Puppy jumping on exercising man

[disculpe]

Perfectly happy to be told I'm being U but I don't think I am. Took my 10 month old puppy (German shepherd) out for a walk this morning with my DS. As most puppies that age are, she is naturally cheeky and pushes the boundaries at times. She is pretty much always walked on a leash because most of the time it's too busy and if she sees another dog she will go mad and try to play as well as jump up on them, so we are careful to make sure she's not able to play with dogs who don't want to play, and so she doesn't knock children over in her excitement.
There is a field near us where we often take the dog on Sat and Sun mornings. It's always quiet on weekend mornings, not many dogs there, and we have been letting her off the lead to play ball there and teach her to come back to us without having to worry about other people or dogs. Was all going well this morning - she was fetching the ball nicely and when people walked past us along the path she completely ignored them and carried on being well behaved. Then a man on a bike stopped about 15 feet from us. He could clearly see us as he kept looking over. Then he started exercising, even though this field is huge and he could have exercised literally anywhere else, a lot further away from a woman, young child and unpredictable puppy. My dog ignored him, carried on playing fetch so I didn't put her on her leash because she was behaving. After about 10 minutes this man started doing push ups and something about that movement excited my dog and she ran over to him, putting her face in his and running around him trying to play. I'm not defending her behavior, I would never want her doing that to anyone and completely understand that German shepherds are big and can look intimidating, and not everyone wants a dog in their face. He started screaming and shouting at me about how I should control my dog, I managed to get her back on her leash and then shouted back at him that of all the places he chose to exercise was within a few feet of me when there was a huge area with no dogs in it that he could have chosen instead. Got my dog back on the lead and walked home with my son. When I got home I realized just how intimidating his behavior was - what sort of person chooses to encroach on someone's space like that? Especially a strange man getting uncomfortably close to a lone woman and child. I know I could have put my dog on her leash and found another spot to play ball as soon as he turned up but the stubborn bitch in me was like "I was here first" and I assumed that as he'd chosen to be there he wasn't too concerned about my dog. I messaged my husband (he's working away) the second I got back and he said no decent man would get that close to an unknown woman in a field when there was ample space elsewhere because decent men don't want to make women feel uncomfortable. So, AIBU for getting angry with him and for not putting my dog on a leash the second he pitched up next to us or was he BU?

@Spanielsarepainless

All my dogs think anyone on the floor is down there to play. He was a total moron, getting so close to you when you were training your dog, especially in the current climate. Well done on working on your dog's recall. Life on a lead, which many young dogs seem to endure, is no life.

How is he a "total moron" for not understanding dog behaviour? He may never have had any interest in dogs in his life. Not everyone does.

You could equally argue that OP was daft allowing her dog off the lead so close to a situation that was obviously going to excite the dog.

She could easily have put the dog on the lead and taken it somewhere quieter when the guy came over. The dog was the one causing the potential nuisance, so the dog is the one that needs to move, even if they were there first. OP admitted she was just being stubborn.

They both had equal rights to use the space but the dog was the source of the problem, so the dog has to go elsewhere.

The man doesn't have a responsibility for predicting the dog's behaviour.

YABU

Why can’t he exercise where he wants? You had no entitlement to the space.

If you are going to have a dog you need to read about your legal responsibilities: www.rspca.org.uk/getinvolved/campaign/bsl/dda
If you don’t control your dog at all times you could be charged

I agree that it is the dog walkers responsible to keep charge of their dog and move to another part of the public space if necessary.

However, you can’t tell a lone woman how to feel about a man approaching her as having children and having a dog isn’t necessarily a deterrent. I am thinking of the murder of Lin Russell and her daughter while walking their dog.

You don’t let dogs with zero recall off a leash around others it’s basic dog ownership 101.

A German shepherd ran up to someone while they were on the ground of course he got a fright. He shouldn’t have shouted but I don’t think most people react nicely when scared.

It’s also really crass you’ve mentioned several times about “current climate” and “women being murdered” to try and score sympathy points. You admit you weren’t intimidated in the slightest and mouthed off at him.

10 women a day are majority partner/acquaintance murders. Not guy trying to exercise in park. Do you bring up that statistic to your husband every time you argue.

YABU for not posting a photo - she sounds gorgeous.

We have a Labrador. It’s marked how differently a certain type of person (man) will behave around us depending on whether I’m walking him alone or with my dh…

@HyacynthBucket

It almost sounds OP as if he deliberately chose a spot near you and your dog. Perhaps he does not like dogs and wanted to pick a fight about it being off the lead, so he more or less provoked the dog into misbehaving. Or maybe he does not like women and picked a fight with you because of that - I imagine he would not have done so if you had a DH with you. He sounds like an antisocial weirdo. At best he was inconsiderate and insensitive to how you might feel with a man choosing to stay so close to where you were in an otherwise empty field.

