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.

I'm not a dog person, some dogs make me nervous, but I disagree. Plenty of dog owners are responsible and are in control of their dogs.

YABU

Golly, we've not had one of these for a while.

They are, but they are far more likely to predict an outcome based on a movement than a word. Besides, what you are saying is that they have learned (i.e. been taught) what the word means. Either consciously or sub consciously.

It's quite easily proved. Next time you encounter a dog owner who believes their dog understands words, and believes they have trained the dog to sit, get the owner to put their hands in their pockets, stand totally still, and ask their dog to sit. You will be quite surprised at how few have actually been trained on the noise, and sit because of some movement the owner made.

My dog understands loads of words, but he looks for a whole bunch of things before he decides we really mean it. For example, if we are talking in general and say the word 'walk' he'll look up from whatever he is doing but no more. If we say 'let's go' (whatever we are saying let's go about) he's at the door bright eyed and bushy tailed. If we say sit he looks at us with a 'really' face on until we say it seriously and preferably with some hand gestures. But if we say treat (in conversation with each other, unrelated to him in any way) he'll come right up to us and sit, wagging his tail. Just in case.

It was a bit like during covid when everyone was colliding with sweaty germy runners around every corner.

I don't think dogs need to be muzzled unless they are dangerous (perhaps if they have bitten someone they could be muzzled in public rather than being put down).

But they do need to be on short leads in shared use spaces like canal towpaths.

I walk my dog everyday this has literally never happened to me?
this is such a awful and sad thing to suggest. When are people going to accept that we have to tolerate animals?

Never been attacked by a dog in public. People? Lots of them hurt other people, intentionally or otherwise, every week. Better to have a dog to protect yourself from people, statistically.

Rottie owner here.

We've noticed the opposite, i'd say around 50% of our walks (the other 50% being out at 5am so we don't see anyone else) we usually encounter another dog (Usually along the lines of a cockapoo, terrier, Chihuahua, always smaller dogs) who go absolutely ballistic at the sight of her. She walks on by completely unbothered while the other dog is throwing an absolute fit.

I was waiting outside of a coffee shop with her the other day, to the side of the path so everyone could get past us. She was just sat peacefully next to me watching the world go by. Then all of a sudden theres a barrage of yaps and there's two small dogs (couldn't get the breed, they were white and fluffy) lunging toward her. The owner then had the nerve to tell me that if i trained my dog properly there wouldn't be an issue. Begs the question which one was trained really, the one that was sat there peacefully, not reacting to anything or the ones lunging, barking and growling and generally being a menace trying to attack her. The woman ended up dragging them away.

But then since she was 10 weeks old we've socialised her and put hours into her training so she's now incredibly calm and doesn't react. But still she's a rottweiler so clearly her existence is just a problem to some people.

And yet, labs have the highest bite record-you can Google it. Probably because of their numbers and everyone thinking they’re the perfect family dog. I blame the Andrex adverts. One had a pop at mine this evening, of course he’s never done it before 😏

I’m not going to muzzle my dogs for no good reason. I have previously when I had a da dog but as mentioned, a muzzle won’t stop a determined aggressive dog.

I've never had this either. I had my dog 14 years and not once did another dog lunge and snarl. I think this is a case of a person who doesn't understand dog language. Probably one that bought during covid and hasn't a clue.

I had mine for 15 years, and we came across snarling and lunging dogs a few times. Most were on lead, and probably just reactive to other dogs. That is fine. We just walked on by.
One two other occasions, I had to drop her lead and let her run because the other dogs were trying to attack her. Totally irresponsible of the dog owners to have reactive dogs off lead.

Lol dont be daft. My sweetheart of a westie wouldn't hurt a fly.

YABVVU.
Completely ridiculous and stupid post.
Bore Off!!!!

Yup, so you've taught him those words. Either consciously, or unconsciously. He would not know them through any form of evolution.

Do you think children know words without being taught them? They learn them through education and imitation, they aren’t born knowing language intrinsically.

Just like a child.

This was my original point.

Exactly

Oh for goodness sake. My daughter’s toy poodle weighs less than 3kg. I’d feel safer if all children were muzzled - they are bigger & more likely to bite 🙄

I'm not a dog lover but I do dislike dogs on these very long leads where they are free to run across the narrow roads and behave almost as though they're not on a lead at all.

What a weird comment. I agree all dogs don’t need muzzling but obviously kids aren’t more likely to bite than dogs, if yours are that’s on you.

Dog owners need to figure out that not everyone likes dogs.

We already do.
People who hate dogs need to figure out that the world does not pander to them.

Absolutely not. I walk my dog twice a day and have never encountered a dangerous dog.