We have a walking festival going on near us this week. Some of the walks are "no dogs" I signed up for one yesterday, a four mile walk through local countryside, which said that dogs were welcome if kept on a lead. I thought my young 4.5kg rescue Chipoo would like to see some other dogs and it was rated as an easy walk. When we got there there were 24 walkers, a walk leader, two backmarkers and the festival organiser. Sadly, no other dogs! Walk leader, backmarkers and walk organiser all came over to my dog and made a fuss of him before we set off and seemed very pleased to see him. We set off along a long driveway and across a field. Dog was trotting along beside me on his standard red lead, behaving really well. Suddenly a woman cut out of the line of walkers, came up to me and tapped me on the shoulder and said, very loudly, " "keep it the lead, a short lead" I was so taken aback I started to mumble that of course I would and then realised there could be no justification for this at all, so I told her I thought she was being very rude, to which she barked "do you?"
I found this very upsetting, and began to think about why she would think an inoffensive person in their 60's wearing a cagoule would be hell bent on breaking the rules, or did she think I looked stupid?. The walk was a bit spoiled for me then as I had to keep well away from her. I did just check at the end with the walk leader if she was something to do with the festival and they confirmed she was not.
Dog enjoyed the walk no end, had warm bath and slept on the sofa all afternoon. I just felt upset and sad that the anti dog feeling even now extends to dog friendly walks.