Jesus. He was probably just exercising.

YABU

But then again I was injured once by an "unpredictable" dog who was just being "playful" and knocked me over

YABU your dog, your responsibility. If him exercising so close to you was a problem you shuuld have told him so.

Yanbu he sounds like a bit of a twat, as you say he could have chosen lots of other spots.
Don’t let it put you off training your dog off lead x

@HyacynthBucket

It almost sounds OP as if he deliberately chose a spot near you and your dog. Perhaps he does not like dogs and wanted to pick a fight about it being off the lead, so he more or less provoked the dog into misbehaving. Or maybe he does not like women and picked a fight with you because of that - I imagine he would not have done so if you had a DH with you. He sounds like an antisocial weirdo. At best he was inconsiderate and insensitive to how you might feel with a man choosing to stay so close to where you were in an otherwise empty field.

Fuck me, that's quite some imagination you have there!

Let's also remember the OP was playing fetch with her dog and people who do that, tend not to root themselves to the spot, so he could well have thought she was moving around the park anyway.

OMG its sound gorgeous..

can we see your Fur Baby ..

misses point of thread 👀

Yabu. I'd rather have an angry man a few feet away than a dog on my face. Unfortunately casual attitudes like yours towards dogs and other people give dog owners a bad name.

she didnt actually jump on him, she behaved in a totally natural manner

Sorry I disagree with a lot of PP and you, OP. YABU

During lockdown I worked out 3 times a week outside, in all winds and weathers because my gym was closed. Several times I was doing a combination of running a distance then dropping to do press ups or burpees. All around a public park. And every fucking single time, some wanker dog owner allowed their off-lead dog to run up to me barking.

I’ve been a dog-owner myself. Dog always on a lead. How many times do dog owners need to be told, if you can’t control your dog, keep it on a lead.

I don’t care how sweet or cheeky or whatever your puppy is. If I’m on the ground doing press ups or whatever, I don’t want it near me out of control.

A 10 month old German shepherd is a full size dog, it's not a dachshund.
You should be well aware that people are scared of them. He sounds like a knob but you should know better.

It’s interesting… I walk and exercise my dog in a big field (divided by paths into big quarters of open grassland) which is used by dog walkers, runners etc etc. When my dog was young I did much the same as the OP… long line and go the middle of one these huge quarters and do some training on and off line… and the number of mornings I would be doing this with no one around me and people used to decide that coming right into the centre of the same grass quarter (when others were empty) within 20 feet or so of me and deciding that that was where their exercise would be done was quite surprising. So I used to pick everything up put the dog on the line and move to another large empty quarter… and the comments would follow as I moved away …it’s a public space we can all share…. My comment back was we don’t need to share this particular small space there’s loads more empty space…. I just found it interesting that people seemed not to want to be alone in this massive area which gave you an element of privacy and solitude to either exercise or in my case train an obviously excitable puppy!

'He started screaming' - you lost me at the point OP. All I could imagine was Bonnie Langford

YABU. Also a 10 month old puppy does not look like a puppy so how is he supposed to know that it potentially isn’t fully trained? I’d be screaming too if a massive dog came and stuck it’s face in mine.

I think it’s very strange that a man who obviously didn’t want to be bothered by a dog would start exercising so close to one in an otherwise empty large field. Sounds like you had pretty good control over your puppy up until this point, even the best trained dogs are never 100% reliable.

YABU, you need to be able to recall your dog or it should be on a lead.

I know it’s hard when they’re are a puppy and we think they are sooo cute. But it’s very stressful for some people to be accosted by a dog. It took me a long time to learn this with my pups but I’m much more cautious now.

I know now that people exercising on the ground are completely irresistible to my dogs and I need to give them a good distance.

Even if someone comes near to you, it’s your job to be able to control your dogs. Your puppy is learning recall - until you’ve nailed it you need to give people lots of space or put her on a lead.

I would not have liked being jumped on by your dog. You may see him as a harmless puppy, I am seeing an animal which might be dangerous and aggressive. No need for anyone to scream or rant, but if your dog is not trained fully, he should be on a lead.

Your “cheeky “ would be my “out of control”
And your dog was out of control.

It’s also really crass you’ve mentioned several times about “current climate” and “women being murdered” to try and score sympathy points. You admit you weren’t intimidated in the slightest and mouthed off at him.

I agree - I also think it's in really poor taste