Mini Rant - Apologies to all the Good Dog Owners

17 pages, 4 bans and a flounce.

Lots of dogs about that were bought during lockdown and haven't been well trained, or even trained at all. Combined with new dog owners who didn't really give dog ownership the serious thought that they perhaps should've. It's a winning combo.

I see something of the same to folks who've recently taken up cycling and/or running on shared tracks/trails and other spaces, headphones in, centre of the path/track. Obvious to every-one around them.

My parting comment to one yesterday on a path in south Manchester was "pretend that you live in a city and you have to share the space with other people" he just looked at me funny.

Illegitimi non carborundum etc

My dogs have no training at all.  However, they love people and they weigh 1.6kg each so it doesn't actually matter.

I have returned to just riding on road now and the lack of dogs to deal with is a nice thing indeed.  Not even many cars either as I tend to ride at 6am.

Sounds all a bit theatrical

Dog owner here - my little sheite is mostly on a lead - only off it in the field behind our house. Not an aggressive bone in her body - she’s very passive and rarely goes up to other dogs unless they are very small and waggy.

Yet out on walks she gets all sorts of dogs lunge at her barking / snarling. This morning one brown lab randomly and a security guard with an Alsatian / German Shepherd on a lead went berserk and the guy struggled to hold onto it.

Anecdotally I’d say since lock down there are more and more badly trained / aggressive / out of control dogs - a lot of them big bruising things that could do a lot of damage.  It’s almost like people should have a mandatory requirement to take dogs on training courses for a period of time when new - at least to socialise them / get some kind of recall going if nothing else.

If the dogs can’t be friendly / are any skins of risk then they should always be on a lead and never left to roam. If bitey then a muzzle too preferably.

We'll see what happens tomorrow - the dog has chased before but I'm usually too far away. Was actually going very steady this morning as it was hissing it down and it's a slipy path for slicks.

I'd rather not get bitten. If stopped I'll remind her that if it does it again then I'll report it to the police, nothing more I can do. PS I've owned dogs, and all my family and friends have them.  I was badly scratched, drawing blood, last autumn on the way to work when a dog got my calf, so I'm slightly less forgiving at present.

I've got a friend that was bitten badly in the thigh by a 'Labrador' recently - something seriously wrong with owner training for those dogs to bite - again, cyclist, got off put bike between him and dog, but it out manoeuvred him and bit him. Police said it was his fault for moving the bike in the way !

Anecdotally I’d say since lock down there are more and more badly trained / aggressive / out of control poorly socialised dogs – a lot of them big bruising things that could do a lot of damage.

This is the main cause for dog-on-dog problems. Dogs need to learn how to get on with other dogs, from a young age. The intricacies of body language, eye contact, head position, tail position, posture etc etc are amazing, and they only learn by doing. Lots of puppies missed out on this in lockdown, and the problems are starting to show. So, you have a dog that's poorly socialised, so it reacts to other dogs (either in an overly-aggressive (which is normally actually a fear response) or a friendly- but-overly-enthusiastic way, so the owner keeps it on a tight lead, so the dog can never interact properly with other dogs, so it never learns and the cycle continues...

My sister's lab is lovely, adores his 2 year old 'baby brother'. But, he's terrible out with other big dogs. Fine with small ones, but other large dogs, he's very aggressive. You've got to hold on constantly with the lead with both hands. He's had loads of training. He isn't allowed off the lead where there are other dogs likely to be about. That's where responsible ownership is. If you know your dog has a 'thing' about chasing stuff etc, if you are in a public place, I shouldn't be the one worrying about getting bitten, because I'm on a bike and your dog doesn't like them.

All dogs should have licence plates. The tail seems a good place to hang it.

Police, traffic wardens, street sweepers, etc will get a new gizmo, stick it in dog eggs and it will display the owner's name & address (based on the national DDD (Dog DNA Database)). Owner gets an immediate fine. Repeat offenders get their nose rubbed in it.

All dogs under 2kg will be reclassified as a new species. 😉 Something like a cross between a cat and a rabbit. Rat? No wait, that's taken... Fairly fitting though sometimes... Needs more thought here.

All sheep will be issued with their own shotguns.

