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.

Dog owners who are unwilling to train their dogs, and put in the work so that their dogs have effective recall, are a massive problem, and give good dog owners a bad name.
YANBU and I hope your DS is ok.

We not all arses.

Chicken bones are so dangerous for dogs. Why would any owner who professes to love their dog run the risk of them running away with a piece of chicken with bones in?

Sticking your fist out and shouting aggressively at a loose, unknown dog is a very unwise thing to do. Please, please don’t teach your children to do this . You need a clear, assertive command while turning away with no hands waving or pointing. Sit! Down! Away! are all good ones ime. Blocking with a raised knee is ok. I mean, you might be lucky 9/10 times with the fist/aggression thing but if you’re not…

On a good day, there is nothing more funny than seeing a hapless new dog owner running after their untrained pooch calling whatever ridiculous name they decided to give it, while it promtly runs off in the other direction. On a bad day, it gives me the shivers thinking about these animals on the loose all over our towns and countryside.

I always carry an ultrasonic torch (like an electronic dog whistle), it's been most useful for shutting up next doors barking twats. It even works just by having it in my pocket. I zapped a pug once after it just growled at me for walking past it, no contact whatsoever. It jumped, little shit.

Dog owners beware, people have had enough and we are entitled to defend ourselves and our children, and our ears, from your bloody mutts.

Well said! I has a dog rush up to me and bark the other day. It was scary. The owner blamed it on me for looking at the dog.

My 2 sons are terrified of dogs. Literally hide behind me whimpering if they walk past one even on a lead. Because they’ve been jumped up on countless times, usually by a dog as big as them or bigger. Every time I make a bit of progress getting them to be less scared a similar incident will happen and we will be back to square one. It’s very frustrating and I’ve noticed them getting a lot of side eyes from dog owners when they see my sons hysterical reactions to dogs.

There are just far too many dogs now and I don’t know when or where it will end 😩

I totally agree op I would’ve pushed dog off
and had a few choice words. My son loves dogs but our dog and seeing them from a distance it would need to be his choice to approach - with permission to fuss a dog.

I will also say, that some dogs - like my retriever who is a bit bouncy but anxious out and about IS trained and well behaved - on lead though but he would not be allowed to be off somewhere he could run and jump up - it’s a work in progress and I always train for the environment not in it to prevent stuff like this, however he still needs walked. (On lead and off in secure dog fields) so it’s not unwillingness to train it’s working with a dog who has taken 2 years to get to a point where he’s happy to be out but not off lead. He might never be allowed I would be so upset if he jumped on a child or someone walking he’s a lovely boy just a bit of a tool.

YANBU of course.

It happened to DD on the way to school, muddy paws all over uniform and the dog was on a lead it was just a fairly long one.
Owner apologetic and clearly wanted the earth to swallow her so I didn’t make a big deal about it, but I was annoyed.

The poster asking to keep children in check around dogs isn’t being unreasonable either.

The knee technique is a terrible idea unless the dog is friendly. If it isn’t and knocks you over you are fair game and may get bitten. But each to their own.

I used to have a very nervous, blind jack Russell which was always on lead, it was virtually impossible to walk her for all the off lead dogs running up to her. Sadly she passed away and a couple of years later we adopted a poodle cross who is so great to walk. She's friendly and sociable. We do let her off lead and her recall is good but no dog is 100 percent all the time. I take precautions to ensure she's not bothering anyone. If she knows I have a ball, she will ignore pretty much everything else, which makes her easy to manage, to the point where she will, on command, sit and wait for others to pass, even so, if we see on lead dogs or walkers without dogs, picnics, etc she goes straight back on the lead, just in case.

I adore my dog, but I also understand that not everyone else will.

I'd be mortified if my dog did this - nothing funny about it. She's shown signs of it before now - I mean let's face it what dog faced with a pile of beef sandwiches at nose level isn't going to consider trying to get close enough to eat it - but if she seems to be moving towards a picnic I'll recall her and put her on the lead.

In the one rare event she doesn't come back I had to chase and practically rugby tackle her but no way would I just stand by and watch her steal someone else's lunch. They seemed to find it incredibly amusing to watch me chasing a naughty cocker spaniel and throwing myself into the mud to grab her They did kindly come across to find out if I was alright.

Hope your son is OK
It does feel.like this is becoming more of a problem recently
I've worked so hard on my reactive rescue dog literally yrs to get her to the point of walking past most dogs .
So difficult when unrecalled dogs are running at us or as recently happened a dog walker with 8 off lead dogs coming at us
Because my dog started barking 3 of the dogs actually started fighting each other ,that made the walker stop ignoring me and come running
I carried on walking
I have taken to having a walking stick with me to use as a barrier as have never felt so near to being bitten

I have a large lab cross who is boisterous and daft but not aggressive. However because his recall is not great he doesn't get let of his leader unless I can see a good distance that there is noone around at all. I really worry that if he jumps at someone he will cause an injury due to his size and power.
We go to the dog park where he gets to run off energy in a safe area. I hope uour son is OK, I can see it being quite scary for him x

You sound like a real treat. Very impressive.

I said you’re being unreasonable. I hate the tarring of ‘big dog owners’ with the same brush all the time. I get many many more rude approaches from bloody little dogs. I get that big dogs may be seen as more intimidating but the little ones wind me right up

When my friend was training her lab not to jump up she showed us how to react.
We tend to fling our hands up when an unwelcome dog approaches. To the dog that looks like an invitation. Instead put your hands down and forward to block the dog from coming up and say a firm NO.
It worked every time.

We have a large dog who reacts to other dogs sometimes, so he is walked on lead. I get so tired of dog owners letting their dog run up. I don't mind so much if they are trying to get them back, but the ones who don't even try and let their dog run up to mine. They always shout, don't woryy he's friendly.
To which I reply MINE ISN'T. Then suddenly they look worried and come over.

My bug bear. People stroking/playing with my dog - oh he's so lovely, so pretty etc (he is, and very fine with people, just not other dogs) and then encouraging him to lick their faces. No thank you I have spent ages training him not to face lick it is actually completely disgusting.

Dog owner here but hate the way some owners let their dogs run amok.I have had labs and even I hate them jumping up.They are solid,strong lumps of muscle. I look fit but have a knee problem and only yesterday this happened and I really worry it will cause more damage. And recently at a NT property with signs everywhere to keep dogs on leads and that it was nesting season a couple just ignored it and their dog was going crazy.Why do they think they exempt?Doesn't help responsible owners.

Oh gosh - I absolutely hate when dog owners let their dogs free to roam about around other people in a small space. Your dog is friendly and special to you, doesn’t mean it’s the same to everybody else. Respectful thing is to keep them away. Most people don’t let their toddlers approach strangers and brush it off, out of respect, they keep them well away. Not everyone is a dog lover

It’s only fair to keep dogs on leads when closely around others, not everyone is comfortable around them.

Yes that would be good.

I don’t mind either toddlers or Labradors approaching me tbh. With the slight edge on Labradors….

I've taught mine not to jump up at anyone. There's nothing really you can do OP except push them off and say no.

always carry a bit stick, or one of those walking poles and wield it as soon as the animal gets near
I hate the fecking things too....or rather the fecking owners

Agreed. D Dog is never off lead in public and he doesn't even approach people.

I'm wondering whether being a Mumsnetter somehow attracts these disinterested owners with big dogs that jump up. As its not something I ever see in RL. The only times dogs have jumped up at me they've been terriers and the owners have been very good at calling them back and saying sorry- I don't really mind tbh.