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.

There should be dog parks and parks for people and dogs should not allowed in the people parks.

Well, duh. But that wasn't the situation the OP was faced with, was it?

I wouldn’t worry.

Dog owners spend ££££ taking their dog to the vet if they eat grapes or chocolate but the reality is I don’t know a single dog that has actually died from it.

When I was a child dogs ate all sorts of shit and were miraculously fine.

Also, complete solidarity with you for the eaten picnic. It happened to us once and the owner just shouted “Oh yeah, he’ll do that.” As if it couldn’t be helped. Rude rude rude.

Entirely the owner's fault. And she should have recompensed you. Even the most reliable dog can lose it near food, so my ravenous hound is straight on the lead near the picnic and barbecue areas at my local park.

On a lighter note, years ago the TV show "One Man and his Dog" featured agility, herding and obedience trials. An occasional trial was hurdles and tunnels where the dog had to complete the round with a sausage in its mouth, and NOT eat the sausage.

It was always amusing when it was the police dog that lost it and scoffed the sausage.

Lesson: no dog is ever completely reliable so the onus is on the owner.

@Gardeninrags

it definitely won’t be ok

Are you saying some people should not take their children to use parks?
I think people should expect dogs to be under control. I am scared of dogs. I won’t have my life restricted by inconsiderate dog owners.

Exactly, it’s something that is hard to quantify. I’m assuming my dog isn’t sensitive to the toxin but I absolutely still do my best to ensure they don’t eat any more.

All I meant initially is that not all dogs will die if they eat some grapes. But you won’t know if that is the case until it is too late. And it was suggested that there could be an amount that is absolutely fatal but again, it’s not a given.

Edited because someone already said what I mentioned.

🤔you could be on to something there

sarcasm 🤣

I’m nervous of dogs, so I wouldn’t take my daughter to a public park for a picnic.
Kids play area with a few benches sure, but not a park.
You can’t trust dogs and their owners these days and there’s shit tons of the things.
My SIL tells dog owners to move away from her and her child, I can’t be doing with the hassle as dog owners don’t seem to understand why some other people don’t like dogs.

You have done nothing wrong though. Hope you and your son manage to do something else fun this weekend.

(Hope the dog is ok apart from being sick on its owners carpet).

grapes and chocolate are both poisonous to dog. I feel bad for the dog as it's the owners fault for having it off lead. The dog will be very unwell or possibly die

Well the owner is probably gonna have a huge vet bill now 🤞

That dog will be extremely unwell to say the least - poor baby

OP - not your fault, shes an appalling owner. Im sorry this happened to you

As a dog owner myself the more utter stupidity i see in ownership lately the more i genuinely think we need dog licences and mandatory on lead diktats

Nope, see the millions of posts above. You are the one who should keep control of your DOG and have it on the lead where there might be people having picnics. Not the other way round FFS.

Some dog owners never cease to fucking amaze me. And I say this as a multi dog owner!

I think some labs must have some sort of guts of iron thing going on. I had an elderly relative who, when I was a child, had an ex-working lab. Lab was adored but was not, with adult eyes, well looked after in terms of health. He was a right old fatty and not walked anywhere near enough. Gorgeous though, us children loved him.

Lab had a daily cuppa in his bowl (with milk and sugar!). He ate everything that wasn’t locked away (including once almost whole tin of Roses at Christmas plus wrappers with no ill effect except some festively decorative poops!) and when he needed a daily tablet when he got old my relative used to push it into a treat size Milky Way to get him to eat it…..

He lived a long and happy life and to a ripe old age!

**Obviously I am not saying anyone should be feeding their dogs chocolate, or letting them become massive fatties.

@Bobnobob The dog’s owner should ensure that their pet doesn’t do this though.
I regularly walk my dog (who’s a right scavenger :-) through our local park and I keep him on leash, because of course people can have picnics in the park if they wish to. It’s a shared green space!

Hope you and your son are ok. What an irresponsible dog owner and her poor dog may end up paying the price as grapes and chocolate are toxic to dogs. I have 2 dogs, I walk them separately and they are only off lead a few times a week when I hire a field. There’s no way I would risk anything like this happening, it’s dreadful.

Totally agree. I'm a wheelchair user, and was recently on the prom at the beach, when a dog came hurtling towards me, and jumped up on my legs. The owner eventually caught up to it, and apologised, until I told her that it should be on a lead. At that point she suddenly turned really nasty, saying that they didn't have to be on a lead. She presumably can't read, as there are signs saying 'Dogs must be on a lead at all times', every 100m along the prom, and the number of dogs being allowed to crap on the beach, was absolutely beyond belief.

If you can't train and control a dog, you really shouldn't have one, and having just read up a little on Shar-Peis, they really do need good training, and 'can be prone to aggression if not properly socialised and trained, particularly towards strangers and other dogs. Interactions with children should also always be supervised to prevent any potential issues'. The woman who the OP had this interaction with, is clearly not a suitable owner for a dog like this, and probably only bought it because they're cute, without doing any real research into their needs and temperament.

So sorry this happened to you and your child OP.

Snap. We had a Labrador that got away with murder eating things she shouldn’t. She ate seven Easter eggs once, boxes and foil too. Another time she ate a load of corn for the chickens. She did pop up poops for hours. Had plenty of grapes too (my dad used to share his with her. We only discovered they were toxic for dogs when she was seven. We’d had dogs for decades, it just wasn’t known back in the day). She lived to a ripe old age too. Our next lab stole a mouthful of the horse’s feed from their bucket and managed to get the horse’s tablet in there, which was designed for a 650kilo horse. He did a green bubble burp and keeled over. I frantically got on the phone to the vets, and while we were speaking the dog came round, got up, vomited everything back up, and merrily bounced off to get his ball.

(again this is not à bragging post!)

OP I feel so sorry for your son, it sounds like he took pride in making the picnic and to see it disappear into a dog must be awfully galling. All the more if buying the food stretched your budget.

I hope there's a way to distract him. And maybe empasise that the main problem was the owner not the dog. Dogs are just dim around food.

Btw. I'm not scared of dogs, but I'm still nervous around them in the company of small children. You just never know. Ignore the people who say you should have stuck around to protect your food. Honestly...

May the weekend end better for you.

It won’t die from grapes and chocolate , this is just scaremongering

This has actually happened to me several times. It’s shit. Once a dog literally took DD’s lunch (then maybe 3) out of her hands as she was about to eat it. Another time at a festival, waited like 45 bloody minutes for a pizza from the pizza van, sat down with dc on the picnic blanket and dog just came over and took off with the pizza. At no time did the owners even acknowledge it or say sorry or offer to pay to replace the food.

I have a dog, who would btw never be off lead in such a situation anyway. But if my dog ate someone’s food out of their hands, I would be so embarrassed and apologetic and would immediately go get them something to replace it or offer money. I just don’t understand people. As it’s happened to me several times though, I feel like I must be in the minority and a lot of dog owners wouldn’t give a crap.

@Gingercar 🤣 Our dog seems to have guts of steel too. He’s a rescue and lived out of bins for a while, perhaps it toughened him up.

Why not name and shame? I would post over all the local Facebook groups.

She is picnicking in a park with dogs off leads because the dickhead owners have them off the leads. Are you REALLY saying because stupid owners cant read/follow signs, that people shouldn't have picnics????