“Don’t worry, he’s friendly”

[BigJean]

This should probably be in The Doghouse, but I’d really like to hear from people who probably don’t go there.

I know on MN that everyone is a perfect dog owner with their dogs properly under control, but I also know that in real life there are far too many people who don’t. If you are one of those people I’d love to hear your reasoning. Namechange for anonymity if you want.

My dog is reactive, for lots of reasons, and I am successfully working on it and every month is better than the last. She is a large dog, and as such could easily kill another dog if provoked enough to do so (she’s not a bully breed, she’s walked with a muzzle but could still damage another dog). I am a responsible owner, I have her under control.

Every week I come across at least two other dog walkers who don’t have any control over their dogs. They run up to people, dogs, horses, children and leap around whilst the owner calls it pointlessly, and cries out “it’s ok he’s friendly”. It’s not ok.

This behaviour enhances my dogs reactivity, it sets her back every time. I have a yellow “nervous dog” coat and collar, they don’t give a shit.

I put my phone on to film every time, because I’m very aware that if anything happened to another dog mine would be blamed, even though I’m doing everything I can possibly do to manage it, and it’s the friendly dog’s owner who is being irresponsible.

Please, come and tell me why you do this, and tell me what you would do if your dog was killed by a reactive dog because you haven’t kept your dog on a lead or taught it effective recall.

Overview
It’s against the law to let a dog be dangerously out of control anywhere, such as:

in a public place
in a private place, for example a neighbour’s house or garden
in the owner’s home
The law applies to all dogs.

You can report a dog that’s out of control.

Some types of dogs are banned.

XL Bully dogs are now banned in England and Wales. Check what to do if you own an XL Bully dog.

Out of control
Your dog is considered dangerously out of control if it:

injures someone
makes someone worried that it might injure them
A court could also decide that your dog is dangerously out of control if either of the following apply:

it attacks someone’s animal
the owner of an animal thinks they could be injured if they tried to stop your dog attacking their animal

That's hilarious.

I am explaining how I am trying to socialise my dog and train him and you are talking about breaking the law and dangerously out of control dogs.

I'm out. I tried to help with an opinion that differed from the OP hit to be faced with people who are frankly completely bonkers is too much.

Good luck OP

I've not made it up. Let's hope your dog doesn't aproach the wrong person

Before my dogs recall was as is it now, and I was still working with him to improve it, I would take him to a local enclosed playing field. If there was only one or two other dog walkers there I would ask if there dog was ok with being approached and explain why.

If the answer was yes, I'd left him off to work on recall. If the answer was no, I'd say 'no worries, thank you' and continue on, on lead.

They do need a little bit of 'on the job' practice, but everyone needs to be in agreement with this.

This is what we did when mine was a pup. It was rare there was anyone there.

Responsible

I would advice @BigJean to buy K9-17 Deterrent Spray to deter unruly dogs,who bother her dog . It won't harm them, but it highly unpleasant. When you have a dog, WicketWoo ,then you should respect other owners too. You might land in the same boat once. Be careful to whom your dog is running too, it can be boot away by some fed up owner or walker, what will you say then?

Shouting “it’s ok, he’s friendly” or variants of does not let me or my son know that he’s not in any physical danger. He’s severely allergic and unfortunately friendly dogs are no exception. Shouting variations of that is not reassuring; quite the opposite. It tells me the person has no control over their dog and/or will make no attempt to control it. All it tells me is we need to either get away immediately or I need to get in between the dog and my son.

Thank you @aperolspritzbasicbitch and@K0OLA1D for being responsible and knowing your dogs really well.

If all dog owners trained their dogs properly and sensibly like this, us anxious-about-loose-dogs people wouldn't need to worry half as much.

What does K9-17 do?

My dog is very well mannered, but can be bullied by nasty dogs {usually bull breeds}

I'd love a really good deterrent.

The nasty dogs all seem to have hopeless owners with zero control.

Check reviews https://www.police-supplies.co.uk/k917-dog-deterrent-spray Since pepper spray is illegal in the UK, this one is legal and it works. Here is another review by the police officer ( from 2013, when it first appeared and was called Bite Back) Posted July 4, 2013
"On 04/07/2013 at 23:28, Scuffer said:
I go in properties where this has been used on a weekly basis (we also have access to it).
In addition to posties it's also carried by the likes of power/gas company representatives and a variety of others who go into private properties containing dogs.
While I wouldn't rely on or trust my life to it (like any bit of PPE) I've seen it be very effective on dangerous/illegal/fighting dogs and we do love our fighting dogs in Merseyside! The stuff stinks though, like a strong, fresh eucalyptus type smell."

My large dog gets small dogs "attacking" him regularly on our rec. He just ignores them and i am extremely kind to the owners. I would say that life isn't always under our control and stuff happens. There are lots of dogs who aren't brilliant at recall and imo it is easier to just accept that and move on.

And my experience is that the owners of these small dogs tend to blame mine for, well, just existing! No apologies.

Yes this is annoying. I don't know how you can change it.

What annoys me almost as much is cyclists or runners approaching from behind silently and at speed when I'm walking with my dog on a lead. It always spooks him and they never apologise.

I always give as wide a berth as I can, alongside a 'just coming up behind you' ....which makes me feel ridiculous as I'm absolutely fighting for my life, plodding along only ever so slightly faster than the walker 🤣🤣

Here you go - who knows where you live, but a FREE park with NO DOGS ALLOWED

Hulne Park, Northumberland.

If my dog is on her lead, and just minding her own business (as in just sniffing the ground and not even looking at anyone), is she classed as dangerously out of control if she scares someone who is dog phobic? As in, the person was scared of her just being there and going past them. It was a child and they screamed and cried so loudly and climbed up their parent.

I really don't see how I would be classed as breaking the law in that scenario.

I absolutely agree IP. I have a 'super friendly dog', which is precisely why she is very rarely off lead, and only when we are highly unlikely t of one across anyone else (her recall is great unless she sees other people before me!). What is interesting, is that I get criticised all the time for having her in the lead so much. People regularly say I need to let her off, so it is good to hear I am not alone in my position of keeping her on lead.

No because you physically have them under control. Its on the gov website.

I take a bar of dairy milk out with me. If off lead dogs approach me, I just whip out my chocolate bar. It's amazing how fast the lazy owners can run when they can't recall their dog.

You assume the off lead owner can see you with your dairy milk. The off lead owner of the dog whose "friendliness" caused my fracture, was the other side of the bloody field. Couldn't even hear me screaming in pain to bother coming to apologise.

It's a pretty big shiny purple bar. What happened to the owner? Were they held accountable?

Bet that gets messy on a sunny day

What will you do if they cant catch up in time?

Now this thread really has become insane.🤣

You take a big bar of chocolate out with you every time you leave the house, on the off chance that a dog comes too close to you?

Keys? Check. Phone? Check? Chocolate bar? Check 🤣

You'd be better off switching the dairy milk for something a little better quality. You could walk around with a smaller bar then too.

They think they are hard. "Ooh, look at me. I will kill your dog (via a slow and suffering death via chocolate), if you don't come and immediately take it away from me"

Pathetic.

“. They run up to people, dogs, horses, children and leap around whilst the owner calls it pointlessly, and cries out “it’s ok he’s friendly”. It’s not …

I wish I had a pound for every time this has happened to me.

Honestly, I’m sick of these “friendly dogs”
I don’t like them, and I don’t want them anywhere near me.
USE A LEAD.