AIBU to think dog owners should actually be responsible for their dogs in public spaces?

It’s normally doodles I see careering towards me with the owner hot in pursuit shouting “he/she’s friendly”. It drives me mad especially since my boys are sat patiently waiting to be told to go ahead, their attention is on me so they ignore other dogs completely, their ball or dehydrated liver is their life 🤣. I don’t understand people who get dogs and don’t put the work in training them. I’ve had labs all my life, their the 15th,16th and 17th labs we’ve had, I love them to bits 🥰

Well he’s kind of got a point though hasn’t he? You live in a world where you are going to encounter dogs all the time so it’s in your own interests to address your own fears because not every encounter will go the way you want to. Sometimes dogs escape and there won’t be an owner to call
out to, then what? If you deal with your own underlying fears, things like this have far less impact on you and become less significant. Or you can spend the rest of your life consumed by fear in a world where you’re never going to be able to avoid every single contact with a dog.

When we're out our dogs are always on leads. No one knows how a dog will react to its surroundings, not 100% so it's leads every time.

I agree and it's especially annoying when owners say he is just being friendly and he won't hurt anyone
I don't want a dog to jump up and get their muddy paws on me.
A dog jumping up on my grandson knocking him over when he was a toddler made him scared of dogs for years.

Your dog wouldn't come across as friendly by running up to my autistic son's who are scared of dogs

The problem is that when you start flapping around, wailing and getting hysterical you draw the dogs attention to yourself even more. So yes, dog owners are responsible but you are also responsible for not creating an enormous scene and making the dog even more interested in you. You’ve described shouting to people, which is guaranteed to attract the dog even more. Don’t make eye contact and ignore the dog if you’re frightened of them, but attracting the dogs attention by shouting and getting yourself in flap is not going to do you any favours or lose the dogs attention.

My Labs are exactly the same and a pleasure to walk. I love the breed and part of the reason is exactly because they are easy to train. A lot of people seem to choose breeds based on aesthetics with no particular thought about temperament or trainability. Mine are all trained very early on and are worked every day.

This has to be a joke? I don’t give a shiny shit if a dog is friendly or not, I have 3 labradors and they either sit and wait or lie down on command if we see other dogs or people in the vicinity to get leads on if they’re off leash. Train your dog! Not everyone wants to have a dog approach them. If they don’t have perfect recall keep them on a lead.

My dog is a very friendly dog and I have her off the lead more than on, however I would never allow her to approach someone unless they also had an unleashed dog. Common sense really....

My dog are always lead in public, they are friendly but big and bouncy with selective recall so I don’t let them get into trouble.

I am so so tired of entitled dog owners. Two incidents just the past weekend-

Walking in a nature reserve with many clear signs saying dogs must be on short leads. Got a load of abuse for asking someone to put their dog on a lead as it was rampaging around terrorising the breeding waterbirds. Another reserve near me has had to close entirely as this is such an issue.

Dh waking locally and being relentlessly harassed by a jumping snarling dog. Woman refuses to put it on a lead with the classic 'he's just being friendly' even as she's having to hold it by the collar as it growls at him.

I'm very much an animal lover, dogs included, and this is 100% a people issue. Hopefully it'll calm down once the pandemic dogs start dying off!

I feel very sorry for responsible competent dog owners who have taken trouble to properly train their dogs, and who have common sense and consideration.

I have recently experienced:
A dog pissing on my rucksack while I was with Dc in a rock pool 20 m away. Owners response? "Well what do you want me to do? Have your bag dry cleaned or something?" in a nasty sarky tone
A dog forcefully thrusting it's head between my very frail parents at a pub table and grabbing some of their meal from their plates. After I had already asked them to keep their dog by their table rather than roaming about under ours. Response from owner: "awww hahahaha, how sweet, she's so greedy" (lunch was ruined for my parents)
Dog approaching me on a path on the fells, 'guarding' the family who were sitting on rocks. It had its tail down, side to side, head down, growling at me. I called over and asked them to call her. Response: "she's friendly, look she's wagging her tail! She's a rescue so she isn't socialised, just ignore her". Nope. No Way - she was preparing to have a go at me if I kept moving forwards.

And have a look at the Horsey Gap Seal Charity - a video of a dog biting and harrassing a young seal on the beach as it desperately tries to get away - while the owner half heartedly and totally ineffectively calls the dog back - while videoing it

Oh God make it stop.

Since 2025 we've had this thread just about every week and often multiple times per week.

Your thread title is asking a ridiculous question which I'm quite sure you know the answer to.

Your complaints are valid but is there any need to pretend you think you might not be unreasonable?

And it’s because of people like you give responsible dog owners a bad name.
my dog Can be reactive to dogs approaching him even when I give fair warning that my dog is reactive.
I feel the same about people too.
you have no idea how someone else or another dog will react to your ‘friendly’ dog.
If you can’t train him to ignore people keep him on a fucking lead.

people like you are the bane of my life.
Get control of your dog.
The rest of us manage.
And to the OP you definitely not being unreasonable

As a dog owner, I agree entirely with you. We not only should keep them under control, but are legally obliged to.

I'm not sure this is a serious post

That's a typical response from someone who simply doesn't get that not everyone loves your dog.

For the record, I don't mind dogs, but no-one's dog should be running up to strangers and jumping up on them with their muddy paws.

The most asinine phrase that owners of uncontrolled dogs come out with when the dog is bothering someone minding their business: “don’t worry, he's friendly!” Friendly until it isn’t. Even if it is friendly, respect boundaries.
I’m afraid it’s because of this sort of owner - and there are many of them - that people like me who were indifferent about dogs have very little patience with them now.

I have lost count of the number of times a dog has jumped up at us and on every single occasion the owners attitude has stunk.

Some aren't too bad and just tell you that you are a sad individual if you don't like their dogs, others insist on telling you that their dog is friendly and then get in a huff when you tell them that you don't care, you just don't want the dog near you and ask them to take it away. One charming individual told my husband that he must be mentally ill.

We have yet to meet one who simply apologises and removes their dog immediately.

We have also had the response that we shouldn't walk in places where people want to walk their dogs!

My dog is beautiful and friendly and everyone that sees her wants to make a fuss of her. However if she ran up to someone just to say hello I would be mortified! She is offlead only where there are no peoples around at the moment as she is only 9 months. I take her out on lead to places with lots of people so she can practice not running up or jumping up. Only when and if I am confident she would stay with me would she be off lead.

I love dogs but I think they should be under control. This does take a lot of work though and some people don’t bother.

My son has had dogs chasing after him, or running up to him to say ‘hello’ and then won’t leave him alone and keep jumping up to him that he’s now terrified of dogs and won’t go to the local park where that keeps happening. Every time I confront the owners, every time I’m told that particular dog is friendly etc. he’s young, he finds it frightening, it’s disruptive, keep dogs on a lead unless you can ensure they won’t chase and approach others. Infuriating.

You are not a minority I am glad to say and I really do appreciate people who call the dog back and keep them under control

😂