I hardly take my dogs for walks anymore.

[MaryOnACrossss]

Because I'm so sick of dealing with idiots.

I've honestly lost count of the amount of times my dog (a pug who is scared of bigger dogs or any dogs really!) has been run at/bitten/snarled at/pinned of just plain intimidated by other dogs.

First we stopped going to the playing field.
. Then we stopped going to the park.

This morning we went round the circle we live on. Just round the cirle and some guy come round the corner with 2 putty on steroid looking things. One on lead, one off. This is walking round avenues, not a park or anything. And of course the one on lead start dragging him over and the one off lead runs right across the road. I tell him my dog doesn't like dogs, please keep him away.

So he grabs the off lead dog by his back leg???!! Whilst trying to grapple the one on lead away from her too.

He drags the dog by the leg until they're back on opposite side of the road and I pick my dog up and hurry away whilst looking for a gate I can get into if the off lead dog manages to escape.

I'm so fucking sick of it.

Why wasn't it on a fucking lead?

I was shaking. I have anxiety and so does my bloody dog.

It feels like every time I take her out something like this happens.

So we play in the garden alot rather than go on walks.

YABU not to walk your dog. Find or hire a secure field but just not walking them isn’t going to help.

There isn’t any rampaging dog issues in England either at least not in the south where I’m from. The only time my dogs been bitten is from an on lead dog that lunged at her at the beach when she was minding her own business chasing a ball into the sea.

This all sounds like a sad time for dogs out of their house on a walk.

I socialised mine from an early age and he is a genuinely happy good natured dog. He loves to meet people and other dogs. He's respectful - does the new dog dance.

I'm sorry for everyone who has a nervous or scared or reactive or unfriendly dog. But don't demonise those who don't have issues. And a walk in the park that involves social interaction

I never said my dogs are aggressive. They are happy and friendly little dogs who would be helpless if attacked by a larger dog. So I keep them on lead and within easy reach should an aggressive dog approach. It's not my dogs that are the issue, it's the many untrained large dogs with useless owners that I'm worried about.

I adopted an elderly dog last year because his owner had to go into care and the dog would have been put down. No local shelters would take him because of his age and he would have been put down. He’s a wonderful dog, but can be reactive towards other dogs when they’re off lead. He’s never bitten another dog, but does get stressed and will sometimes bark. I have socialised him with my friend’s placid greyhound, which has helped. I also often take him to a private dog field so he can run around off lead.

I walk him every day. I deliberately walk him early in the morning/later at night and take him to small local parks where dogs are only permitted to be on leads. These parks back on to fields where dogs can be off lead. However the amount of dog owners who let their dogs off lead in these parks is unbelievable. They also often have absolutely no recall and just look blankly at me when I ask them to recall their dog that’s bounding over to mine. Or, more usually, the owner is nowhere near the dog, they’ve got their heads stuck in their phone and have no idea where their pet is. It drives me crazy. If you’re going to let your dog off in a public space, you should be able to recall it and there’s no excuse for not paying attention. I feel
your pain.

The only time my dogs have been attacked or viciously snarled and growled at has been by off lead dogs. Off lead dogs are a menace unless in designated off lead areas where you have a choice to encounter them or not.

Little hint - no one likes a strange dog running up to them. My response to "it's friendly, yours looks friendly" is it's not the dog you need to worry about, it's me! If an off lead dog runs at me I am not against kicking it away. If you've had a dog mauled you'd be in the kick first ask questions later category too.

I absolutely agree with this.
Dog are interested in their own kind.
They want to communicate with their own kind.
No one on this thread would suggest that aggressive dogs don't need to be muzzled and kept on leads and walked in areas and at times to minimise stress for everyone and their dogs.
I would suggest if you have a pug then the physical harm has already been done to the poor thing through selective breeding to create a severely disabled creature. One that other dogs will find disturbing and are more likely to attack because pugs aren't able to present and communicate to their fellow species due to their physical structure being so altered.
Sorry, not trying to be mean to you, I'm sure yours is a rescue and healthy and happy as anything but it's a theory that's fairly accepted as to why dogs like pugs and frenchies get attacked seemly more than other breeds.

