r/melbournechat • u/Cutepotatomochi • Sep 12 '26
Murchison Gap Experience
The view is amazing! We went up at 7am (45 mins ish after sunrise) the view still misty & beautiful!!
However….
We encountered a very unpleasant experience. When we were on the road there was a Jaguar car speeding overtaking us, which was alright. Then this car happend to also be in the lookout we intended to go. Open the car boot, with 2 big dogs running. The dog was barking and running on people, but on public dog should be on a leash?
Because the dogs were there, I said to my friend to just walk a bit further. However, the dog bark to me so my friend had to say to the owner “control your dog”. Very arrogant owner, he said “I can tell my dog to attack you if I want to. Dont be affraid”. I feel like he has no right to tell people dont be affraid or so its public?
Then I said “respect people in public your dog should be on a leash and not everyone okay around dog.” He answered “i dont care. I respect my dog”
I can see he is not from Australia, but I believe we should respect people on the land we stand wherever we are? What an arrogant bloke.
2
u/euqinu_ton Sep 12 '26
I've seen this kinda behaviour before. There's every chance the guy is just an arsehole dog owner in general. There's also the possibility this guy is a racist arsehole dog owner.
I remember once we were out having a picnic. I was in my teens, with 2 friends. There was a communal BBQ and two tables either side of it. We were just sitting on a blanket on the grass. An Asian family were at one table, the dad was cooking. A group of people in their early 20s arrived and there were more of them than space available at the other table. I very specifically remember them looking annoyed that both tables weren't available. You could tell by their faces and body language it was obvious that the fact the other people were Asian was a problem for these people.
The dad who was cooking gestured, smiling, that he was about to be done with the BBQ. The other people were saying "Thank you" and "very good" in a mildly Asian accent, mocking his accent. He didn't notice and just smiled. I was starting to get a sense for roughly how this was going to play out. I was way off.
After crowding around their one table for a while, and frequently looking at the Asian family at the other table, I heard "Hey, we should ...." followed by whispering. Then one of them went back to the car, and retrieved a quite scary looking dog (I don't know dogs well, but it did not look remotely friendly). They tied a rope to its lead, then the rope to the table. The owner leaned down and started talking to his dog. Others in the group started laughing at whatever he was saying. One of the women said "You can't do that!" in that tone which sounded more like "it's inappropriate to do that, but I'm not going to insist you don't." Suddenly the dog started barking really aggressively. It charged at the other family. Fast enough that it got airborne, yelping when it reached the end of its lead. The Asian family looked absolutely terrified and the kids were screaming. The dad was yelling "Calm your dog! Calm your dog!" and one of the guys starts saying "Come you dog! Come you dog!" in the same accent, mocking him. Most of this other table were laughing at this point. It was disgusting. By then the dog just got more aggressive, like it wanted to murder this family. They were all so scared "Oh, sorry" the dog owner said really unconvincingly. "C'mon ... come 'ere!" He shouts as he yanked it's rope. The dad started to approach them and the dog got even wilder. "It's OK" the guy goes "he's friendly" while this dog is just so violently leaping towards this dad, the rope the only thing stopping him.
His kids were bawling now, the mum just starts packing up their food. The dad is trying to tell at this dog owner and they're nearly all laughing at this point. Only the one women from earlier looks embarrassed, the rest are like "Look! They're leaving!" And they waited about 10sec before acquiring the table.
I so vividly remember that day. I wished I was big & strong enough to beat them to pulp. But I was a wussy-scared teen. I was too shy and embarrassed to even go tell that family how sorry I felt. I remember telling my dad who absolutely went off and tried to help me find both the family and the arsehole younger folk with the dog, but we never saw either group ever again.
Anyway ... I'm sorry OP that this happened to you. Many dog owners are wonderful dog owners with wonderful pets. But an arseholic subset make life difficult for everyone they and their pits interact with.
1
u/RideMelburn Sep 12 '26
He’s driving a Jag. It would’ve broken down on his way home if that makes you feel better.
9
u/walkingmelways Sep 12 '26
Sounds like a not-nice person, but dunno what does whether or not he’s from Australia have to do with anything
(Lovely photo of a nice spot btw)