“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.

I don't mind dogs generally. I'm not interested in owning one because it's too big a commitment plus I've had some bad experiences so I'm a bit wary and never really fully trust them. But I'm not frightened of them unless there's a reason to be and I'm not often irritated by them coming up to me unless they're really poorly behaved.
However nearly every single house in my neighbourhood seems to have at least one dog nowadays and the local park always has lots of dogs on walks. Lots of them are off the lead at all times even though it's meant to be restricted to an hour in the morning and one before it closes at night. The odd dog running up to say hello would be fine, I like giving them a pat if they're into it. But there are way too many of them and it's made me actually dread the park tbh. People say they're friendly and they most often are, it's usually food they can smell, snacks in the buggy/ bags or school lunchboxes, but it often takes people several minutes to actually catch up with their dog to tell them to stop what they're doing because the dog is much much quicker than them. Sometimes when they're calling the dog off, I will smile at the owner and say ah not to worry, they're fine etc because they're just dogs being dogs after all, but I get fed up with it other times and I just don't say anything which the owners often seem to think is really rude and I can't work out why!

@fluffyfurryfeatherythings No I cannot walk my dog everywhere - there are no dog areas. I do not demand I can walk my dog there, yet you want to demand areas where dogs can be walked, they should not be allowed.

Ok, I could name huge areas of the UK where you can walk for miles without encountering dogs or people. There are beaches which are empty. There are National Trust areas which have thousands of acres, I can guarantee you will find some acreage you can walk on without dogs - the common thread is you may need to make an effort to find them and go to them. If that means driving then yes that is what you do.

It is not dog owners fault that you live in an area where there appear to not only be wall to wall dogs but also no area where you can go directly from your house.

We have a big, lolloping rescue dog with no recall whatsoever. He loves other dogs but I really dont want your dog coming up to him to say hello as he then gets super excited and wrenches my arm out of my socket almost as he wants to play. He will eventually have recall and hopefully be allowed off the lead - but only if he learns "down" first.

Our last dog was a lurcher. Absoutely useless to train but she knew down, stay and come. She rarely went on a lead. If we saw another dog the command was down and down she went. Then stay and come when the dog went away. The amount of times she was bothered by another dog whilst in her down position drove me insane. If you cant control your dog - keep it on a lead.

We also have a horse - he has now been attacked 3 times by "friendly" dogs. One dog owner tried to sue us as the horse kicked the dog. He is almost bomb proof but when a dog is biting his legs he is going to kick out. Fortunately my daughter wears a go-pro at all times when riding so that showed that the horse retaliated because the dog bit him.

Dog owners are often completely oblivious to how well trained (or not) their dog really is.

I am dog lover/owner and generally tolerant I don’t believe any dog has 100% recall they are dogs not machines. My dogs have been described by friends, dog walkers, kennel owners and vets as well behaved but I wouldn’t say they behave perfectly all the time but definitely most of the time. I am very aware of other dogs especially those on leads mine generally ignores them.
I have a friend with a completely out of control large dog, he’s not malicious just bounciily out of control and frankly it drives me nuts. She’s a nice person but she just can’t/wont control her dog he bounces up to people other dogs runs off chases livestock pulls her over he’s knocked me over I could go on. I think the reason is that she doesn’t lay down any kind of rules or expectations of good behaviour and her dog just doesn’t know what to do in any situation so just does whatever he wants and she’s just become immune to it or cant be bothered to address it because now she’s got a 40 kg out of control dog and she doesn’t have the energy to address it.

Over the last 40 years I have been circled by two labradors and growled at, followed and barked at by two daschunds, had 3 separate dogs run out of nowhere in local woodlands barking at me and my children, a large dog run up to my toddler on the beach and snatch food from his hand, last summer a large bulldog raced towards us round a corner and that was the last straw to be honest.

There were no owners in sight of any of these dogs as the dogs can run and the owners can't be bothered to keep up.
Yes the path in front of then may be clear so they let there dogs run ahead but owners do not know who is round the next corner. And they don't care.
Owners don't care who is fearful of their dog due to previous experiences. They just literally think they own the place and if you don't want to be around dogs you should leave your town and enjoy the outdoors somewhere else?

That's selfish and downright narrowminded.

I'll tell you what the exact truth is. That my youngest child was attacked by a dog when he was 6 months old, sitting in a pram, in a PLAYGROUND. Because moronic dog owners seem to think they can take their dog anywhere. So excuse me if I contribute to this 'frenzy' that you describe. I have good reason - my baby almost DIED because of ignorant, selfish dog owners taking over everywhere.

