AIBU to think dog owners should actually be responsible for their dogs in public spaces?

[Dilemma87]

I’ve had a couple of situations recently that have really annoyed me.

First one I was out running along the beach and a dog coming in the opposite direction suddenly ran straight at me and jumped up. I had to shout several times to find the owner, who was on the other side of a wall and couldn’t even see their dog.

Then today in an estuary car park, two dogs came flying towards me. I shouted to the owner that I’m scared of dogs and asked him to call them back. His response was to tell me to “go to therapy” because there are “plenty of dogs around.”

I don’t have an issue with dogs being in these places at all. Plenty of owners have them on leads or keep them close and under control.

But surely if your dog is going to run up to strangers, jump up, or not respond to recall, it should be on a lead?

AIBU to think that’s just basic responsibility as a dog owner

So many people - even those who own dogs - don't understand dog behaviour.

Dogs are not babies, or children. They're dogs. They need to be treated as dogs.

Dog training isn't like human parenting, so training a dog isn't about being "strict". It's about understanding your dog's needs, meeting their needs for physical exercise and mental stimulation, feeding them a good diet and being consistent with force free training. Force free positive reinforcement training takes a LOT of rinse and repeat work, but it is worth it and training builds a better bond with the dog than spoiling them. Most owners don't put the time in when their dogs are puppies and then they wonder why they have an adult dog with poor manners.

We have a rescue puppy who is almost 9 months now and he has a lot of bad habits from the previous stupid owners who took on a puppy they blatantly didn't have the capacity for, they had young children. They were "strict" - meaning they yelled at him and used to forcibly drag him by his collar instead of doing proper force free training, and they left him alone for long periods while young because they thought that would train him not to be needy, which again is not "strict", it's neglect, and it's given him separation anxiety. He can now spend 15 mins alone without whining and howling, which is progress.

Then the equally stupid foster home was permissive in dog ownership terms and allowed their children to roughhouse with him a lot. Undoing all this is taking a lot of work. As a large working breed dog he will be in adolescent phase until he is 2. Puppyhood lasts that long and most people also do not understand this, a dog may not look like a pup, but technically still will be.

There are some things you can train and others you can't. Dogs will pee where they want to pee, for example. You can train them to pee outdoors and not indoors, but you can't train a male dog to pee less frequently when out walking.

Where does this post say they allow their dogs to run up to people? Your frothing is getting in the way of your reading comprehension.

I think what a lot of dog owners don’t understand is that the reason dogs exist is down to their individual decision to get one. If you got a dog from a breeder, that breeder wouldn’t produce dogs if you and other owners didn’t decide you wanted one. If you rehomed a dog they dog would still be in a home or would have been PTS if you hadn’t decided to give the dog a home.

So that person walking through the park would be unaffected by dogs if you and other owners hadn’t made the decision to get one. Their enjoyment of the park shouldn’t be affected as a consequence of your lifestyle decision.

Lots of dogs! U cannot get away from dogs anymore, they are everywhere. Even if your dog is friendly, we have no idea a random dog is friendly, I, and many other people do not want to be jumped on by them. Imagine if i let my toddler jump all over random people. I was in the Drs surgery a few weeks ago and someone had two small yappy dogs with them, one was running about. Eventually they were asked to put them outside, so the owner stood outside with them and kept shouting in to check if she had been called yet.

I agree OP.
There are loads of great dog owners obviously but a load of selfish idiotic ones.
I’ve had dogs jump up at me a number of times and I have been knocked to the ground twice. Luckily I’m not elderly or unsteady on my feet but there isn’t much you can do when a dog launches into the back of your legs.
If people can’t control their dogs then they should keep the dogs on leads.
I also can’t stand people that let their dogs bark. It’s so selfish and lazy. An occasional bark is ok but anything more is annoying. Either people are lazy and selfish or they are incredibly thick for not realising how annoying their dogs are.
Ive a number of neighbours who let their dogs bark and bark every day. One person dog goes out in the garden and barks every single morning - it wakes me up every day. Selfish idiots.

"My dog is very friendly and so does run up to people just to say hello."

But.... why would you assume that I, or others, would want to be 'run up to by your dog' so he can 'say hello'?

Train him out of this 'running up to strangers' and abandon this frankly bizarre assumption that everyone will be delighted.

I'm sure your dog is lovely. I love dogs. I still don't want them 'running up to say hello.'

I love dogs, though I've never had one, I'm a cat person really, but well behaved quiet reasonably small dogs are a joy, and so are their owners usually. It's the dogs with owners who can't be arsed to train them i feel sorry for, also really dislike men who have deliberately aggressive dogs and don't keep them on a lead in public spaces, see a lot of this in my neighborhood.

"for some crazy reason people always seem to prefer the bit of beach where dogs are allowed to the bit they aren’t then complain when a dog runs up to them!"

Listed as one of the 'issues' they have when they let the dogs off lead

TRAIN YOUR DOG!

If you can't stop your dog from running at people and jumping up then it should never be off lead in public.

Lazy owners give dogs a bad name.