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Was I Wrong? (Long Story)

longislandcampe
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Explorer
We just got back from a wonderful week of camping and had one slight altercation with a neighbor. I'm curious to see what others might have to say.



This pic was taken from our site and as you might be able to tell, the campground road goes from left to right before it makes a 90 degree turn to the left. The girl on the bike is on the road and about to go past the picnic table, fire pit, tree and small shrubs before hitting the 90 degree right hand turn and come past our site. There is a vacant site on the inside part of the turn as you can see and that's who we had a problem with. I took the picture after they left.

It was a couple in their late 50's, early 60's with 2 small dogs. All week long they would walk their dogs either on the vacant sites next to them, using them as a doggy latrine or across the street where you can see the woods in my picture. We would walk our dogs in the wooded section behind the girl on the bike as instructed by the campground, much like the couple did when they didn't use vacant sites as a latrine.

For 3 or 4 days there was never a problem. Everyone went about their camping trips peacefully and enjoyably. My family had two campers there and luckily we had sites next to each other. Everything was going great!

One night at about 11pm I take one of our dogs to that grassy/woody section. I'm standing at about where that bike is but I'm actually behind the bike, on the grassy/woody area. I see the guy I mentioned above about 150' away from me down the road to the left behind some trees and bushes and I hear him saying things to his dog. The doggy area is about 150' long and about 10' deep as there is a chain link fence to prevent things from getting in and out of the park. I keep my distance and don't venture closer. We were basically at opposite ends of the 150' long doggy area. The dog I had at the time does his business as soon as I bring him to that area so I start and end the dog walk in under 2 minutes.

I go back to the camper and bring our second dog to the same area and I can still see the guy in the same area down the road and still talking to his dog. Again, we are at opposite ends of the doggy area. I'm minding my own business and staying just about as far away as possible in the area where we were supposed to bring dogs.

All of a sudden I hear a voice down the road from the guy walking his dog down the road. It was not a pleasant tone and it was not an angry tone but it was kind of an annoyed tone. It's after 11pm and he's yelling.

"Um, can you go walk your dog somewhere else? I'm trying to train a 3 month old puppy over here and your dogs keep distracting her."

My dogs weren't barking, they weren't growling, they weren't doing anything other than sniffing and peeing in the designated doggy area just about as far away from this guy as possible. We have two dogs and I walk them separately and it takes less than 5 minutes from the time I grab the first leash to the time I'm hanging up the second leash.

So I answer back, "I'm just trying to walk my dogs just like you are."

He comes back with, "I know, but can't you just walk your dogs over on your site or somewhere else because I have a 3 month old puppy I'm training. Can you show some courtesy!?" All the time in an annoyed tone and yelling at 11pm.

So I reply with, "Dude, I'm just trying to walk my dog just like you are in the designated area instructed by the campground. That's all I'm doing."

He then says something else about my manners and tells me to walk my dog somewhere else. I say "OK, I will" but I don't move.

At this point he picks up his dog and walks over to my face complaining about how I'm not listening and how I'm not being courteous. He tells me that I've been bringing my dogs over to his site all week to pee and poop. He was claiming that the other side of the road was his site too and I respond that no, I'm not bringing my dogs over to his site because HIS site is on the other side of the road with his camper, picnic table and fire pit and that I'm bringing my dog over to the designated doggy area as instructed by the campground as was everyone else in our loop. We always clean up after our dogs too so it's not like we left anything in the wooded area.

At this point he walks past me and he begins to walk right to my dad's site 30' away and says that he's going to bring both his dogs over to our site so they can relieve themselves by our picnic table. He even threatened to go get his BIGGER dog which was still only 20 lbs. ๐Ÿ™‚

I followed him that short distance and just as he got to my parents picnic table my brother heard the commotion and walked out of his camper at the next site. I call my brother's name and say, "Do you mind giving me a hand over here? This gentleman just threatened to bring both his dogs over to Dad's site and have them poop and pee all over.

My brother and him basically have the same conversation that I had with him, (keep in mind that he is currently on our site standing next to our picnic table), when a few seconds later my Dad comes out from his camper right there and asks what is going on. At this point the guy leaves and says something about how he is so happy he is packing up and leaving tomorrow and that it wasn't anything worth arguing about. We all went to bed after that and he was gone 12 hours later.

