Irresponsible Owners

The woods I've been taking the dogs to this week has some very set apart steps. We've always called them the horse steps. There's a yard with a track to the woods (I had lots of lessons there back in the day). I did a hack round there one day. The steps are shallow for a horse, but quite steep for humans. I'll take a picture if ever we go that way. Currently, I'm doing the flat bit, I'm too unfit for the steep bits!
 
15 week old collie x Pomeranian (of all things), being flogged on gumtree. It’s owner has apparently only just realised that they have to go to work, and it’s ‘not fair on the dog’. Why they only came to this conclusion a scant few weeks into owning a puppy, I don’t know. I suspect it’s starting to look less cute, the older it gets. At least they’re only asking £100, as opposed to the 1k plus that most things are listed for right now.

Poor sod, it looks sweet too.
 
Or how about the breeder of ‘frenchie peis’, the questionable cross between a French bulldog and a shar pei. The actual advert itself describes this ‘breed’ as being stand-off, apt to guard beds and toys in the home, and have ‘a tendency to sniffle and snort, due to their respiratory issues, and short snouts’(!!!). These stellar qualities can be yours for the low low (reduced several times) price of £400.
 
fiwen30 said:
Or how about the breeder of ‘frenchie peis’, the questionable cross between a French bulldog and a shar pei. The actual advert itself describes this ‘breed’ as being stand-off, apt to guard beds and toys in the home, and have ‘a tendency to sniffle and snort, due to their respiratory issues, and short snouts’(!!!). These stellar qualities can be yours for the low low (reduced several times) price of £400.
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I suppose you can only be thankful that the market has collapsed. But poor dogs.
 
i was out walking with my puppy in a pet stroller and my 2 little terriers when i saw an off white german shepherd type who i have seen before and i dont like his body language so i got to the edge of the path to leave him plenty of room to pass with my 2 terriers next to me. the blooming thing came bounding over with its hackles up, my older terrier ignored it but my younger one ran as she was scared. i asked the twit to call his dog away as mine was scared and he ignored my request and said he is ok he is only getting to know other dogs, so i said i have asked you politely would you please call your dog as mine is frightened, so he said well it should be on a lead.....he had to grab his dog as it didnt come to call.....spoilt my morning, i know when a dog is harmless but this one is an accident waiting to happen due to the idiot owners behaviour....
 
This is one of my posts from 3 years ago.

I was at a community woodland when I saw a woman approaching with the tiniest of poodles complete with hair bows, attached to their ears! I called my dog and took him to one side (I thought that was a good clue that we didn't want to interact).

I waited for her to put her dogs on leads to pass. One dog totally ignored her pleas to return to her and continued towards us. She called to me "It's okay, he'll sort it out" Me - "Who? who will sort it out?" She said "The big dog. The big dog will tell her off, she'll take notice of that"

I wanted to say "Are you mad?" Her dog was the size of my dog's head and she wanted my dog to "sort it out". Where do you start with that?

I pointed out that actually it was quite unfair to my dog to expect him to do any such thing.

I often get "it'll do her/him good to get told off, he/she needs to learn". Well bloody well teach it then, don't expect my dog to train it, that's your job.

So today, same woodland, I was with my GSD's successor, she is somewhat larger than he was. Guess who we saw. Now she has 3 tiny poodles. They were about 50 yards away when all 3 rang at the big girl, barking at her. This time I detected a note of panic in the owner's voice as she frantically shouted for the little darlings. Big girl clearly exceeded the size threshold.

We stood quietly waiting for them all to return to the owner, one was fairly persistent. The owner then turned and went the other way.

On the face of it the big girl was calm throughout but I knew by her shake off that she had found the encounter stressful. It's such a shame that she has to put up with this nonsense.

Could the people who would call today's display "small dog syndrome" tell me what they would call it if my dog had done it?
 
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As an owner of small dogs if I see another dog on lead I call mine and put them on
Leads till we are past… I do it out of politeness and in case my little dogs get hurt, the last thing I want is a dog fight, a friend of mine doesn’t do this and calls out to the other dogs owner, it’s ok she’s friendly..I have tried to explain why she is wrong but it falls on deaf ears. This friend also can’t understand why I won’t let my puppy walk in the park with other dogs who may or may not be vaccinated. We almost fell out as she insisted that as soon as they have had their first vaccination it’s fine to walk them , which is not what my vet has said..
 
I often wonder if folks with small dogs think they have less of a requirement to teach them to behave around other dogs as the approach taken here always seems to be to just whip them away when they start up (thats if they're on a lead).

Harder to do with a big mutt and so perhaps more pressure for an owner to sort out. Certainly doesn't apply to all small dog owners but a 5-7kg dog making a lunge is easier to keep hold of than a 30-40kg dog doing the same.

There used to be a small black and white shitzu type dog that we bumped into occasionally if we were in town and it was always off lead and always trying to pick fights with bigger dogs, running around them snapping and barking. I never see it now, and often wonder if it decided to try it on with the wrong dog.
 
I try very hard to have mine well trained but it’s a challenge.. if you want an easy dog don’t go for a terrier??my collie cross was born trained and my lurchers have been fine as long as there is no wild life, I had a terrier when I was young and don’t remember her being so independent as my latest 2 ..
 
