To think some dog owners are just bloody ignorant?

[DeepPurple]

DH and I went to sell some junk unwanted items at a car boot sale today. We took DD (21 months) with us for the first hour then my DF came to collect her.

The car boot was in a field and when we arrived it was already very busy with both sellers and buyers. Many people wandering around had dogs with them on leads.

I bought DD a sausage sandwich and popped it on the table near her pushchair to cool down and gave her some of the bread to munch on.

A pig ignorant woman walked past my stall with her large dog off it's lead. The dog ran around to the sandwich and bit it, scaring poor DD senseless in the process.

DD was screaming like mad. I got in between the dog and DD and shouted at it to get away. The woman was stood at the next stall laughing! I shouted to her to put her dog on a lead and she just laughed again and walked off. No apology, didn't offer to replace the sandwich and didn't bother to check DD was ok.

DD ended up eating my sandwich as the queue was too long to wait for another again.

DD has been scared by a large dog before and I've been trying to gradually introduce her to dogs to get her over her fear. Now she's been set back again

I've nothing against dogs or dog owners. Just a small percentage really annoy me with their attitude. If the sandwich had been in DDs hand the dog could have easily bitten her getting it off her

And breathe. Rant over.

I cant at the moment squeaky as i've a problem with my hands which makes it impossible to walk him (I cant hold the lead). It's not a permanent thing so as soon as i'm fully functioning again there's a place just over the road.

Klad, what breed is yours?

The problem is to teach perfect recall etc you have to let them off lead, or they will never learn - and while they're learning they will make mistakes, it's limiting the damage from those that is the issue. My dog is 11 months and will now come back 95% of the time. The 5% he doesn't is when approached by another dog who wants to play (if he approaches another dog I can usually get his attention in time to stop him bounding off, the problem is another dog who suddenly appears - but even that is now usually a case of he's run and play for 5 to 10 seconds then tune into me and return). An empty beach is an ideal place to teach that sort of thing. Emphasis on the empty (or nearly empty). If more crowded then I guess a long line is a useful tool. Having a ball helps to focus his attention on where I am and gives him the run he needs, if I lose the ball he's more likely to start trying to find another dog to play with - which sometimes works well, sometimes doesn't. He loves the sea as well so will happily run in and out chasing a ball for ages. We go to the beach most days, but at this time of year i tend to avoid the middle of the day or try to go when the tide is out, so we're not falling over everyone. I have enough problems keeping ds1 walking in the same direction as me, let alone worrying about the dog upsetting other people as well.

For jumping (a problem for us as well), I am using an incompatible behaviour, so sit or lie down - with treats when he does that. The problem I have had is that when out and about there are very few treats that are more reinforcing than leaping about. Dried bits of kibble don't really work out and about (although work very well at home for training), so I've had to seek out really, really tasty treats to make it worthwhile to him to behave. He's slowly getting there, although people coming to the door is still a problem.

My biggest problem now is on lead behaviour - probably because he tends to be on lead when there are lots of people/crowds around, or when i am having to keep 100% of my attention on ds1, but we tend to avoid those situations as much as possible so he's had less exposure. He gets very excited and tries to jump on lead, he's actually easier to stop off lead.

Someone near us has a new rescue dog who has no recall at all, and can jump walls. He escaped from his harness one walk and was off - whoosh. Took ages to get him back. The owner is working with a trainer - I think using long line and treats etc, and choosing places to practice very carefully. She said he is now pretty good in places that he can't escape from. It's just slow.

YANBU some people are just irresponsible with their dogs. we took mums dog round the park on his lead, hes a cavalier and it very good off the lead but it was a saturday afternoon and we thought it best to keep him on the lead. we turned a corner and two absolutely massive great danes were off their lead, they went straight for mums dog one grabbed him by the throat and threw him on the ground and they went for him. DH went in a pulled our dog out and pushed away the other two dogs. the owners then came pottering over and i went mental at them. our dog was shaking with fear dh was holding the other two by the collars and our dog had not annoyed them they just bolted towards him. i was bloody terrified and dread to think what would have happened if DH hadn't of stopped them attacking our dog. not a word of apology they just called their dogs on, not putting a god damn lead on them. DH picked up our dog as they could have very easily went for him again. one of the owners was actually smiling, as his monsters ran off to eat some other dog. thoses dogs were clearly vicious and should have at least been on leads if not muzzled. my mums poor dog took about a week to get over it. the owners were late middle aged and all wax jackets and wellingtons.

Did you report them?

On the subject of guide dogs way back ^ when my mum was a cook in a college one of the boys there had a guide dog called Hester.

He was pretty crap as a guide dog tbh, and huge as the staff and students spoilt him rotton, there was little he wouldn't do for food and mum was often coming home with tales of him running off with bags or leading his poor owner off a jetty. The funniest one being the time he spotted the chef who was also his cheif spoiler and flew over the counter, dragging his poor owner with him ! It was decided soon after that Hester was best suited to being a family pet and he was retired off, the boy got a more docile but less charming mutt.

YANBU btw, if people don't have their dogs under control they should be kept on lead, it was luckey your dd didn't have the sandwich in her hand, she could have been bitten.