Isn’t it about what you experience in that place too? I lived and worked in Finland but I don’t have any affection for it for loads of reasons which I won’t go into now but suffice to say I was in a job where I was valued for being ‘cheap labour’ and was made to feel like a total outsider by pretty much everyone.

What are you doing then, molgrips? People generally can’t tell you why they feel how they feel but my best guess is they feel that way because it allows them to feel/be who they want to be/feel they are.

“Your at it again molgrips. You cannot tell me what i feel is wrong. Its pretty offensive to try.”

TJ has a point. If this was about sexuality, it could be classed as conversion therapy.

Ok, so there’s a fundamental difference. I could change my team very easily. I’d still keep an eye on the other one but I could switch allegiances no problem.
As for love, I definitely don’t love a land mass or a culture. Not sure I love anything to be honest.
Maybe whisky, which is probably why I should stop posting ;)

Perhaps molgrips doesn’t have a heart.
I’m just not sure why a country can be in your heart but when people talk about the overwhelming love they felt when they first held their baby, that is put down to a chemical reaction (see previous threads).
The heart is a muscle, nothing more.
I feel no sense of nationalism or belonging whatsoever and am hoping to leave GB forever in a few years’ time.

So just to clear up a few points. My dog ran up to a child once. I posted about the incident because the OP is bound to have what happened to them and his kids happen again and I thought it might help.
I never said it was right. I never said it has happened since. It was ‘king mistake in unusual circumstances.
As for the park being a dog park, that is what it is used for in the main for reasons already given.
If you want to conclude that I am an entitled dog owner then you are free to do so.
All I will say is I was trying to help. Seems like there’s a number of posters whose only motive is to declare how much they hate dogs/have a go at someone/tell what wonderful individuals they are.

Not much anyone here can do but it sounds to me like the owner actually just needs to be a bit more involved with her dog on a walk. It was clearly looking for fun and wasn’t getting any from her as she uses the time to make phone calls. Maybe not in the incident in question, don’t remember, but she’s clearly not involved. And making phone calls when you are walking your dog is the height of entitlement.

Oh and if you see me here again, please would someone tell me to go to do something more interesting with my time. STW has become like a shit partner. Don’t want to be with them, can’t quite leave.

You’ve got me there Jon. Good work. Another one outed.
I am glad to hear you are all so perfect and never once have made a mistake. I am off to buck my ideas up. Thanks for your help.

From experience I know you like to have the last word jam-bo so I’ll let you have it but I feel no need to re-read anything I have posted.

Where do you start with this shit, IdleJon. Well you could start by growing up and try not being a dick.

But mistakes happen! In all walks of life. And many many things happen which are not acceptable on a daily basis.
Bizarrely, as if to prove a point, Neil Parish has come on the TV!

Explain how I am an entitled dog owner. Be interesting to hear.

Nah, you were just having a pop jam-bo and that’s fine, you do you.

Yeah, could be that one wheel or it could be that the town is mainly inhabited by older people who have dogs and there aren’t many children about. The kids who do go there usually hang out at one area which we avoid. Never get any shit on my shoes but find plenty of discarded food and rubbish.

I feel your pain rikk and am choosing not to react negatively to what is implied but the park I talk about is not like that. I live in a low populated area where it rains a lot so you often don’t see many other people about. You do get some hassle sometimes with off leaders running at my dog but it’s not too bad.

Anyhow, this has descended into the usual shit show which always happens when dogs are mentioned and that is a shame.

Try reading the next sentence @jam-bo

It’s a dog park. Not officially but it’s often empty or most people you see are dog walkers. It’s unusual to see kids there. They took me and doggo by surprise. If your kids are going to play excitedly, it’s not a bad idea to take a look round the park, perhaps tell the dog owner the kids were nervous and ask them to put the dog on a lead.

Any dog can get excited.

Not true re the points about leads.

It’s about judgement. I made the wrong call because I forgot it was the easter holidays. As I said, dad was great, doggo is super friendly, little girl got a bit of a fright which was unfortunate.

“Imo the basic issue is what dog owners think is acceptable behavior isnot acceptable to non dog owners. Train yourdog properly and there is no issue.”

