Why are some dog owners so bloody selfish

[goldenmarshmallow]

Sorry- rant incoming.

I am sick to the back TEETH of some dog owners who think it’s acceptable to put their dog with no recall or training off the lead and to let it run up to anyone and everyone.

I have a golden who is generally good with dogs but gets very boisterous and excitable with some, which comes out as her being reactive. She doesn’t bite or show any aggression but she bounces and growls and tries to rough play. We’re doing training atm to work on her reactiveness and recall. She gets off lead time with other dogs that we know she gets on with (friends/family) but only in our family’s land/hired dog fields etc so she’s not off lead around the public as her recall isn’t reliable. I don’t let her meet other dogs on walks as she is too unpredictable. So, I keep her on the lead away from dogs we don’t know. But I am so sick of dogs off the lead approaching her, usually with the owner making a half hearted attempt to call the dog back but it just completely ignores them. I shout over ‘can you get your dog away from my dog because she isn’t always friendly!’ to which they usually say, oh he just wants to say hello! Or, don’t worry he’s good with all dogs! I don’t give a shit if your dog wants to say hello, move it away from mine before she barks/growls/lunges and frightens your dog and you start having a go at me

there’s nothing wrong with off lead dogs with good recall, and some dogs come back as soon as they are called which is fantastic, but WHY on earth are some people so bloody selfish? If your dog won’t respond when you call it back, put it on a lead FGS! She’s also scared of some dogs and responds by trying to hide behind me- again, I’ll shout over to the owners that my dog is scared and can they collect their dogs but nope, it’s always just oh don’t worry he’s friendly!

bloody sick of it.

@Watapalava if your dog had good recall, it is not a problem. It is good etiquette to put your dog on the lead if you see another on lead dog.

If your dog does not have recall and goes up to other walkers and and dogs, your dog should not be off the lead anywhere in public. You are required to keep your dog under control.

This annoys me so much!
We have a Staffy. Off the lead, he is brilliant. All he's interested in is his ball- we throw it, he brings it back. He never shows any interest in any other dogs whatsoever- he doesn't even acknowledge them. He'll run past them to fetch his ball and doesn't even look at them. But we do get dogs running up to him, trying to play, or grab his ball. He shows no interest in them at all. Some will go back to their owner when called, many won't. In the past we've had to shout to the owners to call their dog back and get the old "oh he's only being friendly "
Now,luckily, our boy has a fabulous temperament but you can guarantee that, if he had a go at one of the dogs that wouldn't leave him alone, because of his breed it would be all over Facebook within minutes!

In my area, there is a social etiquette that is very different to what seems to be common amongst mumsnetters.

The common stand is that dogs are friendly, on the lead or not. So if we pass another dog on the lead, it's normal to let the dog say hello. If a dog is aggressive, frightened, doesn't like it, the onus is on their owner to kindly state so as the other approaches and the other owner kindly pull their their dog away.

In off the lead area, again, dogs are expected to go to eachother, and off lead dogs approach on leads ones because 9 out of 10 times, the on the lead dog is happy to say hello but is on the lead because of poor recall.

I have a small dog who gets anxious around bouncy dogs, I take responsibity to keep her close to me. I don't mind a big bouncy dog to come as long as it then gets the message and moves away as we try to continue ou walk.

My dog however has learnt to be more assertive and show teeth to more persistent dogs and that does the trick.

It's very rare to have a totally out of control dog, let alone an aggressive dog not to be dealt with their owners. Unfortunately, there's always the worry of encountering an dangerous dog with a clueless owner.

You are being very unreasonable. I like to walk in remote wild areas. I do not like being approached by dogs.

I hate it too. I have two Lhasa's. One very laid back and chilled but another one who's a complete psychopath who hates everything and everyone - other dogs in particular. We've spent a long time trying to train him as we travel a lot and want to include him in our plans. Last year was the first time i thought he would be manageable to sit with us on the beach. Whilst he was on high alert at first, we dug his lead into the ground and he sat watching the world go by with us. It was lovely. That was until a springier came bounding up to us, his owner in hot pursuit shouting "he's friendly, he's FRIENDLY!!!" Well that's all good and well, but mine isn't and he just went mental. I had to quickly get the lead off him so I could pick him up away from the dog whilst his owner finally caught up. It really spoilt it and actually set him back a little as now he's constantly on alert when sat on the beach, he rarely lays down. Yes I know I'm the one with the psycho dog, I acknowledge that, but when you've done everything you possibly can to improve the situation, rogue dogs off leads are a huge problem for us.

