To think people need to realise dogs are animals and act as such?

[thisbloodydog]

I had an altercation with my dog yesterday and I’ve gone from mortified to annoyed!

My dog is 8 and is a Labrador. Until yesterday he’s genuinely had 100% recall and never given me any reason to doubt him. He comes back from anywhere with one shout of his name and if he didn’t then he wouldn’t be off lead.

Whilst walking in a local park (where off lead is permitted) he suddenly ran off. I can’t explain how out of character this is for him. I shouted him and it was like he’d gone deaf.

I ran after him as he’d gone over a hill. When I caught up to him I saw a family group having a bbq (illegally). They were about to hit him and were furious.

It turns out he’d sniffed their food, gone off on one and had basically ransacked their bbq.

Of course I was absolutely mortified and apologised profusely. I explained it was completely unlike him and that I would of course not let him off the lead again unless I was 100% sure his recall was in place.

They responded by shouting and swearing at me and saying that they were going to report my dog as dangerous. When I asked why he was dangerous (ie if he had growled at the food etc) they said the fact he took the food off the bbq was dangerous.

Whilst I was trying to apologise they said I owed them £40 for the bbq food he ate and kept insulting my dog and threatening to report him. At this point I said enough was enough and that they shouldn’t have had the bbq in the park anyway (it’s not allowed usually and it’s especially not allowed with the dry grass). I basically said if they wanted to report my dog then I’d be happy to report them back.

At this point they lost it even further and I walked off as there were children present and it felt completely inappropriate to descend into a shouting match.

I am a big believer in dogs having 100% recall if they are off lead and as I said until today he has. We will absolutely go back to basics with training and not running off for food etc.

BUT at the same time he is a dog and not a robot and I cannot possibly predict his behaviour in a completely unknown random situation. He should not encounter a bbq in this place and it was a complete surprise to us both. For once he followed his instincts and went for the food and ignored me. Again, he wasn’t dangerous and didn’t snatch food from a person or growl at anyone etc, but he did take food off the bbq.

I feel like the people needed to consider that he is a dog and he did something bad, but they were also in the wrong for having this bbq when it strictly isn’t allowed!

aibu?

YANBU but there’s a lot of dog haters on MN so I’m not sure how this will go. As you say, they shouldn’t have been having the bbq, so more fool them in my opinion.

A bbq? What with one of those ridiculous disposable things? They were being unreasonable the minute they bought one! They seriously claimed to be cooking £40 worth of food on one of those? And why in a park - and particularly after the very loud public warning we all got!

Anyway yes dogs are dogs and sometimes do dog stuff such is life. I would have laughed and given him another sausage. People are very precious these days though, they don’t cope well with anything much.

I’m sorry as it’s not helpful at all but this made me laugh picturing you chasing the dog up a hill. Labradors are unbelievably greedy creatures! One of my dogs is a lab cross. We were sitting at the top of Snowdon and got chatting to a nice lady sat next to us. She unwrapped a sandwich and before either of us could stop her my (usually very well trained) dog snatched it from her hand. I was mortified - thankfully she saw the funny side.

I can see why the family were annoyed and I think you probably should have offered to cover the cost of their food if he’d ruined it all. I am a dog lover but I’d be mightily unimpressed if a strange dog was running around stealing my food. If you’d offered to pay me, I’d have appreciated it, declined, and had a laugh with you.

Honestly he’s cheeky but never this bad, and it was probably hilarious to watch me chase after him 🤣

I did see the packets of food and it was one pack of sausage and one of burgers. I’m not sure if he ate them all! But I would’ve happily paid to replace them without the kick off (and more to the point it wasn’t £40 worth of food!) it was only one of the tiny disposable things so I don’t think you’d fit £40 worth on

Honestly it’s the fact they did it after the bloody stupid emergency thing that’s made me more annoyed today!

My dog is an animal, one with the potential to be dangerous, and so she’s never off lead in public.

I accept there’s an element of privilege in that (in that she never “needs” to be off lead) - but I think your comment works both ways. You have an animal, and the law is you must keep it under control. You didn’t, therefore you’re the one on the wrong and they’re right to be annoyed at being accosted by a strange animal - regardless of how unreasonable the barbecue is!

Your dog was obviously in the wrong by not returning to you (I have labs, they’re lead by their stomachs!), but they’re not robots and you apologised. What else could you have done?

Wait for the dog haters though that will tell you should never have your dog off lead, and what if it was a child that he’d tried to eat?

It’s totally understandable they were angry, it’s one thing not having recall and following a smell, but to actually be poorly enough behaved to ignore the shouting people and ransack their BBQ that fast suggests he is actually quite poorly trained. And I appreciate he may not be badly trained, but stealing food like that isn’t the sign of a well trained dog making a mistake is it? Yet you talk like you are more in the right because BBQs aren’t allowed there and ‘he’s a dog’, it’s not their problem that he’s a dog, it’s yours. Not offering to pay for the food he stole was poor on your part, but they did over react and were also wrong for being there. I love dogs but the added behaviour of how brazen he was with these strangers doesn’t match the initial story you pained of your dogs behaviour.

well she could have offered some money for the food he ate and ruined of course

I've lost count of how many "100% recall" dogs jump up on me while I'm on my daily walk in my local park. While I am not scared of dogs it is still not acceptable. You've admitted yourself you were in the wrong as he's clearly not 100% responsive. I would doubt anyone can guarantee that their dog is.

