To think a big dog has no place in the wheelchair/buggy area of a bus

[yessirnosir]

I think I may know I ABU, but I've just been on a bus journey that made me very uncomfortable. When I got on the bus with my nearly 3 year old DD I saw someone get on the bus via back doors with a Phil & Ted and two sleeping small children. As I got on the front I heard her say to someone who was in the wheelchair/buggy area, 'this area is for buggies' I thought she was just asking him to move as she saw me coming, but she looked pretty annoyed, and as I got to her I saw the boy she had been talking to had a large dog. When I say large I mean much bigger than a staffie, but with that bull terrier type head. He was the sort of dog I would have steered my child well clear of normally, and while that sounds really predjudiced, I know my kids aren't always as good with dogs as I'd like, they tend to get overexcited. I always make them ask the owner before they stroke a dog, no matter what breed, and take them away if they start getting overexcited and honestly, I would keep them away from a dog with a huge jaw, with any sort of studded harness/collar, held be a chain attached to someone who doesn't look capable of responsibly looking after a goldfish. In this situation if any of the children had started to want to stroke the doggy they were trapped at eye level with a dog that the owner had to hold back throughout the entire journey. I stood with me between my dd's buggy and the dog, but felt uncomfortable with the situation as obviously did the other mother.

I just wonder if a dog like this really has any place on a crowded bus. A crowded bus is unpredictable, children are unpredictable as can dogs be. I know there is a body of people who will say it's about the owner not the dog, but the owner didn't fill me with confidence, he didn't look old enough to be responsible to look after a dog that strong. I would say it would be hard to say one dog is OK, another not, and also probably not appropriate, after all who decides, and who knows which dogs can be trusted and which not, so is there a place for any dog on a bus (except obviously working dogs)? Or should I have just got off if I wasn't sure my child and that dog were not a good mix?

And please can we stick to this point, not the usual dog lover/dog hater thing.

My KCS, (who as a pup did look like the one linked at the top) wears a stud coller .. I say YABU.

Hang on a sec - all these monkeys on the bus - are they throwing poo? Because if I saw a monkey throwing poo, I'd definitely ask for him to be removed immediately.

How dare you, yessirnosir.. these are performing monkeys, expertly trained.

They only throw poo when I give the signal.

Is the signal someone being anti-social? Must remember to duck next time there's a dog on the bus. Or do you think being hit in the eye with monkey poo because some disapproving cow ducked would provoke the animal?

YABU. And prejudiced. And ridiculous. But I guess that's already been said by now.

Dog on bus - not a problem. In buggy/disabled area - not a problem. Willing to move as soon as buggy/wheelchair comes along - not a problem. Dog which you have no reason to consider aggressive but just looks like a SBT/has a big head like a SBT/is bigger than a SBT/ has a big jaw - YOUR PROBLEM.

yes, yes, yes vallhala.. but what about the monkeys???

And bears... and bees!!!

I thought that only guide dogs were allowed on buses? Perhaps that is just where I come from.

In the Uk, dogs area allowed on public transport.. buses and trains

Don't forget trams Harimo

Nah, don't go near monkeys, Harimo. Terribly hard to get the smell of monkey poo off yourself and they have a penchant for pilfering hats, ice-cream cones and sunglasses from your person.

Bears, Harimo, now bears, them's different. If a bear was good enough for Byron to keep in his rooms at Cambridge, they're good enough for me.

Tethersend's monkeys are expertly trained Valhalla. I doubt the same can be said about bears (though they are allowed on my buses)...