Irresponsible Owners

Also...I try not to stare at dogs generally, especially ones I don't know or ones that I know can be edgy. Quick glances to read body language and looking past them usually does the job. I know someone who stares into dog's eyes when she passes and wonders why they often pop off at her.

If you think about it from the dog's point of view.

They're a lot lower than us and some punter is starting down right at them and then extends a tentacle right down towards their head/face.

I also don't want owners to look at me when I am explaining something, I want them to listen to me and observe what their dog is doing. People are so conditioned into being polite that they miss really important stuff.
 
CorvusCorax said:
Also...I try not to stare at dogs generally, especially ones I don't know or ones that I know can be edgy. Quick glances to read body language and looking past them usually does the job. I know someone who stares into dog's eyes when she passes and wonders why they often pop off at her.

If you think about it from the dog's point of view.

They're a lot lower than us and some punter is starting down right at them and then extends a tentacle right down towards their head/face.

I also don't want owners to look at me when I am explaining something, I want them to listen to me and observe what their dog is doing. People are so conditioned into being polite that they miss really important stuff.
Click to expand...

Yessss, this! So many people don't seem to know this.
 
ester said:
www.horseandhound.co.uk

Horse chased on to road by loose dog ‘shattered all four legs’: heartbroken owners speak out

The heartbroken owners of a horse who suffered horrific fatal injuries after he was chased by a loose dog and ran into the road said they will campaign for law changes to protect animals and people. Loki, an eight-year-old Welsh section C, suffered four “shattered” legs in a collision with a...
www.horseandhound.co.uk www.horseandhound.co.uk
Click to expand...
This is absolutely heartbreaking and those poor kids are likely to carry trauma for the rest of their lives. One of the people involved posted about it on FB in the week - the dog owner was abusive and rude and left the scene, so it's not known who he was. His action killed a horse, wrote off a car, and traumatized several people, just because he was a total entitled @rse and not even enough of a man to take responsibility.
The photograph of the horse's injury is not for the faint hearted - it's hidden unless you choose to click on it. I work at a vets - but I covered it back up pretty sharpish.
 
CorvusCorax said:
Also...I try not to stare at dogs generally, especially ones I don't know or ones that I know can be edgy. Quick glances to read body language and looking past them usually does the job. I know someone who stares into dog's eyes when she passes and wonders why they often pop off at her.

If you think about it from the dog's point of view.

They're a lot lower than us and some punter is starting down right at them and then extends a tentacle right down towards their head/face.

I also don't want owners to look at me when I am explaining something, I want them to listen to me and observe what their dog is doing. People are so conditioned into being polite that they miss really important stuff.
Click to expand...

Yet mine stares at me all the time, like when I'm mucking out and there's only a crack in the door (have to keep it shut to keep the hens out) she's peering at me through the crack like some weird peeping Tom stalker! Double standards!
 
A retired farmer close to me has a Swiss Bernese Mountain dog bitch, she had her third litter in a period of 2 years and 4 out of 8 puppies died...

He leaves them in a cold stable, they were born 1 month ago and it was very cold then.

The bitch Praline is a bit skinny but has lot's of milk thank's God and she seems quiet happy.

He showed them to me yesterday, he wants to sell them aged 3 months. They are on the concret floor, no bedding at all.....

The last litter she had 10 puppies he uses a Swiss Bernese Mountain dog, so they are pure breed but without papers. He sells them around 1000.- swiss francs, which is good money for him.

I don't know him at all, i was just passing by with my Basset and he called me over to show them to me, asking if i knew someone wanting to buy one

He seems a typical old fashioned farmer, not mean but not caring either...

How do i go about telling him nicely that maybe, he should wait for a bit before the next litter ? Than Praline might need a break and to care better for the puppies ?

I don't want him to tell me to get lost, so i have to tread carefully, asked him about bedding for them, a bit of straw will be nice surely ?

He said that he would put down some straw.

There is no point trying to report him as the local RSPCA will ask for proof and i don't have any.

What would you do ? Mind you own business or try to get him on your's and the dog's side ?

Thank you for your advice.
 
Yes, there is a heat lamp, so that's something i guess.

The weather is midler now and the puppies are 1 months so much bigger, the bitch Praline seems to do a good job.

Will go by today and have a chat, just getting to know him a bit better.
 
Where would you take a young malinois which is so highly strung it sparks off at literally anything that moves, that you can barely control on various leads, and literally lunges at anyone walking past? The gates of a primary school.

Where would you take a HUGE (Bernese mountain dog sized) hairy thing that the owner stated was a Romanian sheepdog, that is a rescue, terrified of everything, skidding on the floor anytime anyone goes past it and whale eyeing to the max? A very busy dog friendly pub.


