Great, now SciFiSam can freak out people who are afraid of dogs AND people who are afraid of clowns.
:dubious:
I can honestly say, in all of my years of being a Jew, that I have never heard this.
It may be different in your location, of course, but here in Calgary, off-leash still means “under control.” If your dog can’t be controlled by you when off-leash, then it doesn’t get the privilege to go off-leash. Off-leash areas doesn’t mean, “All dogs roaming freely, doing whatever they please.”
I try to avoid off-leash areas because people do think they mean it’s a dog free-for-all, but unfortunately, the most direct walk from my house to Safeway is through an off-leash area with a multi-use path through it. The multi-use path is not an off-leash area - the off-leash area is beside it, but you can guess how many people actually respect that. When I go through the off-leash area on the path that isn’t actually off-leash, I don’t say anything to the people who are allowing their dogs to approach me, but I do my best to get away from them. I’m not scared of dogs, but I don’t know your dog, and I avoid unknown hazards.
A Jewish acquaintance told me this years ago in New York. No idea whether it applies anywhere else, although here’s a blog discussion that says it’s common among orthodox Jewish children.
Wait… you were serious with this? I assumed it was a joke. OK.
To the OP - the man was rude to swear. In the circumstances you describe I would have tutted to myself and gone off on my merry way. I certainly wouldn’t have put the dog on a lead at that point.
But the kid is likely to have been much more frightened by Mommy swooping in than by the dog, based on my own experience in that kind of situations (the irrational fear being transmitted may include dirt, spiders, bugs, dogs, water… - and yes, all those can be dangerous, but if the mere sight of them makes you try to climb a tree you’re being irrational).
Depending on the speed of my reflexes, I might have apologized but pointed out that it’s an off-leash area, or merely have stared dumbfounded.
One of my last vacations was in Vigo, where the largest park in town is used by many people to walk their dogs, generally off-leash. There are many rescue greyhounds among them, leading to improptu “you can’t catch me!” races - but from what I saw, they were always under their owners’ control. Someone who’s terrified of dogs can’t recognize the difference between an improptu race among a terrier, a golden retriever mix and two elderly greyhounds and a wild pack, sadly.
Or, alternatively, live in a society which encourages and provides plenty of areas suitable for dogs. The UK is a small, crowded place - very few people have extensive back yards.
“Defend yourself”? From what, exactly? Should I therefore declare my right to defend myself from you eveyr time you come within 5 feet of me?
I don’t know about all that, but recently Minneapolis City council proposed putting an off leash dog park in a city park and there was a HUGE amount of outrage. Why? Because it was a park named after Martin Luther King Jr.
Re dog parks demeaning the memory of MLK, there are different kinds of dog parks. When I am in Madison Square Park (NYC) I often stop by their fenced in dog run to watch the adorable doggies playing. But I don’t stay long because of the horrible stench. I guess the ground is just covered in sand/gravel/dog urine, and I don’t know if they shovel it out once a month or what, but yes, a stinky park like that would be disrespectful and could be seen as an insult. Now, a large grassy area would be a different story.
Dogs should be on leashes in public unless it’s an actual DOG park. Especially bigger dogs. I know this. I would never bring my dog to a park unleashed. That’s rude, and it’s dangerous. I know my sweet Shadow like I know my own children but there’s no sense taking chances. If I want him to run free I take him to a dog park. Actually I can’t even take him to the park because other idiots don’t know how to leash their dogs and they’ll run up to him. Last time I took him to the park he got a hole bitten in his ear.
And for my experience: Last summer I took my little girl to Shelby Farms, a huge park in Memphis that has a section for dogs to be off-leash in addition to several sections where children play on playgrounds, one of which we were in. So we’re standing at the edge of a lake watching the ducks when a big dog comes bounding up looking PISSED. He doesn’t look playful, he looks aggressive. My little girl and I were pinned between this dog and the water with no safe place to escape. She screamed and I screamed and pushed her behind me. I would have jumped into the water with her but the damned dog was dripping wet so that would have been pointless. I truly felt like we were in danger. Then this young guy saunters up all full of eye-rolls and smirks. “He just wants to play with you. Stop hollering and he’ll chill out”. This growling dog was supposedly playing? Maybe like a cat plays with a mouse? I don’t know. But I went off about him keeping his dog on a leash. There were signs all over the place, but hey, I’m just overreacting, right?
My five year old was terrified. So terrified she remembers it a year later, and is now scared of going to that park.
So yeah, I get a little bothered just being “in the presence” of people’s dogs, if I’m at a park and they aren’t leashed. Even if they don’t seem dangerous, they can be dangerous. You don’t know. So I will holler, and I will yell, “Put that dog on a fucking leash!” if I see the owner. It’s not my problem someone can’t find a dog park. And your dog doesn’t have to be unleashed. It doesn’t have to run wild and free to get exercise and have fun outdoors. If you can’t be a responsible dog owner you don’t need a dog.
Can it be?!? I think you may have found the first error on the internet! And in a *blog *of all places!
Wonders never cease.
