Irresponsible Owners

Many years ago, we had a Lab bitch who went to join a family party as we walked past a house! The footpath went through the garden, we had called the dogs to heel, as usual, to go through the garden. It was a long house with all doors at the front.
Lab peeled off and ran in through the kitchen door, went through the house and out through the open French windows to rejoin us as we went through the gate j to the wood. We have no idea what she did inside but we knew the family quite well, they had dogs of their own, and they insisted afterwards that they hadn't noticed her:D.
 
skinnydipper said:
I was furious this morning. My lovely dog was crying, trying to get away from the persistent red lab who was all over her and whose hackles were up from neck to tail. I tried to grab it, then shouted to chase it away.

Meanwhile the owner was saying I'm sorry, I'm sorry, over and over, like that's going to help.

I have never known things as bad as they are now. Out of control dogs. Ignorant, useless owners.

If you have no control of your dog, any dog, never mind one who could so easily tip over into aggression - keep it on a fecking lead. Is that really so hard?
Click to expand...


Well, it seems she wasn't really sorry because she allowed the dog to do exactly the same thing to another dog that I know.

A friend's dog recently had a stroke and following a week in a specialist referral hospital getting her back on her feet, she is home and slowly regaining mobility. Improving but still unsteady she was enjoying a quiet lead walk when she was accosted by the lab who she gamely tried to see off, twice.
 
At the Cheshire show, B rotter, very politely, offered to demonstrate, to a very little girl, how to eat ice cream. Fortunately I realised what she was doing and moved her out of the way, but she obviously thought that the child didn't know what to do, as she was waving the cone about. She did have her 15 minutes of fame, while eating an ice cream, she was on the local news on their round up of bramham?
 
blackcob said:
Got stalked by a big, Australian-style doodle today - plonked itself down in the middle of the path a long way off from its owners and stared, leaving me in absolute and certain knowledge that it would launch as we passed. Unfortunately this is #1 fear of small dog, who froze on the spot. I was reassured twice that the dog was very friendly, and responded twice that my dog was not, no really, we do not want to be jumped on, please. A standoff with some ineffectual pipping of a whistle ensued before I gave up waiting and handbagged small dog to get past it. Sodden wet bastard thing did launch and collided with my leg.
Click to expand...

my boot would have collided with it's arse!!
 
My current dogs will try a crafty attempt to steal from family members but out and about don't get the opportunity. My old JRT was a brilliant opportunist and ate a live fish from a bucket next to a fisherman. She sort of ran over stuck her head in the bucket and swallowed the fish head first with her neck extended like a heron. It was amazing to watch but we had to beat a hasty retreat as the fisherman was not amused and was not very graciously accepting of my profuse apologies.

She was a cracking little dog but ate anything and everything. She ate the farriers marmite sandwiches in his van including the cling film, she entered a tent (wild campers that I had not noticed) and came out with a packet of ?sausages?meat of some sort? and headed off into the distance only returning after a few minutes looking very satisfied. She ate a whole chocolate orange one Christmas (a lot for a 5kg dog) and a large packet of fudge another year. I still miss her.
 
I'm just looking some thoughts... To give a bit of background I live on a beef farm that has a footpath running through the middle along a hardstanding track, part way along, the path splits and goes left across one field and right across another. At the moment, the only animals out are my two ponies - all the cows are in. In the summer, when cows are grazing, I either avoid walking through the grazing fields or Bunny is on a lead. At the moment, I take advantage of there being nothing out to take Bunny round the farm off lead - we go up the first part of the footpath and then tend to walk the fields off the footpath checking fences and gates, crop growth, ditches etc. We bump into the odd person walking their dog, generally people and dogs that we know.

Today, Bunny and I were on the hardstanding track checking the ponies when someone came up from the bottom of the track with a lab on a lead (makes a change, people don't normally bother - a whole other story!). Bunny was off lead and she ran towards the man and dog, she didn't bark and she didn't reach them - she is very friendly with other dogs but I fully appreciate that the man's dog may not be. I hadn't noticed him approaching straight away as I was talking to the ponies. As soon as I did, I called Bunny back - she should have come back quicker than she did but she did come back. However, the man and dog turned round and went back the way they came.

My question is was I being irresponsible? Bunny and I were 'at home' on our own farm, should she be on a lead while on the footpath bearing in mind that although her recall is generally very good she can be a bit slow as she was today. If we weren't on our own farm then she would definitely be on a lead. Thoughts welcomed!
 
No you weren't being irresponsible. I never have mine on lead on our own land, we also have a footpath along one side. One of mine can also be a bit slow to respond though getting better and I know she won't have a go as she is very wary about getting too close.
 
It is tricky where a farm dog is off lead as the owner usually isn’t paying full attention to the dog so may not clock the situation quickly, but it sounds like you handled it well. However like that man I would also have turned and gone the other way if I was approached by an off lead dog, just to keep mine away from any trouble.

