Hope this doesn't happen on the towpath

[Jon57]

BBC News - Dogs face restrictions after incidents in park
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c148gy5d1r3o

[Alway Swilby]

I hope dogs don't urinate on anglers stuff on the towpath too. As well as my ropes and ash can.

[SLC]

So responsible dog owners suffer because of irresponsible owners who cannot control their dogs. As in other walks of life, politicians take the easy and popular route to solve the problem ignoring dog welfare.

Many dogs need to free run and 10 minutes off the lead is usually more effective in calming their behaviour than 40 minutes on a lead. IMHO too many dogs get too little exercise and it would indeed be a sad day should dogs be prevented from having access to places where they can run free.

[Jerra]

Personally I would like a national all dogs in public places must be on a lead.

[Bee]

We are fortunate, our dog has pretty much every walk off its lead from start to finish but we live in a rural area. if a dog is always on a lead it really doesn't get the chance to become properly socialised with dogs and people and in my experience can lead to unpredictable behaviour which nobody wants. 

[Jerra]

3 minutes ago, Bee said:

We are fortunate, our dog has pretty much every walk off its lead from start to finish but we live in a rural area. if a dog is always on a lead it really doesn't get the chance to become properly socialised with dogs and people and in my experience can lead to unpredictable behaviour which nobody wants. 

This raises a few points for me.

 

1.  It is the dog owners responsibility to consider where they can exercise the dog before they get it.

2.  I live in a rural area and often see people exercising dogs in fields I know they have no permission to be in, if they were my fields I would be rather annoyed.

3.  There are a number of people like me who don't enjoy a dog charging towards them with an owner yards behind "shouting its OK he/she is friendly.  Friendly or not I don't want the dog's attention often followed up by jumping up.

 

Yes I know these don't apply to responsible sensible dog owners but in my experience such owners are rapidly becoming the minority.

[blackrose]

32 minutes ago, SLC said:

So responsible dog owners suffer because of irresponsible owners who cannot control their dogs. 

 

Unfortunately, many irresponsible dog owners don't realise that's exactly what they are. Lots of them (claim to) love their dogs and treat them like their children, letting the dogs do anything they want with little consideration of other people.

[LadyG]

Unfortunately there are many stupid people.

Only last week someone was on the towpath with a dog which insisted on jumping up at me, as the idiot owner did nothing I raised my hand and told it to get down,.the ownner then threatened me with violence if I touched his dog, what do you do?

I told him it was his responsibility to keep his dog under control.. 

Edited Tuesday at 09:51 by LadyG

[Arthur Marshall]

54 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

Unfortunately, many irresponsible dog owners don't realise that's exactly what they are. Lots of them (claim to) love their dogs and treat them like their children, letting the dogs do anything they want with little consideration of other people.

I'm not sure there's any other kind, unfortunately. It's always other people's dogs that are the problem. A dog off a lead is basically out of control. Like lunatic cyclists, it's just something we have to live with.

Edited Tuesday at 09:52 by Arthur Marshall

[hider]

I think they show remarkably good sense as long as it is only fisherfolk. I wish I could some times. No, not show good sense, the other thing.

[nicknorman]

1 hour ago, SLC said:

So responsible dog owners suffer because of irresponsible owners who cannot control their dogs. As in other walks of life, politicians take the easy and popular route to solve the problem ignoring dog welfare.

Many dogs need to free run and 10 minutes off the lead is usually more effective in calming their behaviour than 40 minutes on a lead. IMHO too many dogs get too little exercise and it would indeed be a sad day should dogs be prevented from having access to places where they can run free.

Any dog owner allowing its dog to run loose off the lead in a public place is not a responsible dog owner.

[Ray T]

Both the dogs I have had the pleasure of owning have never been off the lead in public places.

 

Millie our first, a JRT, as she was deaf from birth so obviously, we had no recall.

Belle our current dog, a Border Terrier Jack Russel cross, as we didn't get her until she was 2 years old and hadn't been taught recall by the previous owner, who by the way in our opinion, should never have owned a dog.

