Today my early morning dog walk was spoilt by two morons both of whom think they know all there is to know about dogs....

Moron number 1: Has a labradoodle of very dodgy temperament and three choc labs two of which are also not the nicest dogs you could meet. He gets into the field where we are walking and lets them off lead. I have my African on lead because she is elderly and not as patient as my flatcoats. His poxy dogs come up to mine making a nuisance of themselves he stands there not doing anything not even calling them back. One of his choc labs terrified my flatcoat pup who was plainly worried and upset by this dogs attentions. I did hit out at one because it had wound my African (who was still on lead) to the point where she would have had him. This dog then goes and pins my flatcoat boy down in the hedge, and still the owner thinks they are 'only playing'!!GRRR...

Moron number 2: Older bloke complete with gundog whistle and making out like he is a professional gundog handler, out with a GWP pup and small hairy spanielly type dog. So his pup runs up and starts molesting the African, I say to him I would appreciate i if he could get his pup before it gets bitten. (Max is still on her lead). He asks why have I got Max on the lead, so I said she was a guard dog in Africa and she is old and crotchity these days so can you get your pup before he is bitten. He stands there ignoring me totally then asks so how come you have a dog from Africa? AGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am considering writing a piece for my local parish magazine anything anyone would suggest I might include?

I know exactly how you feel Polly.............slightly different situation but only yesterday we were walking our 6 month old Bullmastiff in the local park.........normally when we are in open safe spaces we have him off his lead and he is off smelling things but my husband noticed an older gentleman walking 2 dogs and 1 of the dogs looked old so we decided to keep our little guy on the lead as I am sure you all know a 6 month old puppy is excitable........we sat on the bench with our little guy sat patiently beside us and he stopped dead in his tracks in front of us and said...........he looks an aggressive dog who appears to want to bite me !!!! It was a hot day and Boscoe was sat panting with his mouth open...... Neither of us could believe our ears and my husband said he is a puppy and your dogs are more likely to bite then he is...........he retorted he has teeth doesn't he and looks nasty ..........what is he one of those banned pit bulls !!!!............at this point my husband was very annoyed but decided to pass no further comment and we simply stood up and walked away calmly...........cheeky old git was my first thought ...........I would never dream of saying such a thing to a stranger let alone pass a stupid remark to a calmly sitting puppy........

Oh no Polly, 2 morons in 1 walk :( It's a wonder how some people manage to live with dogs, some seem so ignorant........

Hope your pup has got over the worry.

> I am considering writing a piece for my local parish magazine anything anyone would suggest I might include?

A little bit about those that can't be bothered to pick up after thier dogs?

> he looks an aggressive dog who appears to want to bite me

Sadly these sort of stupid comments seem to come hand-in-hand with owning bigger dogs :(

rofl @ Polly, I read your text 'small hairy spanielly type' as 'smelly, hairy spanielly thing' and could feel the disdain.

There are so many muppets out there that I get up at the same time at the weekend as during the week so I can avoid them all.  Thankfully this morning at 8am I was strolling out the park as the cars started coming in.  With all the Easter stuff on at the park today I am staying well away!!  Every idiot and his/her dog will be out rampaging around the park with their easter eggs and leftover bones and corn cobs from the KFC beside the park -my idea of hell!

This is happening more and more and unfortunately owning a small, lightish breed, we've decided to avoid dog walking places as much as possible. We only do very early walk when we know there are less dogs (less out of control dogs early in the morning - must be a link with the type of people who will get up early to walk their dogs maybe!) or our tiny local parks who barely see 2/3 people in a whole day.
This decision was taken after an incident with a black lab. Young boy at the end of the lead (no match for the dog!!), lab sees our little tri girl (she weighs 5.5kg) and decides he will chase her, The boy just flew off his feet and let go of the lead. She slips her collar (now I only use half-check) and ends up running away completely deaf to my calls with the lab on her trail- This young boy should never have been left to walk the dog without supervision (not his fault - I blame the parents - sorry!). In the end, she did a massive circle and ran back to me, Hubby grabbed the lead and told the boy to go home!

Anyway, I hope the 2 morons you had the bad luck to come across will not impact on your walk times and your little puppy is alright. Sometimes I wish people were made to take a basic test before they are allowed to have a dog!

Il second that!If you want morons with out-of-control dogs,come on a walk with me,I meet them all!I like to go at 5 30am so I have a fighting chance of a peaceful walk with no-one getting harrassed or scared!

> I am considering writing a piece for my local parish magazine anything anyone would suggest I might include?

They would throw me off CD if I told you what I would write about the bozos you met.

Took mine out at 1am, road walking and we came around a corner by our local recreation ground (surrounded on all four sides by houses that back onto it with 4 approach lanes) we almost tripped over a badger ferreting about, he looked up at us and the gang and trotted down the lane into the rec.

oh bless!Ive only ever seen one live badger,as opposed to photos I mean!That one nearly got its cards as it dashed across the road in front of our car,just had time to register what it was!

And I live in a city! 

I knew they lived on the old railway line as I have seen them before scrapping in the bushes over the old tunnel. 

Sadly over the years have also seen two dead ones around here on the road which seems a shame as the speed is supposed to be 30mph.

Unfortunately the verges of the M5 always seem to have loads of road casualty's.

yes,ive seen a fair few.its sad.