Off lead dogs on pavement AGAIN!

catkins

I have posted on here before about the amount of people who walk dogs offlead in my area and that most of them have little or no control over them. My local council and dog warden say it is not an offence for dogs to be walked offlead in my area on the pavement.


I really am sick of it now. I have 2 dogs - 1 is 19 months and is still quite excitable and I am working on this. The other is only 7 months and is a rescue. He was kept in a barn and so everything is new to home- walking, cats, birds, people, literally everything. He is also pretty excitable and at present doesn't walk that well on a lead.


It seems I can rarely walk either of them without seeing at least 1 offlead dog which then starts jumping around my dog. Yesterday in a half hour walk we met 4 different offlead dogs and each one ran over to my dog, started jumping on or around my dog. At one time I was talking to a woman with 2 young children and a black lab ran over and almost sent one of her children flying.


Not one of the owners said anything even though it was obvious I was not happy. My dog actually growled at one of the dogs which he has never done before and the owner said something like "oh come on Alfie that's not a friendly dog" to his dog giving me a filthy look.


I can't drive so have no option but to walk the dogs locally. Other dog owners have said to me that they don't like it either - one guy has a dog reactive german shepherd and, of course, it is him that gets the abuse when an offlead dog runs up to it and his dog reacts.


I am not talking about in parks or fields. I am talking about on the pavement or walkways

cottage_retreatist

hey catkins

I know exactly how you feel - my german shep has always been ridiculously over-protective and barks at other dogs but the worst reaction is to dogs off-lead as they can run up to her - my OH actually told a man who was letting his puppy off the lead on the street to put his dog on a lead to which the man replied to how aggressive our dog was

she's an absolute softy but dogs off leads make her anxious and it always hits me hard when people says such things.

I hope it goes ok in your area - i just think people are very inconsiderate - at the end of the day leads are as much about keeping the dogs safe on the roads as other people!

x

nonnatus

I feel your pain OP!


Mine are always on a lead on pavements and if I see other dogs approaching I generally snap the leads on too - it makes us all feel safer. BUT SO MANY idiots let their darling dogs run about uncontrolled. They always zoom in on me and my pack, getting tied in leads and being growled at.


I stand still and pull mine close, waiting for the owner to saunter along in their own sweet time. They shout something like "oh tiddles is harmless, just wants to say hello - are yours unfriendly then??"


I say "No, not unfriendly, just very well behaved and I don't want them picking up bad manners from the loose dogs around here...".


Their bemusement is priceless whilst they try and assess whether I'm insulting them or not!

KMR1984

I was under the impression it was an offence to have a dog off lead on a public highway? Does this differ from council to council?

We have signs all over lamp posts around here regarding fines for your dog being off lead/fouling.

I wouldn't dream of keeping mine offlead near a road, even if I were allowed to.

Would it be worth getting together with some of the more sensible dog owners and approaching the council, asking them to consider a change to the local laws?

neveranymoney

Yup, I'm in your club too.

Almost every, pleasant dog walk we have seems to end on a sour note due to other peoples complete selfishness, IMO.

Why one woman thought it was completely acceptable to allow her two dogs to bark and growl at Shadow repeatedly and for one of them to actually jump up my leg is beyond me - could she call them back? Could she heck.

Or the woman who doesn't watch her dog at all whilst she studiously collects driftwood, leaving her dog to run and approach all and sundry whilst barking and getting on and causing a nuisance to everyone else who is trying to enjoy the beach.

We have been warned that in the glen we love to go to, a guy with two very specific breed dogs (I won't name them for fear of being told im'breed bashing') routinely has them off lead and they will attack any and all dogs they see and he couldn't give two damns.

I've been cornered by a man with not a lead in sight and a year old Doberman and rescued springer who by his own admission is 'odd', who proceeded to give me all sorts of invaluable advise - no raw bones, but his gets cheese and ham toasties, slap them on the nose, all the while trying to control the Doberman with his finger through a choke chain. He then went on to say that it has bolted across a road and been hit by a car and was very cross about it, even I, who wouldn't say boo to a goose interjected that it was his fault and he was very lucky the poor dog wasn't killed and that he wasn't sued by the driver.

This morning, a woman had one dog onlead and the other off. Would the off lead dog heed her? Of course not, I don't know how it ended up as it hurtled along merrily towards the main road at rush hour traffic.

Is it us? Do we just not get it? I cannot for the life of me understand why people want to risk their own dogs safety and that of others. I have been in that position myself and it was truly horrific.

Shadow LOVES everyone and everything and we know we couldn't trust her off lead unless we are in a field with full 360' views of who and what is coming so unless we know the other dog, she is popped back on lead before she can gallop off. My husband and I both agree, left to her own devices, she is going to get a severe telling off by another dog and it is our job to prevent that. It's not even just about being gracious to other dog owners, lots of people don't like dogs and certainly wouldn't like to be jumped on or whatever, no matter how 'friendly' the dog is.