I thought the survival of the fittest theory was supposed to have weeded out these sorts of stupid.
 
P3LH said:
I thought the survival of the fittest theory was supposed to have weeded out these sorts of stupid.
Click to expand...
It would have done if more dogs were willing to maul their owners.

We’ve an overseas getting training for its phobia of any sort of confinement. Can’t handle restraint, can’t handle having a door shut on it. Has had to be drugged to be manageable at home. And yet will spend the rest of its life in a tiny London flat because its owners just had to ‘rescue’ a dog.

If it did an XL Bully and killed them, at least its misery would finally be over.
 
stangs said:
It would have done if more dogs were willing to maul their owners.

We’ve an overseas getting training for its phobia of any sort of confinement. Can’t handle restraint, can’t handle having a door shut on it. Has had to be drugged to be manageable at home. And yet will spend the rest of its life in a tiny London flat because its owners just had to ‘rescue’ a dog.

If it did an XL Bully and killed them, at least its misery would finally be over.
Click to expand...
There are worse things than death. That life. That life sounds it for that dog.
 
stangs said:
We’ve an overseas getting training for its phobia of any sort of confinement. Can’t handle restraint, can’t handle having a door shut on it. Has had to be drugged to be manageable at home. And yet will spend the rest of its life in a tiny London flat because its owners just had to ‘rescue’ a dog.
Click to expand...

Aw but they are being KIND 🥰🥹🤗 and helping and they have saved this dog and it is saving them and teaching them what love means xxxxx
 
How lovely to see someone training their dog out on a walk, I thought today. Except the training turned out to be shouting 'no!' 'heel!' and yanking this poor young spaniel's lead.

And then I was absolutely horrified to see it allowed to absolutely pelt out on the long line, to throttle itself by the neck because it was attached to a collar. Repeatedly.

And the sighthound owner walking their dog on a face harness thing (big ick)... attached to a flexi-lead 🫠
 
My turn today..

Walking my two sighthounds on lead, on the street.

I see a couple in their front garden. Then their German Shepherd jumps over their small garden wall straight onto the path in front of me....

So I ask them to recall it. They try. They fail.

So I turn around, cross the road and walk back the other way. My two are just not used to face to face greetings with strange big dogs and I'm absolutely not interested in being a part of this bizarre situation I've found myself in.

The German shepherd then runs across the road at us. My Lurcher is now upset and grizzles a bit. German Shepherd now starts barking at us.

I manage to shake loose of the damn thing and the owners get a lot of choice words from me.

They still couldn't catch the dog who could still be seen in the distance in the middle of the road, causing hassle for travelling vehicles as I made my way on my walk.
 
Yesterday I saw a chap with a golden retriever who I’ve seen before , it’s always on lead and he only says good morning if I do first. I saw him yesterday and as I’ve got 3 I put all on lead and got off the path on to the muddy field so he could go past . Walked past without looking at me and said nothing 😡, saw him in same place today and I didn’t put mine on lead and I marched along the path so he had to go on muddy field , was expecting him to say something , not a word!!! I know I was being a bit childish, but it’s not difficult to say thankyou or even a nod of the head would have done …
 
Last edited:
I have had such a good week for irresponsible-owner spotting to the point where I'm in half a mind to design a bingo card, and I've also witnessed two incidents that trump anything I've seen before:

Stood next to me at the station today was a sort of giant pocket bully (giant in the sense taller than your average pocket bully, but literally as wide as it was tall, horrific conformation, and cropped ears and an ill-fitting harness to match the look). Dog's very over-aroused, breathing’s a mess, and it’s barking incessantly, trying to drag its owner closer to the edge of the platform for whatever reason. As the train arrives, dog starts kicking off trying to get at it, and in the hopes of shutting it up, its owner grabs it by muzzle and tries to physically close its mouth. To the dog’s credit, it did stop barking for few seconds after that, and it didn’t shred its owners arm, which is what I would have done if I were a dog. But wow. Maybe I’m just not man enough to own such a “hard dog”, but it's never once occurred to me to try to physically shut a dog up, let alone one with jaws that wide.

And then the other day, I was assisting with an assessment of a reactive shepherd-type with a bite history. When said shepherd kicked off at a passing dog, its owner’s response was to wrap their arms around the dog, pull it towards them, and kiss it on the top of the head. I kid you not. Trainer and I were watching too stunned to speak. And the best part was that this is a dog that doesn’t like having the top of its head touched, and yet its owner still exited that interaction with their face intact.

I have an ever-increasing admiration for the dogs' tolerance of humankind’s sheer stupidity.
 
*knocking on wood* All the dog walkers in Mugdock for the last few weeks have been incredibly well-behaved. When will we exit this parallel universe? I don't want to.

