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Puca writes:

Walking my dog on extension lead in Sandymount [Dublin 4] yesterday evening and my dog was about 10 ft behind me (sniffing railings) and suddenly some guy comes jogging up from behind with a dog also on a lead. T

he two dogs snarl at bare teeth at each other. I immediately rein my dog in and apologise but the bearded jogger stops and asks

“What’s that about?”

I said I didn’t see them approaching from behind and apologised again but he persists

“What’s that about?”

When I say that I have already apologised and that he seems to be implying it was an intentional manoeuvre by me, he comes back with:

“Your dog attacked mine, I’m entitled to give you grief”

As if it’s a contract I have unwittingly signed. After some handbags, it all ended with his pithy:

“Oh fuck off.”

As he jogged away.

The encounter itself was mildly diverting, but his language describing his entitlement to give grief (as if I had not read the Ts & Cs of dog walking) was illuminating.

Have the unwritten rules of the social contract been replaced with an actual contract (entitlements and all)?

Anyone?

Rollingnews

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49 thoughts on “Ask A Broadsheet Reader

  1. Mr. Camomile T

    It’s the December heatwave bringing out the hothead in everyone. One of the lesser-known issues of climate change. The more you know…

  2. 15p

    lol. D4 problems. this is like a readers letter from an 1800s periodical. “a strife on the sandy shores, dogs afoot, oh golly!”

  3. Boy M5

    “but the bearded jogger”

    That’s where you lose all credibility. You feel the need to prejudice this piece from the outset in order to set us up against the jogger. It shows a lack of confidence when you add an irrelevant comment like that.

    It seems like your own dog is not properly trained and has issues with other dogs. That’s your responsibility. If you can’t control your dog in public, you shouldn’t bring it out in public.

    Grow up.

  4. Scundered

    If your dog is behind and you’re not watching it, then you’re not being responsible. I see so many allowing their dog to walk far behind the owner, so it can c**p everywhere, then the said owner claim they never knew.

        1. backomebollix

          contract of hostilities innit, into which you have herein entered and must surrender unto me one destruction, as per my entitlement.

    1. cousinjack

      the dog owners social contract appears to be to pick up their animals waste only when under surveillance, or use some unscientific spurious excuse like ‘the tide will take it away’ (the tide will just bury it so some tyke will get a maggoty surprise later)

      1. Scundered

        True, or the most common excuse I hear when I challenge someone about it is “Oh I don’t have any bags with me today”. In which case ask them to just put it straight into their pockets using their hands, and then hold a straight face.

  5. Alex Francis

    your mistake here was not to immediately tell the jogger ‘what it was about’. A loaf to his nose followed by ‘THAT’S WHAT IT’S IT ABOUT PRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKK’.
    CASE CLOSED.

  6. Birneybau2

    This is the era of ‘Fupp off’.

    Look, that phrase was in the article.

    Don’t censor me.

    Nooooo

  7. 15p

    the jogger is horrible, “whats that all about?” .. like theres an answer, “well i guess my dog just wanted to fight ur dog and i support that, so i suppose we too, should fight now”

  8. Bruncvik

    I’ve been running for years, been pretty active in the running communities of cities I lived in, and I had spent two years running along the Sandymount Strand and met quite a few people. From my experience, I say that the “jogger” was a douchebag. Unless you are getting paid lots of money, you run only for fun. (And one may argue that even the high-paid athletes simply do what they love.) Running is further therapeutic, and once you hit a certain point (for me it’s about 4 miles), you get into a mild euphoria. There is no such thing as grumpy runners; only pretenders. He was a pretend runner.

    That’s not to say there’s no place for anger when running. I still get annoyed by three kinds of people: mobile phone zombies, large groups taking over the entire footpath and cyclists on the footpath. But I’m never angry enough to stop and give them grief; I only stop to give them the chance to go around me, but that’s primarily for safety reasons. Runners also know how to treat leashed dogs – always stay out of reach of the leash, or if there is no space, have the dog owner between them and the dog. The only time runners may get angry at dog owners, in my opinion, is when the dogs are off their leash and interfering with their running. If the author was correct, this was not the case. So I stand by my assessment. This was a pretend runner, who didn’t know the basics of urban running, didn’t enjoy running, and was simply looking for an excuse to blow off some steam and catch his breath.

    1. Scundered

      However a dog on an extension lead walking far behind the owner might as well be unleashed, if the owner had been paying attention she would have seen the jogger approaching and wound the lead in accordingly. Dogs on long leads are a problem at times, but only when the owner isn’t paying attention to the surroundings.

  9. Andyourpointiswhatexactly?

    You transgressed the unwritten law!
    You should have called in Doug and Dinsdale Piranha.

  10. John McAlinden

    Hi,
    I walk Sandymount Strand with two dogs on a daily basis. Even though one of the dogs is just a little snappy towards other dogs, I find that other dog walkers are invariably pleasant, kind people. Sadly, I can’t say the same for all of the joggers on the prom. Some of them refuse to give way to anyone and I’m certain they frighten the life out of elderly walkers.

    As for the cyclists ignoring the signs prohibiting them from cycling on the prom……Well, that’s another matter.

    1. Scundered

      Ah for a moment I thought we had ourselves a debate that didn’t involve cyclists, well done on getting them in.

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