A plea to dog-owners

[Dogsonleads]

Please keep boisterous dogs on leads if you have no intention on controlling their behaviour

When walking in woodland with my 10 year old DS this morning pre school (because we were ridiculously early), a fully grown and very boisterous Labrador jumped fully up and put his paws on my sons upper chest. very exited dog, barking, more jumping. Before I can react, my sons runs into my arms and the dog continues to jump, now onto my son’s back.

At this stage the owner comes round the corner, the dog rubs off and I try to call out that this really is not acceptable. Calmly. I get a perfunctory sorry, the dog is being ignored, bounds back, jumps up my legs and manages to “Kiss me on the mouth”. Again, a perfunctory sorry and the owner walks away. Is this acceptable? (At this point I lost my calm 😞and shouted after them as I was upset at being brushed aside, no swear words though )
No attempt to reign in/ educate the dog?

It has taken me probably 5 years to get my son comfortable around dogs, had this happened only 2 years ago he would have been in an all out panic.

so my plea is to please please keep large dogs in sight if they have the tendency to jump, or at least try to mitigate situations that are difficult for others.

I hear you. The retractable leads are also an excuse for the owners to annoy you more under the guise of being responsible. I would never hurt any animal but I have been accused of such just for wanting to put one foot in front of the other as this is a basic human liberty. Some have complete double standards.

Just because people don't want dogs around them does not mean that they have a phobia. Some people just need their own space as its their right to do so. Some dog owners say their dogs are friendly to shirk responsibility. In addition, why put that on someone else? Different people see friendliness in different ways and not everyone likes dogs. You may perceive your dog is friendly but others may think differently. Nobody else's world should revolve round your dog. Everyone is entitled to peace and relaxation and those who don't want dogs bothering them should not be belittled.

Totally agree.

And if a dog jumps up at you like in the OP, it should be considered an assault by the owner, in the same way that it would be if the owner decided to jump on you. A criminal record and a fine might concentrate all the minds of the people who won't keep their dogs under close control.

We do need a lot more fenced in dog exercise areas although that doesn't help keep annoying dogs away from non-annoying dogs - it's like being made to sit with badly behaved kids when your own kids behave well. Not sure what you can do about that.

The retractable leads should be banned as well, they are so dangerous.

Animal cruelty is a huge red flag for abuse and cruelty towards people

Letting your dog attack a child is a much bigger red flag. Or indeed another dog.

But I agree, many dog owners are cruel to their pets as they have no idea how to look after them properly.

(I don't think that was what you meant, was it)

So so depressing, I've had dogs for 30 plus years I don't know what has changed my dogs are soft as shit but obviously you don't know that if they come up to you

They're not my lab is great on this

I hear you. My good dog (always on lead if somewhere where there are other dogs) is always being bothered by off-lead halfwits. One beagle charged over, put her on her back and was snarling and snapping around her throat till I yanked it away. The owner said, "Oh he doesn't like dogs who are on a lead." As if that were a fine explanation! No apology!

If your dog walks to heel and ignores other dogs, and people and bicycles and all the other triggers, then by all means let it off. But that type of dog is sadly the minority.

As for allowing your dog to go over and bother people, especially children- I have no fucking words!

Sorry this happened to your son, OP. Hopefully he has grown from the experience and realised that although it was upsetting, nothing bad happened and he was actually tremendously brave.

Have always agreed with this, recently became a lab owner and agree even more. I actually now realise what it takes to fully train a dog to recall properly and it has left me with the realisation that most people don’t bother.