Give "he is a dog and not a robot and you cannot possibly predict his behaviour" I suggest you keep him on a lead and stop suggesting others (however they were behaving) have to make allowances for him.

Dogs can be absolute dickheads can’t they, even dog who are perfect 99.9% of the time. They can humble you really quickly 🤣

When mine was a puppy he ransacked someone’s picnic. I was absolutely horrified but thankfully they saw the funny side. I’m very careful to not let off near food now!

We were sitting at the top of Snowdon and got chatting to a nice lady sat next to us. She unwrapped a sandwich and before either of us could stop her my (usually very well trained) dog snatched it from her hand.

I had my KitKat stolen by a bloody sheep on Scafell.

Well regardless of the BBQ ( it would have been the same if they were eating a picnic), your dog should not be off lead in a park where there are other people. I'd be terrified if a strange dog came charging up to me while I was having a picnic in a park.

It is genuinely something he has never ever done before! We have bbqs at home and he doesn’t even go near, he doesn’t usually beg or anything. I appreciate it’s my word but I was so shocked as it’s so completely out of character for him.

I’ve gone right back to basics with food and recall training to make sure it doesn’t happen again, but like a few people have said, he isn’t a robot so I can’t mind control him. I will obviously be really careful going forward, but it was the fact it shouldn’t have happened and therefore was so unexpected I think.

Also to add, the angry people said they had their back to the bbq so only noticed when he’d already grabbed something and then told him off and he was then not at the bbq as this was when I caught up!

I would’ve offered to pay if they hadn’t been so shouty and sweary wifh me and if they hadn’t kept saying my dog was awful and dangerous!

My dog has perfect recall...
...unless something distracts her in which case all bets are off.
Sorry OP, your dog bothered other people and that's not ok.

Wouldn't have bothered me but that's not the point.

I mean…

I can see both sides.

if I was having a picnic or a bbq and a dog came up and ate most of the food I’d be pretty pissed off.

it’s not really ok.

it’s not actually currently illegal to have a bbq, although ideally people shouldn’t

if you are in London the parks are mostly dry mud by this point, there’s no grass dry or otherwise to burn

Idiots illegally BBQing, in this weather VS Social Activist Labrador, even if he is off lead?
I’m with the dog on this one.

part of the point though is that it’s not allowed. It’s a dog walking area where they’re allowed off lead so there are signs saying no bbqs and to have picnics in a specific area (where there are tables and dogs should be on leads)

also to add he walks past picnics all the time and has genuinely never gone for one. In fact he once had a toddler waving a cocktail sausage in his face to try and feed him and he just kept looking at me unsure

Small children are too bony and stringy too eat - at least for any self respecting dog.

I was sat on a bench one day in my lunch break eating my sandwich, when a Labrador came along and tried to sniff and eat the sandwich out of my hand and wouldn’t go away.

Owner was shouting at the dog, who took no notice whatsoever. I was not happy and calmly told the owner to put her dog on a lead if they had such poor recall.

Clearly judging by your post the blame is half mine for having the audacity to sit on a bench and eat my lunch and not realising that he was a dog and not a robot!

But surely you can see their perspective that the dog was unruly and badly behaved? I believe your dog is well trained, but they couldn’t have known that and were upset, and you backed it up by refusing to pay… you didn’t have control of your dog and he ruined someone else’s food and you blamed them and refused to pay for it. There’s no reason why they could have to consider ‘he’s a dog’ or ‘labs love food’. I just think you could see it from their side to be honest as you don’t look any better than them

If I’d gone over and they’d calmly said he was a dick then I’d have agreed and apologised and replaced the food. The issue was that they were in the wrong in the first place for having food in this area (but even if we ignore that) and for screaming and shouting instead of calmly and politely discussing it.

I was very clearly mortified and apologetic from the get go, it’s not like I tried to pretend he’d done nothing wrong!

I do get your point and to be honest I would have replaced the food if they weren’t shouting so much and being so rude. I was genuinely really embarrassed and was actually already nearly in tears when I caught up as I was so shocked and worried, for them to then team up swearing at me in front of very small children! I was very overwhelmed and I appreciate that my dog was 100% in the wrong I don’t disagree but I felt that they handled it very aggressively and also didn’t see my side (that they shouldn’t have a bbq at all and that they shouldn’t have picnics in that area so this situation should literally have not been possible)

I used to have a spaniel who only ever thought of his stomach in a similar way to a Labrador. Our local park has communal bbqs and a completely fenced off picnic area where dogs aren’t allowed. There is a separate dog walking field further along where dogs are permitted off lead. They are all clearly marked.

I was in the dog walking area throwing the ball for DDog when he suddenly disappeared. I heard a load of yelling and walked round the corner to find him in the middle of some family’s picnic which they had set up in the long grass in centre of the dog field.

Obviously I apologised but they were incredibly aggressive towards me, screaming in my face and trying to kick my dog. Fortunately another dog walker came along and told them to calm down, they were in the wrong area of the park so it was their own fault.

I offered to pay for a meal at the onsite cafe to make up for it and was told to fuck off and take my cunting dog with me!

If you knew there were BBQs about and ground level sausages you probably wouldnt have had him off lead.

YANBU

Annoying as it was for them, they have to give benefit of the doubt. A dog's recall rate is 100% until the day it is 99.9% and if they are total strangers they just cannot know. To proclaim otherwise is just odd.