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.

Owners with a single dog are bad enough, but my biggest complaint is with so called “professional” dog walkers.
I’ve been attacked by a pack of six large dogs while walking round my local loch on a public footpath. I did the recommended thing - turned my back, protected my face with my hands and stood still facing the gorse bushes at the path edge to protect my front.
This didn’t deter the bastards for a moment - they were jumping on my back, snapping and growling.
The useless walker was about 100 yards behind them, ineffectively bleating their names and failing completely to call them off.
I was badly shaken and gave her a mouthful. I wish I’d had the presence of mind to photograph her and the bloody dogs on my phone and send it to the council dog warden.
Worryingly, that path is often used by families with toddlers and young kids. If six large dogs had got a toddler down on the ground, they could have ripped its throat out before the useless woman got anywhere near to stop them.
For the benefit of any ignorant walkers reading this - dogs are pack animals. If you let six of them loose in woodland and they spot a moving target, they go into hunting mode.
If you can’t control their natural instincts, keep them on damn leads.

YANBU and I have two biggish dogs.

One isn't always friendly to other dogs - therefore I won't have him off lead, he walks to my heel on a short leash. Sadly though some owners really do not think, so I totally agree with you OP - they let their off lead dogs approach my dog-aggressive dog (who is walking nicely to my heel on lead).

I ask them to recall their dog as mine isn't friendly, and a lot of the time the dogs don't return, which causes me the stress of worrying mine won't take kindly to theirs - and if he bites them it'll probably be seen as all my fault though mine is entirely under control 🤷‍♀️.

My other dog is always off lead but has perfect recall and has absolutely no interest in children or strangers (in fact she doesn't like them much at all 😂) so won't bother going anywhere near them. Sometimes people let their kids approach her without asking and she'll just bark at them and run away - now that's another frustration!

There are so many dogs unsecured in their front gardens round here and it drives me nuts as they are clearly being territorial to me a non-dog owner but their actual owners are all ‘Oh he’s just being friendly’ ‘Don’t worry they’re softies and wouldn’t hurt you’.

Yeah until the day they were wound up by another dog and came running into the street and set upon my daughter. And let me say, you never react as quick as you think you will, and it replays in your head over and over.

To give credit to the owners they were horrified as they have grandkids round all the time and have never let them out unsecured since but it shows that you don’t know your dog as well as you think. They are still animals not ‘furbabies’.

My daughter is now understandably nervous around dogs, and now I get the rage at owners who roll their eyes or act offended when I won’t dismiss her feelings when the incident is so fresh. You don’t know people’s experiences so respect that some people are scared. (I’m not encouraging her fear before anyone jumps in, she has controlled contact with family & friends dogs)

Also before all this I used to enforce always ask before petting a strange dog, never assume they want to be approached. I thought that dog owners would appreciate it but no! The amount of times they’d undermine me or act offended that their dog was harmless, yeah well we don’t know your dog do we that’s the point!

Add the sheer volume of sloppy dog shit all over the pavements and my tolerance is at an all time low.

Ah! Dogs and children, I put them in the same category, need control and their 'parents' don't see it as their problem.

I do volunteering with a national org looking after the grounds. We have a dogs welcome but must be on leads at all times policy and a no climbing on trees no cycling no roller skates policy for kids. While we have occasional issues with people not keeping their dogs on leads its mostly the mums who bring in their kids to cycle on the paths and grounds who cause the problems. There are play areas and off-lead areas but for some the rules don't apply.

Dogs or children there are always those for whom the rules don't apply.

Try a policeman's stop if one runs up / approaches. Stand firm. And tall, hold out your hand in a policeman's stop position and loudly shout stop. This should then stopthe dog and spring the owner into action.

Yep. My 2 year old is now terrified of dogs after being knocked over by 3 of them in the space of one week. Completely minding his own business and a dog has come lolloping up to him and knocked him down. Usually with a half hearted, don’t worry he’s friendly from the owner.

