Bloody dogs offlead!!!

catkins

I'm fuming. Just back from an awful walk. My dog is on lead in the park when a little westie runs over. I hold my dog so he doesn't jump at the little one and it promptly starts growling and snarling. I try and walk away and the westie comes with me and starts trying to bite my dog. As fast as I try and pull him away the dog follows snapping and biting. Luckily my dog is longhaired so the westie did not manage to get contact with skin but not for want of trying.


I look for the owner and a girl probably early 20's is ambling towards me. I call politely "can you come and get your dog as it doesn't seem to like mine" to which she shouts "It's not my dog, I'm just walking it"!!!! I don't care whose dog it is, it's attacking mine and I'm not happy. She eventually gets to me and that takes forever to put its lead on. I bet she would have moved herself quicker if my dog had retaliated. Some people think if it is a small dog it is ok.


Then walking back home along the pavement with my dog on lead a large dog comes running towards us and I can't even see an owner. I wonder if it has escaped from a house and then I hear the owner calling it. It starts jumping around my dog and my dog does a small growl because he didn't like it. I turn to walk back the way I came and the dog comes with us. The owner is still pathetically calling and I can see them but quite a distance (couldn't even see if it were a man or woman). I am struggling to walk the other way and drag my dog and this dog just stays with us. Eventually I speed up and manage to get round a corner and the dog doesn't follow. I shouted at the top of my voice "your bloody dog should be on a lead" - no reply.


I have yet again rung my local council and dog warden to be told YET AGAIN that it is not an offence to walk a dog off lead in my area even on a busy street!


It's not right that dog walks should be so stressful and if ever see the second dog owner again (never seen them before) I will give them a mouthful.

Person_one

Its not an offence to walk a dog off lead. I walk mine off lead nearly every day.

The problem is with inconsiderate owners, most of us know not to let them approach dogs on lead.

I'm sorry you've had a rough day though.

Mrs_pbradley936

Well you are a dog lover so can you imagine how bad it is when this happens to people that dislike dogs? Those dogs that chase joggers or steal a ball from kids. If the owner does ever appear all they say is something like "he won't hurt you" or "he is only playing"


Those people get dog owners a bad name.

con1888

I wouldn't walk a dog I didn't own offlead... especially if it was prone to run up to other dogs... that's just silly.

My own dog rarely gets let off lead, usually if we are in a big park with plenty room and near no roads, he's okay recall wise but I always worry just incase... I'm pregnant atm so would take ages to run after him so he only gets off when OH is there also.. or gets off in the private fields near us ( farmer is okay with it as no livestock in these fields).

adouglasmhor

Person_one wrote: »

Its not an offence to walk a dog off lead. I walk mine off lead nearly every day.

The problem is with inconsiderate owners, most of us know not to let them approach dogs on lead.

I'm sorry you've had a rough day though.

It is an offence on any road classed as a highway unless the dog is herding.

Under the Road Traffic Act 1988 it is a criminal offence to cause or permit a dog to be on a road, which has been designated by a local authority as a road to which the Act relates, without the dog being held on a lead. There are exceptions for dogs proved to be kept for driving or tending sheep or cattle in the course of a trade or business and for dogs proved to have been at the material time in use under proper control for sporting purposes.

aileth

When I was younger there was a field near where we used to live, which you could use as a shortcut to get to the other side of the estate. I was always terrified of going there and normally walked the extra 20 minutes around it because of dogs off lead. Each time I came home from school I'd get snapped at, or growled at, and I have no idea how I avoided being bitten. It was ALWAYS the same culprits. Parents were even telling their children to stay off it because of one particular dog, and on confronting the owner got told to 'F off.'

Now that I have my own dog, he is always on a good extendi-lead, (a) for his own safety so I have contact with him in case I see an aggressive dog approaching, (b) because I was in that position of off-lead dogs going up to people and know how petrifying it can be even if the dog isn't aggressive, and (c) because even though my dog isn't dog aggressive, you just never know if he might take a 'dislike' to someone.

Person_one

adouglasmhor wrote: »

It is an offence next to any road classed as a highway unless the dog is herding.

Gee thanks!

Its also pretty stupid to walk them off lead right next to a road, but there are plenty of places where its absolutely fine.

I think its really sad that there are so many dogs in this country who never know the joy of running at full speed across an empty field, or meeting new doggy friends and bounding around together happily because they're always stuck on a lead.

adouglasmhor

Person_one wrote: »

Gee thanks!

Well the OP did mention it was a busy street not a park or field, but you knew that braniac.

gettingready

Zara is on a lead while walking on pavements but off the lead when on the field (just across the road) and chasing her ball.


It is not natural for a dog to be on a lead all the time, all his/her life.

But on the pavement, near a road - all dogs should be on leads.

Person_one

adouglasmhor wrote: »

Well the OP did mention it was a busy street not a park or field, but you knew that braniac.

The first story took place in a park, the second by a road.

adouglasmhor

gettingready wrote: »

Zara is on a lead while walking on pavements but off the lead when on the field (just across the road) and chasing her ball.


It is not natural for a dog to be on a lead all the time, all his/her life.

But on the pavement, near a road - all dogs should be on leads.

My dogs are only allowed off lead in an enclosed space, but as they are ex racers this is needed (no recal and running after small furries at 40 mph otherwise).