YANBU
I love dogs. However I increasingly have serious issues with obviously seriously under-exercised/ stimulated working breeds while I’m out running, DP recently got bitten by a collie type of lead on a local footpath. There has always been shite owners but in the last 5 years or so it’s got so much worse?!

Yep, I know someone who has a huge pit bull. Pit bull has absolutely zero recall yet owner insists on letting the dog off the lead on every walk. Then owner gets mad with the dog and every other dogwalker around when there are inevitable problems. Every. single. Walk.

vivainsomnia · Today 14:14

The common stand is that dogs are friendly, on the lead or not. So if we pass another dog on the lead, it's normal to let the dog say hello. If a dog is aggressive, frightened, doesn't like it, the onus is on their owner to kindly state so as the other approaches and the other owner kindly pull their their dog away.

It's like that where I am, North Tyneside. I know loads of people, from striking up conversations with them, whilst dog walking. It seems to be a tiny minority, who just let their aggressive dogs run loose.

It's a bit of both surely?your dog is being aggressive, which is your responsibility to sort out, but owners do need to train dogs to not approach other dogs and ignore recall. It's hard as both behaviours are instinctive, but you can't expect other dogs to not approach yours - they are social animals. They will do this. I'm glad you are sorting out the aggressive behaviour and being responsible.

I don't think it is 'selfish' though, just naïve. Christ that word gets thrown around so inappropriately now thanks to COVID.

Because they're thick and have no comprehension of how to behave around others.

Are you for real?

Because your dog goes off lead, you have the monopoly on remote areas and it annoys you when you see dogs on leads? Really?

You're giving the rest of us dog owners a bad name and coming across as very entitled.

I have a rescue saluki. This is quite a wilful breed and he’s never going to have good recall. He knows what it means to be told to “come”, but he’ll only do it if there isn’t something more interesting in another direction. He’s also a bit nervous of men sometimes, as well as some (but not all) dogs. This isn’t stuff I can train out of him - I don’t know his background and suspect there’s probably a very good reason for his nervousness since he was originally found abandoned and malnourished. So he’s always walked on lead, unless we go to a secure field.

And you’re suggesting that because of this, we should never get to enjoy remote countryside areas? Wow.

Anyway, OP - I agree with you.

Maybe try reading my full OP.

she isn’t aggressive- she’s reactive. There’s a difference and if you don’t know what it is is then I don’t particularly care for your opinion. She is also frightened of certain dogs. It absolutely is selfish for some owners to think their precious little pup has the right to frighten or intimidate other people or dogs just because it wants to.

im not blaming the dog- like you said, it’s instinctive. I’m blaming the owner who doesn’t care enough about their dog to control it or train it properly for it to have a recall.

I will once again say it- my dog is not aggressive in any way. But if you read the full OP properly you’d understand that.

@Watapalava people like you are the reason why local parks became dangerous. I don't have a dog, but have a small child. Most of the dogs are off lead now because their owners feel they are entitled to exercise their untrained dogs. I witnessed a primary aged boy attacked last month. Dogs bigger than my toddler ' come to say hello' with brainless owners on the phone too far away.
There should be dedicated off lead /dog exercise area. The dogs should be kept on the lead in public parks

These "fields" that you're walking in and letting your dog off the lead in, are they on your own private land? If not, then presumably they are someone else's private land? Do you actually have any right to walk there at all, I'm wondering.

You've implied that you don't use public footpaths, so are you just wandering over someone's land without permission?

Remember, even if you're using the Right to Roam and you're in an "open access" area, that right doesn't extend to dogs. My understanding is that if intend taking a dog into open access land, it should be kept on a short lead.

