'Don't worry, he's friendly'

[PraiseBee]

Too flippin friendly. Yet again, another dog running up to my four year old DC with a chunk of a branch in its mouth, firmly ignoring it's owners recall whilst they yell at me 'don't worry, Fluffyballs is friendly'. My DC loves dogs but hates dogs rushing up to him and is obviously scared. Large dogs are the same height as him and can easily knock him over. Imagine as an adult being rushed up to by a horse with a bit of tree trunk in its mouth trying to lick your face. I think most adults would be perturbed by this. It seems to be happening more often. Are dogs getting less well trained? I think the thing that makes my blood boil over is that the dog owners seem to think their dog is the most amazing thing ever so of course me and my DC want to bowled over by Fluffyballs. No we really don't and no, I give a shit what your dog is called. AIBU to be so annoyed by this happening every time we go to a children's park?!

I don’t care how friendly a dog is, I don’t want it’s muddy paws all over my coat / trousers / tights / legs, I don’t want it’s saliva drooled on my shoes or licked onto my hands.

I am sick to death of this. I run and I can’t tell you how many times a ‘friendly dog’ has bounded up to me, jumped at me and sometimes followed me for a couple of hundred metres.
I’ve had owners shouting at me to stop so they can get their dog back!
Running is MY time and too often spoilt, by out of control dogs.

@Darbs76

Also this isn’t just down to the pandemic, this has been going on for years. I’ve been told I shouldn’t walk in our local park if I don’t want dogs running up to mine when he’s on lead (he does go off lead too but when other dogs aren’t around). Also been told ‘how can I teach recall if I can’t let him off lead’. They have no clue.

Yep, we used to have a rescue dog. He was not good with other dogs so had to be kept on lead, we were working on at least getting him to not freak out if he saw another dog in the distance. But it was so difficult because other people would let their dogs run up to him, always while shouting "Don't worry, they're friendly!".

Yanbu!!

'he just wants to play!' yes, well my terrified 6yo doesn't, so tell it to f*ck off!!

I hate this as well, for some reason some people think shutting their dog within the fence of the local playpark whilst they sit down and relax is a good idea here (plenty of green space literally just outside the fence). Constant keeping an eye out for other children, dogs, and making sure he doesn't fall off anything etc is exhausting. A dog the other day ran up the slide just as DS got to the top, the owner laughed and said oh isn't that funny he just wants to play, no its not, fuck off.

Dog owner and walker here - I hate that a large minority of irresponsible owners give us all a bad name.

It also annoys me when owners say "my dog has great recall so it won't bother you" - if your dog has such excellent recall then putting it on a lead won't be a problem will it?

We have dogs, and hate the selfish buggers without their dogs on leads.

They come up to our dogs, who get upset, then he’ll starts.

I hate them.

One of mine came out of his collar trying to protect our other dog, when a stupid elderly couple took their 50 year old sons dog for a walk, with no lead at all, because he told them it didn’t need one, idiot man

And don’t get me started on dog poop. They all bitterly complain about it, but with their loose dogs, it’s most probably them.

Definitely not ok to think it's ok, but hands up I am partly guilty of doing this.

DFs dog is fine if you tell him to heel early doors, but occasionally runs and once he does that you've lost him.

I will say "he's friendly" because I don't want people to worry BUT I chase after him, put him on a lead and make clear it's not acceptable.

But I get it's annoying because I have it in reverse with my own dog. Kids want to pat the "friendly" labrador (breed perception) or letting their dog charge up and she's an anti-social wee shite. Not aggressive in the slightest but doesn't want contact and is stressed by it.

Dog owners are worse because they see other dogs as fair game and even when you ASK them to recall they shout "he's friendly".

I love dogs and have 2 of my own but I would never let my dogs run up to anyone just because I love my dogs doesn’t mean strangers do. If people are going to have their dogs in a children’s park then make sure they are on a lead they don’t know if someone is frightened of dogs or has an allergy. I had a neighbour that had 2 dogs and every time she came out her dogs where not on a lead she thought it was funny that I would get jumped all over and covered in mud I didn’t find it funny at all her dogs stopped people from being able to enjoy the shared garden because peoples kids where frightened of the dogs but woe betide anyone who dared to complain about the dogs.

Shout back "We'll I'm not so you had better get your fucking dog under control!"

I love dogs but I absolutely cannot stand them running up to me. I don't want dog hairs, slobber or mud on me.

My townie neighbours (in a farm cottage attached to our rented farm) had their dog running loose all the time so every time I went out my house to my car it would jump up and cover me in mud. I got sick of going to work muddy, trying to scrub it off when I got in the car. It didn't matter how many times I told them. One day I was heading to a young friends funeral and it got me again. Already upset and stressed I told the neighbour that if he didn't keep his "friendly" dog indoors or on a lead ON OUR FARM I'd kick the fucking thing in to the next fucking village. And if that didn't work, it's getting shot for for being loose on a farm!

@WildfirePonie

Shout at the dog and push it away next time.

It will associate running to strangers = bad experience.

Everyone benefits.

Bad idea. For many reasons.

Better to stand still and be as uninteresting as possible.

I got scratched by a 'friendly' dog recently when I was out running. It was massive and jumped up at me. If the owner had walked up to me and scratched me I would have been calling the police to report an assault. Why is it OK when his dog does it?

YANBU. We've had this so many times. DD is now 3, loved dogs when she was in the buggy, that was ruined almost as soon as she was big enough to get out and walk a bit. Who on earth lets their dog run up to a wobbly toddler?!

