Went on a lovely river walk today. DDog is very shy and nervous and doesnt really enjoy her street walks although we do these twice a day to help her get used to all the new noise.
Weekends we have time to walk along the river on her long lead, she gets to go in front and ahead. She is a major sniffer so I always catch her up quickly, she really enjoys the river walk and so do I.
Today, out of no where runs a dog straight towards us with no owner in view. I'll admit I panicked due to not seeing an owner and ended up picking my girl up (not a small breed) and putting my back to this dog. Not sure if that was the right thing to do but that's what I did. Owner eventually came along, failed to recall multi times and wasn't bothered at all.
We went our separate ways and enjoyed the rest of a walk only to encounter them again. And again the dog legged it to us. By now I'm thinking it's a friendly dog and my DDog is ok but doesn't like to be rushed in to meeting new friends. AIBU to think this is just rude and if you can't recall your dog they should be on a long lead at the least?
I spoke to the owner and told him to sort his re call out and get his dog on a long lead but he just said his dog is friendly and happy!
It really nerves me, did I do the right thing by picking my girl up. We live the river weekend walk but I can't cope with that every weekend, any tips?
AIBU?
aibu to expect people to respect my nervous and shy rescue dog on her dog walk by recalling your dog from approaching us?
DailyMailDontStealMyThread · 02/04/2017 23:03
First tip never pick up your dog, I say this for 2 reasons, first it's the worst thing you can do for your dogs confidence, secondly it will make her and other dogs pick up on your fear and potentially could actually cause an attack.
All dog owners should have good recall it's basic dog training, however I've worked with dogs for many years and even my dog can become distracted, run off and have a wonder all the while ignoring me
You are the pack leader, so you must be confident when walking your dog, if you show fear and anxiety the dog will pick this up, if every time a dog approaches you pick her up and get anxious it will only enforce her anxiety when meeting new dogs, your trying to boost her confidence, so hard as it is, stay calm and if another dog approaches and you don't feel comfortable just swiftly turn and walk another way, or let them sniff etc and carry on.
Picking your dog up is instinctive as you feel you want to protect her, however if you continue to do this she won't gain confidence and it will increase her anxiety to the point she won't know how to socialise and could become aggressive towards other dogs as she picks up your fear that they could harm her.
Try early mornings when there are less dogs and make every encounter as positive as you can, even if you don't feel it, act it 
If you have friends with good natured dogs introduce them while out walking (not in the home as it's territorial so until her confidence is good avoid this), keep her on a shorter lead for now so you set the pace. Walks are to release energy and to be enjoyed, if your dreading taking her out she'll pick up on this, interact with her a lot while your out, take some treats, lots of positive praise while waking, especially when approaching another dog.
Sorry I'm rambling but I can't stress enough that dogs follow their owners and you need to be the role model of confidence, not timid and terrified 
Aww Keep going as you are. You're not the one in the wrong here, they are. (Although I would take the advice about not picking her up!)
In terms of whether to pick your dog up then no, the best thing to do is keep walking, ignore the unknown dog and try to keep your own dogs' attention on you so there is nothing for the other dog to react to in your dogs' behaviour. I talk to mine in this situation in one of those slightly silly high voices trainers use (makes me cringe but it works) and give lots of praise for looking at me rather than the other dog, more often than not the loose dog realises we're not very interesting and trots off.
My dogs aren't nervous or reactive but they are bull breeds so I live in fear of any trouble with other dogs because I know mine are more likely to be deemed aggressive even if it's the other dog who causes the trouble. I only ever loose them when there's no one else around and lead them the second I see anyone coming in the distance, their recall is excellent so it drives me mad when people with less controversial breeds don't pay me the same courtesy.
Your dog looks to you for reassurance OP so it's important you don't panic in that situation, if you appear confident it will help build your dogs' confidence so he becomes less anxious. Until every dog owner trains and controls their dog properly (i.e. never) you will continue to have these encounters unfortunately, it's taken me ages to get confident with how I deal with them but I'm pretty good now if I do say so myself
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