But if there were no signs, as you say, and if we presume the dog has never bitten anyone before (obviously we don’t know), how would training have helped?
As has been said, it sounds like you were just very unlucky.
I had a staffie coming running down the hill at me barking at me aggressively. It came and stood right next to me (I was sat down), stared at me and nipped very close to my face. Owner told me it had been abused and I probably reminded it of its abuser. I can’t say I was best pleased at the time but if we are to believe her, and it had never happened before (don’t know) then I guess it was just one of those things.
Didn’t get a word of apology which might have been nice.
I did a bit of research and learned that I shouldn’t have held eye contact with the dog because that was me challenging it and I should have moved away calmly and quietly.

“Teach your son to run off in a straight line. The dog owner will soon call the dog back if it gets out of sight. I do this on my bike if a dog starts chasing. Just ride/run off and don’t look back. If it will stop at some point.”

Don’t do this!

Sorry TJ, you’re right as usual.

Look out for the signs, TJ. They are pretty obvious to an adult. I’m not saying you should have to but it’s sensible to do so.

As for the law, we are given example every single day of how useless our laws are. Perhaps human beings shouldn’t have taken such a great big dump on the laws of nature.
And rabbits, there’ll be none left soon so we don’t have to concern ourselves with asking them.

My dog is on a lead most of the time but sometimes she goes off. It was an unusual situation. Like I say, it was the Easter holidays. But leads aren’t the answer to everything. People drop leads, they get pulled out of their hands and leads snap.
But I’ll keep my dog on a double lead, one in my hand, one tied round my waist when we are in the park if you like, if people would stop dropping rubbish in the park. Around that time i had to go round the park picking up pieces of hard boiled painted egg that people had been rolling down the hill so my dog didn’t eat them and get sick.

Just for the record, i was bitten as a kid and had to go to hospital. I’ve been chased while riding my bike and my dogs has been attacked and bothered by off lead dogs belonging to the ‘he just wants to play’ brigade or ‘he’s just a puppy’ brigade. I’ve learnt that you have to handle these situations the best way you can because other people are largely going to do what the hell they like because many people simply don’t give a damn.

Agree with aa that the op did nothing wrong but what they were doing was exciting to a dog. I think all you can be is to be aware and, if at all possible, tell the person what you are going to do before you start. Not always possible of course, especially not if the halfwit is on her phone while walking her dog.
In my instance, the people were tourists and came to a park they were unfamiliar with and let their kids start rolling down the hill shouting and laughing. They did nothing wrong but behaving in such an unusual way (to a dog) is going to get the majority of dogs excited.
I think everybody needs to be more aware and stop all this going on about the law and people’s rights and so on. And I don’t think anyone needs to suggest the best way to respond to a dog is to kick it ever again.

I wouldn’t necessarily be against that @kerley but wtf is going to police it?
Many people round here don’t even put their dog on a lead when they are on the road. I had to stop my car yesterday as a dog was loose on the road. It then repeatedly ran up to the car – wanting to interact with my dog probably who was in the car – while the hapless owner tried calling it away to no avail.

“The rights of people trump the rights of dogs.”

Considering what human beings have done and continue to do to other species, what they have done and continue to do the the planet on which we all live, as well as how some people behave, I genuinely struggle to see how anybody can reach that conclusion.

Edited to say: The post directly above has nothing to do with me by the way. I mean, it so beautifully illustrates my point, I worry some of you would think that I have a second account and had written it myself.

I take my dog to a local park and there are sometimes people there but it’s mostly quiet.
We were there one day, she was pottering about and all of a sudden a group of young children and adults came into the park and the young kids started rolling down the hill. It was the Easter holidays.
Doggo got excited and ran over to the little girl, seven-ish.
She jumped up and was a bit scared.
Dad immediately called out:”Stand still, put your arms by your side” which she did. Doggo then went over to the Dad who gave her a fuss. This took seconds, all the while I was making my way over to get doggo and put her on a lead. I apologised and we went on our way.

Obviously, I should have been a bit more on the ball and noticed the people quicker but things happen. I thought it was a great response by the dad. Maybe try that?

As for kicking an exited dog, it’s really not a good idea and it’s not at all fair.
In the OP’s example, yep, woman was totally in the wrong.

Yeah, it can do. My LSS bike gave me back ache and bikes with long top tubes aren’t always great for women! You’ve got to adapt your riding position but sometimes LSS are just not for you and you have to look for something with more traditional geo.