I had a scenario where I was walking on a footpath between some farm buildings with my dog reactive collie on lead and 3 (or may have been 4?!) large German shepherds came running out from the farm barking. One stopped at a distance and the other 2/3 came charging up to my dog and I and circled us sniffing him. I shouted for someone to call the dogs off but there was no one to be seen. I must have been there for 5 mins or so (which felt like a lifetime!) before I was able to back away and go back the way I came. Thankfully the GSD’s actually appeared to be well socialised and were just checking out the intruder into their territory and my dog clearly realised he was massively outgunned and decided it would be in his best interests not to take a pop at anyone. In that circumstance I did think the owners were irresponsible, no matter how well socialised their dogs it is still a public footpath with no warning signs so to have 4 GSDs running loose with no person keeping eye on them didn’t feel responsible.
 
Thank you, it's the first time it has really come up and it's really helpful to get people's thoughts. I try really hard not to be irresponsible as I see so much of it out and about on the farm - dogs off lead in fields with cows and calves, people not on the footpath (in some cases in different fields!), leaving internal and external gates open (that aren't on footpaths, we've had to put locks on as we've ended up with groups of cows mixing) dogs off lead on the track with no recall getting in the way of the tractor and JCB when feeding or doing fieldwork etc.
 
I don’t think you were being irresponsible at all. You called your dog back quickly.
I live on a farm too and there’s the right to responsible access in Scotland (so you get people in the most unlikely places sometimes!), as well as a heritage trail that runs close to my cottage and on to the hills behind. Inevitably occasionally the sheepdogs have been let out the kennels just as walkers, runners or mountain bikers appear ?. We always call them back immediately, and they are never left roaming free but I’m sure on a few occasions over the years the dogs may have given people cause for slight alarm. Recently we’ve put up kennel sections between our garden and the kennel area/yard so we can let dogs out and clean kennels without the fear of the dogs accosting anyone (as you can’t see the footpath from the yard) and that’s working really well.
 
BBP that must have been pretty frightening. As you know, I have GSDs myself and love the breed, but they are scary to a lot of people and I would also have felt pretty intimidated by being surrounded by them on their own territory.
Similar happened to me when following a footpath that took me through a farmyard. No farmer in sight and I got surrounded by 4/5 collies and working beardies all barking and one tried to bite my GSD. Thankfully he had hold of his precious ball and was a fairly non confrontational dog but it wasn’t a pleasant experience. The farmer eventually came out of his house and shouted at the dogs who all skulked away and he apologised so no real harm done, but next time I walked that way I carried a stick ?. I don’t know if he’d had complaints over the lockdown period when every man and his cat were out walking but his dogs were now in a pen except one male collie that just followed us cocking his leg up everything.
 
A minor vent because I'm not involved at all but I'm just so annoyed at how stupid people can be. My friend's friend has purchased a lab puppy off Facebook on the spur of the moment and it's 6 weeks old. Saw the post, collected it an hour later. Didn't see the mum.

How on God's green earth do people convince themselves that this is okay? You have to live under a rock not to see that there's more red flags than Tiananmen square, but who cares cause I want a puppy and I want it now? Who cares about the life the poor bitch probably has? I know this minor rant isn't really the theme of this thread but I guess it's irresponsible at the very least to not even be a responsible owner when sourcing the puppy? So annoyed that this still happens.
 
Yesterday I was walking my largest (and most social) dog, there was a woman walking up to four cockapoos all off lead on the path, she was busy yakking away on the phone, a couple of them ran at my dog, wuffing, but did not come too close, at one point she had gone away off around the corner and one of them was still approx 200m away from her and ran to catch up, I imagine having shat all over the housing estate green from whence it appeared.
 
We usually take our 3 dogs and Daycare Dog with her owner to a country park where dogs are allowed off lead one weekend day each week. Part of the park is a waterbirds sanctuary. We sit outside the cafe and have bacon sandwiches and a cuppa before setting off back home.
Just after Christmas, as we were putting our dogs back into the car, we noticed a jrt and a cocker(?) spaniel running free in the carpark. Then we saw that 2 women were following them, then the dogs jumped into a pond, despite the notice about bird flu. The women seemed to think that was fine and started trying to brew a cup of tea on a camping stove on the carpark verge, right under the lifeboat provided in case anyone falls into the pond.
 
Out shooting the dogs have to get on with others. Generally they ignore each other. Mine always get put back in my car at lunch and if I go in for dinner afterwards at the smaller shoots they are washed down, rugged up, fed and left in the car. However several people feel that their dog will enjoy the socialising as much as they do (or they can’t be bothered to deal with them) so they bring them in the shoot room for the meal. It’s noisy, there’s a stone floor, there’s other tired dogs about. Just why? At this particular shoot there is also an obsessive collie who herds the others. So in the shoot room she was herding a young spaniel who was exhausted and neither the collie or the spaniel owner cared. I told them both and neither did anything about it. Eventually the spaniel snapped at the collie who threw her toys out of the pram and was tied up. But would have been such an easy fix long before ?‍♀️
 
This is what a very well regarded local equine competition centre has just posted on its FB page. What a shame that this all needs to be said.

