Was I awful to keep on walking?

[doggodramas]

Bit of background. I have a very lovely, placid spaniel. As lots of spaniels are she's totally ball obsessed and not bothered with other dogs. She's not aggressive, just totally ignores them.
I walk her on a nature reserve where dogs are allowed to be off lead. At the start of the nature reserve is a natural kids play area and the nature reserve consists of 5 adjoining fields.
Every day I walk my dog there is a lady and her toddler son on the play equipment. They have a greyhound puppy and let it run around the fields while they're on the play area.
This dog always sprints over and pesters my dog. Jumps on her, pins her down, nips at her collar etc.
Usually the woman spends about 15 minutes trying to call her dog back while I just stand there, as if I walk on then her dog follows.
Eventually she catches her dog.
Today I was so fed up and in a rush that I just kept on walking and walking (only had 30 minutes before work and didn't want to spend 15 mins waiting for her to catch her dog) And her dog kept following me. We got through 2.5 fields and this woman was struggling with a toddler and running after her dog who paid no attention whatsoever.
Eventually she caught her dog and said to me "why didn't you stop?"
Am I the bad guy? Surely if your dog has no recall then it should be on a lead!
And surely you don't let your puppy run riot pestering other dogs while you're 100m away on a play area?
Should I have wasted half of my own dogs walk until she managed to catch her dog?

I'm definitely not saying #BEKIND, I just think that OP should have said something when she was waiting around for fifteen minutes.
Walking off like she did was passive aggressive and nasty - it is the sort of thing I would do AFTER I had spoken to the woman about her dog, not without warning after pretending everything was fine. Even then, I don't think I could have gone 2.5 fields though.
A woman as oblivious as the one with the puppy will just be thinking that op has changed from being nice and understanding to nasty overnight and won't necessarily associate that with anything to do with her dog.
The fact is, I think you are a bit of a coward OP - you pretended it was fine then one day you snapped and ran off. You could have spoken to her at anytime if her dog was inconveniencing you, but you didn't. You didn't even explain it when she finally caught you up and clearly had no idea why you hadn't stopped.
PPs who have used the term "inconvenienced" - running through 2.5 fields with a screaming toddler under your arm is not inconvenient, it is fucking back-breaking and exhausting. It is also not a sure fired way to learn that you need to control your dog.

This is crazy. The OP had 30 minutes to walk her dog before she left it for 5 hours. If shehad waited around for 15 minutes her dog would only have got a 15 minuteswalk before she went to work. 15 minutes! Her responsibility is to her own dog. She walked her dog. She cannot be responsible for the same out of control dog every day. The other owner knows this is going to happen every day and doesn't think it worth putting her dog on a lead or controlling it in any way. She thinks it acceptable to use 15 minutes of somebody else's time whilst her dog jumps all over somebody else's dog. If she doesn't think it worth putting her dog on a lead why it is worth the OP sacrificing her own dog's walk before going to work?

Wow

I'm definitely not saying #BEKIND, I just think that OP should have said something when she was waiting around for fifteen minutes. Walking off like she did was passive aggressive and nasty

Bollocks. The other lady should have her dog on a lead if it has no recall.

Allowing your dog to constantly pester and harass other people is the only shit behaviour in this situation.

Natural consequences. Welcome to the adult world lady with toddler plus out of control dog

Can I just make a comment to all those saying she should have spoken up earlier.

I have alarge dog who has zero recall, and is sometimes reactive to other dogs (he was a rescue and we are working on it and he is gradually getting better)

I regularly meet a lady with an Old English Sheepdog. In fact with my old dog, we were friends and our dogs played together.
We have had new dog for 6 months. From day one I have said - I can't let him off the lead and I need to be careful with his interactions with other dogs.
Her response? They are just playing!
her dog is ALWAYS off lead and ALWAYS allowed to approach my dog.
So I got firmer.
One day I lost my rag and shouted at her WILL YOU PLEASE KEEP YOUR DOG UNDER CONTROL AND NOT LET IT APPROACH MY DOG.
Then I stormed off. Next time we met, repeat, her dog bouncing and jumping all over mine. Mine on a lead and unable to go anywhere and getting distressed.

I have had sensible conversations and explained the issue and her response is - they are not aggressive, they are just playing.

I actively avoid her, but sometimes she enters the other side of a (large) field as I enter this side. Her dog then runs all the way across to mine and she makes no effort at all to call him back, doesn't even say his name.

I have shouted at her several times (this is very unlike me, to shout at a stranger). One time she told me I must be schizophrenic because I used to be nice and now I just shout at her.

And her dog still is allowed to run across the field and jump all over mine.

Becuase she sees her dog as 'just playing' she cannot understand at all on any level why she shouldn't allow it to run across to another dog, even if that dog is on the lead.

not all dog owners are poor dears trying to balance dog and toddler. Some are just pig ignorant.

I think the initial reaction to keep walking was fine to make the point. But continuing for 2.5 fields is quite frankly bizarre. What was your end game? Let the dog follow you home, and then what?

