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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Penny Clarke" data-source="post: 1463107" data-attributes="member: 40022">Just noticed this thread, oh dear, I could rant on for hours.......Now firstly I don't hate dogs and ok I admit I am not a dog lover BUT there are SOME totally rude, arrogant, irresponsible, selfish owners out there. It certainly isn't the dogs fault. As several people on here have said, it is awful seeing bags of dog cr*p hanging about in trees and bushes, it is just sickening, as is the piles of dog cr*p increasingly adorning our countryside, to the point in many places now where you have to look down alot more than you look up for birds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! eg, Sandringham Woods (went once and have never been a second time it was so bad), Ringstead Downs, Bawsey Country Park, Kelling Heath (extra bad), coastal path at Holme and generally all along the coast - I could carry on with this list. The other problem is the noise aspect, hearing people shouting for their out of control dogs at the tops of their voices, over and over again and whistling for them, completely spoils the tranquility of out being out in the countryside.The MAIN PROBLEM is this - THERE ARE TOO MANY DOGS AND TOO MANY DOGS PER HOUSEHOLD. When I was a little girl (in the village of Holme, Norfolk) there was ONLY one dog in the village!!!!!:eek!: yep ONE DOG IN ONE VILLAGE and that dog was a working dog, no one had a dog as a pet in my village - NOW well over half of the village is owned by 2nd home owners who all pile down at weekends/holidays, drive down to the village carpark with the 4x4's and several large dogs all pile out the back of the car, all out of control and racing in all directions - the owners (most) don't give a monkeys about them being on leads and presume that we ALL love dogs. I have an incident with a dog virtually every weekend now and its getting boring and tiresome. Its all very well people shouting back 'its ok they won't hurt you' when you have a monster of a dog galloping at you with saliva dripping and any second (while you heart is going nine to the dozen) you seriously believe you are going to be attacked - how they h*ll do I know their darling 4ft high pooch isn't going to have me for lunch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Wardens at Holme reserves have massive problems with irresponsible dog owners all the time and its getting worse - its a constant battle and I am sure I speak for all reserves both along the coast/everywhere.I can understand people who wish to have a dog, especially people who live alone and enjoy having them as a companion and can even understand people having 2 dogs, but 3, 4, 5 etc I just don't get it! I think they should bring back the dog licence and limit every household (from now on) to a maximum of 2 dogs. The reason why people are being asked to clear up after their dog is because there are so many thousands of dogs now compared to years ago, that if NO ONE cleared up, the situation would be even worse than it is now. Think about it - did you notice dog cr*p everywhere when you were a youngster, say 30 years ago?????? (depending on ages of people reading this) - I certainly can't remember any, simply because there wasn't the same number of dogs around then!!!My most recent incident was at Burnham Overy Staithe a couple of weeks ago - I arrived at the quay and parked my car (only person there at this point) and as I was getting my stuff together from boot of car a dog owner (who I thought was a man at this point) ambled along behind me along path with 2 bassett hound type dogs and then made their way up onto the sea bank which goes out to Gunhill (where I was going) - when they reached the top they let both dogs go to the toilet right in the middle of the path and did not clear up. I then made my way up onto the bank and as I started to walk in the same direction as dogs/owner, I was about 100 yds behind, one of the dogs turned and barked ferociously at my and stood his ground - I stopped and stood still waiting for owner to call dog back - the owner did nothing and just stood also. This infuriated me, I looked at my watch and thought why should I have to waste any time at all waiting for the owner to politely call the dog back, a minute later the dog realised I wasn't going to move and grumbled and turned round and continued following its owner. I decided to drop down from the bank and follow the path adjacent, lower down alongside the reed beds - further along I realised I was virtually level with dogs and owner - the same aggressive dog suddenly reaslied I was there and proceeded to bound down the bank after me - the owner still did nothing. I shouted back 'please call your dog back' and the reply was 'he won't hurt you', I called back again 'please call your dog back I am frightened of dogs' and the (lady) shouted back in a blunt, sarcastic, rude voice 'you are in the wrong place then arn't you'. THIS MADE ME SO ANGRY:C - normally I would have answered back, but the things I wanted to say would have exploded into a MASSIVE argument and I ended saying absolutely nothing - and also this lady looked pretty scary (being serious!) she was a big, overweight, ugly, short haired lady that I did feel very intimidated by. She also carried on muttering saying to her dog 'its ok she won't hurt you'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway later on when I overtook her and got a good bit further up the path I got my camera out with 300mm lens and photographed her and her dogs for evidence, if I should ever need it. In fact I am going to start doing that to every dog and owner I see breaking the law I have decided!!! Its probably a good job I was born female, if I had been born a man I just get the feeling that I would have had alot of scraps/punch ups with people!!!!!!!On the other side of the coin, there are some lovely dog owners with perfect dogs - dogs that walk alongside their owners without leads, extremely obedient and obviously very much loved, happy dogs, but very sadly there are very few. There are simply too many dogs per household and very sadly too many owners that just simply don't care a hoot.Penny:girl:</blockquote>

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