??????????? ??? ???????? ?? ??????? ???? - ????????????, ??????????, ??? ??????? ??? ???????? ?? ??? ????

Dogs are very welcome in the café and on site, but not in the arenas or Grandstand seating area. They must be kept on a lead at all times.

Please do not use the disabled toilets to wash off your muddy dog - seems incredible but this has happened and cleaning all the mud takes a considerable amount of time and is really unfair on those customers who need to use the disabled facilities.

Please do not remove shower heads - (this has also happened).

If you are bringing dogs in to the café, we ask that you enter via the terrace using the ramped access at the side of the building, rather than through reception. Unfortunately we seem to have an increasing number of dogs fouling in the reception area. I'm sure you will all agree this is totally unacceptable. Dogs need to remain on the floor in the café, not on the chairs or tables or on your lap.
 
Tiddlypom said:
This is what a very well regarded local equine competition centre has just posted on its FB page. What a shame that this all needs to be said.

??????????? ??? ???????? ?? ??????? ???? - ????????????, ??????????, ??? ??????? ??? ???????? ?? ??? ????

Dogs are very welcome in the café and on site, but not in the arenas or Grandstand seating area. They must be kept on a lead at all times.

Please do not use the disabled toilets to wash off your muddy dog - seems incredible but this has happened and cleaning all the mud takes a considerable amount of time and is really unfair on those customers who need to use the disabled facilities.

Please do not remove shower heads - (this has also happened).

If you are bringing dogs in to the café, we ask that you enter via the terrace using the ramped access at the side of the building, rather than through reception. Unfortunately we seem to have an increasing number of dogs fouling in the reception area. I'm sure you will all agree this is totally unacceptable. Dogs need to remain on the floor in the café, not on the chairs or tables or on your lap.
Click to expand...

Just... wow!

The comments are interesting. I hope that it doesn't come to the need to ban dogs but I mean really, our 'right' to take our dogs places is not more important than not vandalising disabled facilities and leaving literal dogspite in a reception area.
 
Tiddlypom said:
This is what a very well regarded local equine competition centre has just posted on its FB page. What a shame that this all needs to be said.

??????????? ??? ???????? ?? ??????? ???? - ????????????, ??????????, ??? ??????? ??? ???????? ?? ??? ????

Dogs are very welcome in the café and on site, but not in the arenas or Grandstand seating area. They must be kept on a lead at all times.

Please do not use the disabled toilets to wash off your muddy dog - seems incredible but this has happened and cleaning all the mud takes a considerable amount of time and is really unfair on those customers who need to use the disabled facilities.

Please do not remove shower heads - (this has also happened).

If you are bringing dogs in to the café, we ask that you enter via the terrace using the ramped access at the side of the building, rather than through reception. Unfortunately we seem to have an increasing number of dogs fouling in the reception area. I'm sure you will all agree this is totally unacceptable. Dogs need to remain on the floor in the café, not on the chairs or tables or on your lap.
Click to expand...

I’m at an agility competition there on Sunday . It’s a new venue for the club , I hope this sort of behaviour doesn’t lead to Kelsall changing their mind with regard to having comps there .
 
Looking at the comments on the Kelsall FB page, it seems that Somerford Park Farm now has a no dogs rule. Not sure how long that has been in force, they did used to be allowed at Somerford. Or maybe people just brought them anyway?

Please remember we DO NOT allow dogs onsite for health and safety reasons.
 
SaddlePsych'D said:
Just... wow!

The comments are interesting. I hope that it doesn't come to the need to ban dogs but I mean really, our 'right' to take our dogs places is not more important than not vandalising disabled facilities and leaving literal dogspite in a reception area.
Click to expand...

But some people think the rights of their dogs trumps everyone and everything, it's something that totally puts me off some doggy folks and even dogs themselves at times. They'll end up being banned altogether and I will have no sympathy at all.
 
I reckon Kelsall will end up banning dogs and I wouldn’t blame them. As someone who has recently had to use disabled toilets (wheelchair using) and realising just how difficult life is for disabled people to even get around, access shops etc, I am appalled that self entitled idiots think it’s ok to wash their dogs off in a disabled toilet.
 
marmalade76 said:
But some people think the rights of their dogs trumps everyone and everything, it's something that totally puts me off some doggy folks and even dogs themselves at times. They'll end up being banned altogether and I will have no sympathy at all.
Click to expand...

Same. I get accidents happen but seriously how hard is it to find a member of staff and say "I'm very sorry, my dog has had an accident on your floor, do you have something I can use to clean this up/I need to go out to my car to get something to clean up" instead of leaving it for other people to find/walk through. Also to have a good walk round outside first to avoid accidents in the first place.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top