I’m a smidge smaller than you and nearly always go for a small mtb but it depends on the bike. You might be a medium on some bikes and a small on others. Only way is to go to demo some.
The geo of modern bikes has changed so much though that you’re going to get a longer top tube – giving you a more stretched out feel – as well as reach on a small modern bike than on your medium stiffee.
Just had a look at the geo charts
The cove stiffee (2011) in medium has 21.75in top tube
On a Cotic Bfe (maybe not too different a bike) in small has a 23.8in top tube.
It’ll feel like night and day to be honest.

As for bikes, depends what kind of riding you want to do?

@stwhannah
When I said journalists write what they are paid to write, I was responding to this:
“…even most of the junior staff at the tabloids, have views so out of kilter with the majority of people in the UK”
You know, as if those working at the Mail share the same views as Paul Dacre.

Agree with much of what tpbiker says apart from the bit about trans people making a choice about their gender. It’s not a choice in any meaningful sense of the word. But it does mean, in my book, that trans women cannot compete in some professional sports.

“It’s one of the main problems with the way the media works in Britain – even most of the junior staff at the tabloids, have views so out of kilter with the majority of people in the UK.”

I’m going to let you into a little secret… journalists write what they are paid to write.
They may or may not agree with what they write/edit but they often don’t have time to think about it. And, you know, mortgage to pay.

In reply to Superficial
But even there, there’s a problem. Women and girls have long been excluded from sport and have excluded themselves usually because of societal pressures and expectations. So while trans women mtbers would of course be welcomed by most riders riding for fun, there’s a barrier to them participating. As there is women. Things are changing but it’s a long slow process. It’s a tricky one alright!

I don’t know anything about LGF but came across it while surfing about trans people in sport.
The appropriate paragraphs read:
In 2012 Planned Parenthood featured a workshop run by Morgan Page, a trans identified male who has since been hired by Stonewall, entitled “Overcoming the Cotton Ceiling: Breaking Down Sexual Barriers for Queer Trans Women.”
This workshop’s goals were to help the participants (trans males) “identify barriers” and “strategize ways to overcome them.” The barriers spoken of are the boundaries and sexual orientation of lesbians, who by very definition are not attracted to males; the “ways to overcome them” being strategies to break down the boundaries and resilience of young lesbians by socially pressuring and coercing them to consider males that identify as trans as sexual partners.

Good point i_scoff_cake and yet it feels like trans bashing which I don’t want to do.

Anyhow, this is about competitive sport and I’ve derailed so apologies.

Agree with a lot of what you say, @Bruce and yet… I can’t go along with trans women competing in female born women’s sport sorry. Women have had to fight really hard to be able to compete in sport at all and to throw this at them seems unfair. I am not at all unsympathetic to trans people and have know a few who have transitioned and know a little at least of what they go through.

And this has nothing to do with competitive sport but seeing as you broadened the debate, I’ll leave this here:
https://www.lglf.org/the-cotton-ceiling.html#/

I can’t agree either.

I used to go for a lunchtime curry on occasion with my workmates. It was always suggested by one guy. We were all very lowly paid journalists working for a local rag and most lunchtimes would consist of a trip to Safeway (this was 20 years ago) to see what was in the reduced isle so a curry was a bit of a treat. We didn’t drink so most people’s meals came to less than a tenner so we’d put a tenner in to include a tip. Every time, the organiser would “need a bit of cash for that evening” and we’d give him our cash and he’d go and pay the bill on his card. I was genuinely surprised that years later when we’d reached the dizzy heights of a national that my friend still hadn’t worked out what had been going on. Suffice to say that people can be real dicks when it comes to money.

In this instance, I think the OP’s mate has acted like a bit of a dick and I don’t think the OP is have a moan on t’internet, I think they’re a bit disappointed in their mate, as I would be.

I had a very similar experience. Bought a similar-ish bike to the Smuggler (although longer and taller and 27.5) and well if not the final nail in the coffin of my riding, it was definitely a significant one.
I’m female and 5ft 6in and found the exact same thing: on a straight section I really appreciated how capable and confidence-inspiring the bike was (I’d previously ridden a Mk 2 Soul which I loved and a GT Distortion which was so much fun but knackered) but when it came to turn it, I felt like I was riding a gate. Climbing was a real chore as well and I’d always enjoyed it before.
I did play around with a couple of things but in end sold it and things happened and I never really got back into riding. Three stone later and I really regret buying that bike. I’ve got a ti hardtail now though and I don’t ride that so I can’t blame it all on the bike!

