If your dog doesn't recall 100% reliably keep it on a lead!

[Nottherealslimshady]

Just had someone's dog get in my car!

Saw it coming so got my girl straight in the car and shut the door just as he came up to it. Went round to get in drivers side and it pushes past me to get in. Had to shout three times "will you come get your dog, he's getting in my car!" Ended up piss wet through standing in the rain trying to get his dog out while my dogs making it very clear she doesn't want to meet him.

The people who think YABU need to take a long hard look at themselves

I sometimes think we should require dog licences and require (recall) training as part of the process.

you keep them on a longline until they are trained enough to be off

Hopefully not on the shared use cycle/walking path (or the bridleway) though. And especially not as you pay no attention to the dog because you are nattering with your friends.

It isn’t really about 100% recall. It’s just about thinking about what is reasonable in any given context so you don’t cause problems for other people.

Irresponsible dog owners annoy everyone (responsible dog owners included). But they seem determined to imagine only unreasonable object to their poorly trained dog’s behaviour.

You can not train a dog to have perfect off lead recall without it being...off lead
This is very true. That said, I always forgive an owner if they are really apologetic and appear to be genuinely trying to do something about it. The idiots who don’t give a toss however, get it with both barrels. Slightly related, I once almost went home from horse riding with two of the riding school’s spaniels. They’d jumped in the boot under the coats and protectors etc without me spotting them. Luckily I had a final check I’d picked everything up and put it in the boot before I left (they were adorable though so wouldn’t have minded). I also had a dog get in my driver’s seat - mine! I was taking him for a walk and just opened the car door to get some poo bags out and he must have thought we were going in the car (despite the fact he normally gets in the boot) he sat on the driver’s seat and out his front paws on the wheel, he looked at me as if to say ‘ok, now what?’, so funny.

My rescue dog wears a bright red collar and lead with CAUTION written on it, I’ve had him 2 years and he is great with kids but is afraid of other dogs which makes him aggressive. Some people are brilliant with their dogs and let him have a sniff and get reassurance they won’t attack him. He isn’t as scared now with a lot of training. Other people are arseholes and take no heed to the large warning I’ve plastered over him. We walk a couple of miles where I can see all around so he can chase his ball and swim in the sea.

One of our dogs is a rescue dog and she has had some really bad experiences early on in her life before she came to us. As a result she has really bad fear aggression towards other unknown dogs. She thinks she likes socializing with other dogs, but the reality is that it is going to turn really really nasty if they don't stay away. We have consulted trainers but because she has been attacked in the past more than once there isn't a lot they can do.

It makes walking her so difficult because some owners will not keep their dogs on leash and are oblivious.

We have to walk our two dogs separately because if someone else is letting their dogs off leash (and I'm not talking a park even, just the streets near our house) we have to be ready to pick up a 50lb dog and hold her out of reach of the other dog.

The law here is that dogs have to be on leash at all times except in certain places and some people just won't follow it. Their dog approaches us, I yell that my dog is fear aggressive and they reply that their dog likes other dogs. Bully for them!

I also recently started bike riding and I've had dogs lunge at me and have to get off and wait for their owner a long way away to catch up to me.

I agree, I'm the smug owner of a dog with near perfect recall (has other flaws but coming when called isn't one of them!) annoys me no end

My dog was very well trained and never once refused to obey recall.

I was supremely confident with letting him off lead. Then he went deaf bless him and all his training didn't matter a damn

Can you tell that I’ve had many problems trying to cycle on the local cycle paths? It is not fun being chased by a dog whose owner thinks it’s cute that it chased cyclists. Especially not when other owners have set traps by letting their dogs on leads wander to the other side of the path.

And those same dogs also harass parents with buggies or children. And actually just anyone trying to use the path. While their owners get angry at everyone else for not delighting in their dog.

The shared use path next to our local hospital is a nightmare because of the irresponsible dog owners who use it too.

IwantChocolates
On the whole I do agree, but on the other hand this paragraph:

I'm not a dog owner but recently I have been doing plenty of walks with my toddler and the number of dogs who come right up to us, sniffing round, with no attempt by the owners to recall them is ridiculous.

can also be rewritten the other way round.
I walk my dog, he ignores people is only interested in squirrels. But there are a shocking number of parents who let their small children run straight up to him. Their face at his teeth height. Now my dog will not do anything, he is a softy, but I know a lot of dogs will react to something running right into their face, and it is so dangerous.

Every time I make a point of calling my dog, then putting him behind me and saying to parent child. It is not a good idea to come up to a dog you don't know. You must ask your Mummy if it is OK, and she can ask ask me if the dog is friendly, or if he bites. It is only as I say it that it dawns on the parent this isn't a good idea.

