. Not sure why but I just felt like I had to do something. I am not going to name and shame, but I'm just so angry.

Not sure what I want from this thread. Just rather pissed off.

We all have an opinion of what breeds to be wary of, yes.

Personally I go by the premise that I never approach a dog I don’t know, regardless of the breed, unless the owner says it is ok. Rather than tarring all owners of a certain type with the same brush.
My personal experience is the one that own the Mastiffs, GSDs, Rotties etc are the ones that are the most sensible as they know their dogs could do serious damage. The people I know who have the smaller, designer type breeds don’t tend to bother.

I do not include an XL Bully in any of this though, I would never trust one of those in any circumstance.

No, very normal in today's world.

The law says that dogs should be under conytol at all times. Report it to the police. Clearly this dog is out of control. Next time he may take a bite out of someone rather than a breadstick. Don't take no for an answer with the police if they try it on, get a log number. If your local authority has a dog warden, speak to them as well. Restorative justice needs to be used more in cases of irresponsible dog owners, they need to experience what others feel dye to their actions or not have a dog.

100%.

XL Bulldog
Staffordshire Bull Terrier
American Staffordshire Bulls A.K.A. Am-Staff
Cane Corso/Mastiff
Shar Pei
Rottweiler

And then we have the ones that pose less physical danger but are often of a bad temperament such as Akita, Alsatian.

The Labrador breed is one of the sweetest breeds you could ever meet, great with children, great with meeting new people and other animals but still, they are dogs and don't understand human boundaries or indeed the danger of running off near busy roads etc so a lead is a must.

Having your dog on a retractable lead is a terrible idea. Far better to be off lead and trained properly.
www.petmd.com/dog/general-health/are-retractable-leashes-bad

Picnics are the one reason I don't take our dog on the common during the day.
I am sorry this happened to you and she shoud have made reparations.

Just listen to yourself “if the police try it on” when the police are stretched to the limits struggling to cope with serious crimes you want to go to an incidence of a dog stealing a picnic. The crime is having a dog dangerously out of control does not cover stealing an unattended sandwich! Christ on a bike.

Sorry we couldn’t attend your domestic violence incident we were too busy tracking down the dog who ate a cream cheese sandwich lying on the floor in the park

How odd.
My mastiffs AND lab have been/are the sweetest dogs, bomb proof, velvet mouthed, soft as muck.
My greyhound is meek but can be slightly temperamental with other dogs.
And I remember the woman I knew as Rotty Lady, lived down the road from me, tiny white haired lady but her rotties (she had one after another, rescues) were INCREDIBLE. Trained to an inch of their lives.

On the other hand, my sister was bitten quite badly- by a lab- lots of blood. And the two times I've been bitten (without any provocation, I may add), it's been two separate fluffy little Westies.

Good luck with your snap breed judgements, and with the small fluffy snappy ones 😄

Other than an XL (which I completely agree with you on) I don’t think it’s necessarily which breeds to be aware of per se, much better to have a quick read up on doggy body language.

Any dog can be reactive and they’re most reactive when they’re scared. Dogs (apart from the XL) who are afraid have a hierarchy of warning signs you need to learn to pay attention to. They can escalate quickly if you don’t heed their first warning. Good thing to teach children too.

For example, a Jack Russell terrier with a bad temper would be more scary to me than a clearly placid Rottie. Granted, you could probably have half a chance to fight off a JRT but I still think it’s worthwhile to spot signs of dog temperament in the first place.

ETA Labs are my favourite but I still wouldn’t 100% trust one if it was displaying signs of aggression. Badly behaved labs can also do a pretty serious amount of damage if they’re heavy and jump up at you.

Extendable/retractable leads are a nightmare because the dog can still run up to other animals/harm to themselves/cause others harm. They are not adequate for keeping the dog under control.

However, they are still better than off-lead. Dogs can become spooked and bolt. Other dogs may not react well to being approached by them and then we also have the situation that the OP has experienced.

Dogs can make great companions and are usually great pets but a lot of responsibility comes with it. These are my general rules for owning a dog:

*Must have a garden where it can play off lead
*Must be on a lead when out in public
*Mustn't be left outside shops barking and annoying people/at risk of being stolen
*Must be muzzled if a dangerous breed (Certain breeds just should not be bred at all such as XL Bully.)
*Must be kept indoors at night and not left out in the cold, barking and whining and annoying the neighbours

Get a life

Also, these breeds (all mastiff types) are quite different in temperament- they were bred for different things/ different reactions

Cane Corso
Neapolitan Mastiff
Bullmastiff
Dogue de Bordeaux
Great Dane
Boerboel
English Mastiff
Tibetan Mastiff
Mastin Español

I would argue that a picnic in the park with your child on a sunny day is indeed an excellent part of having a life. Letting your off lead (in an on lead area) out of control dog scare the picnickers and destroy their picnic is not, however, having a life, it is thoughtless and selfish.

We have lives that we are quite happy with, thank you. We don't want our lives spoiling by your dogs ruining our picnics. Get a lead. Don't be a cheapskate, they cost around £25, £40 maximum.

Is that to OP? Shame when you’re trying to “get a life” doing nice things like having a picnic, and then some dog and its owner come along and ruin it.

Are you one of those dog owners by any chance?

She probably is. They tend to think the whole world revolves around them and their dogs.

@givingitupok

You were completely blameless in this and the Dog owner was at fault, and should not have had their dog off lead without better recall.

Two of my dogs are always on a lead unless in a privately booked secure field. The Doberman will chase deer if he gets the chance and is massively friendly and will run up to people for a cuddle, which I appreciate most people would not like!

The Setter is deaf, so recall harder! She is also friendly and very soft (as well as old and slow), but even so is not small and would possibly scare people.

The sprocker has good recall and is not that fussed about people. However I would still have him on a lead in a busy park!

The only thing the dog owner could have done is to apologise profusely and ask if there was anything they could do to help tidy up the mess/put it right.

I'm so sorry for what happened to you, and please don't think all dog owners are the same!

(We frequently have off lead dogs coming running up to ours - luckily we have not had a problem, and I stand in the way, but I do worry about an off leash entire male running up to the Dobie)

I'm soŕry OP it ruined your DC and your weekend and the cost associated with it, you done nothing wrong in reacting as you did. The dog owner should have had her dog on a lead and is totally bu, hope the dog is ok but she only got herself to blame for that situation.

Oh and I absolutely would put a post on social media saying the “unfortunately an off lead dog ate some of your food today. You were away from the food so can’t be sure exactly what was eaten but some of the food that appeared to be eaten included grapes and chocolate. You just want to make sure the dog is ok and would hate to think of anything bad happening” as surely you would hate to see an animal suffer.

What if the police turn round and say the Op acted unreasonable in allowing the Dog to consume toxic food and not making an effort to contact the owner. Maybe they caused needless suffering to an animal

only with vindictive sad people i believe,

The feckless owner is the one who allowed their out of control dog to steal food. And if you could be bothered to read the OP's updates, she used social media to get a message passed on to the aforementioned feckless owner to tell them to get medical help.

I agree with most of this except the lead on in public part. Responsible dog owners will have gone through training with their dogs, and have excellent recall, our dog would not have got as far as eating someone’s picnic, as would have been recalled and put back on her lead.

You did nothing wrong. You are perfectly entitled to have a picnic without a random dog eating it.
ALL of the blame lies with the dog owner who should have had her dog on a lead if she hadn't trained it to come to her when called. She was also extremely negligent to not ask you what your picnic consisted of, out of concern for her dogs health. She should also of course have replaced the food in your picnic or paid for it.
Any argument to the contrary is nonsense 😆