"It's ok, he's friendly!"

[daffodilandtulip]

Out walking this morning and I've heard the ultimate ridiculous excuse for not training your dog: an off lead dog jumps up at me, snarling and barking. Owner "we didn't see you there, you scared him."

Over the past week, we've had:

"He just wants to say hello", whilst jumping at a terrified, crying toddler.

"He won't hurt her, there's no need to be scared", whilst face to face with a dog the height of toddler.

"I'm not taking him on the road, he'll be scared", regarding the chiwowa IN THE OWNERS ARMS, whilst trying to make me walk three toddlers on a main road in order to pass.

"You'll have to get off the path, she won't walk in the mud" - large Rottweiler, in a children's park.

"He doesn't bite, he'll just jump up".

"Whatever's the matter with her?" said about toddler who has just been knocked over by a large dog and dog is remaining towered over her.

And obviously, a million and one of the "it's ok, he's friendly."

I've also got scratch marks down the entire side of my leg from trying to drag a "friendly" dog off my own dog's neck.

He's not friendly. It's not ok. Stop looking at me like I have three heads when I ask you to move the dog away from the child. Control your dog or use a damn lead!!

I do one of my dog's walks for an hour each day. We live in a family friendly area but I can honestly say that in the past month I haven't encountered any of what you say.
I'm on the coast so a few of those walks are on the beach where many dogs are off the lead, mine isn't. Whilst well socialised, DDog is still a puppy and likely to get excited so any off lead for him is in a secure field we rent by the hour while we work on his recall. I'd never knowingly inflict him on others. I think most responsible owners are the same.

Also, if you pick the child up in the air everytime you see a dog, you're going to instil fear into them.

The dog devotees are in love with their pets and can't see them for what they really are ie just a bloody nuisance to the rest of us🤬

Then I honestly think you must have some sort of mental health condition.

The UK did have a dog licensing scheme, but it was largely pointless because anyone could easily obtain one, the scheme wasn't monitored, your license could be revoked rendering it technically illegal for you to keep a dog, but it didn't stop anyone because it wasn't policed in any meaningful way. At best, all it meant was that if your dog misbehaved in such a way that it became a police matter, and it emerged you did not have a licence, that was a small, extra charge you'd face on top of whatever it was you were in trouble for anyway.

I'm not frightened of dogs myself, but I totally understand why so many people are fed up and angry about being approached by off-lead dogs in public spaces. I'm am not willing to just passively accept being lept on, pawed, slobbered on, have my clothes covered in mud and dog hair, and play along with the 'aww he's just being friendly' shite, so when I am approached by a dog that is obviously intent on doing that I immediately push them away, and I couldn't give a flying fuck what the owners think or how they choose to react. Keep your dog on a lead if it bothers you that much.

🤣🤣

My children don’t go and run up to strangers, lick them, bark or growl at them, jump on them or steal food from their picnics. They also don’t poo and then wander around rubbing their uncleaned arses against peoples’ legs, all while I stand back and bleat about how friendly they are. If they did any of that I could probably understand someone giving them a sharp kick.

HTH.

Have all the dogs you like rather than kids, but keep them away from me please.

Absolutely this!

Yes, because you asking what a chiwowa is was done entirely out of kindness for the OP, to make her aware of her mistake.

I mean if that were true you could've PM'd her (still weird tbh) but apparently attempting to humiliate her on her own thread was the way you chose to go.

Spagnazis are the absolute worst.

Ah good. It's only been, what, 2 days since the last one of these threads

Go off and live in dog land with your dogs then!
what a blessed relief it would be if the dog people stayed in a separate dog area, the rest of us could be free of the stinking shitting biting things✊😁

Can you not see that this is just a scaled up version of what OP is talking about - “My town is fine, so what’s your problem?”
The fact that you don’t see this doesn’t mean OP and all the other posters agreeing with her is overreacting.

Sounds like bliss to me too!

YANBU op. Had it this week out on a walk too. Minding my own business and a lab comes gambolling toward me - owner shouts ‘he won’t hurt you..’

