A Day Away
A day away on the coast, something I so looked forward to
but of course I totally forgot that it was the summer holidays, and that
parents and grandparents were seeking their way to sun sand and how to wear the
kids out time. The usually quiet beach that normally played host to regular dog
walkers who, in my limited experience of visiting there, were usually always
sensible and with well-mannered dogs. But clearly, they knew when to keep away.
Many years ago, and I am talking about many years, we lived near Hornsea and
throughout the winter months and into Spring the beach, the cafes and the bars were
welcoming and always had space. But come the summer months my kids couldn’t get
near the beach, the queue for ice-cream was huge, and as for a bite to eat,
well even if that were possible it was never the same quality as our winter
treats.
I get it, everyone has to make a living and when its seasonal
then it’s all hands-on deck. But believe it or not it’s not the kids on the
beach that I found a problem, they were all happy little beings doing as their
elders had instructed, they were polite, reasonably quiet and to be honest not
a problem to me or to my dogs. It was the dogs, other people’s dogs, bad
mannered, rude and totally out of control and to this day I’m not sure if that
applies to just to the dogs or also to their owners. I know my dogs and their
response to other people. Digby who is deaf and has one blue eye and half is
face is white will stalk anything on four legs, and Tess who loves to meet and
greet for the Trust, thinks that everyone she meets has to have a high five and
then must follow her to find me and talk about rescue dogs – bless her. Bonny
will stick to my side like glue but is hardly likely to take kindly to another
dog jumping all over her. Come on a blue-blooded working collie whose father is
a champion, why would she sit back be bullied! My dogs were on leads and only
let off when there were no other dogs around and they were happy to paddle in
the sea. But the terrier who barked constantly for twenty-five minutes while
the owner stood holding the lead looking aimlessly around, and the retriever
that constantly kept running up to my dogs and challenging them did nothing to
endear themselves to me. My journey from the edge of the sea across the beach
to my van was fraught with bad mannered dogs, yapping, running off, scaring
other dogs and children, while the owners did nothing. I sat in my van and
quietly observed, yes quietly apart from telling the retriever owner that my
dogs were fine but I was aggressive towards people, I’d been very restrained, I
watched and I saw flexi leads, balls, harnesses, frisbees, ball throwers and
even a muzzle, all that money spent and all those gadgets and some of the most bad-mannered
dogs I’d seen in a long time.
Comments
Post a Comment