The Dog Cafe

[Flobo]

Join our free community today.

Connect with other like-minded dog lovers!

Login or Register

I thought I'd share a random, quite worrying, thing I saw this week...

I was over a small park with one of my dogs, who I walk on a long line, when we heard 'squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak', my dog obviously went on high alert. I looked around and there was a very young, small child(she looked like she had literally just learnt to walk) wobbling across the green, squeaking!! The mother was a little way away looking at her phone... The squeak was in the little ones shoes, so every time she stepped, she squeaked. A lab turned up, heard the squeaking, looked alerted, then ran over to the baby, thankfully as the baby had stopped walking, so did the squeak, so the lab just looked confused...
I was watching from a distance, quite horrified, but neither the mother or even the dog owner seemed too worried,(the lab was very good to be fair but others may not have such great impulse control!)

I get squeaky shoes are fun but where dogs walk, is it not just an accident waiting to happen??

 

[excuseme]

Absolutely!!

 

[RGC]

Was it squeaky leather or shoes that ‘deliberately’ squeaked? Obviously we miss out on most things in the sticks.

 

[JudyN]

I'd assumed they were accidentally squeaky, but checking online, squeaky shoes (with an on/off switch) are a thing

 

[JudyN]

Be afraid... be very afraid:

OK, those dogs weren't aggressive in any way, but it wouldn't be nice for a baby to get that sort of attention, and she's likely to get knocked over. Some dogs also view squeaky toys as very high value... and do everything they can to desqueak them.

 

[Tinytom]

This is one of the reasons why my dogs were never allowed squeaky toys ....
People really don't realise how quickly things can happen yet again and again we hear of dog attacks on children

 

[Hemlock]

I agree with all of the above.

 

[Flobo]

Was it squeaky leather or shoes that ‘deliberately’ squeaked?

They were deliberate and it sounded just like a squeaky toy!
@JudyN that's exactly what they sounded like, but on a wee nipper, quite terrifying!!
I just had a quick look and of course Amazon do them, squeaky shoe shaped dog toys come up on same page, would that not trigger some kind of caution for people?

 

[Hemlock]

Never mind its effect on dogs - that'd drive me nuts. Children make quite enough noise without add-ons!

 

[JudyN]

I'm not sure of the gender of all of next-door's dogs, but I think two of them are mother and son. I do hope the son is neutered, because all three of them have been going at it hammer and tongs in the garden One, presumably female, just stood there while the other two took it in turns (or tried to get in on the action at the same time), so I assume that she is also in season. This isn't good, whether the son is entire or not

 

[JoanneF]

Oh dear ... what breed did you say they were? Do you think they might be seeing ££££?

 

[JudyN]

Boston terriers. He said a while back he wasn't sure if he would do it again because the bitch didn't enjoy parenthood... Buuuut, it's still not a good idea to let the dogs have a threesome - unsupervised, as far as I can tell.

I shall have to hang around in the garden sometime when he's out building his summerhouse - he's very friendly, and I'm sure I can drop a mention in the conversation...

 

[JoanneF]

Or get the hose out.


Just kidding ...

 

[excuseme]

You could always mention that you have a friend who is looking for a puppy Boston, does he know of anyone !!! That may give some idea if his males are neutered or not

 

[excuseme]

Sometimes you have to be a bit sneaky and tell little white lies too

 

[JudyN]

I might just ask if his bitch is in season, as the dogs seemed a little frisky. Now, if Jasper was still here I'd soon know. He might have realised that garden fences were jumpable after all!

 

[JudyN]

I know in an ideal world, owners wouldn't let their dogs approach random people, but in our local park that isn't going to happen - what you hope for is that any dog that comes up to you will be polite, not mug you for treats, and not jump up. What really annoys me is when a known jumper-upper approaches you and the owner starts telling it off for jumping up before it's actually done it - what's it going to learn from that?

Case in point - there is a 5-year-old cockerpoo we often meet in the park who I honestly thought was about 6 months old when we first met him. We've been training him not to jump up - saying hello nicely when he does, turning on our heels and walking off the moment he jumps up - and we're now seeing the results. In the meantime, the owner goes through his normal 'No! Off! Down! Leave! No! Off! Down! Leave! No! Off! Down! Leave!' repertoire, which the dog completely ignores as it's just background noise, and has lost all meaning.

 

[Tinytom]

Our local park banned dogs for the above reason ....

 

[JudyN]

That's a shame, Tinytom. To be fair, if a dog does want to come up to me I do give it 'come here' vibes (unless I can tell the owner wants it to ignore other people and focus on them), so if it does get overfamiliar with me, I only have myself to blame. We don't seem to have a problem with dogs going up to and pestering people who ignore their approaches, though I'm sure it happens on occasion. Luckily it's a big park, incorporating a nature reserve area, a cricket pitch and two large recreation fields, so there's enough room for everyone.

The biggest problem is the people who don't pick up after their dogs when they poo on the sports pitch areas, which is horrible for the cricketers and footballers :-(

 

[Tinytom]

It was also for poo left behind as our local park is mainly geared for children ....its the minority that spoil it for everyone