Just been walking my german shepherd and we go on a bridge which goes over the motorway, anyway as we came to the bridge I saw an older man (60's) walking his westie, so I put my boy on the lead-some of you may remember that my dog is not good with smaller dogs (understatment lol) so I called him to me and put him on lead and carried on. Well to my discust this man watched his dog poo in the middle of the bridge and just carried on once it had finished, so I walked faster to catch him up and started calling 'excuse me' but he blanked me (now i know he heard me cos he stopped to talk to a women who heard me yelling and she pointed at me) but he just shook his head and carried on!! I couldnt believe it. Well I went back and picked it up cos it was right in the way and anyone could step in it.
Well anyway as i passed this lady i asked if she new him and she said she did so I told her and she just smiled then went on to say 'your dog is dangerous' so I asked her why she thought that and she said 'he looks it and you are irresponsible for keeping him' LOL I couldnt believe what I was hearing, my dog wears a muzzel and he is only off lead in open spaces where i can see all is clear, even though he doesnt seem to take much notice of other dogs anymore i still lead him if i see a small dog because they are always off lead and snap at him. So I asked her how she thought I was irresponsible and not the older man and she said 'well his dog is only small' and walked off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Someone please tell me if its me that thinks that is incredibly unbelievable or others too.

Zoe,

I agree with you that it was certainly wrong :-)

  but  ;-) generalising is not fair neither,  >> if i see a small dog because they are always off lead and snap at him<<   I have small dogs and 1 large dog and none are off the lead in public places and none would ever snap at anything.

People are and can be strage at times that is without a doubt. I think sometimes the muzzle make people cautious at times. Rightly or wrongly.

BFN

Lol sorry if that sounded rude but genuinly the small dogs where i live have actually all run up and snapped or snap when going past on the lead, im not saying that ALL small dogs everywhere do, i should have made that clearer as I know some great little dogs (parents have 2) but unfortunatly its true where i go for my walks :(

We have a couple here also that foam at the mouth when you pass them :-)

i have a man that walks past the end of our drive way and as the drive way happens to be the entrance to the school as OH is a caretaker of the school,it really annoys me when i had to  keep picking up the mess his dog left, well i asked him twice and he just told me where to go and if i was that bothered to pick it up myself, which of course i did as i don't want the little kids picking it up on there shoes and bringing it into the school, but he caught me on a bad day once and i watched his dog doing it , so i picked up the shovel i keep for my dogs mess and i shouted at him pick this bloody c**p up now or else, by this time there was a few mother around who where also saying pick that up that is disgusting, Yeah whatever was the reply and as he walked away i flicked it onto my shovel and threw it at him it hit him in the back of the head, and people just stood there gobsmacked a few of the mothers clapped and then everone started laughing at him he was furious he started to come back towards me, but realised there was other around he just walked off, but this is not the first time i have done this i will pick up others peoples poo in a bag if i have seen there dog doing it and tell them and they ignore me, and give it to them if they don't take it i throw it at them in the poo bag normally the guy above was a one off,no poo bag. i have also been known to find out where the culprits live and bag it up and deposit it with a note saying this is what you left outside and the name of the school, word is getting around and there are more people starting to make themselves known that it is not acceptable where we live.
I also constinantly badger my council for more bins and the bins that are there to be empty frequently not until the vandals set them allight.
The other thing i think is that people should be named when they are fined for not picking up, where we live we never hear of anybody being fined for not picking up everyone knows the law but if you don't hear of people being fined you tend to think well everyone gets away with it so i will also.
sorry for going on but it really annoys me about thoughtless people it is not the dogs fault it is their owners.
Carol

Carol good for you!!  You made me laugh, but I wish more people would pull others up for not picking up after their dogs.  Where I live, the pavement all the way to school (quite a long walk) was regularly covered in dog mess - I rang the council twice as my children kept stepping in it (but they did nothing) and I began to get paranoid about where they were treading.  It doesn't seem as bad nowadays - whether more people pick up, or whether those particular dogs/owners are not around here anymore I don't know, but I hope it continues to improve!!

Fiona

Zoe,it could be the woman was the old mans best friend and was counterattacking to distract you from the fouling incident. Youve taken precautions to prevent any incidents involving your dog, but you cant control other peoples beliefs/reactions. Dont rise to the bait. You can fume or you can laugh and I know which I prefer.

Lorelei. You are 100% right. Excellent councelling there. You know, when I read that, I thought for sure it was a dream from the night before and it didn't really happen!!! LOL

Carrie

I really know what you mean.  I have the assumption that my dogs are dangerous because they wear gentle leaders and those people who really dont have a clue always tut in the street or make snide comments about having a dangerous dog.  One woman carried on too far and for too long so I ended up giving her a lecture on the gentle leader and the benefits.  Not sure she appreciated it but it shut her up at least which was nice!

Claire

Ditto Claire (apart from not having the courage to give a lecture ;) )...when I previously needed a halti for Rosie, I used to have filthy looks and comments such as "Oh dear, a basset hound with a muzzle"  
I did on one occasion retort with "So what" at the ignorant passers by....and was even tempted to shout "Get 'em Rosie!"....but of course...I'm far too sensible to do that ;)

Unfortunately not that restrained.  Just really annoys me that they wouldnt bother saying anything to the woman in town who has a lovely soppy black lab but with a double prong collar continually pulled really tight (I am not giving any opinion of what I think of prong collars before anyone complains).  But apparently that is ok - what is this world coming to!