Beautiful morning here in the NW so headed off early with Mrs D and our 2 year old for a walk with the dogs around Lyme Park – a National Trust property with massive grounds, deer park etc.

We’d not gone 200m from the car when our little one got knocked over by someone else’s exuberant dog running at him – no harm done, he’s used to dogs, the owner apologised then a bit of growling / barking between one of our dogs and his – dunno what happened. Not much of an issue though, we walked off in a different direction and no cross. The fella’s wife even acknowledged their dog was a bit snappy.

Next thing I know he’s shouting across the field at his kids to keep away from our dogs as they were dangerous. I replied that was rich when his dog had knocked over our little one and ours weren’t the least but interested in his kids (they were about 150yds from his kids and going the other direction!). I know I shouldn’t have said owt, but it was sarcastic and not aggressive.

**** me did that escalate quickly!! He ran across the field, squared up to me, his forehead on mine, threatening me with all sorts of stuff! Pushing and shoving me around in front of his wife and family. Looked like a normal, reasonable chap and his family walking in the countryside on a sunny New Year’s Day!!

I didn’t really react, just stood there with my hands in my pockets but was really wondering whether I was going to start 2020 with a roll around in the mud with some loon over a bit of sarcasm. It was all a bit surreal on a beautiful sunny morning at a National Trust property. Anyway, his mate dragged him off and off we went on our walk – obviously mulling over what had happening and quite where it had all come from.

Just as we were heading back to the car we met the most lovely fella sat by his mtb taking in the views and stopped for a quick chat. I can’t even recall what he said, unrelating to the previous agro as he’d not of seen it, but he was just lovely and restored my faith in humanity. I actually felt a bit emotional at how nice he was – just such a contrast. So on the off chance you frequent STW – thank you! You have no idea how much you changed my day. I wish I said something at the time but it was all just too complicated to explain!!

what can you do, dog owners **** nuts the lot of them.

I volunteer at a NT property, a few months ago a couple of other volunteers asked a chap, nicely, to put his dog on a lead. The bloke went mental, picked up a shovel the volunteers were using and went to hit one of them with it. Fortunately one of them is an ex copper so soon put this guy on his back (via a barbed wire fence)

People are dicks

Sort of road rage with dogs.

Idiot. Angry Brit man.

Your problem was going to Lyme Park in the first place. It’s what the feral scrotes of Stockport regard as ‘The Cuntryside’

Try it on a sunny Sunday in June. It’s like a ****ing zoo. More lobster-coloured tattooed flesh than you can shake a can of Fosters at

So you were assaulted? That’s what the police are for. Ignore anyone who thinks they have better things to do, I’m pretty sure the police quite enjoy arresting aggressive aresholes.

Dog avoidance is one of the reasons we go to National Trust places, there is at least a semblance of dog owners being responsible at them, picking up shit and keeping them on leads. Now just need that to spread to wider society….

Follow him home.

Frozen sausages.

The red mist comes down pretty quick with some folk these days & proportionality goes out the window. Cant help think a NY hangover adds to the mix shortening the fuse further. Sad

Never would have happened in SW 😜

Plus yes the minority of dog owners are blah blah etc etc
True

I am glad you found the good out of a 💩 situation afterwards 👍

Some people are just dicks even dog owners.

Yep, some people are indeed total dicks!! Still playing on my mind – I know I shouldn’t let it bother me but easier said than done. It was just such a disproportionate reaction and yes, probably verging on assault. I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone come at me as full-on and threatening as that, even when booze and youthful exuberance were involved!!

This sort of reaction does seem to happen more these days doesn’t it?

I think some people expect to get this traction in any “confrontation” so feel the need to get in first… Just assuming this is the way it will go anyway.

As you found though op, there are still many, many decent people out there. It’s just they are quieter.

There must be something in the air. I was walking the dog across the fields near my house yesterday. In between the edge of the fields and a housing estate is some scrub land. The dog and I walk this all the time, off the lead.

Anyway, someone in one of the houses has cut 2 dog-sized holes in their fence, one at each end of the fence so about 20 ft apart. I have no idea why. Yesterday, the dog ran in through one hole, and rummaged about a bit in the garden for 10 secs or so.

Just as she was emerging from the other hole, a bloke ran out of the house, shouting and screaming at her. She got startled and ran to me, barking.

Said shouter then began to declaim, in a very loud voice, that my dog should be on a lead. Why have you cut 2 dog-sized holes in your fence, I asked? Do you have a dog or cat that comes and goes, or something?

Unfortunately, this rational question failed to calm him, and he just got louder and louder. I walked off, wishing him a Happy New Year when it comes. Odd chap.

You’d think with Brexit finally happening all the gammons would be jubilant and full of seasonal good will?

devash

Member
You’d think with Brexit finally happening all the gammons would be jubilant and full of seasonal good will?

A true gammon is just angry at everything.

Mainly immigrants though obvs…

I used to have a mate who was a proper hard nut, didn’t look it, but could frighten blokes off with just a few words in their ear. Never knew what he said, but don’t situations like that make you wish you had that skill?? 😎

`Don’t let it bother you but see also my thread title ‘Wish I had a gun’ for a different way of responding (at least in your head!)

@Bullet – how could we forget 🤣

what can you do, dog owners **** nuts the lot of them.

That’s the opinion I’ve come to over the years,I try to avoid them.

Why have you cut 2 dog-sized holes in your fence, I asked? Do you have a dog or cat that comes and goes, or something?

Bravo! I don’t think anyone could have demonstrated the clueless dog owner’s sense of self entitlement any better!! 😂

Doggy folk, doncha just love them.

