to think that an "oh dear, sorry about that" is a piss poor apology from a dog owner......

[VeniVidiVickiQV]

Whose sea-drenched dog bounded up to me and jumped up at me on the beach, and then bounded over to 3 yr old DS and jumped all over him and knocked him over?

Both of us were filthy (was a late afternoon stroll - no swimsuits etc) and although the owner asked if DS was okay (he wasnt hurt), when I replied that he wasnt hurt but he was now filthy dirty - he just said "oh, okay" and wandered off....

Sorry; post

Actually,dd drools quite a lot due to her neurological problems,but never in peoples sarnies Nor would she poo on someones lawn/park and spread toxicara!!

Anyway I guess we must agree to disagree.Ho hum.Just please give me a wide berth if you do not have your dogs under control on a lead I'll be the cross looking one with the disabled daughter (Who actually adores dogs) and small son ( who isn't very keen on them either.)I guess I am particularly touchy about dogs today as ds trod in some turd earlier and I have had to clean it up.

Well, I wouldn't mind if she did wrinkly. You are welcome here anytime. [And I promise to put the dog away, while you are here. He has a lot to read at the mo anyway]

a literary dog What is he reading ?

Yeats

don't get me started on dog poo, if it's not bad enough clearing up ds's and pooch's poo, every day (not that ds poos in the street, I hasten to add), I then have to dodge dog sh*t that lazy dog owners have left on the pavement!

I guess threads like this will usually only attract people on the two extremes of The Dog Issue (which is what 100x's literary dog is reading btw).

Do we agree that...
a) owners who don't apologise for their dogs getting in people's personal space and more are rude?
and that
b) some people over-react to normal dog behaviour?

Yip wellies. That's what I said.

You are too sensible, Wellies

oh good

so we can walk away now and...
a) walk the dogs before they explode from lack of exercise
b) observe other people's dogs being normal
c) get annoyed by other people's dogs getting being over-friendly or naughty
d) teach our children to understand what dogs and other animals (and birds) do on our planet
e) teach our children to become scared of dogs and other animals (and birds)
f) ban dogs forever

delete as appropriate

boys tell me that all the time squeaky

Yes, we do agree. I don't really give a flying fuck about people who are concerned about dogs licking their picnic: you're the grown ups, sort it out and stop whinging.

but can we also agree the following:

a child cannot be expected to know or (depending on their age) understand the difference between a well behaved dog coming over for a friendly sniff and wag, and a hetted up paranoid badly trained dog who doesn't want a small, lesser pack animal invading its territory. children who don't live with dogs just don't know what to do: they don't know not to make eye contact or be excitable, they don't know how to judge body language to tell if a dog is being friendly or vicious, they don't know how to judge whether an owner is in control or not.

Dog owners have often so imbued themselves with this knowledge that they assume others know the same stuff. It's not that they're necessarily bad; it is that they are not imagining how things look from the non-dog owning child's perspective.

Some kids just see an animal bigger than them bounding towards them with sharp teeth; and when it jumps at them they have no idea whether it's about to bite their head off or try a dry hump or what.

'he's only a puppy', 'he won't hurt you', 'oh just ignore him'... these things are meaningless.

Next time I go for a walk in the park I'm going to take Dave my pet tiger and let him bound up to a few dog owners to test how much their tiger body language skills are working for them...

My dog will only be interested in Dave's bottom.

I think it's a fair point WS.

But rather than fussing over dog owners couldn't you get your tiger to sort out the duck pond / seagulls/ pigeons?

I have enjoyed this thread v. much.

This thread is very biased. My dog is not keen on strangers. And what really gets me is people coming up and asking if their DC can stroke her, and I say NO - she might nip (never has - but don't want to take the risk) and then they ignore you, stroke her anyway, so the dog starts growling, then they look horrified.

It's very biased MM because the proportion of events such as dogs running up to children in parks is doubtless much higher than the kind of event you describe.

Come on you rotties: I dare you to take on Dave with yer dry humping...

I would say that the incidences of children running up to dogs, and dogs running up to children is pretty close, tbh.

I would say that my dog is approached by children all the time - of course, she is a sweetie - and she never jumps up on strangers (just any members of our family when we have been away from for about 5 minutes).

WilfSell - you'd be surprised, every weekend some foolhardy individual attempts to prove they're Doctor Doolittle's long-lost offspring. I just wanted to stand up for my dog as I felt dogs en masse were getting a short shrift here. I haven't given birth to my first DC yet so will no doubt experience a "dog-rage" incident in the near future.
I happen to be a responsible dog-owner; sadly there are loads of ignorant ones out there.

"I don't really give a flying fuck about people who are concerned about dogs licking their picnic: you're the grown ups, sort it out and stop whinging."

fuck off

people, people, come on
just walk away
is it really worth it?