Anyhow, if I was to get another, I think go for a downcountry type and short and steep by today’s standards. I’d definitely recommend getting rid of the Smuggler. Sounds like it’s never going to work and the right new bike might sort everything out before it’s too late. I’m the same btw – learn by doing – so while I’m sure you can learn to ride a low, long, slack bike better, it might be better to go for one with more tradition geo. I mean, she’s given it a good go.
Good luck with it.

Every dog is different and has different needs for sure but I think we can get stuck thinking we need to walk them and sometimes it’s not the best thing to do.
As is the case with the OP and their dog at the moment at least imo.
Walks with dogs are great and we just got back from ours but we were out for a while and then she found a dog to play with in the park and now she’s overly tired so it’s short walks for a few days now and more enrichment activities.
I think this woman makes a good point:
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/uk-news/expert-dog-trainer-warns-you-23580910

I would stop all walks for a month or something like that.
Build your relationship with him. Do training. Let him know you are his leader and if he comes across anything outside that worries him, you’re going to deal with it for him.
We have this idea that all dogs love their walks and need them twice a day, every day but I have come to think of walks for dogs as a little like alcohol for humans – good in moderation.
Mine gets walked twice a day now and loves it but we sometimes do quite short walks and she’s just as happy doing that.
We also do lots of stopping and staring into the distance. She’s a lurcher type and I think it’s a sighthound thing. And she loves sitting in the park on a sunny just watching what is going on. I sit down with her and massage her or play ball with us both sitting down and rolling it towards her.
When she first came (Rommie rescue) I was told not to take her out for two weeks. It was really good advice. We just went out to the garden while she got her bearings. When we did go out, there was a lot of looking around so she could see the lay of the land so to speak. She’s got her confidence now but is still like that if we go somewhere new.
When I got my first dog, I was told the day she arrived that she needed a good walk. If I’d have known then what I do now, I would have ignored that instruction.
With yours, after a week or so I’d also go through the whole walk routine thing but just walk round the garden then back in the house for a treat or a play or a massage or something.
Then eventually try a really short, calm walk and build from there.
If that doesn’t work, I’d try a behaviourist.
Good luck!

Remind me, what is Stephen Fry’s profession?

Try scrolling through, Bloke.

NS has clearly been bold over by the marvellousness of her Maj

Ernie, I am not going to repeat my comments on NS as there’s no point.
Having an elected head of state won’t solve all our problems but it might help make the UK a better place to live in the long term.
I have made no comment about people going to jubilee parties. I have no problem with anyone going. Insult me all you like but them’s the facts. There has been aggressive comments about anyone questioning what a marvellous person the Queen is as well as other things.

Bloke, I have been clear what I said about traitors, try reading my post before commenting. Again, I have said nothing about parties, if you went and had a good time, good for you. Didn’t go to one myself which makes me neither a better or worse person than someone who did.

I did watch on TV though. Thought much of it was ok to be honest in a don’t think too hard about things kind of way. I even enjoyed Rod Stewart’s performance thanks to Binners.

I wasn’t talking about this thread in particular but rather in general when I used the word traitor.
And it wasn’t necessarily meant to be taken literally, I was over emphasising so as to make a point.
As for NS, call it desperation if it pleases you to do so. Like I say, we’ll likely never know what she really thinks about the Queen as a person and I am not sure it matters so much in any case.
Certainly her comments proves absolutely nothing.

You’ve been pretty aggressive in your defence of the monarchy and if you wish to live your life being a brown nose to the monarch, then that’s your choice. Just try to respect the fact that some of us don’t.

Edited to say: Are you really saying that liking someone and respecting someone is the same thing? It’s really not you know. Also, what’s that saying about facts and stories?

Ernie copied and pasted NS comments on the Queen and then said: “I hope that helps you to understand how people who clearly admire Mrs Windsor see her.”
I was suggesting that it is a little naive to take a politician at their word.
And in any case NS never said she liked the Queen, she did say she respected her.
Whether that is true or not, we’ll likely never know.

This is why we can’t have a proper discussion about the monarchy in this country. Far too much sentimentalism about them and anyone who says anything negative about them is automatically denounced as a traitor. It’s very much like arguing about religion.