Get your dog away from me!

[Mamalicious16]

I'm sick of dogs charging / jumping up at / barking at my dd.5. I'm.not a dog hater ( I used to have a Labrador) but why is it ok for dogs to approach / bark/ jump up at me) my DD? More to the point what can I do to stop this? Would a silent dog whistle help? I have NO issue with any other dogs, on lead / off lead but with perfect recall etc.

Agree, OP, so many twattish dog owners around, and far too many dogs everywhere. Ffs, can't go anywhere these days without being jumped up at, pawed and slobbered on, or barked and growled at.

YANBU. I quite like dogs, grew up with dogs - and am allergic to dogs. I do not like random dogs leaping and slobbering and barking at me. When DS was little he was frightened more than once by an uncontrolled dog rushing up at him - even though the dog was clearly being playful rather than aggressive, it was at least as big as him and therefore terrifying to him. And I have never forgotten the dog that approached us when DS was at the height of his 'scared of dogs' phase - the owner said, it's OK, he's friendly.' But its lip was curling and it had that awful mean look in its eye, and I grabbed DS' hand and walked the pair of us smartly away...

I was knocked over by a large dog jumping up at me when I was a child. It has left me with a terrible fear of large dogs, I'm ok with small dogs but anything labrador size or larger terrified me.

wouldn’t suggest throwing treats in another direction because firstly why would you want to provide someone else’s dog with treats and secondly you’re rewarding their bad behaviour as they’ll learn that when they jump up a treat gets thrown. Also, and I know the dog’s owner should be doing a better job, but that dog may have allergies and that treat could seriously harm him. A dog’s bad behaviour is the owner’s fault, not theirs.

You throw them before the dog even gets close enough to you to jump. My dog has food allergies and a couple wouldn't do a lot of harm. I know this as strangers regularly give him treats without asking.

Putting your hand up and saying stop won't achieve a lot unless that dog speaks English or knows what the word stop means - unlikely if it is bolting over to you. In most cases, you're giving it a nice hand to try and lick (and what it wants....your attention)

Dog's should be on a lead in public places surely

dogs

Walk around with dog treats in your pocket in order to distract unruly dogs? Why should the entire population of a community have to take on this responsibility? It's on the dog owner to make sure it doesn't ever happen. Sheesh.

You can buy non toxic dog repellent spray from K9 on Amazon, I've never tried it but my friend says it works.

I like going for walks with my relative's GS, he's well trained so off the lead but never strays more than a few metres from me and recalls instantly. He's been trained since a young pup. Although he doesn't like other dogs much, so if one bounds up to us he chases them off. It's great, I used to be anxious about getting jumped on by strange dogs but he's like a personal bodyguard and won't let any dogs come near us! He's very friendly with people but won't approach them thanks to training. It's especially good when we have picnics, as he guards it and any dog who starts running towards our food gets chased aggressively. If they keep coming back he pins them down although has never bitten, just holds them by the throat until the owner comes. It teaches other owners to keep their dogs on leads if they're prone to rushing at people/food!

The other day I was out with 2.5yo and 1.5yo, no pushchair and we were charged by a group of five dogs. I was terrified as I didn't know how I was going to protect them both. Thankfully it was all ok!

I've also had a dog and used to hate other dogs approaching him too

Why the at Bicnod @HappyLoneParentDay?

I had a lot of dogs before I had kids and i like dogs, but I completely dislike untrained, thus unruly dogs and their humans. I think there's been an increase in unruly dogs in recent years. I think a lot of this stems down to people having fur babies and treating them like a child (which is a different concept to them being part of the family), rather than understanding they are still an animal and needs training. One of the worst incidents for us, was, my then 2 year old boy was walking down a path at the local country park, these 2 loose spaniels came running at him and started snarling and snapping, the owner shouted my son shouldn't be there and he had surprised them. Where else he was meant to walk I don't know and he can't of surprised them as the rest of the family, was ahead if us. Another bad one was we were walking up our local hills, we had stopped for a drink and a sit, this border collie rushes up and starts jumping up, pawing, licking etc, my kids did as I've always told them, stand still, this didn't deter the dog, saw the owner and said please take your dog away, his reply was 'it's still just a pup', then he said 'the dog will come when I've gone' and walked off. So I grabbed the dogs collar and after walking for a bit, he saw this and decided to come back for the dog only then. Kids were left scratched and shaken. I'm also sick of people seeing my kids being uneasy round their dogs and after an explanation, responding by my dogs harmless, friendly etc etc. The kids have had too many dogs just being "friendly", to not be uneasy. Doesn't matter if a dog is just being friendly, it can be just as scary to child being scratched on the face and knocked over, as being snarled and snapped at. The funniest incident was when the kids and husband were having a picnic in the correct spot. This dog comes running up and the kids did as they're told and sat still, this dog snatched a came out of one of the kids hand and ate it. This lady comes running up and says what did you give my dog?. My husband replied your dog snatched a cake and she starts screaming 'my dogs a problem with wheat, how dare you my dog a cake' and so on. She didn't care her dog ran up and snatched the cake, it was our fault her dog did that and how dare we have a picnic with cakes. My husband replied sorry and next time keep your dog on a lead or train it to stay away from people. He said you would've thought I told her to boil her dog alive from her reaction to being told to keep her dog under control.