To be honest, the number of dog incidents has significantly reduced since the park installed signs *everywhere* saying basically, "these are multi-use trails" and the signs have graphics of dogs, children, and, importantly, ***horses***. I had been pleading for signs for ages, and people were like, "but no one will pay attention to signs." I disagree. I think people are morons but most want to follow rules. So if there are signs (many!) saying there are horses around, they will keep an eye and put dogs on leads. Before the park installed the signs, I had far more frequent dog debacles, and the owners acting extremely mortified, saying,"I didn't expect to see a horse." But since the park put up the signs, most dog owners are far more switched on. They don't see the hoof prints and horse shite on the trail, but they see signs! Yeah, you'll get the odd entitled douchebag who doesn't care, but if the signs make the far larger numbers of clueless but well meaning idiots keep their dogs under control, then I'm happy.
 
stangs said:
Stood next to me at the station today was a sort of giant pocket bully (giant in the sense taller than your average pocket bully, but literally as wide as it was tall, horrific conformation, and cropped ears and an ill-fitting harness to match the look). Dog's very over-aroused, breathing’s a mess, and it’s barking incessantly, trying to drag its owner closer to the edge of the platform for whatever reason.
Click to expand...

Wanted to throw itself on the track of the oncoming train I imagine.
 
Maybe irresponsible, maybe no....

Myself, horse, and OH (our ever-loyal foot soldier) popped out of a trail into the Mugdock carpark, and I saw a car, on the other side of the carpark, open its boot, and then definitely three but maybe four huge GSD or LG-type dogs hurled themselves out of it and ran up a trail playing and wrestling with one another. They were big and tawny. My first guess was GSD but I know some livestock guardians have that kind of coat, and they were big. You could have put a saddle on them. The owner, meanwhile, had their heads buried in the car sorting out their stuff, and didn't seem to be paying much attention to the dogs.

Proposition 1: the dogs were beautifully well-trained, well-behaved, under perfect voice/sight control, and maybe just a wee bit excited to get out of the car, so the owner was behaving in a perfectly reasonable manner, letting them run up the trail a bit while they organised their gear for their walk.

Proposition 2: they weren't, in which case, do you want to meet a pack of big scary wolf-like dogs running off-lead whilst you are on a horse?

Because the consequences of Proposition 2 are pretty f*)kcing life-threatening for myself and horse, OH and I chose a route they would be unlikely to take (not our orginal plan, but fine), and we never saw them, so all good. But if we'd started our hack five or ten minutes later, we would have had a damn good chance of running into them. If it had been some border terriers or spaniels, I would have been wary but not that concerned, but these looked like the last things in the world you want to meet on your horse if they are a pack and the owner has suboptimal control. I made an assumption that the sort of person who lets their huge dogs (or any dogs) fly out of the car in a busy carpark and then run up a trail that anyone could be on, while the owner obliviously faffs in their car, is maybe not the world's most responsible dog owner, and given we could (most likely) avoid them, we did.
 
Caol Ila said:
*knocking on wood* All the dog walkers in Mugdock for the last few weeks have been incredibly well-behaved. When will we exit this parallel universe? I don't want to.

To be honest, the number of dog incidents has significantly reduced since the park installed signs *everywhere* saying basically, "these are multi-use trails" and the signs have graphics of dogs, children, and, importantly, ***horses***. I had been pleading for signs for ages, and people were like, "but no one will pay attention to signs." I disagree. I think people are morons but most want to follow rules. So if there are signs (many!) saying there are horses around, they will keep an eye and put dogs on leads. Before the park installed the signs, I had far more frequent dog debacles, and the owners acting extremely mortified, saying,"I didn't expect to see a horse." But since the park put up the signs, most dog owners are far more switched on. They don't see the hoof prints and horse shite on the trail, but they see signs! Yeah, you'll get the odd entitled douchebag who doesn't care, but if the signs make the far larger numbers of clueless but well meaning idiots keep their dogs under control, then I'm happy.
Click to expand...

We've seen the same effect at a reservoir we walk which has just installed "all dogs must be on leads" signs. Far fewer dogs off lead, those that are still off lead mostly well under control and grovelling apologies from 2 different owners whose dogs bothered us.
.
 
I think half of them have come for a holiday in Hampshire. I have a reactive gsd (she's partly anxious, partly frustrated greeter, and doesn't keep her feelings to herself!) and pick walks and times that are usually quiet with very few dogs around. Apart from this weekend, apparently.

Three separate occasions of small off lead things racing up to my dog. The owners apparently couldn't give a fluff. No attempt to call the dogs, put them on leads or do anything at all to stop them trying to get in the face of the shouty barky ridiculous shepherd with the shouty owner 🙄 It feels like they don't care at all what happens to their dogs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top