To have commented on an unleashed dog

[Isthisthisreallife]

Husband and I walking in the park today with our 2 year old, newborn in the pram and our on lead dog who can be quite nervous around other dogs.
A man came towards us with his small breed dog off lead who went straight towards our dog for a sniff - not horrendous but I don’t think dogs should off lead if they wander over to dogs on lead because you never know the other dog’s situation. Then it ran at our two year old daughter jumping up to her face, knocking her over on the second jump causing her to fall in mud and become upset. The man made no attempt to recall the dog or apologise when it knocked her over.
I responded to the incident in a clearly irritated tone (no shouting) ‘your dog should absolutely not be off lead if that’s how it behaves with children’. No response so we all just carried on our separate ways.

Husband then said I was a bit harsh as the dog only jumped up and wasn’t aggressive.
So AIBU for being annoyed enough to say something to this man?

But that's not the case. And many many owners are responsible and have put their time and effort in with their dogs to ensure they are suitable to be let off lead.

The people who don't give a shit now would still not give a shit even if lead laws were in place and the only dogs that would suffer would be the ones who weren't a problem anyway.

Then it ran at our two year old daughter jumping up to her face, knocking her over on the second jump causing her to fall in mud and become upset.

Husband then said I was a bit harsh as the dog only jumped up and wasn’t aggressive.

Your husband is wetter than the last wet wipe in the packet.

You should know you're not being unreasonable. It sounds as though he's chipping away at your common sense.

If enough people open their mouths with people like this dog owner, maybe they will learn! I was once walking around a local reservoir without my dog and a boxer puppy was running around completely out of sight of the owner (had great recall but he wasn't calling it often) and an elderly lady was walking her tiny dog, on lead. It went right up to them and as I was the only person in sight she thought it was mine. She was terrified. I was watching in case it kicked off. When the owner came round the corner I told him - he said his dog was fine and had zero understanding of how this could have been a problem.

My dog is trained to not approach dogs who are on a lead. If I can train her when she's my first dog then everyone can.

I hope your DD is okay.

You did nothing wrong btw.

My small super friendly dog loves young children. She thinks all little ones belong to her and need a slobbery kiss. For this reason she is on lead when small children, push chairs are around. She is a small dog but would definitely knock over a toddler with her exuberant affection. Other people shouldn't be expected to deal with my dogs bad manners however well meaning.

I'm sick of these people who think everyone loves their dog just as much as they do and want to be jumped on by muddy paws.
I tore a strip off a chap whose labrador ran up to me and left paw marks up my leg and could not believe it when he replied "she's just a puppy, she wants to play ".
If a dog is in a public place then it needs to be under control of the owner. That either means on the lead or with impeccable recall.

You are completely right - it doesn't matter there was no harm.

For a dog to be off lead you have to be completely confident they will not approach a dog on lead (or off lead) or another person with permission. I have a dd4 and the dog is 10 so he has grown up with her and they play - he still knows he can never approach another child unless I say it is ok.

I had a bizarre experience today with a lady with a blind dog off lead who she kept telling me might approach my dog and snap as he can't see him. I said multiple times that mine would go nowhere near without permission and would back away if he got close but she wouldn't pull hers back and kept getting nearer (despite plenty of space) I ended up leaving as couldn't cope with the lack of sense.

Any dog has to be under control on lead or not - the one you encountered wasn't .

Absolutely bloody not unreasonable. A massive lab came bounding over to my 2 year old the other day and knocked her spark off her feet. She absolutely loves dogs but was obviously terrified as it was bigger than her. Owner just told me how much the dog loves kids and carried on her day. I told her that her dog should be on a lead and she just laughed nervously.

I like dogs, I really do. But I don't want to have to run interference for lazy owners.

If a dog knocked my 2 year old over it would have a swift kick to it. I don't even know how you managed not to completely lose it at the guy either

I'd have kicked the bloody thing if it'd knocked my child over, and to hell with upsetting the owner.

YADNBU.

I love dogs and always thought I would get one at some point. Got utterly sick of badly behaved dogs like this when I had tiny children. I won't get one myself now until I know I have the time and energy to train it properly. So many people seem to get a dog and then not really give a monkeys how it behaves.

Not especially related to this post, but can I ask a question?

I see many posts like this where people are more pissed off at the attitude of the owners attitude more than the behaviour of the dog.

We have a large breed very bouncy young dog and do absolutely everything humanly possible to avoid incidences like this, but if it were to happen (god forbid, but no one's dog is perfect) I wouldn't behave like so many dog owners do.

I would not try and justify his behaviour, and TBH I'd be so mortified that I'd be bending over backwards in my apologies.
My dog would be back to square one in his training and you likely wouldn't ever see him off lead for a long long time.

So in this instance, if the owner had of got control of their dog and made sure your LO was not hurt or terrified, would it have made you feel 'better' with the situation ?

I guess I'm asking, who were you more angry (completely justified) with, the dogs behaviour or the handler?

We have a large breed very bouncy young dog and do absolutely everything humanly possible to avoid incidences like this, but if it were to happen (god forbid, but no one's dog is perfect) I wouldn't behave like so many dog owners do.

But it wouldn't happen if you're a responsible owner, would it?

Because you wouldn't allow your large breed, very bouncy young dog off the lead in public 😳

I lost it with a little old lady in a park earlier this year. She had 2 little yappy type dogs. One on a lead that seemed older and like it wouldn't run away from her anyway. Another darting about the place which I don't really mind generally.

She had stopped to pick up one of their messes when the unleashed one spotted my 2 kids in the skatepark and started aggressively barking and chasing them.