Yes Winging Imagine how much harm dogs could come to, when faced by ignorant members of the public who are only trying to be friendly.
Better to keep them safe and away from strangers.

MothratheMighty

Don’t be a twat. Let’s also go around poisoning badly behaved children should we?

I completely agree. Dogs should not be jumping up at others- however, can I just put across a frustration from a dog owners point of view:

I have a young and very excitable cocker spaniel puppy. We are working very hard on training her. However she loves people and what I’m finding is that there are a LOT of people when we’re out walking that actively encourage her to jump and stroke and fuss her when she does and it’s undoing all the training we’re doing. We are turning our backs on her and only rewarding her when she has 4 paws on the floor. I try to say to people we’re training her not to jump and they just say ‘it’s fine, she’s just a puppy.’. It’s not going to be fine when she’s fully grown and still jumping. She has a bright yellow ‘puppy in training’ harness too.
Also, some children charge up to her and stroke without asking. It’s confusing for the dog who can’t differentiate between confident and nervous children.

I’m not making excuses. I absolutely need to be responsible for training my dog but we are having to overcome a lot of obstacles put out there by other people.

Also her recall is excellent, but being young, there are still the odd times when she doesn’t instantly respond. The only way to get better at this is to practise off lead. She’s 100% if not distractions but if distracted, occasionally does not come straight back. If she does bother someone, I always apologise.

Dogs and children are not a good mix. Whilst it’s the owners fault if a dog runs up (even friendly ones shouldn’t if properly controlled). It’s a parents fault if they let their children rush up and poke dogs they don’t know(even friendly children shouldn’t do this if properly controlled).

It happens and I would suggest investing a dog control spray and carrying it with you. Pet correction does a pocket sized one on Amazon for about £6. It doesn’t hurt the dog just makes a loud hissing noise. The dog is startled and runs off. We used it on our dog, who used to be a nightmare barking in the car at anything that moved.
Children running up are more difficult as parents take umbrage when you point out their children are out of control. I usually say an assertive “Don’t touch him please”. They back of, I say thank you and explain that in his first home children weren’t very nice to him. If they don’t back off or parents encourage them forward I’m less gentle in my approach.

Well, maybe not until we’ve tried shouting at them, yelling at their owners and feeding them biscuits. Never been bitten by a stranger child or chased when cycling.

@Babdoc

I was hunted by a pack of stray dogs when i was about 10. West London back in the early 80s when it was more common for strays to mooch around. 5 or 6 of them had got together and i was unlucky enough to encounter them one evening. They followed me on my way back home through a short cut behind some houses. Tried to stay calm and keep walking (we had dogs of our own i know how to behave) but when they got closer behind and growled and snarled my nerve broke and I ran, they chased still snarling. i jumped over a 5 ft wall without touching the top out of sheer fear. Some of them jumped after me but my dad (big bloke) was there hollering at them and they backed off. Never forgotten it.

Nothing to do with OP - just thought i'd share!

I had one woman scream at my 3 year old as her dog can bounding up to her (my 3 year old's reaction was to scream and start to run) - "DON'T! RUN!". Luckily my daughter froze (she was in a field and had run on a bit from me so was nearer to the woman, who I hadn't seen with her dog). No apology, nothing. Just screamed at her. Her dog almost knocked her over. Then she tutted as I got to them. Fucking tutted. Another time a group of women were walking their dog's when my ds was in his pushchair and one of the dogs started barking manically right in his face and snapped at the buggy wheels. She fucking threw her head back and laiughed, "Talk about childhood trauma!", she thought it was FUNNY. I've never wanted to punch someone in the smug face so much in my life. And I'm a dog owner myself of 25 years. I never, ever let my dogs just go up to children. I HATE it when owners do it.

Owners with a single dog are bad enough, but my biggest complaint is with so called “professional” dog walkers.

I'm so sorry that happened to you. It sounds horrible. Thank god it wasn't a child.

