Muddy paws dog jumped on me on walk, WWYD?

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I was walking across a park yesterday and two spaniels bounded towards me about 50 yards away from their owner. I could tell they were going to try and jump up at me so I avoided eye contact with them and told my dd to do the same.

Unfortunately one still did jump up at me multiple times and left mud on my clean trousers.

I shouted at the owner to please keep her dogs under control as one had got mud on my trousers. Not in an aggressive or rude tone though.

In my opinion if you don't have sufficient control over your dog to stop them doing this they need to be kept on a lead in public. The owner didn't seem very bothered and I think there is zero chance of her preventing this happening another time to someone else or possibly even to me again. I feel pretty annoyed about it.

I think there are some owners who either don't think it's a problem when their dogs jump up at strangers or who just don't care.

What would you do if this happened to you?

Mmm if they were really apologetic then fine, but if they didn’t care and I was covered with mud, I suppose I might pick up some mud and throw it at the owner. It would certainly make them think twice next time

If you see a dog running towards you, turn your back on them for future reference, that’s supposed to stop them jumping up. I’d be a bit annoyed, accept the owners apology and clean up when I got home, other than that, there is little else you can do.

I’d be irritated .. similar happened to me walking in the summer in really nice summer denim dress (clean on as well!) and dog came up with a really wet mouth lots of dribble and spit and rubbed it over front of my dress - the owner didn’t apologise and I was left with a load of smelly wet dog dribble on my dress - yuk yuk - dog owners should be able to call their dogs back .. we used to have a dog and there’s no way our dog was allowed to jump up at people

Amazing. A responsible dog owner. Thank you.

Please take note other less respectful dog owners @IndiaDreamer et al.

Yes, totally agree.

If your dog jumped up at me, Thehappygardener, then as long as I wasn’t hurt you could keep your £20 and you might even get a smile out of me (and I don’t like dogs much). Because it’s the attitude of the owner that makes all the difference. Unfortunately ime owners like you are becoming a rare breed (!).

I walk a lot and have been knocked to the ground a couple of times by dogs and also had dogs jump up at me. I k ow how to deal with dogs so it 100% wasn't my fault the dogs did this to me. One of the dogs ran into the back of my legs and I fell badly. I was so mad as I have a joint condition.

We have a huge dogs field locally so it's not as though there is t anywhere for dogs to go.

It's really shitty and selfish not to have digs in leads if they can't be controlled.

SOME dog owners are stupid and selfish unfortunately.

I can see there are tonnes of replies and I haven't read all 28 pages of this. But i agree with the OP. The is the reason I have actually stopped going on walks in the park or to local beauty spots. Over lock down a dog tried to bite my daughter and was jumping all over us
She was 8 at the time and the owner started to swear and called me a C*nt for not "controlling " my children. I have it all on video. Police didn't want to know.

@TrainedObserver how the hell would you know what sort of dog owner I am, or if I even own a dog.

Your barking mad!!

*you're

I'd take pics of dogs and owner and report to police non emergency and dog warden.

It's unacceptable. And in lots of parks, dogs are not allowed off lead - I'd ckeck that too.

I have a fear of dogs after being bitten as a child. I am traumatised if one comes bounding towards me. It really isn't fair of owners to allow this.

Did you quote the person you intended to..?

Well once you're in a mess no point in pretending. Get stuck in

That must be awful for you, this would certainly leaves scars.
I had a tiny poodle a few years ago on the lead walking in town, she literally looked at this lady whilst we were walking past her who looked terrified. My dog was very well trained, she didn't bark or even look curious.
Having noticed that this woman looked worried I asked her if she was ok, she told me a similar story to yours. It was interesting because she actually started to warm to my dog once we started chatting.
I'm not saying that it would have been easy for her to touch my dog & I certainly didn't push her to do this, or that it would have got her over her fear but I like to think that it chipped a litter bit off of her worry.
I wish you all the luck

The thing is as well that when you have a child with you, the lazy owner will often say - the child did xyz, can’t you stop your child touching my dog and winding it up - when the child was well out of the way of the dog and approached by them.

My child was 100m from a dog that bounded towards her and jumped up at her before knocking her over. Some people think their little shit rats are beyond reproach. I’ve even seen trainers on Instagram telling members of the public to “STOP” when walking towards their dog as a way of training to stop jumping up. You cannot just walk around telling random people off just because your dog isn’t on a lead.

And I’m not talking to the responsible owners here, I know there are many, lots on this thread. Yes dogs do want to play, but if you let them “play” with ie jump all over strangers, don’t be surprised if they get booted.

And do what with it? How's that going to help?

Local online wall of shame.

...I’ve even seen trainers on Instagram telling members of the public to “STOP” when walking towards their dog as a way of training to stop jumping up. You cannot just walk around telling random people off just because your dog isn’t on a lead...

Windbeneath - perhaps they were talking to the dog.
I often shout "Wait" to my dog when walkers or cyclists are coming towards us. He always completely ignores them but does tend to wander about the path if not reminded to stand still while they pass.
Sometimes a cyclist will think I'm ordering them about instead and they stand there waiting obediently!

No he wasn’t, he shouted STOP, put his arm out and touched the man on the shoulder, although it was for demonstration purposes for the video so the man was an example member of the public just walking past him as you would do on a pathway. He is basically training humans instead of dogs.

This guy also posts videos of children doing ridiculous things like hitting dogs in the face - before going on rants about children behaving near dogs. I completely agree about children not touching/hitting/approaching/bothering dogs but some of these owners seem to equate a child whacking a dog in the face to simply being in the vicinity of a dog. I’ve seen countless kids in the park left screaming by a dog they were not anywhere near, let alone bothering.

I dread to think how untrained many dogs are.

I just hope that’s the worst thing that ever happens to you.

Jesus Christ most of the dog owners on this thread are psychopathic. It is never ever ok and illegal for your dog to bound to to.someone never mind touch them. It means your dog is out of control. If it jumped at someone that is assault and if it jumped at me I'd be kicking out at its chest to try and defend myself, if it killed your dog tough shit and the law is on my side. Get a grip! Dogs are animals that need to be controlled by law. It is never ever acceptable to say just being friendly, they can't be friendly they are not humans.

If this ever happens please try and video and report to the council dog warden and the police. If enough reports come in they follow up. Dog wardens are especially interested if there are likely to be children nearby.

Your dog is not under control and should be on a leash.

Training centre begin with an S by any chance?
They still use some dominance based training annoyingly as well.

Dog owners should be training their dog to not approach random people wherever possible.

And random people - please don't interact with a dog unless the owner has okayed it. When loads of people encourage them, especially when jumping up, it makes it harder to stop it in future because they rehearse the behaviour. If you want to fuss them and the owner said its okay don't encourage them to try to reach up to you, and please don't aim for their heads - a lot are head shy and will try to dodge or redirect your hand, just go for the chest and you don't make them anxious plus they can have a sniff then too. Point being, when your dog doesn't expect to greet everyone, or be rewarded with attention if they go up to people, then they won't do it.

Also, the whole thing about 'can't keep them on a lead' - yes, you can. In public, if you don't have complete control over them then you even should keep them on lead. There are secure private fields that can be rented very cheaply, and you can even go to in a group. There are tonnes of things that can be done at home without a garden that will let them let off steam.

Not fond of dogs, so I'd be royally pissed off and give the owner an earful. What moron doesn't take control of their animals in this day and age... I suppose all the dog lovers don't mind as most of them probably let their dogs kiss them on the lips and sleep on their beds! Yuck!