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.

Tbh I would have picked up my puppy regardless of the breed if a dog is off the lead.

Agreed. My family member’s very small dog was killed recently on a walk by 2 much larger dogs who were off lead. Their owners were aggressive idiots, no surprise there.
I would definitely be picking a puppy up in your situation OP.

I'd have shouted back "I wasn't wary of the dogs, I was wary of you & you've just proven me right, aggressive misogynist".

A dog trainer told me that picking a dog up will teach it there is something to be afraid of, & they’ll never learn how to socialise, & likely to be the one snapping at other dogs when they aren’t picked up.

Similar reason he told me not to tighten/shorten the lead when I was trying to stop my dog from being reactive/nervous. It did eventually (mostly) work with my dog.when I relaxed, so did she.

in my limited (6 year dog owner) experience, most dogs are fine off lead, but I of course appreciate it only takes one for it to go horribly wrong.

If it's a one off or every now and again I'd still do it. It's all very well a trainer giving this advice while your puppy's socialising and just running the field with other dogs. It's a completely different kettle of fish when confronted by two unruly powerful dogs unleashed and a dickhead owner.
A dog is a family member and a puppy is just a baby.

@WestIsWest that's horrendous I'm sorry for your loss.

YANBU this bloke is a dick and I bet my bottom dollar he wouldn’t have insulted a big burly 6’5” bloke. Some men are cowardice bullies and they seem to be the type to attract these dogs as henchmen

If you buy a breed that is known for killing children and adults you’re a bit dim and over sensitive if you’re offended when people don’t want to be around your dog.

"He was wrong to shout at you but you were overreacting."

Three off lead dogs that weren't obeying their owner - irrespective of breed you weren't overreacting. When you have had a dog (staffy) attacked by an offlead dog (wolfhound) that you had haul off your dog, you become pretty intolerant of random dogs running up to you.

My current dogs would not survive what happened to my staffy - they're a cocker and a westie. They are walked on a leash. It's the law where I live but the "specials" think it doesn't apply to them. I don't want your offlead mongrel anywhere near them. If mine are offlead it's in the designated off leash areas that we can choose to attend.

absolutley not unreasonable and I wouldn’t give a second thought to how he reacted (which says a lot anyway)

i don’t like those dogs and that’s my choice, there’s no hate crime in hating a type of dog who can rip someone’s head off in seconds. I have spaniels and some people find them too much. That’s fine, they are also fine to pick up their puppy and leave and I wouldn’t bat an eyelid

Yes, I see your point. It's hard sometimes having a toy breed because you just don't know how the other dog is going to react.

My dog got mauled and I will always blame myself for trusting the bully that nearly killed her. I wish to fuck I had have just picked her up that night.

I don't blame people for lifting their small dogs away to be honest. It's really terrifying.

I would have, and I teach my puppy clients to teach their puppies to be picked up on cue (so they're prepared for it and aren't just snatched off the ground suddenly which can really frighten some dogs).

It doesn't matter if they're offended, if their dogs are softies who love puppies, if their DOGS are offended..

If you'd decided the other way and been wrong, your puppy could be seriously injured or dead.

For me, it wouldn't be just the breed of dog, its the context as well - off lead, potentially not under great control, more than one - all those things increase the risk.

His words proved your assessment of him correct.

Not unreasonable at all. A GSD was recently killed, and his owner hurt, by one of these dogs, at the very least it should be illegal to have them off lead. I wonder how many times people who's dogs have been attacked have heard "It's fine, she/he's not vicious!" first.

Bullies aren't actually an inherently aggressive breed. The whole idea behind them was to create a non aggressive bully breed which would be a good companion pet.

The issues are their great degree of strength and the fact that a lot of the owners are chav knobheads who don't train them properly.

Nope not a chance on earth would I walk near those awful dogs. I’ve got a 6 year old Spaniel and I avoid those dogs like the plague: I’ve picked my boy up before when a dog tried attacking him. A poor puppy would stand no chance.

I love Big breed dogs but these scare me.

There was one off lead on field a few days ago and I kept my dogs longline short and went the opposite way because of it. I don't think I would have done that for any other breed. It looked like it was on steroids.

We have a tiny toy poodle and 99% of the time I would say don't pick him up - but in this situation I would have done exactly the same as you. It just isn't worth the risk to your puppy's life.

Our local (doggie) day care has had to tell one of the staff she can't bring her Bully XLs with her anymore (she has resigned) because they are extremely unpredictable and a real risk to the other dogs, and this is in the hands of someone who is very experienced working with dogs.

The way he spoke to you is not ok and ultimately you feel how you feel. I am a staffy owner and have felt really offended when people pick their dogs up and walk the opposite way - I find it happens a lot and makes me sad. I usually always say 'she is friendly and won't even approach you' to give reassurance or I put her on a lead.

In this case though, I think him being abusive showed you he was a dickhead and has no respect for others

Better safe than sorry. I hauled mine away from a stereotypical looking pitbull that the owner was walking towards me, couldn’t give a crap about his reaction, the thing looked like a pitbull on steroids, cropped ears to boot. I too had an extremely reactive dog, it was frankly very limiting and I am enjoying letting mine sprint round the woods without fear currently.

Really? Have we got so sensitive that picking up your dog In a public park can now offend people?

picking up a puppy doesn’t hurt another dogs feelings. Clearly the owner was not the sensitive type or he wouldn’t be yelling sexists insults.

we are all free to pick up our own children, dogs and anything else!!!! It’s never bad manners or wrong.

I think your reaction would have come across as very judgemental and I’m not surprised it got his back up (he probably gets it all the time)

but you must please yourself, especially if you genuinely felt unsafe

I did once get told by a woman walking two American Bullys that her dogs were friendly because she seemed offended I'd put my little lhasa apso back on her lead. I explained that I put her on the lead because her dogs were on the lead and it had nothing to do with the size of her dogs just that I thought that was expected when walking a dog off lead and I'd have done the same had she been walking chihuahuas.

I actually don’t trust people who have these dangerous dogs and claim they’re friendly - I think there must be a huge level of delusion there

why should this breed be banned because off the way they look?? imagine if ugly people were "banned" because of the way they look!!! this website would be pretty much empty wouldn't it!!!
I get they look a bit intimidating but honestly it'd really really unfair to tar them all with the same brush. and I bet most of you have never met an XL bully. they aren't naturally aggressive dogs and love socialising with other dogs and people. I own one and it really pises me off when people try and hide their dogs from my girl or run across the road into oncoming traffic just to avoid walking past us. or idiots that push their pushchairs and kids into the road away from us. I haven't met one XL bully yet that hasn't been friendly and stupid. a few years ago I probably would if done the same thing in picking my puppy up but like others have said a "flying " dog suddenly becomes interesting to any type gf dog minding its own business.