This is v interesting. My dog does seem to have a dislike of Frenchies especially, poor things.

You can get a spray that won’t hurt dogs if you are worried about an attack. A friend also carries a pen with them while walking the dog.

I don't think this is complicated: have your dog off the lead all you like provided you have it fully under control and you don't let it approach on lead dogs without their owners say so. Simple.

I have a highly anxious and reactive dog. It's nothing I've done. It's his character. Extensive work with a behaviouralist has help him ignore other dogs but can't remove his absolute panic if they approach him when we are out. I'd love to have an easy going dog but that's not how it's worked out. I'd really rather other owners didn't make things even harder by not controlling their pets because 'he's friendly'.

I had a happy, well socialised, unanxious 8 month old pup. Until one morning a ‘he’s friendly’ off lead Doberman decided it wasn’t friendly today.

It dragged my squealing pup across the green by the back leg resulting in stitches.
My pup would have been killed if a workman had not intervened with a 2x4.

I now have an nervous, reactive, scared dog. Lots of reassurance training and work with a behaviourist means he can ignore people and dogs when we walk until an off lead dog gets in his face.

He has access to safe areas for a good run off lead thankfully but we only walk in ‘on-lead areas’. If only everyone abided by that!

The response to ‘Call your dog back please’ when it’s bounding towards another is not ‘You’re alright, he’s friendly’ nor is it to continue your chat or phone call. Dogs should be under control at ALL times whether that means a lead or actually having solid recall.

I’m in exactly the same predicament I feel terrible for my dog especially now I’m full term pregnant I can’t risk it my 11 yo Ds had a near miss with a off leash xl bully whilst walking our dog! So I can’t even let him take her time too our local dog park.

I’m sick to fucking death of it around my way we have a huge garden but I have a working cocker spaniel and she really needs walking! Proper dog mum guilt and to add to matters the most irresponsible neighbors on our street have just got a xl bully, that they can’t even keep in the house opening there front door!

I was out the front taking my recycling out the other day the dog was running in there front garden they where all frantically calling it! No recall whatsoever! And it didn’t even have a fucking collar on! I’d love to see them try and grab that thing by the scruff of the neck when it’s atleast double the size of every single occupant in there house!

It seems like the most stupid people get dogs double there size that they have no control over?! Why would anyone be thick enough to get a dog that over powers them easily!

With the amount of utter crap spouted by the clueless it’s no wonder the dogs of the UK are so badly behaved.

Theres a million reasons a dog might be on a lead. If your not intelligent enough to consider other people for one second and recall your dog to give them a bit of space you have no business owning a dog.
You have no idea why the dog is on a lead, maybe it’s unwell, in pain, overly friendly, has no recall, is aggressive, terrified of life, in training to do job, huge and likley to knock you or your dog flying in play, maybe the owner is injured and can’t be knocked. The possibilities are endless and quiet frankly nobody else’s business, just because your walking does not mean you have to accept being bothered by someone else’s badly trained animal if you don’t want to be 🙄

The world would be a better place if the entitled people stopped deciding what’s best for other peoples dogs and concentrated on training their own. I’ve spent my whole life training and working with dogs professionally, some can not or don’t want to be social with strange dogs for whatever reason (most of the time nothing to do with anything the owner has done) and that’s not the end of the world, they can live perfectly fine and happy lives.

For what it’s worth mines very friendly, it takes one second to call him to heel and walk past then release him. It’s no inconvenience to me but makes someone else feel better and does not ruin their day so what’s the problem?

https://www.reddit.com/r/BanPitBulls?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=2&utm_content=1

Don’t own a dog. Do have a horse. Been riding years. Starting not to be able to hack because of dogs. Beaches have become a bit of a nightmare. Dogs attacking the horses. Last time it happened my horse kicked the dog (dog not harmed, but stopped barking and attacking). Dog owners seem to believe dogs have a right to this kind of behaviour and it’s up to riders to not use beaches/bridle paths etc. The dog owner seemed to think I should apologise for my horse (was actually quite proud of him for not bolting and keeping us both safe). The number of ill trained, dangerous dogs has increased hugely recently.

