Dog ran in front of my car

Just driving back from dropping my dd off to nursery,and spotted a gorgeous black and white BC by the side of the road,bounding around very excited.The owner was few paces in front and had just thrown his ball down a footpath that turns off the pavement ,but had her back to him.Suddenly he veered off the pavement and darted straight in front of me,causing me to have to break hard .He was only off the pavement for a second, but still scared me to death.The owner turned around and looked confused as to why I had stopped ,then just pointed the dog in the direction of the ball.
How can people risk their dogs by a road like that ??? So reckless if you ask me.It was a fairly busy road, and the dog wasnt even just plodding along,but was clearly quite excited and bounding around. Why couldn't she have waited till they had gone down the footpath to let him off lead?Thankfully I had already slowed down as soon as I saw him, because off lead dogs by roads always make me nervous....now know why!

I'd have pulled over and given them what for! How utterly irresponsible of them to have it off lead next to a busy road

I hate seeing that, it happens here too. I often see dogs running off-lead along the pavements with traffic just yards away streaming past. It makes me shiver

Hi stupid owners again ! i thought it was illegal to have dogs off lead along roads ? I see it a lot round here, along big roads as well. Not just for the dogs welfare but it could cause an accident

Just as well you were "on the ball" sorry ! stupid bloke !

I think people either do this for image ("look how amazingly well trained my dog is", when 9 times out of 10 it is just the opposite) or because they are totally disillusioned.

I've said this before on here, but I used to see an older woman with a little Sheltie. The dog would always trot beautifully to heel off lead everywhere. Then one day, I saw this lady with a new dog. I asked about the Sheltie, and it turned out that the dog was spooked by car exhaust backfiring, ran into the road and was hit and killed instantly. Right outside her home, too.

Just goes to show that you can't be too careful.
I NEVER let Jet off by a road. Just seems crazy to do that =/

Oh how awful for you bet it gave you a real shock, i would have been very angry. Why would you do it? Tell you what else gets my goat is those extending leads at the road side. Surely if the dog is walking miles in front of its owner on one of them they can just turn in to the road.

what an idiot

there is a woman around here who really bugs me (for a number of reasons). just before christmas she got a dog from the SSPCA and then just after christmas she got a pup (looks like a GSDx so not sure if he is also from the SSPCA) and she walks them both offlead down a main road