Compulsory muzzles in public unless the dog/owner has a valid "well trained dog" certificate.

Vote for me!

One of the big problems with dog owners is 99% of them think they and their dogs are "better" than average, they just cannot see the problems they and their dogs cause.

My dogs have no training at all.  However, they love people and they weigh 1.6kg each so it doesn’t actually matter.

They are not dogs, they are rats in disguise.

I can recommend the zefal hpx frame fit pump/extending baton as a last resort, but any dog that comes running towards me gets told 'SIT' usually works

Compulsory muzzles in public unless the dog/owner has a valid “well trained dog” certificate.

For both the dog and the owner yeah?

Round here, the muzzel is for the owner - the park was in 'scums ville' anyway, so I should expect nothing less. Afternoons and evenings are to be avoided unless you want mugging, or running down with sur-rons on the run from cops.

friendly- but-overly-enthusiastic way, so the owner keeps it on a tight lead, so the dog can never interact properly with other dogs, so it never learns and the cycle continues…

I was thinking about this the yesterday after I'd taken my dog for a walk at lunchtime. Mine was off the lead and chasing a ball I knew there where other dogs around in the field but I saw two ladies talking the other side of a bank of trees with a couple of dogs. They must have finished chatting and one set off around the trees, her dog saw mine and made a bee line for her. I could her the lady shouting hers but dog was still running over to us. I got my dog back on the lead so they didn't both run off and when the other dog got to us it was lovely and just wanted to play, which is how my dog usually is, but mine was now pulling away and seemed a bit scared. Both dogs the same size and age.

Talking to my wife about it later on we wondered if it was because she was on her lead and didn't feel like she had any control so regressed and felt a bit scared. Maybe I should have let her off again, but the lady had no control of hers so I didn't want them both buggering off...

Mines only 9 months old and I am VERY apologetic if I get it wrong around others that don;t want my dog near them.

I robustly suggested to a friend a little while ago what I thought of many dog owners, momentarily forgetting that he had a dog. Whoops.

Regular readers will know that one of my life mantras is that with any demographic it's the vocal minority who give the rest a bad name. I don't doubt that it's the same with dog owners and there's a hefty degree of confirmation bias at play. But my god there's some self-entitled douche canoes out there.

In the last couple of months there has been a sudden uptick on the street outside my house of huge dog eggs like King Kong's finger, along with a ton of discarded fag ends. I suspect these two occurrences are not wholly unrelated. If I catch them it's going to get a 3x D-cell Maglight up its arse. And so's the dog.

I will say again, apologies to the good owners out there !  There is a big enough tiny minority for this to be an issue - how many dogs in the UK ? 0.001% is still an issue. That said her kids/etc are probably just as feral.

Talking to my wife about it later on we wondered if it was because she was on her lead and didn’t feel like she had any control so regressed and felt a bit scared.

Yeah, this is common, dogs are often worse on a lead than off, as they don't have the freedom to move as they'd want to and feel effectively cornered in.

Maybe I should have let her off again, but the lady had no control of hers so I didn’t want them both buggering off…

Mines only 9 months old and I am VERY apologetic if I get it wrong around others that don;t want my dog near them.

At nine months it needs to be playing, interacting and learning, so just get your recall absolutely nailed so if there is an issue you know you can always call yours back.

Aside: the only neighbouring dog owner I actually know lives a couple of doors down. He's got some sort of little terrier thing and it's adorable, well trained and soft as muck. If those logs are coming out out of that dog it must have a ringpiece like a blood orange.

At nine months it needs to be playing, interacting and learning, so just get your recall absolutely nailed so if there is an issue you know you can always call yours back.

Yeah she's pretty good now, but we're still working on it. Always been one the most important things for us to get right.

it must have a ringpiece like a blood orange.

Wordsmithery par excellence 👍

I think that part of the problem is that there's a sub-culture of encouraging fierceness in dogs by some owners.

Facebook keeps trying to show me videos of "trained" "protection dogs" that can supposedly tell the difference between a mildly aggressive assault and an accidental push on a child, and then will attack the aggressor. The idea that these dogs are safe around people is pie in the sky.

