Sick of ‘little dog’ owners.

I always walk past dogs when I'm out running. Some just can't resist the urge to chase something moving (and I don't run that fast!). My dog can't be allowed near anything moving or she'll try to wrestle it to the ground.

Was with you until you went gross and judgemental at the end there.

I have 2 yorkies who are leashed, without fail, for their own safety. I have had staffs and other big dogs, unleashed, come up to my dogs uninvited and I'm terrified for my 2 who are quiet and docile.

A husky smashed my little dogs head into the ground. True, it was playing, but my dog was scared of big dogs after that because he couldn't get away as he was leashed and Husky wasn't.

Agree all dogs should be leashed.

My sister has a little tiny dog that is very well trained (her partner is a dog trainer) and her pet peeve was people encouraging or rewarding behaviour that she was training out (barking, mouthing, begging for food) when it was a puppy because they thought it was cute.

I’ve got an idiot small dog who lunges. 9/10 times she doesn’t, but every so often some switch goes in her head and she goes for it.
She’s always on the lead. And although she never gets anywhere near the other dog, I feel bad. She’s 7. Distracting her when we pass a dog doesn’t work if she’s hell bent on going for it.
When we’re walking in the countryside she goes of the lead. Good recall, plays with other dogs we meet after some sniffing.
But every so often she loses it and I can’t find a reason for it.

Quite, such sweeping generalisations are ridiculous

Just what we need dog owners attacking each other.
My little dog is sometimes aggressive to bigger ,big dogs because he was twice attack by big dogs that were not on leads.
Once when my daughter was walking him, the owner dig not appologise just disapeared really quickly.
I must go around hating big dog owners now ok.

I've been attacked by big dogs, never little

I'm a little dog owner and I get pissed off with other little dog owners too for all the reasons OP stated.

I think, on the whole (and appreciate there will be exceptions before anyone sends me a photo of their German Shepherd and Chihuahua playing!) small and big dogs are not a great mix!
Little dogs are anxious around bigger dogs (understandably given bigger dogs can be 10x their weight) and they never will be a good match for playing together.

I have a small dog and only ever have had problems with big dogs - she's been chased by German shepherds, growled and snapped at by staffies, and labs, although not aggressive, don't seem to take no for an answer and pester her constantly until she snaps at them. So it's not only a small dog issue... But if I owned a big dog, I'd probably see more of the issues with small dogs!

No it’s not just little dogs, my post this morning was about a large dog not under control. Bloody thing just wouldn't bugger off. What’s so annoying is the owner thinks it’s not their fault!

This is why I don’t own a dog. Sick of them yapping about my leg. The big ones are just as bad and more intimidating.

I have a beagle puppy, gorgeous breed.

Any dog that doesn’t have good recall is annoying and should be on a lead.

I run with my medium sized working breed dog (who has fantastic recall) and whilst out recently a cockerpoo type dog was chasing mine. Now my dog is happy to coexist with other dogs and will never go out of her way to run up to them or be aggressive. However, she hates being jumped and snapped at. I warn the owners and ask them to call their dog back as she doesn’t like other dogs up in her face. The little dog completely ignores their half hearted attempts so I call my dog back to me as I can see she isn’t enjoying being harassed by the little dog. Said little dog then proceeds to snap at me whilst I’m running. Again I have to tell the owners to call their dog back and again it ignores them! All the while jumping and snapping, it actually managed to bite me at one point (luckily not hard). In the end I gave it a swift shove with my foot to get it away.

this sort of thing happens quite a lot. It’s not all little dogs, I used to have some little dogs who whilst a bit mouthy, were well behaved and had good recall. But it does seem that on the whole smaller dogs are not as well trained as bigger dogs and their owners often think they’re being cute when they’re actually being aggressive.

