Yep, another one, but only a little one :D

Was out with the terrible twosome about an hour ago, wandering along quite happily, when I saw a lab pup a little way ahead of us.  Did the usual, called my two back and got hold of them.  The lab's owner saw us and carried on walking, chatting away on his mobile.  No sooner did I have hold of Opi than the pup came charging over at top speed and bodyslammed Opi - and I mean really slammed into her!  She wasn't exactly happy, her hackles were up and she gave it what for, but the bloody thing kept leaping around both my dogs' faces and generally irritating all of us.  The owner stopped his conversation and came over, didn't apologise, and started trying to get his pup back - in a sort of "oi, come here, c'mon, come here..." and so on kind of way, trying the odd grab when it got near enough.  When he did eventually get it, I decided I wasn't going to keep quiet (this is the second time this pup has done this, and I said nothing last time - its other owner apologised) - I told him as nicely as I could that he should think about training the pup for its own safety.  Guess what he said? Yep, that's right!  "He just wants to say hello, he's friendly!"  So I said, "that's all very well, but you have no way of knowing what my dogs are like until he's right up to them, and he could get bitten.  My dogs could be aggressive."  I said that as I was walking away - in a bad mood already, I didn't want to risk myself really getting irate and flying off the handle - and I heard him say quietly behind me "he is going to go to a training class..."

I do hope so.  He's a very friendly little pup, but even for a lab he's way over the top - my dogs are very mild mannered and friendly, but even Opi had a little pop - I dread to think what would happen to the little guy if he bodyslammed a less tolerant dog - the force of it was quite a shock, and I expect there are dogs out there who would really have a go at him and probably damage him quite badly.  I'd much rather see him trained to be polite (and come back!) than see him traumatised, personally.

I guess I was just on a short fuse today - just the other day an Old English did the same thing - ran up to us out of the blue and nipped Opi on the back, growling away - and his owner didn't apologise.  Even today a golden did the same thing as the pup did, about 10 minutes later - but the owners were very apologetic.  I find it much harder to get annoyed when they are :D and they did try to stop it coming over in the first place!

Nikita, i have these kind of experiences all the time but only more dangerous.

Theres a secondery school just around the corner from me and they have huge pitches, hills and open grasses so its ideal for taking dogs there for a good run and play in a fenced area.

Anyway i was walking around to it and you have to pass through an allyway and there at the other end was these group of lads around 15-18, smoking and drinking. Anyway i walked my two dogs pass and next thing around the corner is their dogs, off the lead. Two Staffordshire bull terriers but i think one was a cross with a pitbull anyway they came up to my dogs sniffing and i knew they were going to snap and i said" could you grab ur dog their because they're going to snap" they completey ignored me.

These dogs got too close for comfort for my dogs and they of course, they snaped and barked, so there i was with two dobermans  trying to pull them back while these idiots were standing there watching and when they did call them back and grabed them by the collar ,they said, so calmy by the way " sorry about that, mate" i never even replyed and walked on furious.

That put me in a bad mood, people can be stupid, having dogs off the lead like that, firsty they could have attacked a person or a stray dog, which i wouldnt doubt they have encouraged their dogs to do because the dog were used for fighting because of the cuts and tears on their body.

I dont blame dogs but their owners for stupity like this.

I cannot see how anyone can think it appropriate to use school playing fields as an appropriate area to excersise dogs.

My childrens school has a problem of irresponsible dog owners using their fields and It really annoys me, and I have five dogs of my own that I wouldn't dream of allowing off lead there, though I have used the path through to meet the kids from school with the dogs on lead only.

I would be pretty sure that dogs are not allowed loose on school fields, no more than any other place of work, after all they are not public recreation areas.

I use school playing fields to walk my dog and I dont see anything wrong with it aslong as owners clean up after them.  I even clean up after other dog owners so the school dont get annoyed with us and ban us.  I always take up the grass aswell that Arthur has pooed on so there is none left on the grass.  Im very wary of strange dogs meeting and the people who use the field aswell as myself have sort of an unspoken agreement, if one of us is on the rest walk buy until it becomes free.  Been using it for 3 years now and been no probs.

