Who was unreasonable? Dog walking.

[Bearlover16]

Walking my dog up the field. Let him off lead for a run. He approaches another dog to say hello who was on lead. Other dog attacks my dog, bites him quite nasty on the leg. My dog retaliates. Owner rants at me that my dog should be on a lead and she's sick of people like me as her dog gets the blame being a bull terrier. I respond that surely my dog should be allowed to have a run off lead?
Who was being unreasonable? Should her dog be muzzled if it's viscous even on lead?

Everyone else has already said but YWBVU!!! My dog is always off lead because his recall is excellent and I would never let him go up to another dog on the lead - they are on a lead for a reason.

I actually completely disagree. I have never met a dog in my life that stays away from another dog if it's on lead regardless of recall. A dog's natural instinct is to approach another dog.

You should have attempted to stop the dog going up to it BUT if a child had gone up to it and been bit people here would have different reactions when in reality a child is so much easier to control.

The dog should have been muzzled end of. A dog that bites is badly trained and violent.

I think people have been remarkably restrained on this thread considering you were an absolute idiot and caused a partial fight. I don't actually believe someone can be this stupid therefore call reverse.

Replace "say hello to other dog" with "pester the other dog", then think about it

You, I'm the owner of a reactive dog. It's so frustrating that people allow their dogs off the lead to run up to mine and then blame my dog as he reacts aggressively. Fine if your dog stay away but clearly he doesn't. Would you want a human randomly running up to you? How would you react?

Also if I muzzled my dog he would not move with the muzzle on.

YABVVVU.

I grew up working and training gundogs whose recall HAD to be absolute (because otherwise animals or people might get killed), but in town, we still walked them on leashes.

This whole thread is a bit of a 'dump and run'.

Peonylover123 then you have not met my dog. He is ball obsessed and circles me until I throw it. He hates other dogs approaching because they try and take the ball away from him. I have walked past deers basking in the sun very close to me and he doesn't care because I have a ball in my thrower and he is fixated on that.

Give over @Peony . A reactive dog that dislikes other dogs is not necessarily a dog that bites people. My dog has never approached other dogs and judging by the posts on here there are many others like him. If a dog has no recall then they should be on a lead. As others said before in the thread a dog muzzled cannot then defend itself against other dogs that have been stupidly allowed to approach an on lead under control dog.

Yep. You OP.

You shouldn't let your dog run up to dogs that are on lead, you don't know why they are on lead, could be nervous, aggressive, recovering from injury. Only dogs with good recall should be off lead and if you can't recall your dog from an on lead dog, then it should be on a lead.

This 100%

@Peonylover123
Oh do piss off you know nothing, my dogs natural reaction to seeing another dog certainly isn't to run up to it , he comes back to me to go on the lead as he doesn't like other dogs .
Please don't think all dogs are the same .

You were at fault, as I'm sure you will know by now but I do have sympathy for you.

Most people go to somewhere like 'a field' as you describe to let their dogs run, explore, play with a ball and socialise. The problem comes when people walk their 'reactive' dogs there too and expect not to be approached.

1. If your dog doesn't like other dogs you need to avoid them
2. If you can't avoid other dogs then you need to warn dog owners (yellow lead campaign) that your dog has a problem so they can recall their dog safely.
3. If you know your dog will bite and hurt any dog that approaches it while on lead it needs to be muzzled, end of. Having it on a lead means nothing if you can't control its teeth.

I think it's completely arrogant and reckless to walk around with a land shark on a lead and blame everyone else if it bites.

I'm seeing more and more of this type of dog behaviour and I put it down to bad breeding and lack of socialisation training and stupid people buying problematic breeds from back street breeders and puppy farms.

They seem to demand every dog should have perfect recall yet fail to see the irony that their own dog has major issues. Courtesy works both ways.

I am very selective about where I walk my dog as she's always off lead and is a friendly thing. She would be back on lead if I see any bull breed or terrier.

@biteyshark this is my dog to a tee too. Bet yours is a collie as well

@Peonylover123 along with my dog I also walk my neighbours jack russell who is off lead. If I call him he comes back to me, dog or no dog. If he didn't he wouldn't be off lead. You obviously only know very badly trained dogs.

I actually completely disagree. I have never met a dog in my life that stays away from another dog if it's on lead regardless of recall. A dog's natural instinct is to approach another dog.

Evidently you've never met a well-trained dog. All our dogs recall and shadow at a glance - they're trained that way from puppies.

Any dog that's not capable of that level of training is rehomed as 'pet/home quality' and the new owners are told to leash and/or muzzle as necessary.

Ywbu
And if there is any vet bills to either of the dogs you would be responsible for them

@Witchofzog he's a cocker spaniel. I think it's the hunting/chasing instinct in him and that he always gets to catch the ball .

They never seem to tire do they @biteyshark

You were. Who honestly lets their dog run up to a dog on a lead and thinks that's OK?

My dogs both go off lead almost all the time. They also have perfect recall and walk to heel, so if we see another dog on a lead they are straight back to me and walking to heel until we pass. It's just basic good manners. Dogs who aren't well-trained and able to be brought under control quickly should not be let off lead. It's so unfair on other dog walkers. That woman had done what she could to protect her dog and other dogs around it from something like this happening. Short of not walking the poor thing there's not much else she can do. I strongly disagree with muzzling it when she had already taken precautions and it was your dog that was out of control.

Obviously you were totally in the wrong - you had no control over your dog and it got hurt because of you.

You are in the wrong, we have a rescue dog who can be aggressive to other dogs when he is not in control of the situation. We always keep him on a lead. I never feel comfortable walking him because i'm always worried that another dog not on a lead is going to bound up to him with their owner the other side of the field unable to stop it. Keep it on a lead around other dogs if they have their lead on too. My husband does all the walking!

@Witchofzog agree they won't stop when it comes to a ball. I have to limit it as he would keep going until he dropped.

If you let your dog off lead you need to be able to control it at a distance - if I see a potentially dangerous dog I instruct my dog to either come to me or to lie down away from the path of the oncoming dog. I very rarely have my dog on a lead so we taught him not to approach other dogs nor people unless we specifically allow it - it's just training, every pup can learn this by 5 or 6 months.

Bitey one of my labs is exactly the same, totally ball obsessed. His whole face changes when there's a ball (he gets eyes like puss from Shrek!). He also gets irritated by other dogs that get in his way. Problems occur when I haven't got a ball as he thinks anyone throwing a ball is throwing it for him and he usually is more focused and faster than that person's dog!

@biteyshark. Mine is between 12 and 15 (rescue) and would literally do this til he dropped if we allowed him to