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.

That is so weird because it never happens to me.

We don’t need to muzzle all dogs just because some people (I.e you) and completely clueless about dogs.

I have never seen a dog muzzled on the continent

i suspect your dog is the problem if it’s always attracting problem dogs although you sound like you’ll never admit it

You muzzle your dog for no reason??

I don't believe you.

If everyone muzzles their dogs, I’d do the same. But I have two little chihuahuas and the amount of times they’ve been attacked is too many. Even though they are snappy, I’d not muzzle as they need to defend themselves.

I mean most people don't get a dog because they want a human with 4 legs and fur. They don't want to train it not to be a dog, they want it to live the life that makes them happy. Not all dogs are hunters, some are herders, others are guard dogs, then we have dogs that are happiest just being companions. All of them have the ability to communicate with their owners and other people, just have to know at least a tiny bit about dogs to be able to do so.

Do your dogs lunge and yap at passing dogs? I see this behaviour a lot with small dogs as people often don’t think they need to be trained in the same way. This could be the reason.
of course if your dogs are well trained then no

Those breeds are not stubborn or difficult to train at all.

Definitely agree with owners being a lot of the problem. If only people understood that socialising a dog does not mean introducing it to as many different dogs as possible. It would actually be better if dog owners prevented any unsupervised interaction between dogs.

GSDs, Rottweilers, dobermans etc are working dogs and require a high level of skill and attention which most people cannot and won’t give them. That’s what I was referring to

I agree that they have certain needs and requirements, but they are no more difficult to train than a labrador. Well within the capability of any owner. But then, the amount of untrained labradors demonstrates that it isn't really about the dog. I get far more labradors running up to me than German Shepherds, often accompanied by the "it's ok, he's friendly".

In the main, owners of GSDs, Dobies, and Rotties usually put more effort into training as they know the dogs have specific needs. While there are exceptions, I think there are fewer badly behaved dogs of that type despite the potential consequences being more serious. Also, the press would have you believe that they are all likely to bite your leg off which adds to the hysteria.

The breed I encounter the most problems with is the flat coat retriever.

Absolutely agree with you on the Labrador thing. My FIL has a lab and he is never permitted to run up to anyone despite being very soppy. You just never know how the other dog or person is going to react.
there’s a family near me with one of those doodle mutt dogs and it’s always running up to people and other dogs even when they say no. The owners just shout that she’s friendly! They are the dogs that need to be muzzled, or better taken away from those ‘owners’

Yes- the older one does. He never did when he was younger but a large dog tried to grab him and it’s started. I did try picking him up a few times but I’ve almost been knocked over while the owners of the other dog (who is jumping at me) tell me I’m over reacting.

I feel with the small dogs they’ve got this attitude of “I’ll bark first” if scared to ward off other dogs from coming near.

It would be worth taking him to a behaviouralist as his yapping is likely winding up the other dogs :/ it’s difficult when they have trauma but it’s kinder to try to fix it

An adult dog understands roughly the same number of words as the average two year old.ie around 200 words. They definitely speak human, they recognise their names, commands and cues like walk. Well trained dogs are people pleasers and do as they’re told.

Well trained dogs are people pleasers and do as they’re told.

Never had a hound, then 😁

I'm also not convinced humans should be telling dogs what to do. Supervising, monitoring, working with them, motivating them, understanding them... yes.
But I don't think telling dogs what to do in many circumstances is the best way forward. To an extent of course because they live in our world.

The problem with things like “all dogs should be muzzled in public” is that they can give a false sense of security. Some owners will think their dog is muzzled so they don’t need training. A muzzle in public isn’t going to stop a badly trained, untrained or aggressive dog biting in the home. And it won’t stop them knocking people over.

Dog behaviour is intrinsically linked to the breed, and the purpose of the breed.
1000s of years of selective breeding to do a job doesn't disappear once they got invited onto the sofa.
Some breeds are biddable by nature. Some breeds are aloof. Some breeds are meant to be dogged and determined to never back down in a fight either against other dogs, badgers, wolves. Some are bred to follow their owners every command, and others are bred to be independent thinkers to solve problems.
Some dogs would rather die than live without human companionship whilst others were bred to live amongst herds of goats and sheep on mountainsides, protecting the herd against thieves, bears and wolves.
Simply saying well trained dogs are people pleasers and do as they're told does a huge disservice to dogs and sets the dog and their owners up for failure.

Agree. My on-leash GSD was attacked by a mid size cockerpoo yesterday. This has happened 4 times when the poo was off lead and once was massive reactivity when on lead.
The problem is generally the owners and muzzling dogs makes responsible owners pay for the irresponsible ones who have even less reason to train their dogs.
There are too many crap owners but the number of dog haters on here is ridiculous.

This has never happened to me, in over 40 years.

Sort of. Actually, human words are just abstract noises to dogs unless the dog has been taught what to do when it hears the noise.

If what you mean is that dogs can be taught to recognise what to do when their monkey makes certain noises, then I agree that a dog can learn at least 200 different noises and associate behaviours to those noises.

If what you mean is that dogs understand the words, then no, they absolutely don't.

I think you mean the former, but it is worth clarifying as I think a lot of dog owners think their dog is naughty / stubborn / insert other human term here, when actually what they mean is that they haven't taught the dog what to do when it hears the noise (word).

I think my arsehole cat needs a muzzle more than my dogs, the amount of dead things she brings in

It would be interesting to know what vets who work in small animal practice think about this suggestion. My Doberman is never muzzled when he visits the vets and is calm and steady and will happily submit to all and any investigations (ears, teeth, heart etc) and doesn’t react to or even seem to notice injections. He seems to enjoy his annual health checks!

Other dogs are not so chill and the vet will read signals and know which dogs will need to be muzzled to allow a stranger in a strange environment to touch them regardless of their size or breed or common conceptions of the breed.

They’re dogs and they respond to hormones and body language of other dogs. So there are going to be kerfuffles. Don’t have a dog if you can’t accept that they can’t all be trained to be angels. My dog is very well trained but still wants to boss around younger male dogs. It’s normal stuff actually for the younger ones to learn limits, but precious owners might construe it as an attack.

I have a reactive chihuahua he's old now but it looks like he is lunging for dogs when he sees them he isn't he is just being reactive because of this I don't let him off the lead and I don't let him near other dogs on walks because people judging him like your doing op if I let him slowly be introduced he would be fine because I have friends with dogs and he's fine after a while !!
Just because your dog is being good don't be so goady ! There are some people who are crap dog owners but the majority of people I come across everyday have lovely pooches and love their dogs !!

You do know that dogs (and all other animals) are sentiment beings and not robots. They can pick up words, behaviours and meaning by themselves, they don't need a human to teach them.