In one of the tragic accidents where a child was killed, I think that the dog had been bought from an operation that called itself Gangsta Bullies or similar...

a ringpiece like a blood orange.

think we've found our new poet laureate

I think that part of the problem is that there’s a sub-culture of encouraging fierceness in dogs by some owners.

That's no doubt an issue (and there was - perhaps still is, I'm not sure - a problem fairly locally with dogs being bred either for fighting / gambling on or simply as 'gangsta' trophy dogs as you say).

But anecdotally it feels that those numbers pale into insignificance in comparison with owners who are either incompetent, believe the light shines out of their fur baby's arse* and can do no wrong, or simply just can't be arsed.

(* - which could be arranged, as per my earlier post😁)

All dogs should have licence plates. 

And high viz jackets. They don't even pay insurance ffs

The dogs that make me sigh inwardly whenever I see them off the lead are those Cocker-poo things. I really hate to generalise (but I'm going to) both they and their owners too often fall into the "badly behaved/owner couldn't give a chuff" category for it to be coincidence or observational bias

Lots of dogs about that were bought during lockdown and haven’t been well trained, or even trained at all. Combined with new dog owners who didn’t really give dog ownership the serious thought that they perhaps should’ve. It’s a winning combo.

There was a story in The Times the other day about a rise in dog attacks, and it included a stat that I found really quite shocking…

“ The rise in attacks in part reflects the huge increase in dog ownership during the pandemic. Figures compiled by UK Pet Food show the number of dogs in this country increased by 3 million to 12 million between 2019 and last year.”

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/violent-dog-attacks-leave-owners-with-only-small-fines-6vj6thtmq

I hate to say “something must be done!”, but it does feel like something must be done!

So action tomorrow and the next few days. PS this is a regular that is there every day.

1. Plan to ignore the owner unless either "it" or the dog get's in the way. Any verbals, I'll just say 'control your dog'.
2. Any confrontation I'll just remind them that it's not OK to feel like I'll get bitten by an out of control dog, and I'll be calling the police if it happens again.
3. Issue a contract on the dog owner - should solve the issue.

Why do dog owners get proper angry when ypu ask tjem nicely to pick up someone else's dogs turd.
They have bags, and techniques to do it safely
They know where to launch it imto a hedge so zero embarrassing moment of having a chat whilst holding a placcy bag full o shite.
End up saying jusy give me the bleeding bag if you're too entitled to do it.

The dogs that make me sigh inwardly whenever I see them off the lead are those Cocker-poo things. I really hate to generalise (but I’m going to) both they and their owners too often fall into the “badly behaved/owner couldn’t give a chuff” category for it to be coincidence or observational bias

I will join you in your generalisation

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-49826945

Why do dog owners get proper angry when ypu ask tjem nicely to pick up someone else’s dogs turd.

To be fair,

It's as much your responsibility as theirs (which is perhaps arguably "none"). We should all be trying to keep our environment tidy of course and it's the right thing to do, but pointing the finger at someone else just because they happen to have a dog too seems something of a leap.

I like a beer occasionally but if someone random instructed me to go pick up someone else's discarded can of Stella they'd likely get short shift. Is there something wrong with their own arms?

Compulsory muzzles in public .

What about the dogs?

Seriously, if the owner has implied a threat for tomorrow, see if the local dog warden or Safer Neighbourhood officer could be nearby. At the least, I'd have a GoPro fitted on a chest harness or handlebars.

That's a good point. I've found over the years that people often tend to experience Catastrophic Bravado Failure when it's pointed out to them that they're on camera.

Them actually being on camera may be real or merely suggested, of course. 😁

Hiya,

Like all aspects of life in general. The majority are good. The 1% ruin it for the rest of us. I have a dog and have had two dog attacks and bitten. In both cases I had camera footage from my cycle cam and sent to the Police. In both cases the Police followed up and the owner was forced to muzzle in one case and have compulsory fencing to be erected around the owners house, to stop the dogs from escaping. In the latter case the Police had been trying to get evidence against the owner because the dogs had been terrorizing children on their way to school.

