Dog parks in the US are usually parks where it is specifically allowed for dogs to run around off-leash. They aren’t usually designed for that purpose (although sometimes the are). In general, it is not acceptable for people to let their dogs run around free, but there are designated parks and school fields where it is allowed - my mom can let her dog run around at either of the school fields near her house, and there’s a nearby park that’s also a designated dog park. The rules aren’t very limiting, in other words. There is one park I know of in town that isn’t a dog park, although dogs are still allowed, they just have to be on leash. (That park also hosts the farmer’s market, though.)
In Chicago, where I used to live, there are more purpose-built dog parks - there’s even a dog beach.
Well, it’s “well behaved dogs”, just like it’s “well behaved patrons”. If a dog - or a person - started knocking bottled off tables, it and its owner would be asked to leave. And it’s not all pubs - but it’s far from unusual.
Yeah, we don’t have those. Dogs are permitted off-leash generally (heck, I frequently see dogs sitting waiting outside a shop for their owner) and it’s fairly unusual for me to see someone bothered by this unless the dog does something antisocial. That doesn’t happen much, though - I’m far more likely to see a human doing something antisocial, in my experience.
That’s why I found the “dog within 5 feet of me” bizarre. How can one live in this country and not constantly have dogs pass within 5 feet of you? Many likely off-leash, and certainly in an open grassy area. These people must be shrieking at people 24/7.
It’s also possible that the baby was just getting over an illness, and the mother was skittish about leaving the baby where someone who potentially eats poop could put his nose in the baby’s face. One never knows.
That’s not an excuse for her to be rude, of course.
I work on NYC’s Upper East Side and I see lots of dogs being walked who are not only on leashes, but muzzled as well. It especially applies to large dogs. I’m guessing it’s a local culture of wanting to be absolutely safe from marauding dogs/wanting to be sure one’s own dog is impeccably behaved/doesn’t cause any lawsuits. I haven’t noticed the muzzles in other parts of the city. Of course there is always the random dog who needs to wear one because it is aggressive or (like my coworker’s dog) eats broken glass off the sidewalk.
Have you also noticed the dogs in stroller thing, xoferew? I haven’t seen it lately but for a while it was pretty common. My mom thought it was just an elderly/infirm dog thing but I’ve seen some pretty active looking pups in strollers.
Haven’t seen dogs in strollers, but a lot of dogs just being carried. (The tiny kind of dogs that when they ARE walking under their own power I’m always afraid of stepping on them.) And the other day I saw a cool wheeled platform for the back half of a clearly half-paralyzed dog.
I notice dogs in NYC being brought into practically any place of business that doesn’t have a sign up forbidding it, which I haven’t experienced in other places I’ve lived. It would never have occurred to me to take a dog into a bank, hardware store, or book store. I guess it’s because here people walk instead of driving, and combine exercising the dog with running errands.
There was that episode of the Simpsons where Homer took the dog and the baby with him to the store to buy poison. This created a problem when he later had to row them all across a stream in a boat that would only hold two items at a time.
You’d hate Germany then. There are dogs all over the place, and the buses even have doggie fares. My daughter has lived there a year and a half now, and has never seen a problem.
We raised guide dog puppies, who go everywhere as part of their training, and we never had a problem either. I think if you know your dog is going in public you work harder at training her. Our dog now is a retired breeder, and she does school visits every year. Some kids start out scared of her, but they usually give in when they see her snuggling with the other kids. She is a Golden and loves people, and comes from 20 generations of dogs selected for good temper and gentleness.
I’m Jewish, I’m from NY, and I had a dog as a little kid. My current dog says oy. I’m not Orthodox though - maybe they object to the dog’s hair not being covered?
There is an elementary school across the street from us, and many local dog owners let their dogs run on the field, assuming no one is playing baseball or soccer or cricket there. Sometimes my dog runs with one or two of her friends. Three friendly romping dogs do not constitute a pack.
And all dogs are different. Our first dog, a border collie cocker mix, much preferred hanging around people than running, and his idea of heaven was being underneath my wife’s desk as she worked.
I was reading a column a few months ago by Bill Simmons, “The Sports Guy” on ESPN.com. He said it’s not uncommon for Hasidic Jews to hiss at his dog if they encounter each other during a walk. My impression was that this was because dogs were considered “unclean” and not due to their use by Nazis or anyone else.
Maybe I’m biased because I grew up in South Florida (and so have some acquaintance with these exotic personages known as the Jews), but even if this hissing at/generalized disdain for dogs were a thing (which I still doubt), most Jews have as much in common with Hasidim as your typical Methodist has in common with the Amish.
Anyway, I get that this is all collateral to the main issue in the OP. Suffice it to say, the complainants weren’t frum (the OP could have guessed in that case) nor is it very likely that this was some old Jewish custom or anything like that.
“Rude” changes by location. Having a well-trained, responsive to verbal commands dog off-leash in a place not called “dog park” is rude where you are, but not in the UK, or even everywhere in the US (I’d like to see y’all convincing a Montana shepherd to leash the dogs). There are countries where what’s called a “dog park” in the US doesn’t even exist.
Exactamungo. Just because some American came up with the idea of a “dog park” 30 years ago (or whenever it was) doesn’t suddenly make the other 6 billion people in the world wrong. Culturally, there are plenty of places where the presence of dogs is not only tolerated but accepted, and the idea that a “dog park” is needed does not occur.
It does jar with me, the militant attitide towards dogs I see from Americans on this board; it just doesn’t mesh with what I’m used to. All these stringent declarations of “I SHALL DEFEND MYSELF!” and “DOGS MUST BE IN THE DOG PARK!” and “IF YOUR DOG LOOKS AT ME FUNNY I SHALL USE LETHAL FORCE ON IT, YOU, AND YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY!” Sometimes I think Americans think Robocop was a documentary.
As she got older my mother had a couple of bad experiences with larger dogs jumping up on her while she was out walking, and as she became frailer, the size of dog she was worried about got smaller. And as she grew unsteady on her feet, even if a little dog came up and yapped at her, or ran about at her feet, that would result in her standing still until it went away.
And my sister now has serious immune problems so she doesn’t like any dogs, or cats, or people getting too close…
My mum wouldn’t have said anything to a dog owner, just looked unhappy, but my sister might say something - no swearing, though!
