Nuttah on the walk!

Oh dear, think I may well have just turned in the nuttah on the walk.

We took Tonks, Remus and our five children to a local beauty spot and had a great time. After a few hours we started up the hill back to the car park and came to a gate where I saw a dog off lead on the other side. I put Remus on the lead, as I always do, because he's still young and gets over excited and smacks other dogs in the face for fun. tonks was off lead (with her bright green 'friendly' collar on) everyone mingled in front of me and when they moved away I could see they had put their dog on the lead and Tonks was pottering along the fence line sniffing the ground a few feet from their dog.

The dog can't have been more than 6 or 7 months and was a beagle JRT probably. The mother (owner of the dog) wasn't making any attempt to take control and a 11/12 year old girl was leading the way with the dog quite a way in from of the rest of them. Tonks and it sniffed noses and all was fine then the girl strung it up by the collar and left it there with it back legs barely touching the floor! It must have been like that for getting on for 45 seconds when two 8 years old boys, also with them rush over and grabbed its muzzle and the girl started doing the same! The mum wondered over and said 'no don't do that' ...to the muzzle holding.

Well, I'm afraid I saw red and and before I knew it had said very loudly 'are you trying to make that dog aggressive!" Te woman then said (fairly calmly really) 'yes well unfortunately he does nip that why I was telling him not to hold its mouth' ...should have stop there, but I didn't ..oops! I followed it up with 'yes but it's being strung up in the air with the children holding it mouth!'


Her eloquent reply was 'well next time I won't try and I'll leave it to bite your ****ing dog!'

I left it there....I wanted to add 'there was no way your little bitch puppy was going to even try anything against my calm four stone five year old bitch staffie because, unlike you, most dogs aren't stupid!' But I didn't. (And if it had done something Tonks would have wondered off anyway)

I don't know about anyone else but I feel that if you are the adult in a group of children it is your responsibility to be near the dog and in control of it, especially if it is a puppy or you know it has an issue!

Rant over....and I will try and control my self better next time.

Aw how sad hate it when kids are so stupid with their dogs and the parents let them do it, I even witnessed it in the vets waiting room one time, a young girl dragging her min pin pup about putting it on her back, holding her hands over its eyes dragging it along on 2 feet, holding it high above her head??? Even walked it back to the car holding it's front paws off the floor in her hand, the mum said nothing, these people are idiots

Complete idiots!

I know the daughter had put it back on lead, but we were passing in a narrowish area, compared to the open fields and woodland around us, and there were about 15 people and three dogs in the mix. Surely, if you think your dog has issues an adult should hold the lead and move to one side with the dog.

I also don't understand why people just accept these issues and try to deal with it themselves, making it worse, rather than seeking professional help!

Oh dear, had an angry dream about her too...think we'll be walking somewhere different for a while!

Hi No why should you,she has impressionable children,and
when they grow to adulthood they will think that is the way to handle dogs.All I can say is well done you crystalgirl

Lordy don't let the idiot intrude into your 'dreamtime'

My old Cavvy who was at the smaller end of the range and had an appearance that could not possibly frighten anyone was involved in just such an incident in Limassol when I moved here. Just ambling along the road from the sea (on lead) when we came level with a woman with a small fluffy dog on a lead. She immediately yanked this dog up in the air by the lead! Honestly, it was just hanging there strung up by its neck twirling in mid air!

I said there are quicker ways to kill your dog if that's what you are trying to do. She said her dog was afraid of other dogs! I said if I was her dog I'd be more afraid of her!

You will come across silly and uninformed people in all walks of life and everywhere - not just when walking your dog. What can you do about them? Nothing really - in fact I'm usually cross with myself for bothering to say anything to them! Because I know it won't make a jot of difference. Very sad when they are bringing their kids up to be the same.

Thank you. It's madness that she didnt seem to have any concern that any of her children are likely to get bitten behaving like that...if bit now then certainly when the dog has grown up. There children holding its muzzle in, what it was obviously finding, a very stressful situation! Dog will probably be PTS then though. ...and they'll get another one.