We take Belle to an official secure dog running field where we can let her off the lead to run and chase her ball which oddly she always brings back to us.

 

hampton hill hounds - Search (bing.com)

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 10:16 by Ray T

[David Mack]

I live in a rural area, and a couple of weeks ago I heard some excited dog barking outside. There was a dog running round the outside of our chicken run. Fortunately the chickens were shut in and not physically harmed, but they were clearly distressed. The dog allowed me to grab it's collar and put it on a lead. I rang the number on it's collar tag and got a surprised owner who said her dog was out with a professional dog walker. She got the dog walker to ring me and we met up so I could hand the dog back. The dog walker said she allowed her charges to be off lead and this is perfectly normal! Clearly she was not in control of the dogs she is looking after.

I wonder if her insurance (if she has any) covers her for the loss of a dog in her charge, or the costs of any harm or damage that the dog causes to somebody else's property?

[Mrs Bearwood Boster]

A dog running free jumped onto our stern & attacked our cat-it actually started to shake him.Husband freed Barney who then jumped into the Gloucester & Sharpness deep/wide canal to get away.Paul had to rescue Barney & fend off the dog at the same time.The owners just stood there-not a word from them,however there were many words from me none of which were polite.

*Barney was uninjured but very scared.Paul was scratched to bits by Barney & bleeding but nothing too serious.I didn't know who to check first for damage...it was Barney !😁

Edited Tuesday at 11:25 by Mrs Bearwood Boster

[IanD]

Badly behaved dogs are a problem, as are badly behaved children -- or badly behaved drivers, or cyclists, or boaters, or people in general.

 

"Badly behaved" is the problem, not one particular class of animals or people... 😞

 

(and for both dogs and children it should be obvious where the real blame lies -- here's a clue, it's not the dogs or the children...)

[LadyG]

1 hour ago, LadyG said:

Unfortunately there are many stupid people.

Only last week someone was on the towpath with a dog which insisted on jumping up at me, as the idiot owner did nothing I raised my hand and told it to get down,.the ownner then threatened me with violence if I touched his dog, what do you do?

I told him it was his responsibility to keep his dog under control.. 

PS I assume threatening people with violence s a criminal offence. Im not sure about dog out of keepers control.  Obviously i was not going to escalate the situation, I went inside my boat, else I would have walked away, hopefully without the dog.

1 hour ago, David Mack said:

I live in a rural area, and a couple of weeks ago I heard some excited dog barking outside. There was a dog running round the outside of our chicken run. Fortunately the chickens were shut in and not physically harmed, but they were clearly distressed. The dog allowed me to grab it's collar and put it on a lead. I rang the number on it's collar tag and got a surprised owner who said her dog was out with a professional dog walker. She got the dog walker to ring me and we met up so I could hand the dog back. The dog walker said she allowed her charges to be off lead and this is perfectly normal! Clearly she was not in control of the dogs she is looking after.

I wonder if her insurance (if she has any) covers her for the loss of a dog in her charge, or the costs of any harm or damage that the dog causes to somebody else's property?

I'm astounded a dog walker lets dogs off the lead, it's not Dog Walking.

Dog is less likely to respond to a stranger anyway. Absolute  madness,

Edited Tuesday at 11:50 by LadyG

[Jon57]

21 minutes ago, IanD said:

Badly behaved dogs are a problem, as are badly behaved children -- or badly behaved drivers, or cyclists, or boaters, or people in general.

 

"Badly behaved" is the problem, not one particular class of animals or people... 😞

 

(and for both dogs and children it should be obvious where the real blame lies -- here's a clue, it's not the dogs or the children...)

Precisely this. I once had a fisherman pee on my dog. 

[Arthur Marshall]

25 minutes ago, IanD said:

Badly behaved dogs are a problem, as are badly behaved children -- or badly behaved drivers, or cyclists, or boaters, or people in general.

 

"Badly behaved" is the problem, not one particular class of animals or people... 😞

 

(and for both dogs and children it should be obvious where the real blame lies -- here's a clue, it's not the dogs or the children...)

