AIBU to think muzzling all dogs in public needs to be mandatory?

[Peskylawnseed]

Five. I encountered five unmuzzled and unfriendly dogs on my morning walk today. Three on a flexi line. Two off lead. Not one under control.

It’s not hard to muzzle train a dog. Any adult who wants a dog should be able to do it. If you can’t, don’t get a dog! I am so sick of my dog being attacked, lunged at, snarled at, snapped at or growled at by other people’s uncontrolled dogs. And all whilst the owner stands there and either ineffectually says
’no, don’t do that, bad Rosie’ or just smiles indulgently and rubs their dogs back!! Owners who do that clearly have no idea they are reinforcing their dogs behaviour and I am so sick of my walks being ruined by these people.

Highlight of today was a woman with a bull terrier, which she knows isn’t friendly as I’ve seen it’s dozens of times now, lunging and snarling at mine whilst she just stroked its back and cuddled it. Words fail me. It’s not even about my dogs safety, it’s about her own dogs safety.

And it’s always the same dog breeds. Always.

I know any dog can be aggressive, but at least if you encounter a non friendly poodle chances are it’s on the lead or muzzled!!! I know it’s partly the owner because certain types of people are attracted to these sorts of dogs and 9.9/10 times they’re not equipped to deal with them. Or think beating the dog is how you train it. Or even think it’s funny.
But I am really coming to think all dogs should be muzzled in public because the few are endangering the many. It’s the easiest solution and the most easily enforceable.

What a ridiculous troll post. Seriously, grow up.

I've never seen someone pull a 1984 on dogs before. Let's get dog digital ID as well - makes about as much sense as this BS

The overreacting and embellishing of stories re dogs on MN is tedious but muzzles aren’t the punishment a lot of you seem to think they are. No real difference to leads and harnesses if you get a decent one and muzzle train properly.

This. So many people just shouldn’t be allowed to have a dog.

the vast majority of dogs are fine to be unmuzzled

Maybe we should muzzle all humans too?

I know of a dog that was killed by two other dogs who were both muzzled.

What I would like to see is people not doing the "but any dog can be dangerous, it's not the dog it's the owner" whine because that's exactly how we end up with feckless idiots getting unsuitable dogs, and desperate people thinking the only solution is to muzzle everything.

I’m not muzzling my 11 yr old Cavalier King Charles spaniel because that would be utterly ridiculous.

Not a chance would I muzzle any of my dogs just because someone decided that all dogs should be.
If there was a genuine need for a dog to be muzzled ie aggressive, eating toxic stuff then of course a responsible owner would.
Muzzle my well socialised and trained dogs because a few irresponsible people are around, not a chance.
Im not sure where you’re walking them/area but I don’t come across aggressive/out of control dogs regularly. Yellow leads, so everyone knows to give space, respectful owners recalling dogs if they see some on leads and theirs are off or groups of dogs playing are the norm here…

It does make me wonder what behaviour OPs dog is giving out and she might be otherwise unaware of.

🥱 🐕 🐶 no

Is your dog muzzled?

If you say “no” or “down” in a firm voice before they jump up most dogs will back down.
Also if you step backwards away from them they often interpret that as playing so run after you. Best way is stand up tall and be firm.

I don’t think we need to punish dogs for rubbish owners. But I do believe that the system has to stop acting like animal ownership is a right. There should be a minimal standard of knowledge and care that is required to own a pet, pets should be removed if people repeatedly breach those and if found guilty of abuse/neglect banned permanently from pet ownership- that would solve a lot of issues.

OP Is your dog brachycephalic by any chance?
Since getting a Frenchie I have realised a lot of other dogs just don't know how to read her, due to lack of the normal signals. Otherwise friendly dogs really dislike her even though she is a sweetie.
She has been snarled at, lunged at etc. but I've learnt how to adapt my techniques to counter that.

If your dog has been lunged at 5 times on a walk you really need to see what is triggering this. It's not normal. And my 5lb Yorkie does not need a muzzle to save you getting a behaviourist in. Her bite wouldn't break skin.

