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 have had my autistic son laughed at by a dog owner as he squealed when their off lead lab jumped at him repeatedly.

I know some lovely dog owners who are very responsible but there seems to be a noticeably large contingent of entitled pricks who think their dog can do what it likes. Lockdown made this worse. Lots of people got puppies because they were bored and then didn't bother training / socialising them.

Something needs to be done. Whether it be an educational campaign that stigmatises irresponsible owners or a tightening of the law I'm not sure.

Two options: forget the owner-they will be of no help.

Put your son behind you and stand over the dog and yell hard at it angrily/aggressively. This gives it a clue you are not friendly and can wind them in a bit.

If they jump up put your arm out with a clenched fist so that stops them from gaining height. And keep moving forward. And keep yelling at the dog.

dog generally gets the message and returns to owner.

I wonder if anyone reading this thread has a dog that they say is 'friendly' and off lead runs up to other dogs or people that would be willing to discuss this from their point of view. We often have dogs running up to our on lead dog, the owners shout 'don't worry he's friendly' but there is a reason why we don't want company ( some dogs he hates, he also has bad legs so can't play with the ones he doesn't) but I don't want to explain this each time...

I agree. So sick of removing untrained dogs from my children's spaces. Dc2 loves dogs but at 4 would never approach without asking permission first (only if she knows the owner). Dc1 is terrified because of so many negative experiences. I used to be a dog lover (and owner) but now it's turning into an active dislike.

Went hill walking on land owned by a school friend of dh's at the weekend. Despite the keep dogs on leads signs due to birds and sheep...the vast majority of the dogs we encountered were off lead and not very well controlled. A couple leapt up at the kids and their owners were so dismissive.

There is someone on one of the other dog threads active today who is genuinely arguing that people shouldn't have picnics on the ground if they don't want a dog to spoil it. I suspect they are one of the "friendly" types and their point of view boils down to pure entitlement, nothing more.

(Most) Fanatical dog weirdos simply do not give a single, solitary fuck about your children or anyone else. Their precious 'furbabies'🤢 are their only consideration.

"Don't let your children rung up to my precious dog!" -how often does that happen in comparison to how often dogs run up to strangers?
Put that thing on a lead and everyone will be happy.

Also- if your untrained, out of control mutt runs up to my child and 'boisterously' jumps up- I will and have happily kicked the dog until it retreats. If you are unhappy with muttley being kicked- don't allow it to behave in an aggressive and frightening way to my child.

Yawwwwn

Those of us who are responsible dog owners are sick of it too! I had to tell a woman off last week because her out of control dog wouldn't leave my three on-lead, under control dogs alone. Jumping all over them, nipping at them, running around them barking non-stop. Can't imagine how scary that would be for a kid who is unsure of dogs to begin with.

She seemed to think this was all fine. It happens a lot unfortunately, dogs with absolutely no recall or training running up to and harassing dogs on lead who are just minding their own business. These owners are the same ones who think I'm cruel for not letting my three off the lead anywhere but the field we rent that is specifically meant for dogs to play. They shouldn't be allowed dogs.

I'm a dog owner and I'm sick of this sort of thing too. My boy is a small breed, we recently had a dog run at us out of nowhere when we were on a woodland walk. It scared the life out my dog and nearly knocked me over (large pointer type dog) the owners heard me shout in shock and all they did was call it back eventually, no attempt to apologise or pit it on a lead. There seems to be a lot of idiot owners about lately who either don't have a clue or don't care.

To be honest I think dog licences are the answer. Both to prevent this sort of thing and cruelty to / neglect of dogs themselves, which is horrible and really hard to prevent at present.

So many more irresponsible dog owners post pandemic i think.

In our local smallish park, dog owners think it’s permissible to just stand still chatting whilst their dogs have free rein of the park, because they can see them wherever (but not get to them). There’s a country park really near but that’s much more suitable for dogs but they don’t like this as it would involve walking with your dog.

Well.... I had a dog that smelled a decent picnic (chicken legs 🍗 & Co) in a 2 mile radius... she did raid the odd one. It was hilarious to watch- she had the watch, run grab and go technique! 🤣

Awww I'm so sorry you went through that ordeal this morning with your son OP, I'm sure your wee darling son as our yourself are shook up by the incident. The same thing happened to my daughter and with her having Autism it didn't help matters. She'd just got used to dogs being around even asking could she have a dog when one jumped up on her chest and licked her face. She freaked out which is understandable and the dog was friendly thankfully but she is now very weary of dogs. Doesn't help so many Pitbull, Rottweiler breeds live round our way which I get nervous around myself. I hope you are ok and your son is ok too!

