To ask about dog walking etiquette?

[SpamChaudFroid]

Walking my puppy on Sunday, and a man with a huge GS stops me by garbling/shouting something unintelligible, so I sort of smiled and nodded then both dogs started playing. Suddenly his huge dog went for mine, (much smaller), so I dragged him away. As I walked away he was praising his dog.

Today I heard someone shouting "Boy or girl?!" looked around me and surprise surprise it was the same man from the other day. I ignored him, eventually replying, "boy", (I presume he was demanding to know the sex of my dog) to get him to STFU. Then he shouted, "Are you smoking that wacky baccy" at me. (I was smoking a cigarette)

WTF could have been his problem? I'm a first time dog owner, so have been wracking my brains as to whether i committed some kind of dog walking sin.

No, you didn't, he's an arse.

And a dangerous one at that. He was probably asking what sex your dog is as his is aggressive towards one. He knows this so should have it muzzled.

He sounds weird and his dog is not under control so stay well away.

I thought his dog should have been muzzled. If I hadn't been watching like a hawk on Sunday, his GS would've had my puppy by the neck.

I think you should be a bit more careful about letting your dog play with other dogs. Some people do let their dog off lead that do not play nicely with a puppy, so never let your pup approach other dogs to play until you are sure.

He sounds bonkers. You’re not near me, are you?! A bloke who lived nearby was forever telling me to let my aggressive dog off ‘Oh, he only wants to play’. Fuck off, mate, no, he wants to eat your dog! He persisted in annoying me, me trying to keep well away until one day I really lost it and screamed at him to fuck off and why was he so determined to ruin my walk. Not my finest hour, but I was trying to rehabilitate my dog 🐕 who did not like other dogs 🐶 (emojis keep appearing in my predictive text, how cool!)

Anyway, OP, keep your dog safe. Mine was attacked as a puppy and never recovered. If his dog is aggressive (is he Scottish, dog starts all friendly then starts growling and attacks? North London? Keep well away!) don’t let him near you.

He's just an arse who thinks having a larger dog gives him status.

Some people are simply rude.

Both dogs were on leads xmas. He stopped to chat, indicating that his dog was ok with other dogs. I am too polite to people tho.

Maelstrop, that's how I feel, he's trying to ruin my walk! I'm not in N London. Must be one assigned to every town....

He sounds bonkers. That said a lot of older dogs dislike puppies so keep him close around other dogs until he's a little older. Puppies are generally bouncy and older dogs tend to not like it. My dog is three and loves everyone but we did have a few incidents when he was under one where he would go up sniff want to play only to get growled at / nearly bitten. After 1 it changed

Advice - find somewhere else to walk your puppy. The blokes a bully and if the bigger dog attacks your puppy he could become reactive to ALL other dogs as he will think all dogs are a threat.

Owning a reactive dog is hard work. Allow your puppy to meet lots of other sociable dogs but ask the owner if it's ok first. Start with just letting them sniff each other and move on, quickly. Build up from there.

Maelstrop.... Not Tuffnell Park area?

Well that's reassuring to hear it wasn't me - sometimes I'm not great at reading social situations.

It's a shame, but you're right, I'll have to walk him elsewhere. I don't want my little prince traumatised for life.

Walking with a dog brings out all the crazies. On more than one occassion, I've had men come up to my muzzled dog (large older sighthound) and try to kiss him, even though I tell them not to. My dog is generally ok with people but has shown some aggression towards other dogs (he's a rescue so I don't know his background).

Just assume other dog walkers are idiots who don't control their dogs and be pleasantly surprised when you meet one who does!

There's owners who don't control their dogs unfortunately, though the biggest issue here is people with 2 or 3 year old dogs out of control because "they are only young" pestering my dog and annoying him, stealing his ball. By 16-18 weeks a dog can be off lead trained, why don't people train their dogs.