Out of control dogs

[missmelons88]

The increasing amount of unruly dogs is caused by our humanisation and resulting lack of control of our pet dogs. I see people being dragged to the park all the time, they let the dog go and meet it at the other side.

They don't think their dog chased anything because they didn't see it, meanwhile it's running after ducks. The dog has good recall because it eventually came back.. etc etc.

Unruly = anything from no recall to an dog that bites their handler.

Discuss.

Chihuahuas and Dachshunds are aggressive because of all the silly people who want to lean over them and pat their tiny heads completely ignoring the poor dog giving off all the signals saying 'go away'.

Let’s not forget that most dogs are NOT out of control and have perfectly responsible owners. There are millions of dogs with great owners & a very small percentage that aren’t.

@c190 I suggest you get your triathlon loving child some therapy then because his/her fear of dogs is ruining a sport they enjoy.

Absolutely none of this is relevant to me because I walk my dog in very well known dog walking areas. If someone decides to trudge through the woods or a field on their bike or running and they aren't prepared for dogs to get in their way then do it somewhere else. Along a pavement for example...

The entitlement of this post.
More and more now people are expected to accommodate dogs in more and more places. Soon there will be no escape from them at all

If it’s not acceptable for a human to approach another human and jump all over them on the basis they are being friendly then why is it ok to let a dog do it (as you the owner are letting them if you haven’t trained them) . How am I supposed to know, as your dog runs towards me, that they are friendly (even worse if you have a child in a buggy) ? I like dogs but if I interact with one it should be my choice… not the dogs and not the dog owners . My mil got bitten when out with young child. Her leg never healed properly and she had to live with it for 10 years. The dog came bounding over tail wagging and bit her- she didn’t approach the dog. So yes I’m cautious around any animal that I don’t know.

Dogs wanting to interact with each other does not mean they are out of control, it means they are sentient, social creatures who enjoy each other’s company. I feel sorry for dogs that have never been allowed to learn how to interact with other dogs because they’ve been on a tight lead every moment of their lives attached to a nervous wreck of a person.

There are far better ways to socialise your dog than to let an untrained animal run free in a public place where it can harass humans and other animals. This is exactly why dog socialisation and training classes, private hire dog fields etc exist.

Dog "haters" need to accept that dogs are a part of life and will exist in shared spaces. Dog owners need to take responsibility for their animals and keep them under close control in shared spaces (which doesn't necessarily mean leashed, but certainly means away from other people and animals without their explicit consent) and never encroach on spaces which are human-only environments like children's play parks. It's really not that hard.

This. Ours is tiny - 5kg of Jack Russell. She’s a child magnet and it’s lovely to be able to say she’s gentle and friendly when they come for a stroke. I thought I’d lost her to a group of teenage girls the other day! She looks utterly baffled when people drag their dogs away from her.

I don't disagree, but many are also aggressive because their owners don't think bitey, snappy behaviour in small dogs is an issue. I mean - have a look at the other thread running about a tiny dog that bit a postman - it's full of comments about how small dogs aren't scary and any adult that's scared of a terrier is a wimp or pathetic.

I think some dog walkers are irresponsible. They have too many dogs and they let them off the lead.

Not only could they go off and injure someone (or another dog) but they could also get lost/run in front of a car (or in the context I saw someone with five off-lead dogs, go off the edge of a cliff path!)

How do you explain to an owner if you have managed to lose their dog?

Very good post from Captain, by the way.

Someone should do something about all the out of control anti-dog threads on here. Running about, ignoring posters, snarling when challenged…….it’s appalling.
I suggest a licence for OPs and compulsory training to show they aren’t a free-range Goader out to attack innocent dog owners.

@Blossomtoes

You don’t know why other people do that though do you? Maybe their dog is a rescue that still has issues. Maybe an older dog that feels more vulnerable so gets more agressive quickly. My dog has bad ligaments and a bad back in her old age - plus is a former stray who is wary but cautiously friendly of other dogs. Whoever she will start growling if a dog is too playful all over her as she feels threatened.

I love all dogs but there are a lot of reasons why off lead dogs in places where they are meant to be on lead is a bad idea or if you let them get to far away - putting the responsibility of looking out for them on other people.

