if you were going on a self-catering holiday in the UK with friends how would you feel if someone wanted to bring their dog?

[hatwoman]

not an AIBU as such - I'd just like a genuine sounding of opinion

how could you dislike an animal who purrs?

I don't actually dislike cats, I just prefer dogs.

My ex housemate had two cats who used to bring us presents, dead frogs, birds and mice. Horribly mauled usually, always nice to find one of those with bare feet I can tell you.

I think that going on holiday with a family and a dog is very similar to go on holiday with a family and children-it needs very careful thought.
I have had very successful holidays with other families, but I have several good friends that I wouldn't go on holiday with. Other people's children can be very annoying if the parent isn't going to control them and make them fit in with the majority.
It is the same with dog owners-I would want to know that the dog was going to fit in and be under control.
It isn't a question of liking dogs or not-it all comes down to the individual dog and owner.

see, i don't hate dogs, i just prefer cats.

housecats are like living with a little Jekyll and Hyde. one minutes they're in your lap purring lovingly. the next minute they're out breaking the neck of a small creature.

Cat have this look: 'what have you done for me lately...' whereas dogs are overly enthusiastic and are just soooo glad to see you!!!

We always bring the dogs with us, but are fortunate to stay with friends in Cornwall....

hopeforthebestexpectthe worst

I'm afraid I'm growing increasingly anti-dog!. I think far more dogs are owned than is necessary. When there is all this talk of the world being overpopulated and scarce resources do families living in cities and towns really need to have so many pets. Dogs are a particular menace as a significant number of dog owners allow their dogs to soil public footpaths, wee up against lamposts etc. There is dog poo in every alley in my town which makes things very difficult for people with young children and pushchairs. There are also certain dogs that can be aggressive towards young children.

Even at national trust properties my children have managed to accidentally walk on dog poo and it has been horrid cleaning it up. On holiday we breathed a sigh of relief when we found the odd dog free beach.

If people live in rural areas where there is plenty of space for their dog to let off steam or are farmers and need dogs for their work, people with guide dogs etc..all these are fine.. I just feel the country is becoming overun with dogs and dog poo!

I know it is worse abroad and have been on many a french train with people having handbag type dogs on their laps! yuk!

I like the way other countries are more welcoming and accepting of young children though.

expat, "she goes outside to do her thing, sunfleurs, and buries it as well" - really?

IME cats do a random scratch at the dirt near the poo, which sometimes merely sprays the poo around & sometimes just disguises it enough so that someone coming along later to do a spot of gardening sticks their hands right in it

Maybe your cat actually craps in someone else's garden (they usually do!)

At least dog poo is usually plainly visible, although I agree with those who object to it being left on pavements for shoes & buggy wheels to squelch through

No, she doesn't leave this garden. It's an acre. I've seen her go to the front gates and that's it. Most cats don't go out the shore road because just across is a sea loch and they're not fond of that.

The garden is stone-walled. And it backs onto a forest and she doesn't like that.

She's a very clean, dainty lady.

I've only had one cat cleaner. 'Midnight' was a lovely black neutered male. His original owner was a gay man who developed AIDS and become allergic to him.

I've never seen a cat as well-groomed as Mid.

My ex h was so in love with him when we split, I didn't have the heart to ask for Mid.

The ex kept him and got him a pet passport when he moved to Germany.

Mid is now 19. But still spoilt as all can be!

I don't hate dogs I just have no desire to share a house with them. all this talk of people loving their dog because they are devoted to them seems very selfish. Dogs are pack animals, ideally we wouldn't have damaged them so much by selectively breeding them and they'd still be wild wolf like animals roaming through forests. I'm not into the whole pet concept. Animals shouldn't be fluffy things for us to coo over and keep in cages and houses, they should be out in the wild with other animals and we should stop destroying their habitats and mucking up their genes with all the pure breed nonsense.

if it was me if a friend didnt like me taking my dog on holiday i'd tell her to go on her own.
love me, love my dog.

Havent read all the answers as too many - but everyone whos answered seems to be anti dog! Personally, I have dogs and love them to bits - they are part of the family. And no, I wouldn't put them in kennels. They come with us or if we go abroad they go to friends. Would say it would probably depend on your friends and how well you know them perhaps??? Do they think of the dog as a member of your family or "just a dog"? Also, find out what the layout of the place is, ie, is there anywhere the dog can be put seperate while you eat or the dog dries out if wet etc.

Given that domestication of dogs dates back 14,000 years (or possibly another 10,000 before that, the archeologists haven't quite decided) it can hardly be said that modern dogs should be running around wild. Wolves (considered to be the source of dog ancestry) yes, dogs no. The domestication of animals was a key factor in the development of human civilisation, I don't know that speculating on the benefits of leaving animals to be wild is possible unless you wish to disregard the last 10,000 years or so of human development.