CrunchieBoi said:
I often wonder if folks with small dogs think they have less of a requirement to teach them to behave around other dogs as the approach taken here always seems to be to just whip them away when they start up (thats if they're on a lead).

Harder to do with a big mutt and so perhaps more pressure for an owner to sort out. Certainly doesn't apply to all small dog owners but a 5-7kg dog making a lunge is easier to keep hold of than a 30-40kg dog doing the same.

There used to be a small black and white shitzu type dog that we bumped into occasionally if we were in town and it was always off lead and always trying to pick fights with bigger dogs, running around them snapping and barking. I never see it now, and often wonder if it decided to try it on with the wrong dog.
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To be fair, we do meet some lovely small dogs and a little Shih Tzu met her yesterday. They very politely greeted each other and the owner told me that the little chap is normally frightened of large dogs.
 
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CrunchieBoi said:
I often wonder if folks with small dogs think they have less of a requirement to teach them to behave around other dogs as the approach taken here always seems to be to just whip them away when they start up (thats if they're on a lead).

Harder to do with a big mutt and so perhaps more pressure for an owner to sort out. Certainly doesn't apply to all small dog owners but a 5-7kg dog making a lunge is easier to keep hold of than a 30-40kg dog doing the same.

There used to be a small black and white shitzu type dog that we bumped into occasionally if we were in town and it was always off lead and always trying to pick fights with bigger dogs, running around them snapping and barking. I never see it now, and often wonder if it decided to try it on with the wrong dog.
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Owner of two small breed dogs here. Impeccably behaved around other dogs. I adore them too much not to have trained them.
 
Amymay said:
Owner of two small breed dogs here. Impeccably behaved around other dogs. I adore them too much not to have trained them.
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Mine are good with other dogs, too good, they are desperate to say hello. It’s an ongoing thing to take them past other dogs and praise them when they stop trying to go back to them. I hope they’ll eventually realise that they don’t have to socialise with every single other dog on the planet. It’s funny, but if they come across a dog they’ve already met, it’s a quick sniff to say hello and move on. Eventually, we’ll have met all the dogs in the woods (in about 10 years!)
 
Out on a walk with my horse, my friend, and her dog, and OH. Friend's dog was attacked by a dog a couple years ago, so he's wary and defensive with strange dogs. She keeps him on a lead when there are lots of dogs around. Another dog walker approached with a small fluffy thing, off-lead, which made a beeline towards friend's dog. Friend's dog showed all the unhappy body language, but Small Fluffy Thing kept coming. Owner called it, to no avail, then attempted to catch it, but it had zero recall and kept evading owner's attempts to grab it. Friend's dog snarled and lunged when it got too close. But it would just dodge his teeth and come straight back. Not aggressive (as far as I could tell), just overly friendly and dumb as a box of rocks. It had enough sense to not get too close to the horse, so I positioned him in front of my friend and her dog and used him to drive it back to the owner. Owner laughed, saying, "She's so daft. She just doesn't understand dog body language." Or recall, apparently, which means it probably should not be off lead in a super busy park.

It's no wonder that most trail systems in Boulder require all dogs to be on lead all the time. It's a shame for all the well-trained dogs, but there are too many idiot owners out there.
 
Out hacking on a lane near us with daughter yesterday afternoon. Could see a woman with a pug (?) dog on a lead in the distance straining and barking at us. She started shouting at us and when we got closer (at a walk) we could hear she was telling us to keep away and even told us to turn around and go the other way. We refused as we were on a public road and it would have meant a long backtrack. She dragged straining/barking dog into a driveway and then proceeded to shout at us while we were passing and for the next few minutes as she followed us as we rode down the road.

We’ve seen the dog before in the next village in its garden and it barks like hell at anyone riding past.

Just wanted to vent!
 
asmp said:
Out hacking on a lane near us with daughter yesterday afternoon. Could see a woman with a pug (?) dog on a lead in the distance straining and barking at us. She started shouting at us and when we got closer (at a walk) we could hear she was telling us to keep away and even told us to turn around and go the other way. We refused as we were on a public road and it would have meant a long backtrack. She dragged straining/barking dog into a driveway and then proceeded to shout at us while we were passing and for the next few minutes as she followed us as we rode down the road.

We’ve seen the dog before in the next village in its garden and it barks like hell at anyone riding past.

Just wanted to vent!
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I had this on a bridlepath with a footpath that runs parallel to it. Nutter lady claimed her dog was scared of horses (her dog didn't look like it gave a single sh1t) and got very abusive when I asked why she was on the bridlepath and not the footpath!
 
asmp said:
Could see a woman with a pug (?) dog on a lead in the distance straining and barking at us. She started shouting at us and when we got closer (at a walk) we could hear she was telling us to keep away and even told us to turn around and go the other way.
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I like pugs but their owners do seem to be a bit bonkers and prone to shouting.
 
DirectorFury said:
I had this on a bridlepath with a footpath that runs parallel to it. Nutter lady claimed her dog was scared of horses (her dog didn't look like it gave a single sh1t) and got very abusive when I asked why she was on the bridlepath and not the footpath!
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She did say he was scared of horses - didn’t look like it to me. Think he wanted to take a chunk out of one of them ?
 
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