It’s the owners that are the problem, not the dogs…. I have three rescues, non are vicious or snappy. The youngest one barks quite a lot, but she’s just yappy - not vicious. None of them need to be muzzled in public.
A friend of mine was sitting outside a cafe with her young niece and her small dog on her lap and a guy with a bully breed that was not on a lead walked by. His dog lunged at my friend’s dog and bit it very badly. He knocked my friend off the chair in doing so. The niece was also traumatised by what had occurred. The man ran off with the dog. They went to the police who said they were unable to do anything about is as they had no idea who he was. People like him shouldn’t be allowed to have dogs - especially when they are irresponsible and unable to train or control them. You see a lot of people with certain breeds and can just tell that they have no idea at all. Unfortunately, anybody can get a dog with no prior vetting whatsoever… Some breeders don’t seem to care who they sell to….

If OP practises what she preaches, I would suspect that dogs are being reactive towards her dog because her dog is muzzled. My dog is mostly laid back but can be reactive, especially when he is on his lead and couldn't easily get away from the (perceived) threatening dog. We don't see many with muzzles, so I can't be sure, but for example if I see a dog being walked on one of those halti nose collars I get him behind me and out of the way because it changes their posture and makes them look tense and therefore aggressive to him. I suspect he'd be a bit wary of muzzled dogs too, so I would give them a wide berth.

@OneDogTwoCatsHalfaDH not brachycephalic. No breathing issues. Not black (which is known to be a trigger for a lot of dogs). Not particularly large or small. Just a bog standard dog.

@OhBotherSaidPoo my dog gives out no 'behaviour.' Doesn't look at other dogs or people, just walks to heel on or off lead minding his own business and living his life.

Is your dog muzzled in public?

I'd like to see all dogs muzzled in public, if you pick specific breeds owners will claim their dog isn't that breed and ignore it.

When I was on mat leave 5 years ago I'd walk my 2 older children to school/nursery, we'd have to walk through a children's play area, which is prime spot for dog walkers as it has a field and is fenced from the road. Despite it being a children's play area (with slides/swings etc) people use it to exercise their dogs offlead. Every single day we'd have multiple dogs bounding towards my children, offlead, 0 recall. We couldn't go another route as it added around half a mile onto the walk when it was already over a mile. As a result my children who are now 10 and 8 are frightened of dogs, my 5 year old (who was newborn at the time) loves dogs, so I have concluded it is the dogs on our daily walk that caused this. If all dogs were muzzled we'd know our children were safe and assuming you pick your dog shit up won't mind you using local fields to let your dogs have a run around off lead.

Any dog can bite, my aunty had a dog from being a pup for donkeys years (a border collie), it was very well trained, never bit anyone and was a very placid dog (we'd play with it as young children and you could trust it). Then one day it went for my aunty at home completely unprovoked, thankfully it was just her arm that it went for, but she had him put down shortly after as she was worried it could be a child's face next time. All dogs can bite and be unpredictable, they are animals afterall.

Nope, I have two GR’s and not a chance in hell am I muzzling them. We live semi rural and they’re off lead on walks, unless we’re on a road or near livestock. Neither pays any attention to other dogs, they just want to chase sticks and swim

Interestingly, the only dog I've ever been bitten by (62 years ago) was a Yorkshire terrier. It bit me on the back of my ankle, Achilles tendon area, and it certainly broke the skin, witness my mother later that day scrubbing blood out of my white ankle socks. Since then I think they and chihuahuas are the dogs I've been warned about most frequently by owners, as in "Oh watch her. She's a bit bad tempered."

You’re being totally unreasonable. Some dogs yes. All dogs, no , of course not.

No. Obviously.

Intrigued that you think this would be ‘easily enforceable’. Do tell us more - who is enforcing it? And paying for that enforcement? Something for the police, is it? Or a new vastly increased army of dog wardens?

All those saying no - what is the harm in muzzling dogs?

Mine are retrievers, they retrieve, it’s their instinct. My girl spends every walk with a stick in her mouth. She loves that, I’m not taking it away from her