Who was unreasonable? Dog walking issue..

[WillGymForPizza]

I'm currently looking after my parents dog while they are away for the weekend, took him out for a nice long walk this morning, bumped into lots of other dogs had a sniff, all fine.

Only the way back we found ourselves approaching an elderly lady with a Jack Russell, I put dog on very short lead told him to 'stay' as we passed them but he still sort of moved forward to sniff the other dog, as dogs do. It's nature. Now I should say, and I know everyone says this, but parents is as soft as a brush and just want to be everyone's friend. The lady started shouting at me ' get that bloody dog away, I apologised told him off and said he wasn't nasty. Then I move to cross the road and she started shouting at me that 'the bloody thing needs locking up'. Ffs he's lab not a pit bull, he didn't bark, he didn't growl, he didn't jump at her, he just moved to sniff her dog! Like they all do!

It was unnecessarily aggressive and rude and really spoiled what was a lovely walk. I had to resist the urge not to give her a mouthful back, but thought against it. Sounds stupid but it puts me off taking him out again! And now I'm wondering if maybe I did do something wrong?

Can any seasoned dog people tell me what the hell it was all about?

It's better now Katterinaballerina. I actually can't remember seeing any labs on our regular routes (planned to avoid those menaces). I usually take the dogs out to agistment and we walk out there, which is perfect as no other dogs around and there's wonderful things like ducks, hares and kangas to sniff out.

If I’m out and I see someone with a dog on a lead I give them a deliberately wide berth as there is usually a reason.

My reason would be because I don't want her to go into the road and get run over.

Should I and this old lady just passively allow any and every dog to come up and accept every attack?

There is a surely a better way of signalling that your dog doesn't want to socialise than being verbally and upsettingly aggressive and swearing. "Sorry, he is very timid," would be a start, you need to say it assertively and politely, not aggressively. If you go round acting aggressively you might find yourself with a bigger problem than a timid dog.

Some people are just weird. I was walking my two the other morning when a lady with dog on lead (super hypo) came steaming towards me. Its ok shes friendly! She says. I just replied with 'oooh well He's not' about my own (he generally is abit afraid/grumpy of over eager large dogs even though hes big himself). She got all snooty at me and acted like my dog was a monster. I was just being honest! Can't win.

Just realised you’re not in the Uk 🦘There are so many labs around near me that if I had to avoid Labradors my walks would turn into Pac-Man.

“If you go round acting aggressively you might find yourself with a bigger problem than a timid dog”

Indeed, your dog will also immediately pick up on your anxiety and go into defence mode to protect you. We had a very excitable Spanish neighbour with a gorgeous Airedale. Lovely, kind woman but so anxious that every time anyone with a dog appeared on the horizon, she would literally cut you off mid-sentence, drag the dog away shrieking “oh no, I have to go, another dog is coming, he will be upset” or similar. Over time she completely ruined the poor thing, turned it into a nervous wreck land frankly a pain in the bum. We lived at the time in a beautiful holiday town, right on the Esplanade, where hundreds of people walked by with their dogs every day in summer. She and her Airedale were on a first floor flat with a big balcony and he would be out there from first light until dusk on nice days, going nuts every time another dog passed by on the street 😡