Slight confrontation with dog owner today

[ReecesPeaces]

DH and I do not own a dog but every couple of weeks we will take a friend's dog for a walk in the local countryside. She is a gorgeous, gentle dog and very well trained. A small cockapoo. The owners encourage us to let her off the lead when she is out and away from roads etc and most of the other local dog owners do the same.

Today we were walking through the countryside area and there were plenty of other people there, most had dogs and most dogs were off the lead. The dog we walk generally approaches other dogs her size in a friendly playful way and shies away from bigger dogs, she usually jumps up at me of a big dog comes near and I scoop her up and we carry on. Anyway we saw a woman with four dogs approaching, three small ones and one rottweiler. I was wary of the rottweiler as a family member used to have one which was very aggressive. All of this woman's dogs were off the lead.

Before I could get our dog on the lead she ran up to the smaller ones who started growling and chasing her aggressively. All four dogs then started chasing ours round and round, the Rottweiler wasn't being aggressive but two of the smaller ones were and trying to bite our dog (at this point the owner of he other dogs was going "it's fine it's fine) who ran up to me and thankfully I managed to pick her up and the other dogs then lost interest.

The owner started shouting at me and DH slightly aggressively saying "I said it was fine!" We hadn't said anything at all at this point we had just been calling our dog to us. The owner was angry we had picked ours up and kept saying "I told you it was fine! That's the worst thing you can do to pick a dog up in that situation, I'm an expert!" We walked away as I just wanted to get away from her and thought she was being confrontational.

Is this the norm for dog walking in public spaces or was this woman in the wrong? It puts me off getting a dog permanently as there was a moment when I really felt something awful could have happened.

Yes picking up a dog in that instance isn't ideal but at times when confronted like that you panic and do so. Not quite like the woman who I walk past each morning with my 2 sheepdogs__ on lead who insists on picking up her little dog ,also on lead, on the opposite side of the street!

Dogs who are overly friendly shouldn't be allowed to approach other dogs bouncing around all over the place (imagine some hypo person you've never met running upto you like that in the street) having said that I don't agree with the actions of the other persons dogs - aggressively chasing after yours and snapping... pretty untrained for an expert. An expert would have gotten her dogs attention immediately after this kicked off, on lead removed from the situation. Too many poorly trained dog owners out there... hence why I now walk mine at 5am or 8pm!

Thank you @WiddlinDiddlin that's really helpful :)

We should be avoiding dogs=human analogies as I really think that is part of the problem.

Dogs do do that and any who don't want it will tell them. It's only a bit of excitement.

To a degree the owners of the little ddogs have it easy to the extent that if their little ssog goes bonkers and tries to charge across the street to see another ddoggie, no issue. If mine did that and all tanked together, I'd be on the floor, and my poor ddoggies probably under a car!

This does happen to us a lot,and when,one of mine in particular who can be a bit reactive at times,decides its that time, it can be a challenge, but meantime, little ddog is still going bonkers and over excited.

I do a lot of being very unexcited around ddogs passing in the street! Same in busy towns, until it becomes passé.

Have also helped many kids overcome their ddog fears with mine. I work hard for mine to be ddog ambassadors because of the ddog alienation that's going on. Mine go into restaurants, cafes, bars, theatres, shops, town centres in an attempt to increase acceptability and access to responsible owners and their ddogs.