And to add - the latest dog with no recall goes to a dog pen every 3 days, at a cost of £12, to run around like a lunatic where there are no distractions and no other people to be affected by his complete lack of recall.

Having a dog is a massive commitment and if he costs me £36 a week to run free like a lunatic until we master his recall then so be it. We chose to adopt him!

Oh you are so right.

There are beaches which are empty. There are National Trust areas which have thousands of acres, I can guarantee you will find some acreage you can walk on without dogs - the common thread is you may need to make an effort to find them and go to them. If that means driving then yes that is what you do

Ffs. You say this as though it's okay for people to have to travel potentially for more than an hour to go on a simple walk, or take your kids outside, with no dogs around 😵‍💫 Can you even hear yourself??

Thank you for doing this.

I wish more owners had your level of commitment and aptitude for sensible sharing of space.

@beardediris My dogs have 100% recall from any situation, they are still dogs with characters of their own. Each one is trained differently dependant on their disposition but the end result is a totally dependant recall.

My dog is reactive because he was mobbed by a pack of spaniels, all friendly of course.

But he's a very nervous giant breed, he was on lead they were off and it's set us wayyy back.

Drives me mad, the owners said "oh they ran over because he was big" ffs

Dogs are everywhere and often off lead. New cafe opening down the road? Three enormous dogs taking up half of the floorspace. Pubs, restaurants allow dogs inside, people let the small ones lay on the seats.

I am lucky that I have found a bird reserve near where I live and I can walk there without having to worry about dogs on the loose.

Utter rubbish where I live I walk 1-2 1/2 hours a day depending on the time of year 90% of the time I rarely meet anyone. It pretty obviously depends where you live and where you are allowed to walk.
It’s a stunning evening Ive just come back from a walk on a very popular (relatively speaking) local beach there were 4 people on it and that’s a lot on a normal (rainy) day in October it would be empty.

I know! Like dog owners can literally walk in all the little woodlands and country paths near where we live - but we have to drive 200 miles to some goddam mountain side to get some fresh air.

So selfish.

I think the countryside needs to be carved up a bit more so that it's fairer.

Oh my god - it would be like heaven to set off on a walk with no fear of a rogue dog running round the next corner.
Or having a picnic in a field or on a beach without that waft of sunbaked dogshit floating up from what looks like a clean bit of ground.

in the past few years we’ve come across so many of these types of owners with out of control dogs, and it really makes me anxious about taking our dogs out in busy places. I’ve got a new approach when they shout he’s friendly - I shout back mines not and he bites! That soon gets them recalling and normally me a load of abuse. For what it’s worth he’s never shown a single sign of biting as much as a biscuit in his life and he’s only 10kg, fluffy and scared of his own shadow but I object to him being jumped on and frightened by badly socialised dogs with their rude owners so I’m happy to take the abuse 😂

@surreygirl1987 do you think dog owners walk out their front door and straight on to dog friendly beaches, miles of woodland trails and fields galore?

Most people have to travel to a certain extent to get to a spot of their choice - dog owner or not.

Dogs in pubs is not a new thing

If I see a dog on a lead, I will call mine back and either tell them to walk to heel, or put them on a lead at heel.

Owning dogs is about thinking ahead and perceiving any situation which may happen. That does not mean I will keep my dogs on the lead constantly just in case. If other dogs are off the lead and the situation looks ok, I will probably keep mine off.

The group of spaniels should not have been allowed to run up to your dog.

I had just been served a cooked breakfast at a cafe this spring when a giant wet dog came in out of the rain and sat on the floor next to me. I had to eat with the smell of wet dog.
I couldn't, I had to leave my food.

I won't be going there again.

Some places are becoming no-go zones for people who don't have dogs. I bet the dog owners love it.

I can hear myself quite clearly thank you - make an effort to walk where you want, do not expect to have it all from your door step.

Maybe check before going in if it's dog friendly in future

I sure will.

Unfortunately just because dogs aren’t allowed, doesn’t mean there won’t be off leash dogs running around anyway. See my comment on p4, that was a beach dogs are banned from but the owner didn’t give a fuck.

I’ve spent my life round animals horses dairy cows dogs any animal can have a completely out of character moment. I’ve seen prize winning sheep herding boarder collies do something out of character, placid well trained horses have a surprise buck and throw their their rider off and a sadly an exceedingly docile placid well handled cow kill it’s very knowledgable farmer owner. As the late great Glenda Spooner once said “even a trekking pony can have a mad moment”.
Animals however well trained are not robots.