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?

My dogs will sometimes chase bikes. I'm working on this and in the meantime I let them off lead in places where bikes are not allowed. That doesn't stop people from cycling past them at speed and then complaining that they're being chased. I have zero sympathy. If people choose not to follow the rules then they need to accept the consequences.

DDog was off lead once and managed to nab a sandwich from a picnicking family. I was mortified and offered them money but thankfully they thought it was funny.

DDog is no longer allowed off lead if we are anywhere near people eating.

They were very wrong to be having a BBQ but you do sound like an entitled dog owner by saying that it was in a dog walking area. No it is a general area for everyone. It might not be a picnic area but, unless it says otherwise, people are usually allowed to picnic anywhere in a park.

But then if your dog doesn’t have reliable recall then you should keep it on a lead, some dog owners are just as entitled as some cyclists.

I don’t think anybody’s blaming the dog. It is its human owner I blame, which I assume has the same moral compass that you’re suggesting the teenagers have. The owner is totally in the The wrong and totally to blame the human owner and it is a humans that put these ridiculous notions and treat the dogs as humans, which they definitely are not!!

What I’ve realised is if the rule was dogs had to be on leads at all times & they weren’t allowed in cafés restaurants shops and everywhere else they are now allowed to go that we wouldn’t have any of these problems. We wouldn’t have this big argument that we keep on having it would just all go away, wouldn’t that be so much simpler to live like that? That everybody was free to go about without having to worry about dogs everywhere. I don’t understand why dog people want to bring their dogs out everywhere with them. It’s utterly ridiculous that we’ve got all these animals in all these places that they never used to be in inside. If you actually speak to shop owners and café owners and restaurant owners which I do because I always want to know if they’ve got a dog free area, they do not like having the dogs in their places they would choose not to do it but for some reason and I blame social media were being bullied into now having dogs everywhere and it needs to stop!

Are you trying to say the dog was attempting to adjudicate the legality of a barbecue in arid conditions ?

Had it been cool, damp, and lush, would the dog have NOT chosen to thieve the sausages ?

I did. I am not sure why that would make them less annoyed when a dog ate their lunch. Naughty people get angry too.

So if bbqs were legal, it would be ok for your animal to ruin it? You could not be more unreasonable if you tried.

You were 100% in the wrong. Not your poor, badly-trained dog.

Oh do get a grip dear.

My dog is never off lead because he has the recall of a moderately deaf blue whale (ie-none) but you can absolutely get to fuck with the muzzle idea.

Someone who is having a bbq when we’ve had an emergency alert is not going to be a reasonable individual so it’s no surprise they kicked off.
The problem isn’t your dog, he’s a dog that’s gonna go for food (and I know labs love their food), the problem is they were going against government advice.
i though disposable bbqs had been banned from sale currently.

You are a dreadful owner and get a bad name for the good ones too.

There are posts about picnics being ruined here, and often the OP is not believed. Yet here already we have an OP and a poster who are dog owners laughing about their dogs’ picnic-spoiling antics!

I am sorry you and the people you surround yourself are such poor specimens of humanity 😔

So much victim-blaming always by crap and irresponsible dog lovers! They either don’t believe incidents or blame the other person. Poor behaviour.

Obviously their bbq is not ok.

But if I’d been having a picnic with previously cooked hotdogs or whatever, and your dog came running up and ate some of it, I’d be pretty pissed off. I wouldn’t think “oh well, he’s just a dog, poor thing can’t help it”. I’d think “why does this stupid owner not have proper control of her dog!”

Yes. The good dog owners get tarred by the same brush as the many shit ones posting triumphantly on here.

Report the bbq anyway, as the risk of it causing a wildfire is high, which is why portable bbq use has been banned. The council need to monitor the park until there is more rain.

You have a well behaved dog with 99.99% recall. That’s better than most people. Maybe he has taught them a lesson!

So suddenly you were actually in a dog zone and picnics are not allowed there? Are you sure it was a designated dog area and not just a park where dogs are permitted to be off leash? My local park only has one area for everyone, dogs can be off leash, but people have every right to use the park to sun bathe, picnic, play ball games….and I encounter exactly this issue, dog owners think it’s their park and dogs can do how they please. After three dogs charged at my toddler the other day, the owners told me I just shouldn’t be in the park with him. I find the entitlement of such dog owners astonishing.

@thisbloodydog Thank you for this thread! It has made me smile this morning and I really needed it.
Sorry for being amused at your distress—but this is such a lab thing to do! 😂 Food overrides all else.
I get why the people were pissed off. Good on you for doing some more training with your dog as a result, so hopefully it won’t happen again.
They are out of order to be having a bbq when there’s a risk of wildfires, and as you said no bbqs allowed where they were anyway! This got me thinking…Is your dog named Karma?

Dogs are animals which means they can be unpredictable. It makes me think i should have some kind of dog deterant in place should i ever have a picnic in a park. Electric rod? Just joking.... kinda.

So if you ignore this specific BBQ by your logic nobody is safe to eat food in a park then, just in case some dog can't control themselves (or their owner can't)? That's a ludicrous suggestion. I was bitten from behind by a dog while carrying a bag of food. Was that my fault?

Taught them a lesson? Yes they will bring a big stick to hit your dog with. Well done.

Exactly. You can call people "dog haters" as if everyone just loves being attacked when out for a walk or having their lunch.

Not to mention dog behaviour has gotten so much worse in the last decade because their owners do not train them.

They don’t have to give benefit of the doubt at all… people are entitled to be upset that an out of control dog has eaten their food