There’s a park I often cut through when I’m going downtown, where many people bring their dogs off-leash. I don’t think it’s officially designated as a dog park, and I don’t know what the leash laws are, but everyone knows it’s a de facto dog park (the drinking fountain in the center even has a basin for the dogs to drink out of). If I didn’t like dogs, then I just wouldn’t cut through the park, because regardless of what the law says, I know there are going to be dogs there.
In the UK, parks are dog parks by default. A few will have a ‘no dogs’ signs up (particularly if there’s a fenced-off play equipment section) but otherwise you have to expect dog off the lead there.
Never visit the UK - you’d absolutely hate it here! No “dog parks” (I’m still not even sure what one is, but I’m fairly sure there isn’t one in this country - it’s a park *just *for dogs? They might exist here, but I’ve never heard of one) and *shit-loads *of dogs. And if you yelled at everyone like that, you’d probably eventually end up being arrested as a public nuisance!
I can’t imagine it’s a good idea to allow dogs off-leash in any situation that’s not completely fenced in. What happens if the dog runs into traffic? What happens in the situation described in the OP when the puppy crosses in front of a bicyclist? Does the cyclist just buy you a new puppy?
Regarding whether a small dog can hurt/scare an infant: yeah, it can happen, but there’s a catch. Small dogs have killed infants before (there’s a notorious case in Tennessee, iirc, in which a Jack Russell Terrier killed an infant)…but it happens when the children are unattended, because an adult not only can defend the child against a dog, but also because dogs take their cue from human adults and generally refrain from attacking the prey/infant if human body language indicates it’s not appropriate.
I’m used to people being nervous about my dogs. I live with two – an American Pit Bull Terrier and a pit bull mix of some kind. These two dogs (typically for their breed) love strangers with a deep, abiding intensity and would go rub themselves against everyone they see unless I controlled them…which I do. Leashed always except in fenced, off-leash areas. Even with other, less controversial breeds, it’s incumbent on the human to indicate to other humans that he or she has control of the dog(s), and permit interaction only if it’s welcomed. I make the dogs wait for people to (voluntarily) approach them. This is simple politeness.
Of course an off-leash area is a bit different – but again, I simply can’t picture an unfenced area being sensible for this purpose.
For what it’s worth, we have an elderly neighbor who appears to be from India, Pakistan or Bangladesh (she wears a sari and has a bindi). She walks a lot for her health; we see her all the time while walking our dogs. She was fearful of the dogs at first, but in a polite way, if that’s possible; she didn’t freak out. But she’s now been seeing them behave themselves for several years, and now she smiles at them in a kindly way, even though she doesn’t come over to touch them. It’s progress of a sort.
I should add that off-leash dogs are a mortal danger to my own dogs, which may have colored my attitude. If somebody’s dog runs up to mine and starts a fight, guess who gets the blame and pays the price? Fortunately my area has solid leash laws, which gives us something to advocate when we meet all the people breaking those laws.
It’s 3 miles across, walled in (with a half dozen or so exits around the perimeter) and we don’t walk along the cycle paths, not being suicidal and all.
:eek:
You are absolutely correct. I would hate the UK.
But since I’m not in the UK I will keep being the horrible American dog-hating bitch that I am who objects to animals being unleashed in public places. 
I think I just realised - from this and other previous dog-related threads - that there may be a cultural difference between the UK and the US regarding dogs which I’m only just spotting. It seems it’s related to a presumption in the UK that dogs are fine off-lead as long as it’s not specified otherwise (i.e. particular areas or a dangerous animal), whereas it sounds like in the US the presumption is that the dogs must be on-lead unless it’s specified otherwise.
It’s only an observation from threads and the way people talk here, though, so I could be completely misreading it. But there does appear to be a different cultural presumption towards permissiveness towards dogs. Hell, plenty of the pubs nearby have dogs off-lead in them (including, often the owner’s dog).
I might add that in my state, Tennessee, it is illegal to allow your dog to run without a leash except in cases of hunting or herding.
TN code 44-8-408 says “The owner of a dog commits an offense of that dog goes uncontrolled by the owner upon the premises of another without the consent of the owner of the premises or other person authorized to give consent, or goes uncontrolled by the owner upon a highway, public road, street, or any other place open to the public generally.” Penalties range from Class C misdemeanor if the dog is roaming at large, to Class D felony if the dog has a bite history and causes the death of a person.
TN code 44-8-413 says “The owner of a dog has a duty to keep that dog under reasonable control at all times, and to keep that dog from running at large. A person who breaches that duty is subject to civil liability for any damages suffered by a person who is injured by the dog while in a public place or lawfully in or on the private property of another. Such a person may be held liable regardless of whether the dog has shown any dangerous propensities or whether the dog’s owner knew or should have known the dog’s dangerous propensities.”
Yes it must be. I can’t imagine allowing a dog into a bar. I can see some of those little frou-frou purse dogs that I’m happy to report are going out of style being allowed but I can’t imagine walking into a club with my pit bull rambling around. He’d be knocking bottles off tables and snorting and sneezing all over the other patrons.
I can appreciate cultural differences. My Mexican boyfriend thinks it’s absolutely insane to cut the testicles off a male dog and he’s so far refused to let me take ours in even though we have to pay twice as much for his license.
And where he grew up cats were vermin to be shot on sight. He thinks I’m crazy for treating ours like royalty.