So what is your opinion on all of this? I wasn't doing anything other than simply walking my dogs in the designated doggy area and keeping my distance from him and his dog the whole time.
69 REPLIES 69

ol_Bombero-JC
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cm11599ps wrote:
mich800 wrote:
If it was as you stated the only real way to deal with people like that is to just ignore them. Easier said then done.

But based on their demeanor probably not much more you could have done other then calling the park or host to resolve it.


Trust me, I'm not a confrontational guy at all and I tend to avoid these types of situations, that's why I stayed away from the guy at the other end of the doggy section. When you yell at me and accuse me of doing something wrong that I'm NOT doing wrong, all with an annoyed tone then there's going to be a problem.

The story I presented is just about the way it went down, word for word. I was walking my dog peacefully and trying to maintain my distance about as far away as possible in the doggy section but that wasn't good enough for him and he wanted me to move and asked in an annoyed tone. Why did I have to go somewhere else? Why couldn't he pick up his pup and go somewhere else?

He was the one with the loud tone, he's the one that walked up to my face from 150' away and he's the one who ventured into our site, to our picnic table and threatened to bring his other dog there.

I was simply standing up for myself and stating the facts in a cool manner for the most part. I never yelled, I never cursed, I never threatened him and I never violated his space or site.


OK at this point (page/post) I give up

Agreed - The guy was off base.

Why beat it to death?

However - The "tone" you originally referred to - is like the wind....it's starting to blow from the *other* direction..:R

Nice ongoing rant - but like you should have done.....
time to throw in the towel and walk away.
(from the other camper - and this thread)

Sooo - Adios - and have a nicer experience (I hope) next time..:C

~

BurbMan
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dannytas
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Relax, it all happened without an "extreme incident". Hopefully, that guy is thinking over the situation as much as you are. Opinion: all went well for both of you. Good job!
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noe-place
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I'd have just left because the issue wasn't worth one second of my time to argue over. Then I'd have taken my dog to pee in his site later on. But that's just me.

Jeffslock
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The way I see this it is not about right or wrong. You handled the situation in the manner that you thought was best at that time. The problem is that you have now allowed this other person to STEAL YOUR JOY. This many days later you are still tore up over something that was just a bump in the road. Let it Go, remember the JOY of spending time with family instead of a guy giving you grief over your dog going potty. Life is too short to dwell on crap, be thankful that situation didn't go much worse and remember the fun you had.
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jerem0621
Explorer II
Explorer II
OP... This guy really got to you...he doesn't deserve your time or worry. And yes you are spending your time and worrying about this. You are questioning yourself and your judgement on this issue.

The problem as I see this is that we have no idea who or what this person is. They could have a mental disability that's not obvious (brain cancer/tumor's can do funny things to people). What if this person was suffering a PTSD episode. Or this person could genuinely been a flat out jerk.

Were you right or wrong? You posted this on a public forum which tells me either you doubt yourself or your trying to remember things a way you want to remember them.

Maybe there is something else to this story that you haven't divulged to this thread... If so, be honest with yourself...

My recommendation is take a deep breath...be thankful nobody got hurt physically and forget about this.

Thanks,

Jeremiah
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longislandcampe
Explorer
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hotbyte wrote:
Tom N wrote:
dspencer wrote:
Tom N wrote:
My opinion is dogs should be banned from ALL campgrounds. Reason is situations that develop such as stated here.



Don't blame the dog for the handler not being able to control the situation!!!


OK, I should have stated "ban all PEOPLE with dogs".

-Tom


I say ban all people wanting to ban all people with dogs ๐Ÿ™‚


lol


How bout we just ban the dog in this picture?

hotbyte
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Explorer
Tom N wrote:
dspencer wrote:
Tom N wrote:
My opinion is dogs should be banned from ALL campgrounds. Reason is situations that develop such as stated here.



Don't blame the dog for the handler not being able to control the situation!!!


OK, I should have stated "ban all PEOPLE with dogs".