The fact is I wasn’t scared of him hurting me. I’m nervous of dogs but this one seemed friendly. The point is I don’t want muddy paws or a snotty dog nose on my clothes and I don’t want to interact with the animal on my walk, as I said, minding my own business. I’ve never had dogs so I’m nervous of what I’m supposed to do if a dog jumps up. I usually just freeze. It makes me very anxious. I wasn’t interfering with him, so why I have I got to have my day and my person interfered with?

I walked another way behind a fence so the dog buggered off but I shouldn’t have to do that. There are just so many cuntish selfish owners with no empathy. Probably the same ones that bag up the shit and throw the bag in the hedges too…

There's no way in hell you are being honest that you have had all those comments made in the past week. You are full of it.

This drives me mad when we come across people like that, "he/she is friendly don't worry"...yeah and how do you know mine are?! I tend to just stick to pavements/quiet fields with my 2 now, far too many idiots at the big parks.

Also yes your dog is friendly....until it's not, all dogs no matter how lovely have the potential to snap(for a myriad of reasons). Even if they are "just being friendly", they can hurt people when jumping up; scratching with nails or knocking young/frail people over, even the small things like getting mud /slobber on you, it's just not on. If you don't have control over your dog at all times then don't let them off lead.

Of course it’s possible to have had all those comments within a week. If OP walks her dog twice a day, and she’s mentioned 6 comments plus a couple of “he’s only being friendly” , that’s still less than one comment per walk. Plus all the other posters reporting similar experiences would suggest it’s possible.

You only have to watch Dogs behaving badly to see how common the issue is.

100% agree. Its like they are so offended that I dare to not want a dog all over me.

I walk my dog twice a day, plus spend a lot of time outdoors in public areas for my job. It's a lot of time outdoors (plus happens just as much when I'm not with my dog, so they can't even use the excuse that they're jumping because of my own dog).

I'm just assuming that those who insist these events aren't possible, have their own friendly dog.

Ok then move the child, change your path, whatever.

Obviously in general terms, not the actual paths or children's play areas you've spoken about.

I've had a memories come up today of the time 1yo DS ended up with an Alsation licking his face and trying to steal the lunch from his hand while he was sitting in a pram. Owner nowhere to be seen. (Many years pre-lockdown)

Over the years, both DCs have been bowled over and jumped up at to the point that they're both nervous/ afraid around dogs. Many of those encounters have been accompanied by the phrase "he's friendly". It's improved a bit as the DCs have got older because they've gained a height advantage. Also we spend less time hanging around parks.

I spend a lot of time outdoors, and often once one feckless owner's allowed their "friendly" furbaby to rub all over you, you then become a magnet for the other "friendly" furbabies to also be a nuisence; presumably it's the fact that you now smell interestingly doggy, but don't actually have a dog for the dog to focus it's attention on.

I want to enjoy green spaces and I should be able to access them without most outings involving having to adjust my behaviour such as having to stop running and stand still because idiots want to own dogs, but without the effort of being responsible for controlling them. We once had one knobhead owner whose response to his dog jumping, and winding my 8yo who'd been standing still and making him cry, was to blame us for bringing a child to "the dog walking woods" which in reality is a local nature reserve where dogs should be on leads to protect the ground nesting birds. It clearly wasn't his responsibility because "it's just a puppy".

I'd say that dog ownership has increased so the 10% of idiot owners are now more as an absolute number. There also seems to be more people walking larger numbers of dogs with poor control/ spatial awareness/ taking up space with dogs drifting around onlong leads. There's probably more dogs living with limited outdoor garden space. Heading off into random countryside doesn't necessarily solve the problem as the owners aren't alert for random people passing by.

I just hear "he's friendly" as code for "I'm a lazy owner who CBA to train my dog properly"
Personally I like the dogs that come with warning labels on them... they're usually under control with alert owners!

'a regular dog walking location' ? So do you mean i.e. everywhere?

Because everywhere is a 'dog walking location'. Many years ago there were doggy areas but now that there is a massive explosion in dog ownership and the result is dogs wherever you go.

Completely agree, OP. I don’t even have kids! I’m very keen to keep my dogs from harassing people/other dogs when out.