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.

Sounds like you e been snapped doing something nooorty

We had a similar experience when taking our grandchildren to the park for a picnic. The GC are nervous of dogs especially big bouncy ones. So dog and lady owner walked passed, the dog bounced up, we shooed it away owner walked on did nothing. We got picnic out, dog appeared back we shooed to no effect DH called out to owner to keep dog away. She said why should she as we shouldn't have food and her dog had as many rights as our GC.!

We definitely need that laugh emoji back! This really cannot be serious.

It's daft sods like this who give responsible dog owners a bad name 😡

@Jayne35 The problem is that even well-trained dogs can occasionally behave out of character.

Years ago, we encountered a dog on a footpath whom the owners said was v. friendly and enjoyed being stroked. So my DD stroked her and got bitten. The owners apologized and said that she didn’t normally do this. My small dog was once attacked by a German Shepherd- again, it was atypical behavior for her, but perhaps she didn’t like the look of him!

We dog owners can’t predict our pets’ every reaction so personally, I prefer to keep mine on his leash in areas where other people are walking/playing/picnicking, etc. Better safe than sorry.

Please don’t allow your child to become fearful of dogs. Dogs are great pets and your son may enjoy having one as a pet someday.

I'm a dog lover but people have to understand that not everyone is and a Shar pei is a big dog that were bred to protect livestock from predators. They are big strong dogs so it's reasonable for someone to pick their child up and not think about their picnic. I'd share your photos on the local Facebook page and hopefully she'll realise she was out of order to have her dog off the lead when she clearly hasn't trained it properly.

There's something wrong with that poster, they've posted nasty comments several times.

A big Labrador once ran over to where I was sitting down on the grass in a park with friends and their 2 yr old twins. It grabbed my cheese roll and scoffed it before it's owner could get it back under control. I was a bit more annoyed the dog was running about freely when young kids were playing than losing my roll. Later that evening the owner showed up in our garden and gave me a bottle of wine to make amends, which was unexpected but a nice gesture.

Why did you run? Aren’t those dogs small-ish? Did he look dangerous?
I suppose he could have attacked you behind the tree if he was. Sorry this happened to you and your little boy.

Some owners are complete batshit cheeky fuckers.

🤣🤣🤣🤣

Anyone else read this whole thread just to see if the dog lived?

You should pay the vets bill if the poor dog is taken ill because you left dangerous food lying around. Really irresponsible of you OP

@Gardeninrags the owner can pay the bill herself for not being on control of her dog. That’s what she gets for being a bad owner.

What a ridiculous overreaction. Dogs are just scavengers and opportunists. Yes ideally the dog should have been under better control but some times mistakes happen. I also agree the owner could have been more apologetic but really the hysteria about a dog coming over is just ridiculous- if you’d have just sat there and covered the food it would have gone away. It’s very very unlikely that the dog would have been out to attack anyone and if it was its body language would have been a lot more aggressive. Maybe if you’re that terrified, go for a picnic somewhere that doesn’t allow dogs - there are many such parks and playgrounds!

What on earth? I hope you are being sarcastic!

No it wasn't.

So your friend has another out of control, off lead dog then?

The dog should have been on a lead!

Rubbish - most owners have no control over their dogs off the lead, they don’t bother training either.
Owners and their dogs can be a nightmare - suspect you’re one of them.

The dog was supposed to be on a lead!

Oh a good note if the dog ate the chocolate the owner will be paying a hefty vet bill because it will have most likely made the greedy little shit rather unwell

It’s not the dog’s fault! Jeez - why the hate for dogs?! This whole thing is a stupid mountain out of a molehill

Don't be rediculous. The owner is required to keep her dog under control and that includes eating something which may poison it. Had the dog been under control, it wouldn't have eaten the picnic. No blame can be associated with the OP, nothing to do with her, totally the owners fault.

This is fudging the issue and blame-shifting.

Are you suggesting that by staying with the picnic, the OP might have deterred the dog? That’s not my experience of dog behaviour around food. Little deters them.

What does tend to work, is their shitty owners putting them on a lead.

Even if OP could have changed her behaviour to deter the dog, why should she have to do that? They’ll always be someone along to tell her she’s getting it wrong. No-one should have to second guess canine behaviour. It’s up to the owners to keep them under control.