I do agree on over breeding though, but that is fairly easy to avoid if you don't pick a pedigree dog.

I have a mental picture of the UK being overrun with feral animals! There would be all the dogs running around the countryside in packs because they shouldn't be kept as pets. This would be added to all the farm animals that vegetarians think should be kept to die of a happy old age! Since a farmer couldn't afford to pay vets bill for an animal that hasn't got a commercial value he would have to turn them loose as well. It would cut out the middle man if they all got back to nature and dogs could kill their own sheep!! Unfortunately the feral dogs and pigs would invade the towns (like foxes)- for easy pickings-they wouldn't stay in the forest.
The whole thing is silly-man has a close relationship with dogs and always will do. I think it excellent for a DC to grow up with pets.
All this post boils down to is consideration for others, you can't just suddenly suggest adding a dog to a holiday party in the same way that you can't suddenly take a baby, your 80 yr old mother or your 10 yr old nephew without asking-and giving people the option of saying they don't want it.

Looking in again ther are too many posts to catch up with.
Has the OP asked her friends?
What did they say?

Hatwomen ,what about home boarding ?alot of people offer this service now ,including my friend ,although its a bit more expensive ,she charges £15 per day ,the dog gets to live in a home and gets 2 good off lead walks a day ,ask around dogwalkers in your area alot of them offer this service too.
As for a dog on holiday ,id like to asked ,but unless it was vicious i cant honestly say i would be bothered

I think it would be quite fun to have a dog along so long as it was a nice, gentle dog.

Very Famous Five!

I would feel very uncomfortable going on holiday sans dog!

In Switzerland and Germany a dog owner would no more let a dog poo on the pavement and leave it than they would cross the road against the lights, or turn up at your house without calling first!

What many responsible dog owners fail to see is that they often seem like the minority in the UK and Ireland. Where I live, most people seem to let their dogs shit wherever they like and leave it there for the rest of us to walk in. They let their dogs roam the streets with no leads, sometimes with no tags. They let large dogs bound around and jump on small children. They keep them in tiny unsuitable yards and don't exercise them enough so they bark all day and piss off their neighbours. They let them jump up on visitors at the door, and on and on....

Of course when you say that to a dog lover its always, Oh no, not my dog, my dog is lovely and well behaved. Well fine, but surely you can see that many are not? I don't hate dogs, or dog owners. I do though object severely to people who neither train nor control their dogs properly, and then say how they hate people who are anti-dog....

pooexplosions - I totally agree with you about all those things being completely unacceptable ways of treating a dog and your fellow citizens. as, I'm sure, do all responsible dog owners.

what I guess is more subjective - and very hard to measure - is the overall balance of responsible to irresponsible dog owners. and whether it's the responsible ones or the irresponsible ones that are in the minority. you possibly don;t notice the responsible ones, precisely because they are responsible. One thing I've said before on this issue - is the thing about amount of dog poo. one dog/irresponsible owner will create an awful lot of poo. walking the same route twice a day, doing 2 poos - that's fourteen poos a week on your street. I've never measured how long a poo lasts for but probably a good few weeks. seriously if the majority of dog owners didn;t clear up poo your street would be ankle deep in the stuff. It only takes one or two to create a serious problem - and to some extent a misconception that "no-one" or "hardly anyone" clears up.

having said that I will agree that "many" dogs/owners are badly behaved. But I'm not convinced "most" are. but any amount of badly behaved dogs/owners is too many. not least because it lumbers the rest of us with the ire of everyone - even when people say "ok you're an ok dog owner and your dog is ok" we still seem to get accused of stuff - such as not understanding that some people don't like dogs and denying the existence of bad owners/dogs.

Know I'm late to this but in answer to the original question, I wouldn't "feel" anything if someone wanted to bring their dog, so long as they didn't automatically assume that everyone else would instantly agree (and were therefore prepared to instigate Plan B if there were any objections).

Personally, I wouldn't mind if the dog was clean and well controlled. In fact, given how holidays with others can sometimes go dreadfully wrong I'd be quite pleased of the potential diversion and would offer to walk the dog (i.e. escape) when it all got too tense / boring / argumentative.

the presumption that all poo is dog is wrong. you also see fox and cat poo (indistinguishable fom small dog leavings unless sent to a lab)

can't agree with hatwoman more -the park we walk in is usually vey clean, despite hundreds of dogs being walked there every day. shame people put broken glass all over the playground!

owning a dog in the uk is great - the comments below really aren't typical (though i live in an area that is ideal for dog ownership, and therefore meet few people who aren't doggy)