Bad Dog Owners

Over the last year or so bad dog owners have really been getting on my nerves.  It annoys DH as well, but not to the extent it does me.  I don't know if he's just used to these dog people or if it's the laid back attitude here. 

First, I've never seen this anywhere but here - the quite common practice of bagging up your dog poo in a little plastic bag then not taking it with you to throw in the nearest trash can.  Instead they tie these bags on fence posts, tree branches or simply throw them on the ground.  WHY?!  I don't get it.  Why even bother bagging if you aren't going to follow through with it and throw them away?  Did they just bag it because someone came by and they didn't want to look bad? If they aren't going to throw it away can't they use their bag to at least pick up the poo and fling it into the bushes? That isn't a great solution either, but these bags are so unsightly not to mention when it rains... they fill up with water.  YUCK!  DH and I can go for a walk at many parks/trails and find up to 10 or more of these on our walks.  Disgusting.

Second rant, dogs not on a leash or on an improper leash.  When my MIL was still alive DH and I would take her to the park in her wheelchair to feed the squirrels.  There was a lady there with a makeshift leash - maybe four or five nylon leashes tied to each other to give a good 20 foot lead. There is no quick reeling in on that leash.  So the dog races over after the squirrels and chases it around my MIL's wheelchair and is now tangled up but keeps going.  The dog almost knocked over her wheelchair!  The lady says a half arsed "sorry" and goes on not shortening the leash and the other times I've seen her at the park she's still had that monstrous leash! Really irksome.

Last rant is that I rarely see dogs on a leash.  Before leash laws in the US I've had many animals killed growing up due to dogs that would break through our lattice fence and mutilate our cats, chickens, ducks, geese etc. These were dogs that were never fenced or put on a leash while walked. So, you can see this already irks me.  I honestly think if you take your animal anywhere where other people could be, they really should be on a leash.  No one wants to accidentally run over your dog!  DH and I have gone for walks and been jumped on by mud covered dogs quite a lot (their owners see it coming and don't even try to call their dog to stop before it happens), we've been stuck in the woods literally unable to move for ten minutes one time because someone's pit bull ran off from them, found us and would keep running at us barking and snarling.  We literally stood there for ten minutes hugging each other not moving hoping it would go away. We would have yelled out for the owner, but we were afraid our yelling would agitate the dog more. All the time we hear the owners fruitlessly calling off in the distance for their dog that went missing. 

Yesterday really got to me. I think it was because DH and I don't have a lot of money anyway, so this picnic was our anniversary celebration and I feel it was a bit ruined by someone being careless.  We had two unleashed dogs bother us.  The second was a large dog (forget what breed) that came out of some trees running at us snarling.  (We are sitting down at this dogs level so it was very intimidating) The dog then continued to try to walk through our picnic and steal our food, we tried to shoo him away but he kept dodging and snarling then snapping at us.  I raised my voice to complain to get the owners to do something.  The owner, a man with his little kid just stood there for about 2-3 minutes while his dog attacked our picnic and drug stuff off.  Finally the man, not even moved by now tells us to hit his dog to make it go away.  I'm not hitting a dog let alone a snapping one! So the man finally comes over yells at the dog and tells us (with a leash around his neck) sorry he can't control his dog when it comes to food.  He then brings back our dog slobbered food and drops it by our blanket and takes his dog away - not putting it on a leash.  We heard the man ten  minutes later yelling again at his dog. 

Anyone else irritated by dog owners here?

First, I've never seen this anywhere but here - the quite common practice of bagging up your dog poo in a little plastic bag then not taking it with you to throw in the nearest trash can.  Instead they tie these bags on fence posts, tree branches or simply throw them on the ground.  WHY?! 

The reason, in most cases, is that they're on a walk and don't want to carry a bag of poo around with them, so they leave it and plan to collect it on the way back. The problem is that they often don't. It's one of my pet peeves too! 

The Poo Tree!

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=62427.0

Anyone else irritated by dog owners here?

Yes. My personal favorite are the people who let there dogs run free on  busy trail with cyclists and equestrians. 'Love' it when dog owners laugh as their dog chases my bike, tries to run through/under the wheels, etc. There are some vey well trained dogs on the trail though so it's just the lazy, irresponsible owners that get my goat.

Also the poo trees. I remember that original thread and I thought people where taking the mick until I saw one with my own eyes - now I see them everywhere. wtf people, wtf!

Wow. I am a massive dog lover (and a responsible owner), and I am horrified by these stories.  I have never seen bags of dog poo on the ground or on trees, so that is a new one by me!  WHY? do they do this?  I have no clue. Gross!

The only dog poo encounter I've had is a young couple who walk their dog and let him poo wherever he wants without picking it up. Several times his toilet of choice was our front garden. I confronted them, and offered them a box of dog poo bags. The cheeky guy said, "How do you know *your* dog didn't do that?"  I said, "Number one, our dog has *never* been in our front garden; #2 (no pun intended), I *saw* your dog do it; and #3 Do you honestly think THAT could come out of a Westie?"  (Their dog is BIG!)

I also hate when dogs are not on leads. Thankfully, I rarely run into this, but I have seen a few. They were mostly old/slow and well-behaved, but still, you never know because you don't *know* the dog, so I am always very cautious. We would never walk our dog without a lead.

I'm so sorry about your ruined celebration/picnic. The abominable manners of that guy! I would have been mortified, fell over myself apologizing and insisted on compensating you for the ruined food. Just awful.

I used to spend a lot of time running and walking in the large park near our old home in SE Hertfordshire.  I regularly encountered badly-behaved off-leash dogs; on more than one occasion, I came home with muddy paw-prints on my running tights.