It's not okay at all OP.

We seem to have a lot of people near us that whne their dogs are out on walks just let them run and jump up at people and do nothing about it.

I don't really like dogs anyway, they make me nervous as I feel they're unpredictable but I don't thi k it's fair on anyone to have (sometimes) a huge dog come running up at them.

I'm wondering if having a few dog treats in your pocket might be the answer. Counter-intuitive I know but if the issue is other people's dogs jumping up against your little one, then maybe being able to deflect the dog to your hand whilst you give them a small treat, it might buy time for the owner to catch up. It'll also give you a chance to say "sit" whilst holding the treat. In my experience most dogs are responsive to a firm voice and a nice treat. Equally I guess a firm voice shooting "bugger off" and waving the dog away will probably work as well.

As a primary teacher, children often ask me what my favourite breed of dog is, and I always say I don’t have one, I just like well-mannered dogs and can’t stand rude ones that jump up and invade your space.
My house has a number of large spiders resident. I may take one with me on every excursion so I can spiderbomb the next stupid, inconsiderate owner. Then I can be the one yelling ‘She won’t hurt you!’

It's certainly not good for you to have to put up with dogs running at you etc.

My experience is that hardly any dog owners have any effective power of recall with their dogs off lead- only properly trained e.g. police dogs and their handlers seem to have anything approaching true recall.

So we are left with selfish owners who think its OK, and the inevitable "He's friendly" "She's only playing" nonsense.

As to what you can do, the answer is little or nothing. Avoid busy times, from far off look for dogs running free with dodgy looking owners and keep well away.

You will only get into unpleasant arguments if you enter into dialogue with the type of person who lets a dog run wild claiming it is friendly.

I have a dog but i cannot bear it when people allow theirs to do this.

I always experience it the other way around. Parent stopping in the middle of the street and telling their children to pet our dogs without even looking at me. Children running towards the dogs and their parents totally ignoring them. Older teenagers bigger than me with SN harrassing us with their care givers doing zilch about it, although I made it clear that one of the dogs has anxiety issues that could cause her to act out (they are under control and less of any issue with children but adult-sized people cornering her - not great). Normally developed adults making noises at the dogs so they run over and they can pet them. I could go on forever.

I have trained our dogs fairly well but I keep them on a very short leash around people for their own protection. Of course they want to play with children because a billion children have wanted to play with them and no amount of training will get this mental link out of them. So they get excited and try to do play. Of course, I don't let them unless the parents clearly say it is okay.

I wholeheartedly agree that dogs jumping at anyone is not okay, I just wish that people would make it a little easier to properly train our dogs and all live happily together.

Sidenote: Because you cannot hear a silent whistle, it is VERY likely that you hurt the dog's ears. And at that point I'd be jumping at you.

We were practicing recall in an enclosed field. I was in the wrong (kind of) as she did go up to them, but their reaction was a disgrace followed me shouting at me. And By Jove my heckles went up and they regretted it

What did you do - set the dogs on her?

the problem with throwing treats is that if you come across the same dogs regularly they'll quickly learn you're the magic treat lady and you'll never be rid of them

Walk around with dog treats in your pocket in order to distract unruly dogs? Why should the entire population of a community have to take on this responsibility? It's on the dog owner to make sure it doesn't ever happen. Sheesh.

Of course no one should have to do that - but the reality is that some people are inconsiderate idiots so pragmatically the OP may want to try distraction options.
My DM used to carry a digestive biscuit for this purpose (it's not a new phenomenon!).

So much this. I'm scared of dogs and have a young DC who is excited to see a dog but doesn't understand what to do yet and I'm scared he's going to be bowled over by one.

Our local park has two big dog fields and an enclosed bit for dogs, I don't understand why some owners feel the need to let their dogs run off on the pavement, playground or sports areas when they know they won't come back or will jump up at people or do a great big shit in the middle of a tennis court.

YANBU. I own a very small dog and sometimes I feel I'm protecting her life from stupid, aggressive bigger dogs. I pick her up out of the way. Once I did that and so the dog went for us both. I kicked out at it karate style and yelled 'piss off' and that saw it off. Cue wet lettuce owner meeping about it being friendly. Oh it drives me nuts..

Walk around with dog treats to distract them? Excellent idea, I’ll stock up on chocolate right now. Minstrels are probably best, so they don’t melt in my pocket. Along with my spider pot.

Carry an umbrella and open it in the dogs face as they approach. Most will back off. Umbrella also acts as a shield.

Walk around with dog treats to distract them? Excellent idea, I’ll stock up on chocolate right now. Minstrels are probably best, so they don’t melt in my pocket. Along with my spider pot.

Don't be a twat, it's not the dogs fault, don't make them ill.

If the OP regularly comes across the same dogs she can have a word with the owners. You'll find that a lot of owners don't actually like treats being thrown for their dog and will be receptive to leashing them when they see the OP.