Really shocked by my mums comments today!

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poiuytrewq

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My mum today was telling me how she has written to the council about a bit of pavement she deems dangerous. It runs alongside a main A road which is busy and fast. Only a short stretch from a crossing along to a footpath. The pavement is right up to the road then there’s a very over grown area then fencing so she has suggested the path be moved over by the fence so walkers are further from the big lorries that thunder along.
Fair enough, she claims it’s scary they pass so close.
I admit to getting a bit nervous driving past kids and dogs on bloody extendable leads etc!
However, she then came out with “even the dog doesn’t like it anymore, I always put her on the outside because obviously if one of us is going to be hit it’s better off being her” 😳😳
Now of course I’d rather their dog get injured than my mum. I kinda get what she was saying but fml if it were me and my dog that thought process would be the absolute opposite! I can’t begin to imagine thinking that situation is dangerous I’ll risk my beloved dog before myself. I don’t go that way much but I always walk between my dog and traffic.
Stunned me!
 
Goodness, she's very frank :)
There's an overgrown path in our village and I always put my dogs on the path and I walk on the road. I'm hoping that a speeding motorist will be less likely to run me over than the dogs.
 
Oh my goodness - I have to say I always have and always will put myself in danger over and above any of my many animals, the same as I did when my children were little.
My feeling is that most of our animals be they house pets/ yard dogs or horses, whatever are very much like young children, unpredictable, often do very stupid things etc. etc., but they are entrusted to us to do our utmost to keep them safe and well, even if doing that can from time to time put our selves at risk in preference to risking their safety.

but dont be too hard on your Mum - I am assuming (I know I should not assume anything on here :D ) that like myself she is now the mother of very much older or even middle aged children, I also come out with some gob smacking comments from time to time and when I reflect on them later I find I didnt actually mean to say quite that at that the time! :eek::D
 
I'd always put a dog (or horse) on the inside of me, for control reasons as well as emotional reasons.. plus, as previously mentioned, you'd hope that a driver would take more care not to hit a human, if it really came to the crunch.

I have three dogs. If i have to go on a busy, or narrow bit of road i have two walking two abreast in front of me, and the third on the inside of me, plus i try and gauge when traffic is coming and nip into passing places etc (benefit of a hilly area - you can see things coming).
 
My OH always puts me on the inside because I am shorter and fit under the overhanging hedges, but it has the added benefit of him getting splashed by passing motorists driving through puddles, and not me.

But to keep on topic, I always put my dogs on the inside when I'm on a pavement, or when I squash us onto a verge.
 
Realistically it seems unlikely that anyone managing to hit the person/animal on the outside on a presumably short leash would not also be hitting the accompanying person.

It's automatic for me to put them on the side away from traffic though.
 
Where I walk there aren't pavements, just a narrow grass verge. I always keep the dogs on the grass verge and I walk in the round myself. I do work on the assumption cars are more likely to pull round me, though more often than not I have to step to the side and stop when ignorant drivers don't slow down at all.
 
Me and OH we're watching a film with a scene that involved a couple, their beloved dog and an intruder with a shotgun. Hubby flippantly asked me "who would you let him shoot, me or the dog?" My reply, according to OH was not as spontaneous as he would have liked and he sulked for days. Dog, however, looked v smug. When I watch The Grand National, I'm only worried about the welfare of the horse when there is a faller, I confess I don't really give a second thought to the jockey. 🤔
 
How odd..... I wouldn’t dream of putting my dog between the traffic and me, it is absolutely always the other way round! I’m somewhat of a larger object for drivers to see and - hopefully - manoeuvre around 😊

ETA - that also goes the rare occasions I’m walking all four of them on a road, although obviously I limit that as much as possible for safety and practicality reasons 😊 They all walk perfectly as two pairs of two....
 
Dog on the inside, but with him being a JRT I can and do pick him up and carry him on tricky stretches of road.

I was thinking of this after my near miss on the horse recently on a blind bend. Had it been my neighbour who walks his 3 black labs on that same piece of road, he and they would have been toast.
 
I double lead mine near any properly busy roads! One to a harness and one to his neck. We only really do that at service stations as our ‘block’ is all lanes or 30s and he’s really a fields and running dog, road walking does nothing for him!
 
Ours are double leaded all the time, Rotters' cone/pyramid shaped necks mean that collars can easily be backed out of!

Most of our daily walking includes very quiet roads, one is a left-hand dog and the other a right-hand dog but on the rare occasions when I do the circle with them that includes a short stretch of faster road with narrow pavement, I have them both at the same side, away from the traffic. I usually walk in the road with the dogs on the narrow pavement, one behind the other. One of them thinks that she should be between me and the traffic, though, and has to be persuaded otherwise.
 
I wouldn't dream of putting my dog on the outside next to the traffic, they only need to spook at something and swing their bum round and their back end would be in the road!
 
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