Stupid Dog Owners! *Rant*

[princessjodi]

Alright...so I am going to vent a bit here...

Why do stupid people get dogs??? I don't understand it!

I was walking Joules down at Seaport Village, as usual, and there was a middle aged couple with a young puppy (~ 6 mos). I saw the dog ahead of us so I let Joules pretty much sniff every blade of grass in this little area so the dog could get ahead of us and Joules (hopefully) wouldn't see it. Well they got ahead of us and we continued our walk without any incidence.

Well, we came to the grassy area and they are there. Which is fine, its a public area and its pretty big. So I stand there and watch them a bit (Joules still hasn't seen them) to figure out which side they would stay on so we could walk down the other. After a few mins it looked like they would stay pretty much on one side, so I crossed the lawn and started walking down the opposite path...keeping myself between them and Joules. She is OK if I am between her and another dog and if that dog is pretty far away...its only when they get close that she still freaks out. Anyways...I am walking down the other path and I look ahead and notice they have switched sides.

By this time I am thoroughly annoyed because I also notice they have the dog OFF LEASH!!!! This is a young pup in a VERY popular area (human and canine alike) with NO recall and THEY HAVE IT OFF LEASH!!! The stupidity of people amazes me! What amazes me more is they still have not seen me or my dog at this point...so, not only do they have a young untrained pup off leash in a populated area, they are not paying attn to their surroundings!

Let me explain a bit about this area...there are tons of people around...it is right on the water and the only thing before the water is a hedge that a young pup can easily wriggle through...there is a parking lot with cars going in and out constantly...horse drawn carriages going around all the time. It is just not an area I would have an adult dog with good recall off leash...let alone an untrained pup.

So, I cross the grass to the other side to continue our walk. By this time Joules has seen the pup and is starting to act up...but I am keeping myself between her and the pup and the most she is doing is whining and pulling at the leash a bit. She is doing OK still at this point. Well, the pup saw us. And it being off leash started running towards us full speed. Well, Joules REALLY starts freaking out at this. The lady starts running after the dog calling it...but of course it doesn't have recall so it ignores her and keeps running towards us. I am trying to keep Joules from freaking out...trying to keep the pup away from her so she doesn't bite it...and I am doing this all with an injured *** and back from falling down the stairs last week. Finally the lady reaches the dog and I mention that there is a leash law...her response...'I know'. Well if she knew about the freaking leash law...why the hell was her dog not on a leash???!!! I voiced some very loud and disgusted opinions as I was walking away trying to calm Joules down.

They must have left because they weren't there when we walked by again later...but man, people are just ignorant!!! I am not saying I am a perfect owner...but I know every single person in the area I am walking my dog...partly because I am female and by myself so its just common sense, but partly because I am identifying potential problem areas for us to avoid. And the whole ordeal caught up with me later as I had to heat and ice my back down from re-injuring it...it was almost not sore anymore!

I just don't understand some people!

Ok...I am done ranting for now...

[missymoo]

I totally hear ya!!

Our older girl got bitten once too often by little dogs with big dog syndrome that used to just rush upto her and literally be hanging off her neck!!
So she obviously took an aversion to them in time and we always watch where we walk but it infuriates me (we get a lot of holidaymakers) when these people walk their dogs off lead to terrorise the rest of us dogwalkers.
The dread i feel when i see one hurtling towards us is indescribable.
Its not even as if i walk at prime times i don't its generally very early morning or late evening.

Rather funnily if i am on the beach with all 3 danes all you see are people rummaging for leads and get their dogs back pretty quick.

[PawNclaws]

Yeah some people fail to follow the leash laws. I know thats one problem around here, I always anoyed when I see people walking their dogs off leash. Its not a very hard law to follow, so I don't see why they choose not to.

[mulroony]

That is the problem, a lot of people do not realize leash laws are not just to protect their dog, but everyone. There is one elderly couple that comes to our local dog park with a very energetic mutt. Not only cannot they not come close to keeping up w/ the dog, but they do not clean up after it or even have a collar on it. I actually saw he lady leave her dog in the park and go sit in her car. t has actually gotten to the point that next time I am there I am calling them on it and making a complaint to the people that run the park.

Sadly there will always be stupid people doing stupid things... This is what happens when you offset natural selection