Seriously?

[Mum to Emma]

Yep, heaps of people around here walk their dogs off-lead, often along busy roads, and most don't even bother carrying a lead with them. The worst offender is the guy who rides his bike and has five - yes, count them, FIVE - dogs running loose. All medium to large size dogs too, a variety of Ridgeback, GSD and Bull breed X's. I recently came across one woman walking two Golden Retrievers off lead, and one of them became extremely aggressive as soon as it spotted my dog. She had no leads with her (of course) and - I'm not joking - literally had to tackle her snarling dog and pin it, using hands/knees and her entire body weight, against a tree trunk until we could get past and get a safe distance away. FFS!!!

I've lost count of the number of times we've been rushed, harassed and even bailed up by aggressive, off-leash dogs - taking our old girl for a walk is becomingly increasingly stressful both for her and for us. As she can't walk too far now, her favourite outing is to go up to the park at the end of the street and we walk around the edge on the footpath whilst she potters along (always on-lead) sniffing and peeing on everything. But even that's becoming impossible to do because of these idiots either walking their dogs off-lead along the footpath or allowing their dogs to just run wild in the park. It's now reached the stage, sad to say, that when our girl goes (in probably the not too distant future), we will not be getting another dog for a very long time, if at all. There's no pleasure in talking your dog for a walk and constantly having to be on the alert and make regular changes of direction to avoid being menaced, and even attacked (as has happened on two occasions), by loose dogs, or having to experience some quite terrifying "close encounters". Even getting in the car and going further afield doesn't help, the problem seems to be everywhere - and anyway, why the hell should I have to go elsewhere to exercise my dog? Why should we not be able to walk along the streets in our own suburb and have an enjoyable, safe experience?????

I think these dogs owners have the same arrogance as cyclists who ride on footpaths and that they do so because despite fines and by-laws saying that it's "illegal", no one is ever prosecuted. So I put a lot of the blame on councils who rarely, if ever, enforce leash laws.

There's a very well-manicured park near me (indeed, there council refers to it as "Gardens" not a "Park") where there are always council workers pruning or digging. It's in a very wealthy part of our municipality. But the dogs absolutely run riot in the place. No one from the council cares (least of all the local member who lives in the same street!)

[spikey]

I think these dogs owners have the same arrogance as cyclists who ride on footpaths and that they do so because despite fines and by-laws saying that it's "illegal", no one is ever prosecuted. So I put a lot of the blame on councils who rarely, if ever, enforce leash laws.

Exactly - our local council does little or nothing when it comes to enforcing leash laws, let alone doing anything about roaming dogs.

I saw the same guy on his bike this morning - he was riding along the footpath alongside the park/football field, and the 5 dogs were roaming freely all over the park as he just blithely cycled along. I was just thankful I didn't have our dog with me.

Came across another woman walking her border collie off lead this morning - she was about 20 feet behind the dog, pushing a stroller and glued to her phone. The dog barrelled straight towards me and immediately started jumping up at my face. Luckily the dog was friendly, but way too exuberant, and I was trying to keep walking, half turning away from the dog and trying to block it jumping at me, whilst telling it variously "no", "off", "down" - all of which it either ignored or had no idea what they meant (which was more likely, as the dog seemed completely untrained). The woman made no attempt whatsoever to call her dog or interrupt it's behaviour or even say anything to me when she drew level - she was still glued to her phone, never even looked at me and walked straight past, just saying "don't" to the dog in a really-can't-be-bothered voice. WTF is wrong with people? If it had been an elderly person or a small child the dog had jumped on like that, they'd have been knocked to the ground, and quite possibly badly injured.

There's just way too many people have this "I'm all right Jack and I don't give a f*** about anyone else" attitude when it comes to having any sort of control over their dog.

[mita]

I've lost count of the number of times we've been rushed, harassed and even bailed up by aggressive, off-leash dogs - taking our old girl for a walk is becomingly increasingly stressful both for her and for us.

Same here. Which is why I've given up walking our dogs. Fortunately, we're on a 1/4 acre block with a huge backyard. And they do a lot of running/playing/pottering there. But, as you said, we should be able to walk our dogs thro' our suburbs.

Edited October 10, 2014 by mita

[shapeshifter]

I was driving home the other afternoon and the road I use crosses a main road, lots of traffic always, there was this guy walking away from the main road, set of traffic lights, with two beagles, he had a leash in his hand but they were about 10 metres in front of him!

I just looked and shook my head, I had to drive past them and was just imagining them getting a whiff of something and running out onto the road.

[kelpiecuddles]

My neighbour has a little dog that has recently learnt to escape her(poorly fenced) yard and today was coming over hassling me. Neighbour has a long history of not properly caring for animals but given we front directly on to the princes hwy and the dog is wandering around a few meters from the road you'd hope she's have little more sense.

Well guess who's little dog got run over on the weekend

Edited October 12, 2014 by kelpiecuddles

[YippeeGirl]

That's terribly sad. We've seen some near misses with cars and small dogs on the main road near our house, but never a fatality.

Our next door neighbour had a senior terrier that would escape their yard after their other dog passed. Our street is very quiet but I still went out there whenever I noticed her and put her back in because it would have been awful if she'd been hit.

Sadly it seems like those sorts of owners never learn from these sorts of tragedies. I was simply aghast at how many cats my mum had in her youth that met a grisly end. She said it simply never occurred to her family to keep their cats indoors

[kelpiecuddles]

Yes, sadly this is the third dog this woman has had this year. The first just disappeared, I think she gave it away, the second also kept escaping and she just told the person that found it that she didn't want it 'because it was a hassle' so they told her to 'F' herself and they rehomed it themselves and now this one.

[CountryGirl]

Yes, sadly this is the third dog this woman has had this year. The first just disappeared, I think she gave it away, the second also kept escaping and she just told the person that found it that she didn't want it 'because it was a hassle' so they told her to 'F' herself and they rehomed it themselves and now this one.

That's appalling. They're dogs not bloody statues! They need proper care and attention...

I'm glad I now live on acreage and don't have pedestrians walking their dogs past my property. I have enough space for my dogs to run around in the paddocks, and a creek for them to paddle in, and not a single dog walking ignoramus within miles. My next door neighbour's dog pops over to say hello most days...he comes via the paddock to my side boundary...and my other neighbours have working dogs that don't usually get off the property unaccompanied so I only see them if they're meeting the school bus at their front gate...or herding the sheep in the driveway paddock that runs along my back boundary.

People are stupid. There needs to be a test for competency in so many areas of life...including pet ownership.

[BC Crazy]

Why have I only just seen this thread.....

Anyway I'm another who see's people in our area ALL the time walking their dog or dogs with lead in hand or no leashes at all.

Really amazes me quite frankly. They walk near busy roads or even cross them. Dogs are just wandering where ever usually. Makes me so angry & worries me no end.

Had a man tell me ages ago how well trained his 2 beautiful BC's are. In fact they were so well trained they didn't need to be leashed EVER. As they just knew exactly what to do.

Sadly enough after not seeing him around for a while I saw him walking 1 dog .... Enough said.... I didn't have to ask what happened. His face said it all :(