-Tom


I say ban all people wanting to ban all people with dogs ๐Ÿ™‚
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Tom_N
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dspencer wrote:
Tom N wrote:
My opinion is dogs should be banned from ALL campgrounds. Reason is situations that develop such as stated here.



Don't blame the dog for the handler not being able to control the situation!!!


OK, I should have stated "ban all PEOPLE with dogs".

-Tom
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AO_hitech
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cm11599ps wrote:
He came up because I wasn't responding and even said so. Sure, I could have just walked away but my dog had to pee as well and I was tired and going to bed as soon as we got back.

Normally I would have walked away but this guy just rubbed me the wrong way.


It was probably going to happen anyway, but I also would have ignored him until he came over to me. Then I would have responded about the same as you, UNTIL he went into a family members site. I would have then had a more "intense" response than you.

I understand it still bothering you. I had an altercation (not at a camp site) on New Years Eve and I just got over it. ๐Ÿ˜‰

toedtoes
Explorer III
Explorer III
happybooker1 wrote:
And the guy obviously didn't know JACK about training a puppy. You take them out (to the SAME spot they've been going to all day long) stand like a tree, no eye contact, no playing with puppy for no more than 5 minutes. If puppy doesn't go then it's back inside & in their crate (he DID have a crate I'm hoping!) for 30 minutes.

Rinse & repeat until puppy goes. However long it takes. You DON'T stand outside and cajole, beg, and carry on a conversation with Puppy. If Puppy was THAT distracted by another dog 150' away, Puppy didn't need to go that bad.


Potty training isn't about waiting until the puppy needs to go potty bad enough to go. It's about teaching the puppy to go when the opportunity occurs, because the chance might not come again for a while (such as nighttime sleeping time), and not wait until he/she is about to blow.
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FunnyCamper
Explorer II
Explorer II
kcmoedoe wrote:
cm11599ps wrote:
FunnyCamper wrote:
cm, you were not wrong. if ya read my post, HE started the confrontation. point blank by annoying tone, calling out to you and then coming to you to take this further.

HE could have turned back and trained pup in another direction.

so more him than you.....but you are not totally off the hook, cause if the initial tone got YOU mad and the fur on the back of your neck up----YOU then have the upper hand. Leave the situation and NOTHING would have happened after that.

not one of us on this planet wants to back down ๐Ÿ™‚

but the whole situation in general was stupid to be taken that far by BOTH of you. he started it, sure, you could have ended it SO FAST. but you took a different road.

now you live with the consequences of your actions to someone else's.
it was not life or death. protecting your family. not a real dire confrontation.

pick your battles and this one didn't have to come this far at all.

did he do wrong. absolutely, but sometimes ya gotta give people a break for being a pain in the azz and stupidity ๐Ÿ™‚


True, but if I just walked away then I would have just been pissed at myself for bowing down to the jerk. I pick and choose my battles and this was one I selected. ๐Ÿ™‚
Just remember, you might get to pick and choose your battles, but your opponent gets to choose his weapons. Luckily the guy was only a loudmouth with a mangy mutt. He could have been the silent type with a .44 magnum concealed under his shirt.


yea I know what you mean. but obviously if OP decided to battle, and stupid man had the weapon...well. if he walked and wasn't confrontational then ya live to see another day probably. if we assume all have weapons, then the battle is a stupid decision to take on ๐Ÿ™‚

hawkeye-08
Explorer III
Explorer III
I came to dislike the word "whatever" when my kids were in high school. I heard it far too often and it was very disrespectful... Now I find myself using it as a tool to handle jerks in my life... my response is often "whatever" to their demands...

BTW, you did fine..

happybooker1
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Explorer
And the guy obviously didn't know JACK about training a puppy. You take them out (to the SAME spot they've been going to all day long) stand like a tree, no eye contact, no playing with puppy for no more than 5 minutes. If puppy doesn't go then it's back inside & in their crate (he DID have a crate I'm hoping!) for 30 minutes.

Rinse & repeat until puppy goes. However long it takes. You DON'T stand outside and cajole, beg, and carry on a conversation with Puppy. If Puppy was THAT distracted by another dog 150' away, Puppy didn't need to go that bad.
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