Once, as an off-leash was running towards me and barking, I heard its owner say "He won't hurt you!".  As if hearing that while in the dog's path is going to make me feel safe.  Sheesh!  I tried to explain this to the owner, but she was not interested.  In fact, I had a hard time connecting with owners of dogs whose behavior made me nervous.  I had several of these conversations over time, and I think I handled myself appropriately (despite wanting to shout in frustration!), but no one ever seemed to understand where I was coming from.

I realized over time that most people who used the park saw it as a park for their own purposes.  The runners and walkers saw it as a place for walking and running, the cyclists for cycling, and the dog walkers saw it as a place for dog walking.  Some dog owners don't seem to realize the effect their dog may have on others.

There were many well-behaved off-leash and on-leash dogs, and I tried to compliment their owners where possible.

I can't tell you how much I agree with you. I never had the hanging poo bag problem in Scotland, but that's because no one in my neighborhood even bothered to pick it up!

My roommate and I talk about this subject a lot. For years I've thought that people should have to be licensed to own dogs. They should have to take classes about being a responsible owner, they should have to make sure they take their dogs to training classes. But, I know that will never happen because people don't think it's important and no one would bother to enforce it.

I think my biggest peeve is with many of the people who own small dogs (not by any means ALL small dog owners!). A lot of people just don't seem to train their small dogs at all, because 'Oh he's so small, he can't hurt anyone, here I can just pick him up rather than discipline him!' People give my roommate's extremely well-trained big black shepherd sideways glances, meanwhile, the small dogs are always the nastiest dogs I encounter on any walk. The kicker is that many places won't allow you to live there if you own a dog over 20 lbs. It's laughable. The least well-trained, yappiest dog that a person let's poo inside on what is essentially a floor diaper (wee wee pads) can live in certain apartment buildings or houses, but the gentle, would-be police dog can't because he's big. (This may just be specific to the NYC area, but it really grinds my gears!)

And retractable leashes. Don't get me started on retractable leashes. People can't control their dog properly with them, which makes it completely pointless to have the leash at all.

HUGE issue with me! I walk A LOT now. I'm so sick of walking in poo or seeing the silly black bags all over the place. I asked hubby one day why some dog owners do that, I mean why bother? He had never noticed it before until I pointed them all out hanging on fences, in trees, in bushes. It happens all over where I live. We have lots of lovely walking paths that I won't go down anymore because I'm sick of having to clean off my shoes. I want to look around while I walk...not look down at the ground to see what I'm stepping in.
I am a HUGE animal lover its their owners that really irk me! I've been jumped on a few times by muddy dogs, but its usually my own fault for petting them and giving them attention. Luckily I've never encountered any aggressive dogs...touch wood!

The curse of the poo tree strikes again! Once you hear about it or see it once, then you start seeing them all over! 

I can't tell you how much I agree with you. I never had the hanging poo bag problem in Scotland, but that's because no one in my neighborhood even bothered to pick it up!

This was my experience as well. DH and I often comment on how nice it is that people pick up their poo here. You don't have to stare at the sidewalk while you walk. That's such a shame that the OP's picnic was ruined. You handled it much better than I would have! Most people in our local park are good about keeping their dogs on leashes (they're actually fined if they're off leash).

Hi,

I always pickup my dog's poop and throw it into the nearest bin, I don't mind carrying it for a distance till I come across one. I always have him on his harness in public and the lead is relatively short so I can keep good control of him. He's well behaved and he'd never be the dog to even remotely be in the situations you've found yourselves in.

I think 'most' dog owners are indeed courteous and responsible and it's the relatively large minority segment of owners who just haven't got a clue who spoil it overall ! All the situations and frustrations could easily not happen if the owner(s) had some more intelligence/brain power/understanding.

I also think that it should be compulsory to pass a test before being allowed to own any dog - but I'm not sure of how that'd actually work in practice for instance, would the test be harder if you wanted to keep a larger pet? or perhaps one of the more potentially aggressive breeds? - unfortunately, around this area, there's many 'owners' who haven't got a clue on how to train and look after their dog, there's two I see almost every night who simply just tug and pull their dog away when it goes crazy upon seeing mine - I've explained and talked to the owners in that they're doing that bit wrong, but after perhaps 4-5 weeks of saying it, I gave up and I now see their pets a few years on, still behaving the same way! other 'owners' have seen my dog and then gone out and bought one without so much as 5 minutes research on how to look after an Akita - I've then told them to go give it back - one recent 17 year old said if it's ok to leave the one he just got tied up with a rope in the garden whilst he went abroad for 10 days ! - to his credit, he listened and did return it.

I have had to shout on a few occasions when I've seen an unleashed Staffy come running over semi snarling/barking with the owner just standing saying things like 'its friendly' and also had to pry my dogs jaw open after another unleashed dog has tried to attack and he's caught it and started to bite...  one of those owners then tried to ask me for money for the vets bill to which there was a fruitier response of 'no' !!

There are signs of 'Fines up to £1000 for dog fouling' but never really seen it enforced etc.

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!

St. Ives has recently imposed very controversial dog bans on three of its public beaches (and a daytime ban on a fourth one) ... which all sounds well and good unless you live where we do with our own little beach that is now overrun with all the banned dogs and their owners from St. Ives!

The Poo Tree!

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=62427.0

Wow, that thread is from 2010... and the poo trees are still thriving.  Quite sad really how lazy people are! 

Holy cr@p - the poo tree! 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22853270

Holy cr@p - the poo tree! 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22853270

Love it!

This is my favourite solution to the problem: And in Brunete, a small town 20 miles from Madrid, volunteers were enlisted to look out for irresponsible owners. Many were identified from the town hall pet database and the excrement returned as "Lost Property" in a box bearing the town's insignia.