Bravo! I don’t think anyone could have demonstrated the clueless dog owner’s sense of self entitlement any better

I don’t think that’s entirely fair. If you’ve got a property that backs onto scrub that people walk their dogs on, you can’t get too upset if a dog comes through a hole in your fence. I have horses behind me. There’s a fence. If the fence had a horse sized hole in it and I found Ned munching my petunias, I wouldn’t go and give the Farmer a load of shit about it, I’d fix my fence.

No, but it’s not reasonable to expect livestock in a field to be under proper control. It is reasonable to expect someone walking a dog to keep it under control (even if this isn’t the case in reality).

There must be something in the air today. I was riding up a cycle path on an old tram line in Edinburgh today and a guy was walking with 6 dogs off the lead filling the path. I cycled through carefully (my computer said 3.5mph) having rung my bell a good way back and one inevitably tried diving under my wheels. I muttered an expletive to myself and rode off whilst he yelled at me about slowing down and to come back and take my punishment like a man or something.

Maybe dog licencing should have been made a thing.

No, but it’s not reasonable to expect livestock in a field to be under proper control. It is reasonable to expect someone walking a dog to keep it under control

Absolutely, but people’s idea of what constitutes proper control is the problem here. Coming out of a prohibited area full of interesting smelling stuff that was unexpectedly accessible within 10 seconds sounds eminently reasonable to me; others will think not. It’s a dog, with a brain and curiosity. If you want absolute control, get a drone.

Proper gammons will never be anything other than angry because, try as they might, whatever they do, it cannot actually make them happy. The problem lies within. Strangely, though, if you offer that as a sage piece of advice it just makes them want to lamp you even more. The irony, eh?

If you want absolute control, get a drone.

Or a lead?

Mobile out straight away or the wife gets her mobile out and film everything. Useful if it did come to actual fists.
I think the people that go off have something else going on, just lost their job? Just had a massive argument with the wife and then whatever happens with you is just lighting the touch paper.

Absolutely, but people’s idea of what constitutes proper control is the problem here. Coming out of a prohibited area full of interesting smelling stuff that was unexpectedly accessible within 10 seconds sounds eminently reasonable to me;

No clearly the dog has no concept of what’s acceptable. That’s why it’s the owner’s responsibility.

In the same way that it’s the owner’s reponsibility to avoid it chewing the face off a baby even if the the Dog, quite reasonably, might regard a baby’s face as food.

I think the people that go off have something else going on, just lost their job?

It doesn’t matter. Decent people don’t start fights regardless of the circumstances.

if the the Dog, quite reasonably, might regard a baby’s face as food

Eh? Which man eating dog breed would that be?

In the same way that it’s the owner’s reponsibility to avoid it chewing the face off a baby even if the the Dog

Bingo!

I used to have a mate who was a proper hard nut, didn’t look it, but could frighten blokes off with just a few words in their ear.

Me too. I used to work in Epsom and we were out for a few beers one night in a pub where a group of traveller lads came in (Epsom is known for it, and the travellers were known for descending to fists quite easily). We didn’t do anything but immediately they started giving us the eye and then challenged our group to a game of pool, which we ended up winning when their bloke fouled on the black. It all seemed ok, hands were shaken and we were just getting ready to move on when they came over all aggressively saying that we couldn’t go until we’d given them a chance to ‘win their money back’ (no money had changed hands apart from the 50p they’d put up for the game)

Shaun’s mid forties, wears glasses and is about 5’5″ at best. But, he used to work doors in london, and also was a national standard martial arts in the day. I still don’t know what he said to the ringleader of these lads but it was like magic. I think we nicknamed him Jedi Shaun long before Tony Doyle got that name…..

“zilog6128

Subscriber
Why have you cut 2 dog-sized holes in your fence, I asked? Do you have a dog or cat that comes and goes, or something?

Bravo! I don’t think anyone could have demonstrated the clueless dog owner’s sense of self entitlement any better!! 😂”

You misunderstood me, I’m not expecting any sane person to change their behaviour on my account. Maybe cutting random holes in fences at ground level bordering common land is quite normal in the area of the country that you’re from?

The dog is walking on fallow land, bordering a small housing estate, and many many dogs walk this path every day. 6 houses in a row, all with 8 feet high fences. Only one owner has cut dog-sized holes in his fence- which if you think on it is a fairly unusual thing to do. A fence is there to keep a boundary.

I will be putting my dog on a lead, but only because I suspect this chap might be one who enjoys harming animals.

Maybe he can talk to badgers?

No clearly the dog has no concept of what’s acceptable. That’s why it’s the owner’s responsibility.

No one suggested otherwise, that’s plainly obvious. And if the dog had entered a garden, eaten all the children’s faces and baby robins before buggering off then the owner would clearly be responsible for the damage.

Or a lead?

Of course, but again, there are places that it is reasonable to have a dog off lead in public, and the scrubland referred to by CodyBrennan sounds like such a space. And given that acceptance, recall within 10 seconds from somewhere the dog isn’t allowed but has unexpected access to sounds reasonable to me.

Unfortunately dog disliking absolutists don’t seem to be that good at ‘reasonable’.

No one suggested otherwise, that’s plainly obvious. And if the dog had entered a garden, eaten all the children’s faces and baby robins before buggering off then the owner would clearly be responsible for the damage.

Yes, the owner is responsible in that case, and AFAIK is still responsible if no children’s faces and baby robins were eated.

Maybe cutting random holes in fences at ground level bordering common land is quite normal in the area of the country that you’re from?

I’ve done exactly that. Its to let hedgehogs in and out. I imagine a small dog could fit through them.

I wasn’t aware it would offend the great dog owning public.

Ah, hedgehogs. Thanks SSD. Never thought of that. I do approve of this.

Shaun’s mid forties

How bizarre – my mate, also called Shaun. Spelled same way, too 🙂