There aren’t any dogs with 100% recall, just as there aren’t any humans who can be guaranteed never to have a road accident.. Bit draconian to suggest no dogs should ever be let off the lead. Did it actually harm you?

@makingmammaries

There aren’t any dogs with 100% recall, just as there aren’t any humans who can be guaranteed never to have a road accident.. Bit draconian to suggest no dogs should ever be let off the lead. Did it actually harm you?

It doesn't matter that OP wasn't harmed. What if she was asthmatic or allergic to dogs? What if she had a small child in the car? Most non dog-owners don't want potentially wet, mud and shedding dogs getting in their vehicles.

I agree no dog has 100% recall but there's a difference between a dog being a dog, and an owner being lazy and not taking the right precautions (such as using leads).

@Judashascomeintosomemoney

You can not train a dog to have perfect off lead recall without it being...off lead This is very true. That said, I always forgive an owner if they are really apologetic and appear to be genuinely trying to do something about it. The idiots who don’t give a toss however, get it with both barrels. Slightly related, I once almost went home from horse riding with two of the riding school’s spaniels. They’d jumped in the boot under the coats and protectors etc without me spotting them. Luckily I had a final check I’d picked everything up and put it in the boot before I left (they were adorable though so wouldn’t have minded). I also had a dog get in my driver’s seat - mine! I was taking him for a walk and just opened the car door to get some poo bags out and he must have thought we were going in the car (despite the fact he normally gets in the boot) he sat on the driver’s seat and out his front paws on the wheel, he looked at me as if to say ‘ok, now what?’, so funny.

I completely agree and don't think any right-minded person would ever disagree. A dog is the owner's responsibility. If my dog (who, ironically, is terrified of everyone and hides behind me) ever jumped up to someone then I'd apologise as profusely as if I'd jumped at them myself. But, to think you can't let a dog off a lead until they're 100% trained is living in an alternate universe. I even apologised to the woman who approached my dog and stroked her without my permission and then told me I shouldn't let people stroke her because of Covid...

@steppemum

IwantChocolates On the whole I do agree, but on the other hand this paragraph:

I'm not a dog owner but recently I have been doing plenty of walks with my toddler and the number of dogs who come right up to us, sniffing round, with no attempt by the owners to recall them is ridiculous.

can also be rewritten the other way round.
I walk my dog, he ignores people is only interested in squirrels. But there are a shocking number of parents who let their small children run straight up to him. Their face at his teeth height. Now my dog will not do anything, he is a softy, but I know a lot of dogs will react to something running right into their face, and it is so dangerous.

Every time I make a point of calling my dog, then putting him behind me and saying to parent child. It is not a good idea to come up to a dog you don't know. You must ask your Mummy if it is OK, and she can ask ask me if the dog is friendly, or if he bites. It is only as I say it that it dawns on the parent this isn't a good idea.

You are lucky it dawns on the parent! I have literally had to deal, more than once, with children running up and hitting my dog with sticks and other objects, whilst their parents looked on fondly! Apparently they are just playing and don't realise that hitting living things with sticks hurts. I have literally been reduced to pointing out that my dog doesn't know that biting living things hurts in less tolerant ways that I would like.

and I could also write it the other way round with cyclists.

I walk along a shared cycle/walkers path. It has loads of dog waklers on it, most dogs off leads. It is long and straght, so visibility is good.

Some cyclists see you and dog a little way ahead, and ring their bell. I call dog, he waits at my feet, cyclist goes past without having to slow down, even says thank you. That is repeated down the path with other walkers. Most of the dog walkers either have dog on lead and stand to one side, or their dog has recall and stand to one side.

But some cyclists come up behind you, so you can't hear them coming, and don't know they are there, and then slam on the breaks when you and dog are in the way. Just ring you bell. It is a legal requirement to have a bell on a bike. If you ring your bell, everyone moves out of the way. If you don't, then slow down and don't be surprised if a dog walks in front of you.

There are 10x as many dogs as bikes. It isn't rocket science, cycling past up to someone at speed, with or without a dog is not exactly a great idea, when they have their back to you and your bike is silent.

Someone mentioned picnics. Picnics do my head in. I walk my dog in the local park, we are there rain or shine most days of the week year round. If you come to what is essentially a “dog park” and set up a barbecue, cooking sausages, on the one glorious day of the year, don’t be surprised if a dog or two shows an interest. Don’t get all pissed off. Where are you in the rain and snow? I’ll get a roasting for this but hey ho.

It doesn't matter that OP wasn't harmed. What if she was asthmatic or allergic to dogs? What if she had a small child in the car? Most non dog-owners don't want potentially wet, mud and shedding dogs getting in their vehicles.

Whilst I totally agree with the sentiment - the facts say she owns a dog herself, so she's not allergic to dogs, and like most of us dog owners is used to wet and muddy dogs!