Out of all dogs the ones that worry me the most are Collies and my own dog is a Collie cross. In both attacks they were the dogs that attacked me. I know they need good training, more than most from my own experience. My own dog is more interested in saying hello rather than anything else, but I keep her close when cyclists go past, as not to scare them or cause them to fall off by trying to say hello 😉

JeZ

Got a camera, but I think it's broken, they don't know that !

Dog owner here. He's never on the lead unless we're near cars. We're always in the woods or country parks.

At the first sight of a cyclist, jogger etc approaching I command him to move to the side of the path, then he's told to sit and wait.

Pains me to see folk completely oblivious to the inconvenience their rampant dog causes

Issue a contract on the dog owner

Gosh are you Tony Soprano?

One of our cycling buddies is off for the best part of the summer with a broken shoulder as he went over an extended lead across a cycling path. He's 75.

<p style="text-align: left;">Cyclists are fine with my mutt, show her an electric scooter though and she turns feral. She's on lead only when out and about though as she's too independent when it comes to recall.</p>
Also, my wife was bitten by a dog she was dog sitting this weekend, no prior problem or warning, but she was close to him on the sofa. 20 stitches around her lips and mouth. It's easy to forget that we effectively have wild animals in our houses, and that they have very sharp teeth.

Pre-empting the likelihood of the 'threat' and a confrontation - I've reported it to the council dog warden (the web site says to report anything like this) as the dog has chased me before. If the owner make a scene, I shall just say the incident has been reported to the dog warden as this is classed as a recreation ground. I don't want to end up in a slanging match, never ends well for either side, right or wrong.

I've checked the council pages and the area is classed as a recreation ground where children play, so dogs should be 'under control' - I think it should be 'owners under control', but hey ho.

I'm always careful near dogs as not to startle them, not do I want to run one over, so always pass slowly and carefully letting the owner know I am there. This owner and dog were not near me, owner clearly saw me, so I think it's justified.

an extended lead across a cycling path.

As a dog owner myself, I despair at the number of people out with their dogs on pavements or pedestrian crossings with the dogs on extended leads but not under control.

As a cyclist I had to swerve at the last minute round a red faced man who was stood on one side of the road with his dog going to sniff the hedge at the other side of the road on an extended lead. He then had the temerity to try and tell me that I was breaking the law by riding a bicycle without a bell.

I'd just ride somewhere else ?

I was in Canada and one thing that was really noticeable was that pretty much every dog I saw in public was on a lead at all times, unless they were in a specially designated 'dog park', where you'd see a dozen dogs charging about and owners chatting/throwing balls.

I thought it was very civilised.

This even extended to being out in the woods, which seemed a bit harsh on the dogs, although I suspect bears don't care if 'he's only being friendly' so it's probably for the dog's own safety.

He then had the temerity to try and tell me that I was breaking the law by riding a bicycle without a bell.

This is (perhaps) interesting.

I've just bounced across to The Highway Code. Am I being blind or have they had a bonfire of outdated rules for road cyclists? You need front and rear lights at night (flashing LEDs are fine), a reflector at the back, and... that's it. No pedal reflectors or suchlike, most everything else is advisory.

show her an electric scooter though and she turns feral

Funny story, a mates dog used to go utterly nuts every time he rode out from the house on his XC/race bike, if he went out on any other bike, the dog would just cock an ear and watch him leave.

We eventually worked out that it was the dry bushes in his pedals. Everything else was shimano, with bearings. The superlightweight pedals had bushings (to save weight). That high pitched squeak drove the dog mad, chucking water all over the bike (and into the bushes) silenced it.

Could be the high pitched whine from either the electronics or the motor causing your dog to go nuts

No pedal reflectors or suchlike, most everything else is advisory.

AFAIK Pedal reflectors etc have never been part of the highway code (or the law), just BS6102 (or whatever passes for it today). So there is an implicit "thing" that a bike without them isn't technically fit for use in public because it's not roadworthy (according to BS6102).

No idea what a lawyer would say, or the police, but i've not had a bike with an actual reflector on it, of any description, for probably 40 years and it's never been commented on. Even when i've been stopped for speeding, or for not wearing a helmet, or for not using the "cycle track" (glass filled gutter).

A loud "no" followed by a firm smack on the nose normally sorts it out, if you want you can tell the dog of too 😉