I have dogs that I walk off lead & I’m sick of this too. Unless a dog has impeccable recall & doesn’t view every person as a potential petting opportunity then keep them on leads, it’s infuriating

Both my dogs are really friendly, one goes off lead and the other is on a long line, she's got excellent recall, right until there's a bird or small furry she wants to chase and then I might as well not exist, and it happening once was enough for me - I don't want her in stock fields (she does ignore stock and horses having lived with both, but would still cause distress just by being there) and I don't want her in dangerous places or on roads and that's before you get to the fact she's my dog and therefore it's my responsibility to keep her under control all the time, not just most of the time, and to not bother other people.

About 6 months ago I fell and hurt myself and let go of the lead, and of course right at that moment something flew out of the hedgerow and off the fecking dog went 🤦 I hobbled after her and she was on her way back to me having lost whatever it was and passed some people on her way - she bypassed them and came straight to me - as I got to them they asked if I was ok etc and that they had considered catching her by the trailing lead the first time she went by, but didn't know how she'd react - I totally got that, I did tell them she is friendly at that point and would have been delighted to make new friends, but didn't offer it up as an excuse for my dog being out of control. It was an accident, and not my fault, but it was still my responsibility if she had caused an issue.
I now have a clip on my belt and she's attached to that so if it happens again she's not going anywhere unless she's dragging my fat ass along!

But I do think people are under the impression that as long as the dog is friendly then it's fine to let it do what it likes because it's not a 'threat' and that's the attitude we need to tackle here, I have it regularly when I'm walking mine, their over exuberant and excited at the prospect of another dog, bounding up to mine and causing chaos - it's not ok, it's potentially dangerous and it's anti social to foist your animals on others because they're friendly.

Why would you watch as your dog did that instead of stopping it? You potentially ruined someone's day out.

I’m so sorry this happened and I can’t understand why anyone is saying YABU. By law dogs must be under control in public. If you report that you were scared for your safety then that is a dangerous dog.
Dog owner and lover.

Your dog doesn't have to chase birds in order to be a danger to them. When ground-nesting birds are sitting on eggs, they will fly off if a dog comes near (the dog may not even have noticed the bird was there). That then leaves the eggs or fledglings vulnerable to predators, mainly crows, who seize the opportunity to swoop in and raid the nest.

The good dog owners take care already. The bad ones don’t give a shit and never will. Look at the other dog thread today. I was told by one idiotic owner that if I didn’t want a picnic ruined, I should never leave my home.

My horse used to make a beeline for picnics if I let him, he does love a good sandwich 😂 and has quite often crashed BBQ's we've had in the field and theived buns, crisps and once, a bottle of coke.
I don't think anyone would have found it funny if I let him do it in public spaces and just shouted it's fine, he's friendly though 🤷🏼‍♀️

That kind of owner doesn’t care. It’s all about her and her precious doggy’s right to do as they please.

Because humans sometimes annoy people too. Or because we should all stay home. Or because their dog is just being friendly etc etc.

So annoying when dogs are off lead with no recall. I have mine off in the woods or in the hills or countryside. I'm very rural but any sign of people or dogs and she's back on lead.

I've trained her, as much as I can to trot past people and ignore them, which she does most of the time. Unless someone talks to her or smiles at her, which she loves, and she would approach, hence why I always put her on just in case. Don't smile at a Labrador, it's quite annoying lol.
I let kids pet her if they ask, but when they approach without permission I remind them not to, as they need to know that's too risky with unknown dogs.
We do have sheep on the area, she's trained on a farm with sheep and sees them twice a week, along with chickens and she knows to ignore them but, again, I put her on lead if any are out in their fields as we pass.
I'm as considerate as possible but plenty aren't.

I'm with you OP.

4yo DD was knocked over by a very excitable dog a couple of years ago during lockdown and is so nervous around them now. We live on the doorstep of a popular dog walking spot so get it quite a lot. Really hate owners trying to justify it by saying their dog is friendly as it's jumping up into DD's face and making her all muddy.

I used to walk my aunt's dog who didn't like other dogs so was kept on a lead and always had other dogs coming over to him while he was snarling away, thankfully he was small enough to pick up if necessary but it was stressful and not fair on him.

@Ylvamoon

Let's hope your dog runs a bit too close to a road on the hunt for others peoples picnics 😉

My sincere apologies! Of course I mean let's hope your little doggie doesn't run near a road. You wouldn't have the recall to stop it. That would truly be a shame.