You can't train a dog to be good off-lead without letting them off lead. No dog can be guaranteed to have 100% recall. No owner can be guaranteed to have trained their dog perfectly. Also there is literally nothing you can do about this anyway, whatever rules, licences and fines you impose. People who are willing to pay hundreds of pounds for a dog aren't going to balk at paying for a licence. People know they are very unlikely to actually be caught out without a licence/proof of dog training course etc.

Badly-behaved dogs and owners are annoying, but short of banning pet dogs altogether, I don't really see any obvious solutions. Fortunately my dog isn't remotely interested in other people when off lead.

having said that, I totally agree on principle that the dog should be under control, and many owners are oblivious.

My dog does not jump up. I am not smug, he is a rescue and has never jumped up, trained out of that before we got him (many other things we had to do, but not jumping)
I gte so annoyed when out walking my dog in wet muddy fields and someone else's dog decides to jump up and COVERS me in mud.

I am not amused, especially if, instead of apologising they just chuckle at their 'lively' dog

If you come to what is essentially a “dog park” and set up a barbecue, cooking sausages, on the one glorious day of the year, don’t be surprised if a dog or two shows an interest.

That's totally unreasonable. It's a park, not a dog park, isn't it? It's your responsibility to keep your dog away from other people's food. Why on earth should anyone barbecue in the rain just because dog-owners need to walk their dogs in all weathers?

@Moondust001

It doesn't matter that OP wasn't harmed. What if she was asthmatic or allergic to dogs? What if she had a small child in the car? Most non dog-owners don't want potentially wet, mud and shedding dogs getting in their vehicles.

Whilst I totally agree with the sentiment - the facts say she owns a dog herself, so she's not allergic to dogs, and like most of us dog owners is used to wet and muddy dogs!

Yes, but again, that's not the point.

She may be a dog owner and lover, but her dog could be aggressive with other dogs. It could be old, or injured, or reactive. As an owner, you have a responsibility to keep your dog under control, and this dog clearly wasn't.

You dont train a dog to come back when you call it by just letting it off the lead in a park and calling it until it comes back. Jesus I did not expect people to actually think it's acceptable for dogs to go up to strangers and not come back when called. I was just having moan

You train a dog to recall by using extendable or longline leads and by practising in enclosed private spaces.

Let's say I didn't shout to get his dog three times and make sure he had it in his car before setting off. I could very easily have ran it over as could any of the other cars in the carpark. Or my dog could have bitten it for getting in our car.

It didn't hurt us but it did set her training back and now she'll be anxious at the park for at least a week. It crossed the boundary of her safe space, it will be a massive job to undo that damage.

Your dog should recall reliably under usual conditions, if people, food, dogs, balls are likely to prevent your dog returning to you when called it needs to be on a lead as it doesn't have recall.

My dog does not recall. We play ball, she explores the woods she plays with friends. Always on a lead or in a secure environment.

Also, I could very easily have stolen the dog, I could have been on the main road out of sight by the time he'd realised his dog had gone.

Controlling your dog is protecting your dog.

All the moaning about cat poo on another thread, I've had more issues with dogs (had both as pets).

Had 3 dogs turn up in my terraced house when I had the back door open (different times). Once a Newfoundland back me out of my front door and it shut leaving me outside and the dog inside!

In another house a dog ran in and jumped up my toddler daughter. Had one sit on my lap by Malian Spout. One jump up on my pregnant stomach very hard, stood in dog poo, been bitten etc etc

I do think dogs need to be under control.

@LST that explains my Lurcher part saluki, Bedlington and probably other bits. He's trained and responds best to my partner but it's 50/50 whether he'll recall to me. As such I will never let him off lead after numerous 2 hour walks because he refuses to return. He'll be as good as gold for weeks, then it's just pfft nope not coming back.

When he is off lead we keep an eye on the environment and lead straight back on if it changes.

@MakeAPeaCry

You cannot get 100% recall but you can get 99% and be ready to grovel and apologise totally if the 1% examples impact someone else.

From my POV that's all I expect from other owners.

This!

I’ve had dogs all my life until I lost mine 3+ years ago. It astounds me how utterly selfish a lot of dog owners can be. A large proportion around here at least have apparently never trained their dogs, have no control over them and don’t seem to care two hoots what they do or how noisy they are.

Dogs will be dogs and you cannot 100% guarantee how they’ll behave, but if you do not feel that you have control of your dog then don’t let it off the lead in a public place.

Quite honestly if that had happened to me OP, I’d have gone ballistic.

This again? Yes dogs should have good recall, no, not enough owners put the effort it. Yes, even the best trained dogs will occasionally forget their recall training if they become fixated. No, you're not unreasonable about a stranger's dog actually getting into your car.