She was doing the age old dog owner shtick shouting over "They won't bite! Just wants to play!" and all that crap - my kids ended up petrified and basically taking shelter on a raised bit in the middle of the skatepark that the dog couldn't get up. I absolutely lost my shit with her shouting that if she can't control the dog it should be on a lead. She was giving it "I've had dogs al my life I know what I'm doing" and I was like "Well you obviously fucking don't!!"

I've never had dogs but if I had one that was likely to go chasing kids around a park it would be on a bloody lead

I’ve had this quite a few times too and I’ve ended up having to get the coat dry cleaned. In spring one year, I was sitting on the grass in the park, took my coat off and laid it down next to me. A dog came bounding over and pissed all over it

This summer I was lying on a blanket on the grass in a quiet area of the park, and suddenly some sort of muscular bulldog breed jumped at me and started licking my face.

A few weeks later I was sitting in a similar spot and a dog came up and started growling and barking at me. I looked around for the owner but there was no one. After a few minutes I finally heard someone calling, and saw a man slowly wandering over from the other side of the park. I was furious and told him to keep his aggressive dog on a lead.

I used to feel neutral about dogs but in recent years I go out of my way to avoid interactions with them. I used to enjoy taking a blanket to the park and relaxing with a book but I don’t feel I can do it anymore.

Some fucker walks his dogs off leash near my house and is usually 100 feet behind them. They routinely attack my neighbour's cats. I rushed out one day to find they had one of the cats at bay in a hedge. I screamed at the dogs and the owner like a fishwife. The dogs ignored me and the man thought it hilarious.

He was less amused when my neighbour got the dog warden involved.

Dogs should be on lead unless they are 100% trained and trustworthy which is rare. I'm a dog owner, and mine is always on

Dogs shouldn't be off lead unless you are 100% sure that they will be back at your heel the minute you call, even if there's a juicy steak in the other direction.

When I used to advise customers about training their dogs I always said the first command dog needs to learn is "leave it",particularly if there will be kids around. Then recall has to be constantly reinforced.

Teaching tricks like paw, stand up etc is just rewarding unwanted behaviour such as pawing, scratching, jumping up etc.

People rarely listened and the dogs were never what I would called trained but I'd see them out and about with them completely out of control.

I would forgive a dog owner who made an attempt to stop this happening and/or recognised this is unacceptable. As this did not happen, I think the OP was very reasonable.

I agree 100%.

It's high time the law was changed so that dogs are required to be on a lead in public places (such as parks, streets, pavements etc) and in all private places to which the public has access (such as common land, on public footpaths, bridleways, byways etc).

Of course the man was BU but I agree with pp that your husband is a wet wipe! I would be more worried about that!

Is he protective of your child at all? Very worrying he seems to he ok with a “friendly” dog knocking your child over. Does he not realise the harm this can cause? How would he like a creature bigger than him knocking him over?

I used to feel neutral about dogs but in recent years I go out of my way to avoid interactions with them. I used to enjoy taking a blanket to the park and relaxing with a book but I don’t feel I can do it anymore.

I’m the same @kitteninabasket I am resentful because I pay a lot of council tax as someone who lives solo and doesn’t use many services. I don’t have a garden but I can’t even use the parks in peace.

And even though I avoid parks I was coming into my apartment building last year and an unleashed dog ran full pelt and jumped on me with its daft owner standing by. No apology from her despite my obvious discomfort/alarm. I later realised it had scratched me and I reported her. A few days later I saw her again with her dog approaching and I told her to make sure her dog never touched me again. She had a nerve to argue with me saying she can’t help it. I told her not leashing your apparently out of control untrained dog is a choice and made it clear that I wasn’t going to debate her dogs “right” to jump on me!

I reported her to the building management again and they ended up reminding all dog owners to leash their dog in the building at all times . I’ve never seen her again thankfully so I think she may have moved out.

I appreciate responsible dog owners like you.

Not unreasonable! This is something that really boils my piss. It's really frightening for a small child, especially toddlers.

Not unreasonable at all. too many just say 'oh he's just friendly' about their unruly dog never minding what the other dog or dog walker wants or if the other dog is even friendly. My dog was attacked by an off lead dog a while back and I got a few bites on my hand trying to help my dog who was a pup. A week later another off lead doing bounding up running all over my dog and that owner got an unbelievable bollocking from me. They were confrontational until I calmed down and showed them the mess my arm was and how that other owner also said their dog was usual fine also and hadn't attacked before but just decided that day they didn't like my dog. They were a bit sheepish and said I was right and they would be more careful too. Everyone thinks their pet is fine but the vast vast majority are not trained correctly to be off lead

I don't have a garden either so it's important to me to have that space.

FFS you should be able to walk into your building without being jumped at by a dog. What is wrong with people! There used to be one in my block that would piss in the lift.

I've seen so many dog owners reward (often inadvertently) their pets for undesirable behaviour, like jumping up, begging, pawing at you, barking, licking etc. If you laugh and/or fuss over your dog when it jumps up, it will think it's doing something good and won't care whether it's you or some random person in the street. If every time your dog paws at you, you get up and get it food then of course it's going to continue pawing. If every time your dog starts barking you jump up and tell it off then it learns that barking gets attention.

I see it with cats too. Like people who get kittens and use their fingers as toys instead of an actual toy. The cat comes to associate hands with prey, then the owner wonders why they get bitten. This leads to cats ending up in a shelters and labelled 'aggressive', when the poor thing thought it was just playing.