GSD has it right. There are lots of reasons dogs can be kept on a lead. Why a dog is on a lead isn’t my business. What I do need to do is ensure my giant dogs stay away. I’ve managed to teach mine “it’s on a lead” as an instruction to walk past and ignore. It’s very useful. As is “they don’t want you” for leave those people alone. Where we walk we are lucky to generally only meet people who don’t mind well behaved dogs and dogs who don’t mine if yours are polite.

Simple answer is there are way too many dogs on this tiny island. I don’t walk my dogs locally or every day. There is absolutely no point in taking my dogs to a busy park where most people have zero control, and are too thick to see why this could be a problem.

It takes one incident with an unfriendly or dog with zero social skills, to turn a previously well socialised and well mannered dog reactive.

My dogs get put in the car and walked rurally. If we see another dog, they just get the wide birth from me.

It’s way worse since lockdown. Every dingbat got a dog when they shouldn’t own a goldfish.

Now I know where all the bell ends who think it's okay to let their off lead dogs approach on lead ones are. On this thread!

@BeardyButton I know what you mean. I was riding my extremely nervous and flighty horse down a trail once (it was the signed horse trail to pony club before anyone says horses shouldn't be on walking trails) when an off leash dog started coming towards him. I pulled him up, rubbed his neck to settle him and said it's ok buddy, if he runs at you, you can kill him. Never seen a dog put on a leash so fast. The reality was, if the dog had run at him he would have dumped me as a diversion and high tailed it home as fast as his tootsies would have taken him 😄

XLs are just Pit Bulls under another name. I like Bull breeds but XLs tend to attract a particular type of person. Aka someone not very intelligent who is compensating for something.

Horses and dogs are a whole other issue. Mine are sighthounds and bred to chase things that run. So I have trained them to come to me and focus on me and a treat if we see a horse. (Same with cyclists and runners) I was thanked once by a rider who said a friend had been chased by an off lead dog. She was thrown and badly injured. That’s bloody awful.
My youngest dog has been more difficult. We were walking one day and an idiot decided to canter towards us on the road (no pavement on the quiet country road). Since then she’s been terrified of horses. It’s been bloody hard work desensitising her safely and getting her to ignore and stand quietly with me as they pass. But we are there now. (Had to avoid horses on walks for quite a while!)
Out of control dogs could kill a horse and rider. So bloody dangerous.

Bullshit, my dog is aggressive because he got attacked 3 times in a short amount of time, twice by the same dog. All off lead.

By the time, we had got his anxiety under control, covid hit and a bunch of idiots bought their puppies and then we couldnt go out in the day again. Took 8 steps back and we were back on the muzzle and doing night walks and secure field only to build up his confidence.

other people should learn to control their dogs, if they see a dog in a high vis fuck off jacket and lead and wearing a muzzle, then they should have good enough recall on their dog to be able to call it back or not take it off the lead till they have trained their dog to do so.

Use a secure field you can rent to let them run 👍 plenty about. Costs about £5-£10.

My dog was also bitten by a larger dog as a puppy (owner said they were waiting for it to happen!) and they were a nervous dog anyway, it’s taken a lot of training to get their confidence back up but they’ll never be the same now.

I do a mixture of lead walks, off leash in a secure field I can rent and training / playing / enrichment activities with them now throughout the week.

I hear you. My dog has been attacked when she was on her lead and is now reactive to other dogs.

I have a trainer and we are working on it.

She is walked early in the morning or late at night and still there are twats who can't control their dogs who let them come over to her.

If your dog doesn't have bullet proof recall it shouldn't be off the lead.

Yep! The constant “my dogs friendly” - I don’t give a shit my dogs petrified.

I also had people YELL at me when neither of us were doing anything, mainly because I’m young and look even younger 🤣 and she’s a big dog, which hasn’t help her nervousness. It’s made her freeze she’s so scared. Imagine their faces when I yell back 🙄