Think you've been lucky then as schools around us have a strict no dogs policy

Anne

Theres no signs or anything up at ours.  I might write to the council and ask where the "dog friendly" places are to walk my dog.  We go to a local park aswell and theres LOADS of poo and they have bins every 100 feet.  I dont think they should ban dogs from places just have someone watching for owners who dont clean up and fine them massively.  They would get a fortune and educate ignorant people at the same time.  They have a car park attendant why not have a dog watch attendant?

I don't agree with walking dogs on school property either.  Although most owners clear up after their dogs it only takes the one or two that don't to make life very unpleasant and how do you know they aren't the ones who don't worm their dogs regularly.  Once when walking through the park my dog crouched and produced a puddle of yuk which I couldn't pick up if I wanted to.  I was absolutely mortified, I was so embarrassed, I would have felt even worse had it been in a school.

Sorry, but schools are for children.

Its just as bad if you walk your dog in a public park, arent parks for kids aswell?  If you aint gonna pick up or worm your animal then you shouldnt walk your dog anywhere.

edited to say sorry for going off topic.

As dogs are not allowed in childrens play areas in parks the same logically would apply to school playing fields.  In a public park where dogs are allowed parnts ahve the knowledge that it is used by dogs, cyclists, skate boarders, joggers what have you, but school fields are for the use of childrten uwsually playing games so they are very likely to come into direct cotnact with any mess left.

Parks are for general public (horses not included around here).  Mess should be cleared up in parks as it should everywhere else.  My son plays football every day and there's nothing more sickening than when we are watching on a Sunday to spot dogs mess on the park pitch.

If my son was to gather his friends and organise one of their friendly football or cricket tournaments on a school playing field he would soon be told to clear off so where's the logic in that?  If schools are to be used out of school hours they should be used for children's activities only

It must be alot more relaxed where I live as while I walk Arthur the local kids are playing cricket and football.  Someone also trains a bird of prey on there.  I have seen a game of football for the under 13s on the local common and a lad cut his leg open on a smashed bottle of beer that teenagers had left the night before.  Seems alot of things need to be stopped on local fields.

The school has no problem with people walking their dogs in the fields as long as they clean up after them.

Every Dog owner in my area use these fields and hills to let their dogs have a good run off the lead.

We used to be able to walk or cycle over school fields here in Northampton but those days are long gone - now all the schools have had to have security fencing, CCTV cameras etc because of the problem of vandalism and arson. You must all live in very safe parts of the country!

I think that perhaps we have more in the way of open spaces than other areas.  My town gets bad press for some things but you certainly can't criticise it for the abundance of parks and woodland areas so there is no need to use the schools for dog walking.  I suppose this is why I am so against it.  If there wasn't so much free space we wouldn't have got a dog.  Having said that I have seen people walk their dogs in school fields around here and I just can't understand why.

WE have plenty of free open spaces, ciuntry parks and public playing fields that dog owners can use, yet I was shocked to see people allowing their dogs to run on the school fiels when they were only a little way between two country parks.

Thank God, that I live out in the country!

But to be fair, if a school playing field is the ONLY large piece of grassland to walk and let your dog have a run off lead then I would not judge anyone for using it, as long as any mess was cleaned up. I would personally love this country to set up dog only parks, where people can let there dogs off lead to run and play where there are no cyclist, joggers or little children playing. Maybe one day.........

As for the dogs running up post!  I don't think things will ever change with this I've experienced the lot, with my German Shepherd, people would automatically grab their dogs anyway, so did not have too much of a prob with him.(Apart from terrified faces when I walked passed) With my young retreiver I used to have to grab him until he was of age he was taught recall very early, as they are terrible bouncy and need to be restrained as pups (you do meet so many irresponsible owners) and my cockers usually get every dog known to man bounding over to them! (Luckily only ever met one nasty dog - whose owner I gave a good grilling)

Let's face it though, 9 out of 10 breeders do give plenty of paperwork and rules of puppy hood and going out in public with their dogs, but do they read it? And do they care, most the latter I'm afraid. Maybe all dog owners should take an exam first to see whether they are suitable!!! Ce'st La vie!

I walk my dogs,as do alot of others on our school fields. They have signs up saying "No dogs between the hours of 9-4 schooldays",but other than that it's ok. They do dog training/agility there in the summer also :)