to not put my dog on his lead when asked?

[jinglemel]

Was walking the dog with my dc today, they'd stopped on a bench on a hill and were chatting about the view with our dog laying down under the bench without his lead on. A woman came round the corner with a larger dog and shouted: 'leash your dog! Mine doesn't like small ones.' Our dog is obedient, not to mention old and uninterested in other dogs, hers was off its lead. Her tone irritated me as it was as though my dog was doing something wrong when he hadn't moved, so I said pardon? She said: 'put your dogs lead on now! Mine doesn't like small dogs and could attack.' I said that if her dog is aggressive it shouldn't be off its lead, particularly in a family park. Her dog was nowhere near our dog or the dc and I wasn't sure it'd actually noticed our dog so I didn't want to draw attention to him by putting his lead on and entice it towards the dc. She stormed off after her dog muttering about how rude I was. Wibu?

Yanbu as her dog was off the lead.

I think if you have a reactive dog it's reasonable to ask politely for an off lead dog to be called away or put on a lead, but to do this you have to take responsibility for your own dog by keep

YANBU at all. She was completely unreasonable and shouldn't have her dog off the lead if it can't be trusted not to eat/ attack smaller dogs.

You were both unreasonable. Dogs should be on leads in public places

How pray tell do you allow dogs to have the run they need then? Shove them on a treadmill?

So her dog is aggressive but its your dog that should be on a lead
Was she the Queen walking her corgis?

YWNBU. It's not other owners jobs to make sure they don't antagonise others. It was HER job to make sure she had her dog under control. I would report the incident to the dog warden to be honest if she's a regular.

star your opinion isn't law.

I took a Male German Shepherd as a foster carer, he had been badly abused, I ended up keeping him.

The only thing that I would say is that putting her dog on a lead would re-enforce that he has something to fear (dogs are sometimes aggressive through fear).

A dog on a lead feels insecure and on guard, if other dogs are free.

She should of been polite, though.

I asked similar but explained the dog was undertaking re-training. He remained wary of adult men, but that was easily handled.

I agree with Star.

You can have an opinion of what the law should be.

math - ones opinion isn't law.

As it is I am very careful re my dog. I put her on a lead approaching other dogs on a lead, I watch other owners, I watch parents.

My dog is not more important than a child. Where I live "on a lead","not on a lead" , areas don't exist.

I would never enforce my dog on anyone, I have deliberately trained her to obey me, but not them off lead. Really?

One should know the animal one owns/criticises,

The law says as an owner you have to have control of YOUR animal, not expect other people to do it for you. This woman sounds like she was a little out of her depth in being able to control the animal and that always scares me. There's no rhyme or reason to her request.

I get the bit about retraining rescues as my first dog was badly abused before I had him and for the first couple of years, frankly it made him a bit of a fruit loop. Muzzles are not cruel, and I'll admit I used to take him out at 4 am for the first year every day just so he could have an unmuzzled free run.

Our current dog was bitten in September and in the month afterwards I was pleasantly surprised to see how other dog owners reacted when I asked them to help her get over her nerves. My requests varied from simply asking them to keep a away in the week after the attack as she shook like a jelly in terror, to my actively asking other owners to pet her in front of their own dogs. I always asked nicely though and explained why iyswim. She's back to normal now, as she was well socialised before the attack.

I fully understand one's opinion isn't necessarily the law, but my point is one can have an opinion of what the law should be.

An aunt of mine had to have her beloved small dog pts after he was attacked by another dog who was called off in vain once the attack began. This was apparently a dog who had never shown any sign of aggression before. Your dog is only predictable up to a point.