To All Dog Owners..

[geared]

but then everyone would have cats, and my garden would be like a sewage pit

[onewheeldave]

 

Actually, the law disagrees with you. An offense is only committed if the dog is dangerously out of control. Just because the dog doesn't come back to you when called, doesn't mean that:

 

 

 

How can the law disagree with me when I've not only not said anything about the law, and, have specifically pointed out that I'm not talking about the law?

 

---------- Post added 19-02-2013 at 18:18 ----------

 

Your dog is off the lead having great fun running about like a madman. You call it back. It doesn't come. That is an ignored recall.

 

Your dog is off the lead having great fun running about like a madman. It spots a person walking on the opposite side of the field, and bolts after them. You call your dog, and it continues running headlong at said person. That is running at a person.

 

OK- fair enough. I've no problem with a dog bolting around out of control if there's no possibility of it encountering and bothering a human being.

[vwkittie]

But a dog does not randomly attack anything that is smaller than itself, whereas a cat will, towse with it and eventually kill it for pleasure, not necessairly to eat. There wouldn't many Yorkshire Terriers and the like in our parks if dogs attacked anything smaller than itself. A domestic cat is solitary creature and does not have the pack mentality, whether that is due to domesticity breeding, whereas the big felines do pack!

 

Really?! Mine would rather like to kill anything small - rabbits, rats, squirrels, birds etc. A lot of dogs were originally (and some still are as mine was) bred to hunt and kill. An owner should NEVER forget that fact.

[loveelf]

You are clearly NOT a responsible dog owner.

 

 

Well Blade8T1 having an opinion does not make me an irresponsible dog owner. But if that is your opinion, whatever.

 

As I stated clearly in my opinion, my puppy was not jumping up at anyone, just in their general area.

 

So you are suggesting that because I have the audacity to walk my puppy through the park, that I am an irresponsible dog owner?

 

I have come across snappy dogs and snappy owners, nice reasonable people with dogs on or off leads and total drama queens that scream at you for no good reason. All I was suggesting is that if you have a genuine fear of dogs, probably best not to go into areas where there is bound to be lots of them. Common sense!

 

I always ensure that if someone - with or without a dog indicates that my puppy is not to go very close to them, I respect that. So how does that make me irresponsible?

 

Stereotyping dog owners as having uncontrollable dogs is a bit unrealistic don't you think?

[libuse]

But a dog does not randomly attack anything that is smaller than itself

 

Really?? Mine have had squirrels, a cat, a chicken and a hedgehog, and that's just in my garden. When dogs have been bred and trained to focus upon prey above anything else it can't easily, if ever, be trained out of them. For that reason mine are never off lead in a public place and, when it's busy, they are muzzled as well.

 

I have every sympathy with the OP in relation to dogs running up to people where their owners have no control over them. It's completely unacceptable and I've had loads of incidents where dogs have run up to me and my (muzzled, on lead, not dog-friendly) dogs where the owner has taken offence when I've asked them to call them back.

 

It would also be nice if the owners of children didn't let them run up to muzzled, on lead dogs, but I suppose that's too much to hope for.

[Stomp]

How can the law disagree with me when I've not only not said anything about the law, and, have specifically pointed out that I'm not talking about the law?

 

The law is the law whether you talk about it or not.

 

The law says that dogs are permitted to be off the lead unless dangerously out of control. If you don't like that law then you will have to petition your MP and get it raised in Parliament - that's how things work in this country. Whether it is your opinion or not, the law stands.

 

For example, it is my opinion that murderers get mandatory whole-of-life sentences. The law disagrees with me though.

[onewheeldave]

The law is the law whether you talk about it or not.

 

The law says that dogs are permitted to be off the lead unless dangerously out of control. If you don't like that law then you will have to petition your MP and get it raised in Parliament - that's how things work in this country. Whether it is your opinion or not, the law stands.

 

For example, it is my opinion that murderers get mandatory whole-of-life sentences. The law disagrees with me though.

 

I said an out-of-control dog has no right to be off the lead. You seem to be under the mistaken impression I've said it's against the law for out-of-control dog to be off the lead?

 

I havn't- I know full well that it's not illegal for an out-of-control dog to be off the lead.

 

I also stand by my original statement that an out-of-control dog has no right to be off the lead. I know the difference between rights and laws.

[geared]

but thats just your opinion and you're welcome to it.

 

The law states the dog must be dangerously out of control before an offence has been committed.

[Stomp]

but thats just your opinion and you're welcome to it.

 

The law states the dog must be dangerously out of control before an offence has been committed.

 

That's pretty much what I was going to say.

 

The law says they have every right to be off the lead. So Dave's assertion that "they have no right" is actually incorrect. A better statement would be "In my opinion, a dog should not be off the lead".

[sedith]

Anybody see the programme last night on BBC 1 illustrating the tricks dog owners get up to, to avoid picking up the excrement and putting it in a blue plastic bag? Thats why we need the £250 dog licence to clear up after these morons!