OP, I fully agree with you. Thank you for being a responsible dog owner. Sadly there aren't enough of these around.

Untrained off lead dogs are the bane of my life. I think dog owners should only have the privilege of having their dogs off lead if they have attended and passed a dog training course with attention to recall. I am old and have had and trained four German Shepherds. My dogs and myself have been attacked too many times to mention. Ironically, I was training my dog, keeping her attention on me while other dogs passed using a piece of chicken from my treat bag. A big lab took a running jump at me and knocked me to the ground, ran off with my treat bag and ate the lot. His owner laughed, leaving an old woman of 70 on the ground.

YANBU.

I am heartily sick of being aggressively woofed at every time I go running in the woods. I have been going out at 6am with my head torch to try and avoid dogs lately because I just can't be arsed with it any more.

There are too many badly behaved dogs and poor owners about.

I have a German Shepherd. He was fine with all dogs, big and small. Then a man with three little Maltese decided he was going to let his dogs run up to mine and bark. Now mine hates all small dogs. People with small dogs that think they don't need to train the dogs because they're small and can simply be picked up, are far worse than the big dog owners. I know a lot of gsd owners who go to great expense and take a lot of time training their dogs. We have to, because a barking growling gsd can look very frightening. But a small dog is always seen as just a cute little thing. I feel very sorry for those small dogs, they must be so anxious all the time, because their owners don't bother to help them

Mine never barks at joggers, isn't even interested

@Watapalava
There's no "confidence" that will make an aggressive dog stop being aggressive, and there's no "confidence" that will make a drivey dog come back reliably. I have 4 dogs, 3 are fine off the lead, the other one would run miles and miles if she put a hare up and she'd shred a small dog to bits if she saw it running, so I hire a secure field twice a week for her and walk her 3-8 miles a day on a leash in the far off nature you have yours running riot.

Comments like yours make owners of dogs who have a mean streak or rubbish recall feel like they're the problem when some dogs are just born like that, especially if they just have the one, or have only ever had one dog and can't figure out why all of their training isn't doing anything. Some dogs just won't listen and aren't safe off a lead.

Off-lead dogs with poor recall on bridlepaths - now there's a bloody accident waiting to happen. I've had one nasty fall off a young pony who was startled by a big dog hurling itself at him while the owner did bugger all and actually seemed rather offended when I gave him a mouthful of abuse after struggling back to my feet and ascertaining that neither myself nor pony were injured.

More than once myself and other riders have had to warn the owners of off-lead dogs snapping round our horses' heels that said off-lead dogs were risking being kicked in the head - and a well placed kick by a shod hoof is liable to end in a dead dog. "Oh he's friendly - he just wants to play" - well my horse doesn't thank you very much and isn't keen on bloody dogs circling the back legs and/or snapping and lungeing at her.

Why are some dog owners so surprised to meet horses on bridlepaths? Most are very responsible, put their dogs on leads the minute they clap eyes on a horse and pull the dog to the side, behind them, so you can get past safely - but some are just idiots and its their dogs I will feel sorry for if they get stood on or kicked.

We have a staffy here. He used to be fine with dogs, basically ignores them if we have his tennis ball. But due to some dog owners who do think it's okay for their dogs to approach with no recall he now gets nervous with smaller breeds, ones who tend to be a bit yappy.
So for his safety he is on a lead majority of his walks and has a quick run if the field is empty or I've booked a secure field for him.
This is because I know if he was ever in trouble he would automatically get the blame due to his breed.
dog owners who shout "don't worry they are friendly" about their off lead, annoying dog are literally the worst.

Completely agree OP. I haven't had dogs myself since growing up but I love dogs. I hate entitled owners though who think it's fine to let their off lead dogs with no recall run around and jump at my toddler who is now scared of dogs. Only a matter of time before I react to an aggressive dog, not sure why there's so many about!

Dog owners in general are become bizarrely obsessed by their dogs. The more we have 'dog friendly' cafe etc the worse it is. Twice I've been out and had a dog jump up and eat from my plate. I don't go to dog friendly eateries anymore. And I have 3 dogs

Letting dogs off leads should be illegal except when in officially designated dog parks.