I keep two of my little dogs on leads for this exact reason. One is a rescue JRT that has had a bit of trauma and can go for other dogs sometimes with no rhyme or reason as to why. The other is a Daschund who is basically just a little swine and likes to give it the big I am.
I do have a third Dog, another JRT who is beautifully behaved and just potters along. I don’t think it’s just small dogs however. Lots of large dogs will bound up to mine and their owners will allow them to. If I was a tiny dog and had a massive (to them) Labrador towering over me I suppose I might also nip. So ime it goes both ways. Basically a lot of dog owners are inconsiderate and don’t control their dogs sufficiently in my view.

Dog owners are wilfully ignorant of canine behaviour.
Anthropomorphising of dogs is stupid, but the owners are stupid.

I’m so fed up with dogs off the lead running up to dogs on the lead. The owner then unapologetic and telling me it’s only 9 months old. This happened again to me yesterday, jumping up at me, around me while I’d picked my dog up to untangle her lead. Bloody bloke with the woman then had a go at me. I’m not the one at fault, they are, because they’re not keeping their dog under control. Dog owners, unless your dog has good recall, keep the damn thing on a lead.

I have a fear reactive chihuahua, she's always on the lead, never ever off and we keep her away from other dogs. She's never attacked any other dog because she's not allowed near them. Simple.

But we get other dogs coming up to her, we explain she's reactive and they don't control their dog, so we keep ours under proper control.

I appreciate that some dogs are more polite than others. But what OP reports it's really not a daily experience for the vast majority of people so I'm trying to make sense of it.

Thanks for the patronising ebook on stuff I already know though!

Dogs also have social rules - direct, maintained eye contact = potentially a threat. Hurtling straight up to someone = a threat. Barking/lunging/growling from a strange dog = a threat.

It's annoying when owners allowed their dogs to just stand there staring at your dog. Being on a lead can make even well socialised dogs more reactive; with enough staring and barking, even my friendly dog will lose her shit after a certain point. If your dog has a tendency to stare, it takes just a small amount of effort to distract them, call their name etc; they break their stare to look at you so they're not being so intense. Likewise not allowing your dog to rush up and approach another. My friendly dog wanted to run up to every dog she saw to say hello when we first got her, she soon learnt 'leave' means we don't run up to other dogs and give them space to work out whether they/owner is ok with saying hello.

You can lessen reactivity with consitent training and patience. My greyhound was in rescue for 3 years partly due to how reactive he was. He was absolutely terrified of other dogs and would lunge and growl at them. Eight years on and he's lived with two other dogs and will happily walk past other dogs on walks without being afraid or making a peep. Sadly, very few owners seem to make the effort to train their dogs out of barking on the lead. I've seen more owners shout at and hit their dogs when they've barked and lunged, rather than use distraction techniques.

I used to have a snappy little dog. He was attacked and almost shaken to death by a big dog off lead and after that every big dog that came closer than 5m was barked and lunged at.
I realised when I carried him, he felt safer and was quiet. This wasnt ok for big dog owners either though. I was told many times how i shouldnt be so precious and how my dog would probably love contact with other dogs. Nope.

I live in a lovely village. I am not exaggerating when I say dog shit is all over every street. I’m going to start taking photos to send to the council. I love a walk in the night when it’s all quiet and i now walk on the roads when possible as I know I tread on dog shit there. It’s horrendous and absolutely disgusting. There are no dogs roaming free, so these dogs are being allowed to shit all over the pavements by their owners.

I swear I live in a different world.

In 20 years of walking dogs in a variety of towns, cities and countryside, I can count the number of aggressive dogs I've come across close enough for them to be an issue, on one hand. And I think I've only been jumped on with wet muddy paws about four times I can recall.

I don't know what I'm doing differently- if I did I'd recommend it.

I run. <awaits comments on tude runners>

I try to give dogs space so they don't get startled.

it's mainly the small dogs that 'chase' me or jump up at me.

my favourite route I can only run when it rains, because that eliminates the shit dog owners.