Overly-Friendly Strangers and Feeding

[DoeEyedBeauties]

Tell me what you would think if this happened to you and your dog.

You take kids to small park and secure dog to outside of play-park fence, along with your buggy. (It is no more than 1 1/2 meteres away, in full sight). Strange man walk along path and makes small talk with you (you are polite, but think he's being overly friendly). He sees your dog and approaches her. Your dog cowers to the ground (something she has never done with strangers before) and is very timid with stranger. Stranger keeps petting her and eventually she is waggy tail and happy. (I'm watching him like a hawk!) Stranger keeps petting her......for a full 5 minutes. He then starts ruffling around in his rucksack and I say 'she is on a special diet, so no treats.' He seems to ignore me and keeps ruffling only to say (to the dog) 'oh well, your out of luck anyways. I'm out.' He then keeps petting her for another few minutes until I'm getting kids in pushchair. (mind you, I'm not talking to him at all, he's fully absorbed with my dog). Finally get the kids sorted and dog sorted, and only then does he make to go.

Is it just me, or did me and my dog both get the heebie-jeebies from this guy?

Two issues here. Man talking to you - one issue - if you think he was being overly friendly/suspicious, then report to park manager and possibly local police.

With dog, you need to be much firmer and make it very, very clear that he should NOT be feeding your dog. If your dog is also v nervous ask politely, firmly but clearly for him to step away from dog as she is uncomfortable around him. A genuine dog lover would understand and respect that.

Personally, I would NEVER let a random stranger give food to any of our dogs, unless it is ours in the first place.

I've had similar problems with people feeding ours random treats as a pup - there is one walker in particular who has about 9 dogs so pockets bursting with treats and would always treat ours when he met him on the park. Whatever it was didn't seem to upset our's dodgy stomach so I let it go although it wasn't great from a training perspective I was just always so greatful that another dog owner was happy to have our lunatic play with his pack - the problem now is that Massive Puppy is so big he can reach into the really quite short bloke's pockets from standing like the Artful Dodger.

RE the heebie-jeebies though I would definitely pay heed. If both you and your dog felt uncomfortable then I would have moved away sharpish, or asked him to. Is yours a particularly desirable dog? Mine is a labradoodle and a very distinctive looking one at that. I get A LOT of attention out with him, but sometimes I'm happy to chat to people about him, but sometimes I lie and say he's a mongrel/lurcher cross (looks pretty lurchy especially when wet) as I just get a bad feeling about their level of interest.

She is a very beautiful looking dog. Don't know what she is as she was a rescue. I would have moved along if I didn't have my two kids playing in the play area. We had only just arrived too, so would have been tears and tantrums if we left that early. I would have said to him something along the lines of, 'ok, I think she's had enough now.' But there was no one else there and my dog is little enough that he could have hurt her right then and there if he wanted to. I came home feeling very vulnerable and feeling violated too. Thing is, he knew her name too, but I don't remember talking to him. So he must have been listening if I called her name out. Creepy.

Is her name on her ID tag?

Yes, but he said her name as he was walking up. 'Oh, is that So'n So? Hi So'n So'.

Was he an elderly gent? I would indulge him, tbh. Lots of seniors LOVE dogs but can't afford/aren't physically able to care for one. Maybe he carries treats around so he can be near dogs and have a little chat with the owners? Could be the highlight of his day...

Sriracha, usually I'd agree with you. With our three greys, we often meet elderly gentlemen who love telling us about old days with racing dogs - I agree completely that it's nice for the dogs to be social icebreakers, and we never mind stopping to chat, and for the dogs to have a cuddle.

However, what the OP describes is a bit different, not only because of its proximity to the play area, but also the dog's reaction, the OP's reaction and his refusal to respect the fact she asked him not to feed.

Dogs do get poisoned, and sadly get stolen all too often. Some dogs (we have one) have quite sensitive tums and we have a very carefully managed diet to avoid a worrying bout of colitis which can make him very ill, especially as he himself is an old boy of 12. I'd be furious if a random stranger stuffed him with treats that then triggered an illness.

Finally, if the dog is nervous and threatened, especially if they are tied up, and the man is not responding to their signals, they may become defensive, growl or even bite. Then the dog owner is in trouble, even though she asked him to leave her dog alone.

Are you sure the guy didn't know the dogs name from talking to your dh/dp? I often find people coming up to me and saying "it's isn't it? yes, it is, I knew it was him, we usually see him with your dp" or similar.

No. Not elderly. Just told my Dh who agrees with me. What a world we live in where nowhere is safe.