I agree it was mean and was more about your own need to feel like you’d taught someone a lesson which in itself to me indicates you’re a person with a cruel streak, who then came on mumsnet to gain validation and applause.

Instead it’s just a thread calling another woman a stupid bitch etc. Inciting a bit more vitriol towards women.

The other lady clearly has messed up with her dog. But being mean helped no one.

Thing is if it was me my dog would have freaked out and it would have set our training back months. So I would absolutely have kept on walking (and yes that's why I'd head to a road to ensure the dog didn't follow ). People who let their dogs bother on lead dogs are unbelievably irritating

@steppemum Yes I do agree some owners just don’t care.

She could have said something earlier and the lady may well have just ignored her. I would have still made it clear I wasn’t happy from the second time though - then the waking off through the fields wouldn’t have been such a surprise to her.

@steppemum
I'm sorry that this has happened to you, but it is entirely irrelevant because OP never bothered to have a reasonable conversation with the greyhound owner, so we don't know if she is pig ignorant or a poor dear. As I have already said, walking off would have been my reaction after attempting to speak to her.

We do know she's pig ignorant, though.

She repeatedly lets her dog off the lead despite it not having any recall.
She allows it to approach dogs who are on the lead.
She couldn't get it back in the 15+ minutes it was chasing and pestering OP's dog.

If she can't control her dog off the lead, she needs to keep it on the lead. It's really not that difficult. She is breaking the law by having an out of control dog.

We don't know that she is pig ignorant - she could be just a naive first time dog owner who needs a heads up on dog walking etiquette

@thelobsterquadrille
There's a difference between being ignorant because you are inexperienced at something and being "pig ignorant" because you refuse to listen to others.

The woman has a puppy and clearly doesn't know what she is doing with it. At any time OP could have objected but instead she stood nicely for fifteen minutes every day, building this woman's ignorance.

I am not saying that the woman with the puppy is in the right - she is absolutely wrong to have a dog running free with no recall, especially when her attention is being taken up by a toddler. I am saying that the best way (in terms of delivering a precise message and not being a dick) to make her aware of this would be to TELL HER. If she chose to ignore OP telling her, then yes she is pig ignorant and OP would be justified in her actions.

In my opinion OP was out to teach the woman a lesson, but actually she didn't teach anyone anything other than her behaviour is unpredictable and she isn't a very nice person.

That is just my opinion. On a thread that is inviting opinions. I feel that I have justified my opinion well enough.

I am definitely not a BeKind person - I don't like other people that much, but I do try to be reasonable as we have to coexist in society. I am constantly a bit surprised (even after 19 years on mumsnet) at the vitriol from some posters (on many threads) who seem to default to assuming the worst of people. What a miserable way to live

@LimitIsUp
THANK YOU 🙏
I think it is crazy how horrible people are being about the woman with the greyhound. Calling her a stupid bitch? Would people actually say that to her face?

I don't particularly like other people either. I have a few that I love dearly but even those I would cross the road to avoid some days 😂 The woman with the greyhound sounds like the sort that I would actively avoid, but I still couldn't see her struggle carrying a screaming child for 2.5 fields instead of just speaking honestly to her about her dog. It's cruel!

OP, no idea if you are still reading this thread but behaving like everything was fine for a number of days and then suddenly doing this without warning just makes you look nuts and doesn't really prove anything.

Having a young greyhound loose and under no control in a nature reserve isn't 'naive'. Compound that by adding a toddler so the pup is not even getting much attention let alone training...Sorry, but how is that anything other than some combination of ignorance and stupidity?

I would say that to her face if she had a pop at me for not waiting for her. I am in no way responsible for her foolish choices.

@fannyfartlet
Oh sorry - I missed the bit where she "had a pop at" OP.

I really hate off lead dogs who chase after me and my dog and I don't think you were wrong to not wait however I probably wouldn't have gone quite so far. The dog could have ended up lost or injured. You could have made the same point without going so far.

I'm sorry, but anyone (first time owner or not) who allows their untrained dog to zoom around and leap all over other people and their dogs is pig ignorant. It's bad manners at best, and bloody dangerous at worst.

She's incredibly lucky her dog hasn't been hurt. I mean - she can't recall it - so what if it ran into a road? What if the other dog was aggressive, or the owner was unsteady on their feet and took a tumble as result of her dogs' behaviour?

If you don't know the basic etiquette of eep your dog on a lead unless it's trained, then maybe don't get a dog?

There's a difference between being ignorant because you are inexperienced at something and being "pig ignorant" because you refuse to listen to others.

IMO, she's pig ignorant because this happens on a regular basis. This isn't a one-off - this happens ALL the time and yet she still leaves the puppy off the lead to run around and make a nuisance of itself.

Believe me, I'm understanding that puppies and adolescent dogs can be a nightmare at times but it's not other people's job to help control your dog. This woman knows her dog has no recall but still lets it run riot. That's lazy and ignorant at best - and incredibly dangerous at worst.

OP did nothing wrong here. She should be allowed to walk her dog without being pestered, and without her dog being nipped at and jumped over. The greyhound owner is incredibly lucky her dog hasn't been bitten because many dogs wouldn't be so tolerant.