"Behave" is not something a dog, or any animal, understands. You can teach humans, more or less. You can't teach a dog much. The owners may be irresponsible, but the dog is the problem. Possibly the whole concept of "owning" another animal is something we should grow out of.

[tree monkey]

5 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

"Behave" is not something a dog, or any animal, understands. You can teach humans, more or less. You can't teach a dog much. The owners may be irresponsible, but the dog is the problem. Possibly the whole concept of "owning" another animal is something we should grow out of.

 

I would argue that point, certainly my last dog (border collie), knew what the rules were, knew to check with me before she did pretty much everything, absolutely understood 'no', would recall immediately, she even knew not to walk on a garden bed, she would wait for me to retrieve her ball/Frisbee if it happened onto a bed

[haggis]

While I appreciate everything that is being said about out of control dogs, I was pleased when my dog appointed herself my carer and got between any dogs we met and me. If the dog was the bouncing up at you type she would " see it off '. Having had a replacement hip and open heart surgery the last thing I wanted was being jumped on by a boisterous dog and having Meg enabled me to go for walks. 

 

[IanD]

1 hour ago, Arthur Marshall said:

"Behave" is not something a dog, or any animal, understands. You can teach humans, more or less. You can't teach a dog much. The owners may be irresponsible, but the dog is the problem. Possibly the whole concept of "owning" another animal is something we should grow out of.

Disagree, dogs can certainly be properly trained and taught not to behave in ways that annoy other people. The fact that many owners can't be bothered to do so -- because it takes time and effort, and knowledge about how to train dogs -- makes it their fault, not the dog's.

 

I've never had a pet dog -- well, not for more than 50 years, and that was a rescue dog which peed everywhere and was pretty much untrainable -- but my daughter does, and it's very well trained (from being a young puppy) and obedient in spite of being bonkers (and great fun) -- it's a sprocker (cocker/springer spaniel cross), say no more... 😉 

Edited Tuesday at 13:33 by IanD

[Arthur Marshall]

11 minutes ago, IanD said:

Disagree, dogs can certainly be properly trained and taught not to behave in ways that annoy other people. The fact that many owners can't be bothered to do so -- because it takes time and effort, and knowledge about how to train dogs -- makes it their fault, not the dog's.

 

I've never had a pet dog -- well, not for more than 50 years, and that was a rescue dog which peed everywhere and was pretty much untrainable -- but my daughter does, and it's very well trained and obedient in spite of being bonkers (and great fun) -- it's a sprocker (cocker/springer spaniel cross), say no more... 😉 

Part of the problem may be the prevalence of rescue dogs which seem to be more or less untrainable, especially street dogs from abroad, which seem to be popular these days.

[haggis]

I just cannot understand why people import street dogs from abroad when rescue centres here are bursting at the seams. It is almost as if they are being seen as status symbols 

[Arthur Marshall]

Just now, haggis said:

I just cannot understand why people import street dogs from abroad when rescue centres here are bursting at the seams. It is almost as if they are being seen as status symbols 

A friend did this and acquired two uncontrollable dogs from Roumania, lied about by the charity which said they were house trained. She tried to get one from a uk kennel but the huge questionnaire put her off. Once handed over complete with incorrect medical records, the charity washed their hands of the whole business and denied any further responsibility.

[Naughty Cal]

Our dog is a rescue and certainly for the first 12-18 months he was a challenge and quite a few times made us question if we had done  and were doing the right thing.

 

It has taken a lot of time, patience and effort to get the dog we have today. He still isn't perfect by any means and still has his moments. He is very rarely allowed off lead time and only when we know 100% there are no other dogs around. We find other ways to tire him out and keep him mentally active and stimulated (which is most of the issue with problem dogs) 

 

He can still be a nuisance. But for this holiday at least he has been a model citizen. He has been too tired to cause trouble, unlike a lot of other dogs we have met. You can tell by the owners physique shall we say how well behaved their canine companion is going to be 🙄