I have two dogs. They are permanently on lead when in public because they love people and my youngest is a total knob head and will expect everyone to pet him. We are working with a trainer but he's hard going.

Anyway, yes. I also hate people who let their dogs charge at you shouting they're friendly. Especially when I've got my DSS with me (8) or my dogs with me because neither like strange dogs in their face.

Also like a pp I run, and I run with my dogs but the amount of times I've had to stop (on every run) due to some moron with an out of control dog, well, I've lost count.

I have two dogs. One very friendly thinks everyone is his best friend, likes to jump up and kiss you on the nose. He is selectively deaf. My other one is friendly but cautious and has excellent recall.
So first dog is always on a leash unless we are alone. Second is usually off her leash. As it should be. I hate the 'he's friendly', because they don't know if my dog is, and I may just have him on the leash because he's aggressive.

I met a young cocker spaniel when I was running in the woods last week.
She was a puppy, so not fully trained. But if you've met a CS you know how high they can jump. I had scratches all down my arm, including one bleeding.

My arm height= child face height. There was no maliciousness from the puppy but they could have hurt a child if they had jumped at them in a similar way.

Puppies need to learn... but I'm not sure public woods is the best place to be off lead. Not to mention the woods also have wild rabbits, squirrels, birds etc.

It's annoying. Just like parents should train their children not to bother strange dogs, dog owners need to keep their dogs away from other people and dogs. Besides, they're all friendly until they bite. My DC has been accidentally nipped by an overfriendly young dog before. No malice on the dog's part (it was just playing) but it left my small DC in floods of tears.

Yanbu at all.
Dog owner here.
Never walked off lead for this reason, adults she can give or take but children absolutely loves children and loses her mind with excitement.
Cannot stand irresponsible useless dog owners .

This makes me so angry.

DD (4) used to love dogs, but so many have charged up to her, out of control, and jumped up, knocked her over or licked all over her face that she's now terrified. We have a friend with a lovely and well trained dog, that we encourage DD to see and stroke while it completely ignores her, which dies help. But inevitably we run into a 'don't worry, he's friendly!' twat and all the work is undone.

Why can people not understand that their dog, running open mouthed at my child, at head height is not OK. I've had 'he's friendly' shouted while they bark and growl at us - they've clearly no idea about their own dog and DD could be killed or permanently disfigured before I can do anything if I accept the 'he's friendly' as being true.

We even had, on a dog free beach, an off lead dog run up and piss on her a couple of years ago. No owner in sight.

A few weeks ago a massive Dalmatian came rushing over to me (on a lead, but not a short one!) trying to jump up at me. The owner said "oh she's friendly!!" I looked her dead in the eye and said "ok, but I'm not." She soon left 😂

Yanbu. I had this happen recently at a beach. Me and DD standing at waters edge throwing stones (DD is 19mo, can barely ,throw’, more like plop) and were the only ones around except for some people at the other end of bay. A dog came running over. We moved away from it as I didn’t want it to get scared by the stones. It kept following us then went in the water right directly in front of us, I think it thought we playing fetch with stones. I stopped the stones and put arms around DD and it started to swim away. DD then threw stone she still had in hand, like barely into the water and not close to the dog but the dog started growling and barking at us and DD got scared. So I scooped her up and started walked away. The owners who had made no attempt to call it back when it came in close range of us were apologising and saying how friendly she was. 🤨 I smiled and said it’s ok but still kept walking. One of their group was glaring at me and tutted as I walked away like I was being dramatic or something. But their dog ran directly in front of us despite us clearly trying to avoid it then acted aggressively to my DD. Yes it’s a beach and yes, the stones ‘plopping’ may scare the dog but we moved and no attempt was made to call it back when it first approached us. If it can’t handle being around a small children on a beach it really shouldn’t be there.

This drives me nuts!

I've had:

• "don't worry, he doesn't bite" while the dog had his teeth embedded firmly in my leg! Me:" he's biting me now, get him off!" Owner:"no, he's fine, he doesn't bite"
• "He doesn't like bicycles" whilst cycling along the busy A4 and bloody woman and her off-lead doberman walking along the pavement and her dog chasing me and snapping at my leg as well as snarling and barking. Presumably it's not unusal to encounter bicycles on a main road?

I am a big time dog person and this infuriates me to no end. My little girl isn't even 2 yet, and she loves dogs too, just not running at her at top speed.

I had this exact scenario on the village green the other day. When the owner said 'don't worry, he's friendly!' (as they always seem to) I tried to explain that a large dog bounding up to a small child is going to be intimidating, even if he's the friendliest dog in the world. I was told that in this country we coddle our children and restrict dogs too much as she flounced away. Maybe she'll learn her lesson when he runs up to a reactive dog on a lead and gets in an altercation (not that I would wish that on the dog).

Agree agree agree OP!

All dogs should be on leads in public IMO. Unless they’re so well trained they walk to heel and don’t approach people or other dogs.

I have a big dog he’s on a harness all the time in public. He loves people and attention but I’m aware many people dislike or fear dogs. I’d never let him get close enough to lick a stranger. Short lead. If people come and ask to pet him I let them. I don’t force him on them.

So rude to let your dog run at people! Especially near children or people who might be unsteady on their feet!

Gives all dog owners a bad name 😬

"Oh don't worry hes friendly ". "Yeah but we're not! Get the fuck away from my baby" 😂