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

I'd be fine about it, as long as friends accepted full responsibility for thier dog at all times. I like dogs but have no desire to have one or be responsible for one - especially on holiday.

I would also expect my friends to let the accommodation owner know about the dog and sort out any issues without involving me.

"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"

I've lived in lots of parts of the UK and have never experienced this at all. Happy to be proved wrong, but I just don't believe it.

And, sorry, but ROFL at 2rebecca - dogs should be allowed to roam free in forests!!??? And that would solve what, exactly?

It depends on whether or not your comfortable with the dog ( or the owners!). You also need to consider that a dog can limit places you would visit, for example certain beaches, museums, etc. We're dog owners and holiday with our mutts, but appreciate not everyone is a dog person.

If you do decide to go, obvious rule: no matter how placid a dog, never leave a little one unsupervised. Better safe than sure.

I'd hate it to be honest. I'm not a dog person: I avoid spending time with dogs and never feel comfortable around them. I wouldn't relax at all on holiday if there were dogs, no matter how good the friend.

I just don't trust people who don't like dogs. Weirdos.

I once stayed in a friend's mum's cottage on a Scottish Isle in October and (in amongst the 65 page holiday manual covering a 2 bedroom cottage - her mum was nuts) there was a note saying could any dogs sleep in the car overnight. Sleep in the car overnight??? On a remote Scottish Island in October? It's about -10 degrees out there?!

OP - I'd love you to bring your dog. In fact, let's go on holiday and we'll bring ours and they can roam the woodlands together. Oooo - where are we going? .

I have nothing against dogs-but I often have things against the irresponsible owner and what they do to the dog-much as I like children but often dislike how the parents let them behave. Unfortunately you have no control over other people's dogs.

"I've lived in lots of parts of the UK and have never experienced this at all. Happy to be proved wrong, but I just don't believe it."

I don't live in the UK! But I imagine there are plenty of irresponsible dog owners there too....

Bit late to this thread, but will throw in my tuppence, anyway:

I would be delighted if someone brought a dog that was well-socialised to children. Owning our own dog is way too much work for me to contemplate, but I want DC to be comfortable with dogs and to learn their social cues. They can only achieve that thru firsthand experience.

Plus, I have boys and I have the innate prejudice (I'm not going to defend it, I just have it) that boys and dogs go together extremely well. It would be like my sons missing out on a fundamental experience of childhood if they didn't get to play with dogs sometimes.

i'm abit at people expressing the same level of hatred to dogs that we normally find doled out at MILs and EX-husbands.

methinks this is driven by an irrational fear. They are, when it comes down to it, helpless creatures.

Why assume irrational fear? This is my point, you can't grasp that lots of people just don't like dogs. End or. Not afraid of dogs, whether irrational or otherwise, not hating dogs, not secretly hoping for the mass extermination of dogs, just don't like dogs.

I don't like dogs. As I type, I am listening to the loud and constant barking from next doors dog. Its been barking for 2 hours with no more than 5 seconds in between barks. Presumably its so precious and fab the owners enjoy the racket. Me, not so much.

'They are, when it comes down to it, helpless creatures.'

Some of whom have been known to maul other dogs, animals and people to death.

"Some of whom have been known to maul other dogs, animals and people to death. " - As have people!

Quite a few people are far more efficiently hurtful and murderous than dogs imvho and the dogs that are like this have generally been made that way by people.

a dog is not responsible - the owner is responsible, and has the power of life and death over it.

@nooka - buying any dog can encourage overbreeding, in fact pedigree dogs are loosely bound not to be overbred by the Kennel Club (not very effective, but better than nothing) - recently the cross breeds have been stonkingly over-bred. Re-homing a rescue is the best option for discouraging unecessary breeding.