Muddy paws dog jumped on me on walk, WWYD?

[Blip]

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?

This wasn't a walk in the countryside

What would I do ? Make a fuss of the dog , let the mud dry a bit and brush it off, carry on with my day and wash my clothes when I got home .

Let your dog run around and poop in your gardens, dog owners.
If you take them in public parks, then keep them on a lead.

If I walked up to one of you who isn't fussed by this and smeared you with mud when wearing your work clothes with a meeting to go to later on I hope you'd still be fine with it!

All the “Doggo” types will be on soon, telling you how you should feel honoured that the dog ran up up you, and put it’s muddy paws on you.

Happens frequently. It's annoying as hell, but not worthy of a post

@ExtraOnions 😆

This happens to me almost every day but then again that's because I'm walking my dog on a field popular with other dog walkers. I don't mind at all and fuss the dogs once they stop jumping, but I would be horrified if my dog did it to someone.

I wouldn't advise getting aggressive unless you are happy for people to respond aggressively. Probably not the best thing to invite when out with your daughter!

No need to be aggressive @Blip. You asked us what we'd do. I told you what I did do just a couple of hours ago.

Give a small child a chocolate ice cream and see how many strangers smile when they get smeared with it

Blip · Today 11:56
If I walked up to one of you who isn't fussed by this and smeared you with mud when wearing your work clothes with a meeting to go to later on I hope you'd still be fine with it!“

I wouldn’t walk through a park where people walk their dogs with work clothes on. Again, shouldn’t have to be that way but it is and I’d try to avoid.

Yell at the dog in an unfriendly/angry tone before it jumps up and make moves to swipe it away. the dog has assumed you would be happy to see it. Once it gets the message this is not the case they tend to back off.

A dogs manners are usually a mirror of their owners so usually a lost cause expecting them to do anything

It's time dogs were kept on leads in public parks. Owners have shown they just cannot be trusted to control them.

Of course YANBU to take your kid out and not expect to come home covered in mud .
I really hate this and I also hate it when they jump up knock my small kids off their feet backwards and then the owners say they’re ‘just being friendlyi don’t want my kids to grow up scared of dogs. I don’t want to clean dogs’ slobber and mud off my upset child and off my own clothes when we go out for some air to th local park. Lockdown dogs with inexperienced owners are a bit of an issue where I live.

I love your suggestion 🤣🤣🤣

It's annoying when it happens but not the end of the world.

I'm sure your own DC or dogs have, at one point or another, inconvenienced someone else despite your best efforts. I'm in a glass house and I won't throw stones; most people are tbh.

FWIW avoiding eye contact won't do much. Turning around is a really good indication to dogs that you're not interested though; ones with better social skills will give up immediately, those who have less good social skills will give up quicker than they otherwise would have.

It's MN, brings out all the dog haters.

I 100% agree with you that dogs need to have full control to be allowed off lead.

But regarding my clothes I'd wipe them and then throw them in the wash. What else do you want to happen?

Yep. The world is mess right now and we need to put small annoyances into perspective. A bird could shit on your head any time, anywhere-who are you going to get angry with then?

Oh I think you should berate the owner loudly for at least 5 minutes until you draw a crowd.

If he/she tries to walk away without having knelt and begged your forgiveness you should make a citizens arrest and ring the Police, report them for having an out of control dog. With any luck they'll PTS and you can congrate yourself having saved others from the pain and horror of muddy pawprints.

Nah. Not fair on the owners who control their dogs. My collie doesn't think he's been on a walk without off lead time.

@CupidCantAimStraight there's no "despite your best efforts" going on though. These dogs clearly jumped up at strangers all the time, owner unfussed about it.

Were you wearing a white wedding dress?

@Butchyrestingface no, were you?

Owner should have apologised. of course they should.

But in asking what we'd do, I wouldn't have attempted to force it. Life is full of people who behave badly. The best thing we can do is not let them ruin our day