I was out the other day with ddog and we came across a walker who upon seeing us immediately grabbed a nearby mastiff and put it on a lead. Apparently it is extremely dog reactive and she doesn't want to walk it any more. It had a prong collar on the poor thing.

As a professional, wtf would you walk this without a muzzle, walk it off lead, and walk it with other dogs so that you couldn't watch it properly? I'm glad she managed to grab it - I had my baby in a sling.

pooch you can get 'in training' vests on Amazon which might help to deter these people. I know your frustration, everyone used to encourage our dog to jump as a pup. Now he's an adult he can jump 6ft if he wants. He's ok when we are out luckily but there are the odd house guests that still hype him up no matter what, so I just put him in another room when they visit. When I say hype him up, I mean intentionally getting him exicteable.

It infuriates me when people say don’t worry they are friendly/won’t hurt you!

I think they're proably trying to reassure you!

A small minority of dog owners are causing a lot of distress.

It's time all dogs were kept on leads in public places, including parks, woods and beaches. It isn't worth the risk.

There seems to be an increasing number of people who regard their dogs as children substitutes and are amazed when not everyone else finds them as fascinating and lovable as they do themselves.

I dislike dogs off the lead, dogs on the beach and dogs round our nearby lake who are clearly not u dear control.

I think the issue is that dog ownership has become much more popular and how dogs are regarded so you see them out and about so much more.

I don't really like them in cafes especially when they won't sit still - and it does restrict where I can go for a run although I do find most owners are very good about ensuring they don't jump up or chase me.

As a non-dog person, all I can hope is that the craze for them eventually evaporates and people decide they want guinea pigs instead.

YANBU!

I’m not convinced it’s a recent thing though, as I remember lots of poorly behaved dogs from my own 1980s childhood. Plus the biggest culprits around here are mostly retirement-aged and seem to think it’s just normal dog behaviour.

My dog is not yet well trained enough to be trusted not to jump up at strangers, so he is walked on a retractable lead. I would be mortified if he upset anyone!

I've stopped walking through the local parish council land on my own, as despite the signs that say dogs must not be walked off lead I am continually jumped at by dogs who have run out of their owner's sight.

Dogs are becoming a more equal part of the household - but with that there has been more responsibility taken - look back to the 70s when dogs roamed freely and shat everywhere.

prob, that's a good point & something I have really noticed recently, there just seem to be so many dogs around these days.

I love walking but my walks are now severely restricted as so many dogs are not on leads and I just don't want dogs running up to me, jumping or licking me. (And does that really make me an unpleasant person, a recent comment on Mumsnet from a Poster who said she 'couldn't be friends' with someone who didn't like dogs ).

People get of defensive about their dogs, I politely asked a man to call his dog away from me recently and said 'I don't like dogs' and his reaction was to ask me ' Why not?'.

@Wingingthiswholething she has a bright yellow harness with a big ‘dog in training’ across the sides. I’m not finding it makes much difference. I wish it did.

Irresponsible dog owners like that are the lowest of the low. Total scum. Bet you they are too busy tweeting about ‘fur babies’ to actually train or control their animals.

Like many others, there are areas I now am reluctant to walk or run in because of out of control animals. I bring a riding crop with me while walking and I’m not afraid to use it. When running past certain houses or in certain areas, I’ll pick up a big rock to have for defence. If it happens in a park, on a beach etc, take a picture of the dog and the owner. (Mind you, given the type of person who allows this, it’s sometimes not safe). And report. Funnily enough this seems to get a reaction. ( not the fact that the their dog knocked over a child or recently, an elderly neighbour recovering from a hip replacement). Disgusting.

Anyone who shouts ‘oh, he’s just being friendly’ or ‘he won’t touch you’ I judge to be of really limited intelligence.

And I say all this as an animal lover and vegan of 25 years.

Why the heck should lazy, ignorant people ruin the enjoyment of so many others. Indefensible.