For every Jack Russel or similar there is a big bouncy dog who may be friendly - but is way apart from it’s owner who have zero control over it - which may jump all over another dog and cause them to get agressive - then they may in turn bite back and injure it.

Think about it - if some older person is walking a smaller dog on lead and a bouncy Labrador or similar is wanting to play with their dog who doesn’t want it, that older person may be unable to seperate the dogs if they become agressive and a dog might get seriously hurt.

This is why you need to be able to control your dog when in public places. That might not mean having them on lead 100% of the time, but if there bigger and fast it probably does, because if they’re off lead you need to be able to catch them and not let them get away from you in case something happens (fight with another dog, attacking wildlife etc)

Youve got to try to see why a little empathy on this can really help people, rather than not make them want to take their own dogs out.

I have no idea why you think I have no empathy @Tamzo85 when all I said was that my dog looks baffled when other dogs are dragged away from her!

Around here I see a lot of men - it’s always men - with dogs on a lead held so short their front paws barely touch the ground, literally dragging them. My dog looks up at me with a wtf? look on her face.

Yet you don't cry about how everyone should put a speed restrictor on their car?!?

Why can't we compromise and have some dog free areas in public spaces and parks as well as some child free areas?
When my child was tiny I wanted to let him crawl around in the grassy areas in the park but I absolutely couldn't because there probably wasn't a patch of ground that hadn't been poo'd on by a dog at some recent point (yes yes yes I know you pick it up - but the dog poo has still BEEN THERE hasn't it).
It's a shame we can't compromise and have a few areas where dogs can run around, and a few areas where children can crawl/run around.
Any reason why we can't do this?

I genuinely have never witnessed it myself, I have 2 dogs of my own, however there have been a few incidents local to me that i know about.

Once with 3 large off lead dogs jumping up at my 3 yo nephew, the owner had no control and actually said to my mum who was with my nephew 'well what do you expect me to do,I can't control them'!

There have been a couple of worse incidents, all by off lead dogs, 3 x staffs, 1 Akita, plus a pack of huskies. All were attacks on dogs, varying severity from minor injuries to the pack of huskies killing a puppy in a dog park. None on humans.

I really don't think it happens often but is horrific when it does, I do find it very frustrating when owners have no controlbut most I have met generally do, all dogs have the odd lapse. we keep ours on leads unless in a large green space, newpup only on a long line till we have trained full recall. My eldest dog is very barky, he has quite bad anxiety, we work really hard with him on it but I'm sure people think we just let him bark. He's really well behaved in the park and off lead, it's mainly on lead or in places where people walk close to his face, eg a cafe.

Trouble is you don't actually know when a dog is really friendly and just a bit untrained or goofy or whether they could be dangerous. I think there are more reports of out of control dogs than actually really happen due to lack of understanding but there are some really shit owners out there who ruin it for the majority.

yes yes yes I know you pick it up - but the dog poo has still BEEN THERE hasn't it

Oh come on, are you serious? Yes, it’s BEEN THERE but any trace will have been washed away in the first rainfall. We walk through a lovely recreation ground for our walk across a meadow, it’s literally the only way to get there. Should I carry a squirming dog? Or perhaps she could levitate?

Rubbish. It hasn't rained for weeks here. Can you actually not compromise at all?
Can you not just avoid letting your dog shit where children might play or people have picnics? Really?

Odd. It rained here last night. And yesterday. If you can find a way of stopping a dog from shitting, you stand to make an absolute fortune. Give it a go, we’ll all be eternally grateful if you succeed.

As suspected. Uncompromising dog owner TW&T

Please tell me how to stop a dog shitting and I’ll do it.

Your dog doesn't shit on the floor in your house does it?

There you go.

No. Because she asks to go outside on the grass. What’s she supposed to do when she’s already outside?

It's really quite simple. If you dog hasn't had a shit for a while and you think she's likely to need to go - don't walk her where children play and people have picnics on the grass.

@letscompromise, presumably you missed the part where I told you that the only way to get to our main walk is across an area like that? I pick it up, that’s good enough for any normal person.

Newsflash: birds, foxes, voles, mice, rats etc all piss and shit on grass. Some people do too, the dirty fuckers. If you want a perfectly clean patch of grass for babies to crawl on you will need to buy a square of astroturf and bleach it every morning.