To have picked my puppy up?

[MonkeyLeg]

I have a four month old puppy. My last dog was extremely reactive and I’m determined not to allow this one to go the same way.

Anyway I was walking him around park yesterday as I have done since he was allowed to go out. I’m socialising him walking him past gangs of geese, other dogs, screeching kids, lamas, donkeys etc etc

Well we were walking around the lake in a quieter part of the park and up ahead I saw two young blokes with 3 dogs off lead. The biggest one was trying to get into the lake to go after the birds and the bloke kept dragging it out. As we got closer I realised the dogs were pitbull/xl bully whatever you want to call them. About twice the size of a staffy, built like brick shithouses. I’ll try and attach a photo of a dog that looks identical to the ones in park.

I picked my puppy up and turned in the opposite direction. The bloke shouted at me “My dogs aren’t vicious you daft cow”. So clearly owner was a dickhead also.

was I wrong to do this?? I’ve happily walked him past Dobermanns, German shepherds, Rottweilers etc but I draw the line at these dogs which imo should be illegal.

Image is off google but appears to be the same type of dog.

I’ve had similar situations with my (toy) breed. Toy in size if not in personality! In the past I’ve just shouted back ‘don’t worry, it’s my dog not yours, they look very handsome but he’s only a puppy and still quite reactive, have a lovely day!!’
followed by a huge beaming smile.

Usually the smile perplexes them and I carry on my day, not giving the tiniest fig what they say to me.

I often find that in the face of rudeness, overwhelming friendliness and big smiles quite confuddles people. And makes me feel better too.

I'd have walked away too. I'm not sure whether picking the dog up was necessary or helpful but I understand the instinct. I've done it with mine when she's been overwhelmed by over-enthusiastic big dogs. It's all very well saying let the pup off lead to run away but a small pup will not be able to out-run a big dog like that and if they catch it they could kill it or leave it terribly injured. Even if it did get away it would end up lost. When my small dog had an off-lead encounter where she was chased she ended up hurling herself into open water to get away! She had never swum before.

In situations like this I tend to just shout 'fuck off'.

This ^

Maybe you could have replied: “Your dog might not be vicious, but how do you know mine isn’t?”

Well I have a GSD, and a woman regularly picks up her small terrier when she sees me with my dog, which peaks my dogs interest, but I just carry on. I wouldn't dream of shouting at someone who felt the need to do this. Perhaps they've had a bad experience with large breeds, or their small dog is nervous.

He was out of order, you made a call n behalf of your pup. Well done!

I had a similar experience when my DDog was a puppy. She was approached by two young dogs, very similar to the one in your picture. The owner shouted over that they just wanted to play, but their "play" was very rough and my pup was clearly scared. I picked her up because I was afraid she would be injured and the owner was bellowing ineffectually but didnt seem to have much control over them. I was scared because they were jumping right up at me, trying to get at mympup.

There seem to be so many irresponsible owners of these sorts of dogs. I do think that dog ownership needs to be more tightly controlled.

I don't think you need to explain yourself where your own dog is concerned. I'd have done the same, too.

I would have done the same. Many dogs don’t like puppies and can snap.

The dogs are probably perfectly soppy, but the fact remains that you can pick up your dog for whatever reason you like and it’s none of his business.

(I had a woman say something similar to me as a teenager when I picked up our schnauzer when an Akita came bowling up to us off the lead. I had to explain that I was, in fact, trying to avoid our very protective schnauzer having a go at her dog, not the other way round.)

Also, if you’ve got a smaller dog, or a puppy, or and elderly dog, it’s not even about whether you think a big dog will be vicious - my sister’s dog is a huge lurcher but she’s very old and skinny, can’t see super well, and has arthritis, so she just can’t play with strong, boisterous dogs any more. A totally out of control labradoodle ran up to her out of nowhere when I was with her a while ago and she yelped when he bumped into her because it hurt her.

You can do whatever you like with your own dog, none of his business. He’s obviously a massive pr* if he’s shouting at you and calling you names.

I’ve picked my grown dog up when other dogs have come running in an aggressive way. Most owners have apologised, one laughed as I was kicking his dog away as it was attacking me and trying to bite my dog. I will absolutely kick any dog in the face if it’s running at me with teeth barred trying to bite. Apparently, it was his parents’ and fine off lead, should be muzzled if they behave like that. Never apologise for your actions. It’s difficult to respond to these t*s when they and their dogs are aggressive, much better to just turn and walk the other way. You did the right thing.