If you can control your dog off lead, knock yourself out but I wish to God parks etc would put up posters at entrances saying the same in big bold, fun colours that attract the eye, instead of the tiny, bureaucratic notices that most people ignore, something like;

'Not everyone loves your dog as much you do, please consider others and only let them off lead if you can call them back in all instances so others can enjoy this place.'

catkins

KMR1984 wrote: »

I was under the impression it was an offence to have a dog off lead on a public highway? Does this differ from council to council?

We have signs all over lamp posts around here regarding fines for your dog being off lead/fouling.

I wouldn't dream of keeping mine offlead near a road, even if I were allowed to.

Would it be worth getting together with some of the more sensible dog owners and approaching the council, asking them to consider a change to the local laws?

I originally thought it was an offence to have a dog offlead on the pavement but apparently it does differ from council to council.


I have phoned, emailed and written to the council and dog warden countless times and each time get the same reply which is basically "it is not an offence to have a dog offlead even on the pavement unless it can be classed as dangerous".


I saw one dog keep darting into the road (a road which is busy and has buses running along it). I told the council and dog warden and they said that was not classed as dangerous!!!


My previous dog was dog reactive after being attacked while on lead and that was a total nightmare.

Person_one

nonnatus wrote: »

I feel your pain OP!


Mine are always on a lead on pavements and if I see other dogs approaching I generally snap the leads on too - it makes us all feel safer. BUT SO MANY idiots let their darling dogs run about uncontrolled. They always zoom in on me and my pack, getting tied in leads and being growled at.


I stand still and pull mine close, waiting for the owner to saunter along in their own sweet time. They shout something like "oh tiddles is harmless, just wants to say hello - are yours unfriendly then??"


I say "No, not unfriendly, just very well behaved and I don't want them picking up bad manners from the loose dogs around here...".


Their bemusement is priceless whilst they try and assess whether I'm insulting them or not!

You really should let your dogs socialise and play with others from time to time.

Not on the pavement obviously, but where its safe, its so good for them and they love it so much.

catkins

Obviously I am not the only one with the problem.


It's actually making what should be a nice walk into often a stressful time.


Today there was a small black dog running around with no owner in sight. The dog had no collar so I assumed it had escaped. It was jumping around my dog and I was trying to grab it when two young guys appeared (probably aged about 16).


I asked if I was their dog and they said yes. I then asked if it had escaped and they looked at me like I was mad and said no, they were walking it and it was only 4 months old. I suggested it should have a collar on for a start and that it wasn't really a good idea that it ran so far from them. I said if I had kept walking and crossed the road the dog would probably have followed me.


They didn't answer but I bet they take no notice and I guess I will be seeing that dog again. It took them quite a while to catch it as they didn't have a collar to try and grab and then they had to carry it!!!

valk_scot

I think it's normally when the dog is out of control that it's classed as an offence but this doesn't mean the dog necessarily has to be kept on a lead. In my area anyway. It's also an offence here for a person under 12 to be in sole charge of a dog as the presumption is that a child won't be able to control the dog properly.


My neighbour doesn't keep his crossbreed on a lead most of the time but the dog heels him as if her nose is stuck to his calf muscle, she's so well trained. He stops, she sits. I've never seen her so much as twitch if another dog runs up to her, until she's told to go and play. Now that's better than most dogs can manage, lead or no lead. Surely good training is paramount, backed up by a lead when circumstances warrant?

MothballsWallet

nonnatus wrote: »

I feel your pain OP!


Mine are always on a lead on pavements and if I see other dogs approaching I generally snap the leads on too - it makes us all feel safer. BUT SO MANY idiots let their darling dogs run about uncontrolled. They always zoom in on me and my pack, getting tied in leads and being growled at.


I stand still and pull mine close, waiting for the owner to saunter along in their own sweet time. They shout something like "oh tiddles is harmless, just wants to say hello - are yours unfriendly then??"


I say "No, not unfriendly, just very well behaved and I don't want them picking up bad manners from the loose dogs around here...".


Their bemusement is priceless whilst they try and assess whether I'm insulting them or not!

You can practically hear the gear wheels in their head turn at 1 revolution every 1 billion years trying to work it out

neveranymoney

Catkins, we are now in the generation of know it alls.

I mentioned in a previous post that my husband works with a guy who owns a boy lab the exact same age as my own hooligan. To cut a very long story short, we are meeting up with them for the dogs to have a play as they will be going to a hydrotherapy pool this weekend hopefully. We are only going as It works out cheaper to take two dogs rather than one and for the craic of it, the other pup has serious tendon pain and was at one stage unable to stand up due to the owners over walking it severely. The vet told them as much, as did my husband but from what I can gather, the dog must be loopy in the house and this is the only way to tire it out and the man admitted to my husband that he had the dog out for 3 hours yesterday!

As the old saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. I would be lost and would have made manys a grievous mistake without advice from others and places like this and if only people thought of others than being so blooming wrapped up what suits them and that they know better, what a fab place it would be.

There is a doggy park a good drive away from us that opens in late spring and seems to be extremely popular, so I had googled it to find out more as we will be having a staycation this summer and one of the opening lines on the site about safety really tickled me - 'all dogs can bite, yes, even yours!' You couldn't put it plainer really, be responsible!