Do parents just boot their kids out into the street with their dogs during half term?  Today I had two separate incidents where I had to pull dogs (staffy pup and greyhound) off Molly because they had pinned her down and were snarling at her.   There was no adult in sight in either case, just a group of kids who clearly had better things to be doing than dogminding.  I had to pull both these dogs off and take them over to the kids and ask them to put their dog on the lead.  Then we had another incident with a German Shephard pup who chased Molly around growling at her while its owner stood 100 meters away lamely calling the dog to no effect while I ended up having to try to distract it with its ball (luckily, Molly, a working cocker; can outrun most things).  It is bad enough when people make no effort to train their dogs, but when they then put these out-of-control dogs in the hands of their children, it beggars belief.    Also, because I work from home a lot, I often take Molly out during the day.  There seem to be a lot of 'latchkey' dogs in our area, who try to follow us on our walk.  Since we have to cross a busy road, I cannot proceed with another dog following us in case it gets run over, so I often end up having to stop the walk before it's even started or come up with some elaborate plan to 'lose' the other dog.  Why would you have a dog if you don't care if it gets run over, and why would you leave your kids to be responsible for an out-of-control dog?  Sorry, had to vent.  :-)   Has anyone else noticed the half-term effect?

I've definately noticed the 'kids in charge of dogs' thing and they're always large/nasty dogs   I thought there was a law against allowing a child to be in sole charge of a dog on the street??  but obviously these owners know better :rolleyes: 

Does your area have a dog warden?  If so he/she doesn't seem to be doing their job ;) maybe they need some help in the way of a phone call informing them of the situation :)

Today a large staffy jumped on my dog as we walked past (both dogs on leads, being walked and 'they' were positioned so that we would have to pass closely grrrr), the owner told me it was 'being friendly' ~ according to its demeanor, attitude, the fact that it pounced without warning and the amount of snarling and growling it was doing I'd say friendly was last thing to come to mind. Of course if my dog had reacted and fought back then we'd have been the unfriendly ones :rolleyes:  Now I know why my father always carried a stick!

Why do soo many people wait until AFTER the lobotomy to get a dog??

Regards
Dill

OH !
AND
Why is it that in this area there are ten staffies to any other dog ~ and none of them are dog friendly or socialised ~ and the owners seem to actually like it this way???   I know its possible to have dog friendly staffies because I've personally known two, but then the owners were really friendly too....

Dill

I've tried carrying a stick but the flipping dog wants to play with it!
Had this already this week with a springer and a 3yr old boy :rolleyes:

I must say reading this has made me quite upset that children will go out on there own with dogs with not so good temperments.  I will never take my dogs out on my own (except my grandparents and my aussie bitch) to free run.  I have at home a setter boy who if another dog picks on him he will not be a nice boy!  I know that I am strong enough to hold him now But i will still not walk him offlead incase I am too far away.  Insted I do walk on road about 5K with the girls and then the boys, but never on my own will I have them off lead for the pure purpose of I don't want to be alone if something happens.

Why can't other kids think that?  Sometimes I get looks because I'm out walking dogs but I do the the strong dogs on haltis aswell!

Arghhh it makes me mad when people don't have control of there dogs!!!

Rox

Re the latchkey dogs.  I would ring your local council and call the dog warden out.  They will talk to persistent offenders, and a coupl of times having to pay to get their dogs back usually convinces them that d0og proofing their garden is cheaper!

When I had my first dog here whenever we went out to the local rec we were never dhort of unacompanied playmates for her, much to her delight.

By the time I had my second dog in 1992 it was hard wortk for me to find another dog when I took her out, and the big park was 20 minutes walk away, so she had to wait longer to do a lot of doggy soiclisation apart from once a week at class.

When the dog wardens were first introduced I often called them to pick up a loose dog that had followed us (always keep a spare slip lead on me), interestingly once I started doing this (and I presume other residents too) we have virtually a zero latchkey problem, which means my girls can still be lead walked round the strets when in season.  It used to cost £30 to get your dog back, I think it is £50 now!

Hi guys,

Ice queen-well done for being so responsible.
I have found that a lot of children and adults too think that dogs wearing haltis/headcollars are wearing MUZZLES!  In answer to the earlier question about the law, as far as I am aware, until the child is 16 years old, the ultimate responsibility of a dogs behaviour is down to the legal owner.  Therefore, if you see a young child 'being walked' by an untrained dog, its the parents responsibility for anything that the dogs does- re the Dangerous dogs act.  This is NOT necessarily saying that kids cannot walk dogs, we have quite a few older children that come training at our club without their parents and are doing brilliantly, they are the responsible ones.
But I suppose you could say, that if parents are not bothered about their kids, they are probably not too bothered about what their dogs are doing.
(I just read that bit above and thought-' help- everyone is going to think that I mean we can't let our kids out at all- honestly, that NOT what I mean!)
I have found walking my dogs  in the school holidays an absolute nightmare.  Every walk is full of kids who seem to be unaware of how to act around dogs. Please don't think I dont understand about children who have a real phobia about dogs, I do, but the parents seem to panic too. I like to think that my dogs are pretty well behaved, if there are horses, bikes or large parties of people with dogs/kids/buggies, then my two automatically go over to the side and sit and wait for them to pass, but it genuinely upsets me when kids take one look at my dogs and run screaming to their mums, who then either pick them up, or re-assure them that the dogs are likely to bite them.
This situation got so bad last year that I volunteered Islas services (she's a registered PAT dog) to our local school, where my children go, so that kids who didn't have dogs could learn how to approach a friendly dog, etc in a re-assuring environment. The head teacher, bless her, was all for it, but she explained that it would have to go through the PTA (I am a member) and the Parent Governers and they were unlikely to say yes, because a few of the parents were worried about the safety of their kids!
So that killed that idea.  Poor kids :(
Rant over
Ali :)

p.s. i now have special walks that i do especially when the kids are on holidays, always muddy, loads of stiles/gates-that seems to put most children off!

I think thats really sad Ali, but the HT dosent know until she actually asks them - maybe if they met Isla theyd be less worried. My kids schools have class pets ( who go home with staff for holidays) for those P3 and up to give them the pet owning experience with gerbils and hamsters. People like you and Isla could do so much to encourage responsible dog ownership and teach kids how to treat dogs with respect.

Molly wears a halti, and lots of people think it is a muzzle.  Yesterday a man bent down and stroked her and then asked if she bites, because of the halti.  You'd think he would have asked before touching her!