My dog was savaged by a pitbull and nearly died (he is a puppy lab). The pitbull attacked without warning and pinned my dog to the ground and tore into him. Owner of pitbull didn’t give a crap and walked on. I would always either call my dog back / put on lead / pick them up if I ever see another pitbull again.

I don't care what people think of my judgements but I always assume owners of XL bullies are morons and I turn the other way as soon as I see one. My experience has supported my judgement of owners of these types of dogs so i will stick with it. You did the right thing.

Be careful picking up dogs, if there was an attack you both could have been hurt.
People are just weird. I have reactive rescues and fosters so I will always turn and walk the other way. I still get muppets who yell after me that their dog is soo friendly, like that would matter to mine.
I was talking about this to a friend who has the same problem, our theory is the ones who get mad are usually blokes, angry that they've missed the chance to hit on us 🤢

Sounds like the dogs owner was very reactive. So who knows about his dogs?🤷‍♀️

I'd have done the same.

And tbh it's none of his business of course.

There's a couple near me and they both seem really placid, but I've only seen them on-lead in town, not when they're free running.

The ear cropping is disgusting though and illegal in most of Europe. I wonder how many prosecutions there have been for cropping ears? Not many, I bet.

Nothing wrong with turning round and walking away but you are not helping your dog by picking him / her up as that just indicates to the dog that there is something to be worried about . Most of the toy dogs that have ‘issues’ have them because they’ve been picked up and treated like toys rather than dogs . If you had a 16week old St. Bernard you wouldn’t pick it up so why pick up a toy breed , they are all dogs .

Awe, that's a bit sad. Ime, GSDs are usually remarkably gentle unless they're guarding. I grew up with one.

When one of my lakeland terriers was a puppy, a big GSD was among her favourite dogs to play with. They used to have a game where they'd run full tilt at each other, then swerve at the last minute. He probably could have swallowed her in one mouthful, but he never put a paw wrong, he was such a softy.

Because toy breeds are tiny and can't defend themselves against dogs that are 3+ times their size? Fair enough if the other dog is just walking by minding their own business but if they are showing signs of aggression then surely its not unreasonable for the owner to lift them out of harms way?

Disagree with all those saying turn your back but don’t pick up the dog. A bull breed snuck up behind us and got my dog by the neck. I roared at the dog and went to kick it and picked mine up above my head. I walked along with it circling us until someone came running and told me not to worry, she doesn’t bite. So no, I wouldn’t take my chances turning my back on 3 powerful off-lead dogs. I’d rather fight than have my dog torn to pieces.

My dog is a fluffy white thing that everyone coos over but he very reactive and is scared of everything.
if I see dogs like that I do judge but not that they are aggressive but just that my dog will piss them off and if they wanted to tell him off he might not come out of it unhurt.
the dogs are very strong and do look intimidating.

my dog is reactive because a woman with a ‘harmless’ German Shepherd let her dog run up to him as a puppy on lead- the German shepherd barked growled then lunged at my puppy I tried to stay calm (didn’t pick up - my mum made this mistake and had a dog rip through her finger when she tried to protect our dog)
the dog then bit the back leg of my puppy - the German shepherd owner told me off for having my dog on a lead because hers is reActive to dogs on lead I shouted at her that her dog should be muzzled and on a lead of that is the case.
my dog has been reactive since and 2 behaviourists and lots of socialising attempts hasn’t resolved it.

i think you did the right thing

Absolutely this.

Nothing wrong with picking the dog up if it is in or imminently going to be in a fight with a bigger dog but the OP picked this dog up before she even got to the point of seeing if her dog was in any danger . She picked it up because it was a man with 3 large dogs , for all she knows she could have walked in by and the dogs would have carried on doing what they were doing .

From what you've said op, I think you did the right thing in those circumstances. The owner clearly has no control over his dog if he kept having to drag it back from the pond.
There are plenty of other dogs that your dog can get socialised with on future walks.
I have giant breed dogs who are as soft as shit, however other dog walkers don't know that and I understand they're wary on seeing them, even though they're well behaved and controlled.
Many years ago I had a cavalier king Charles who, despite being on the lead, was savaged by an Alsatian who was with its owner, but off lead. According to the owner, it was ' only playing '. That ' only playing ' left my dog needing to be put to sleep due to the injuries it sustained from that dog.