if you dog off the lead ran up to a dog on the lead and the dog on the lead went for him, whose fault is it?

[R4roger]

My DM told me how this happened and how it was obviously the fault of the dog off the lead for running up, but ok, surely you pull your aggressive on the lead back and stop it from going for other dogs?

Dogs that are aggressive and who attack should be muzzled. Especially those on a lead.

well in this case they should be on a lead

It's usually those who have a crap recall who defend the dog's "right" to approach others who are onlead, and question whether dogs with issues should be out in public at all

It's just common sense and courtesy really. Is it REALLY that inconvenient to spend 3 seconds checking if another dog is ok to approach? Does it REALLY ruin your walk that much to keep your dog away from a dog who doesn't want to be approached for whatever reason??

That's what baffles me.

But another dog doesn't have to be aggressive in order to upset another dog!

The owner of the dog off the lead is at fault.

But I'd bet my house that even if you stuck glass up their nails they would never, ever admit fault and always, always claim their dog was super friendly.

Note these are the dogs that never, ever come when they are called.

Silly puppy is 5.5 months old and I always put him back on lead whenever I spot another dog (whether on lead or off lead). I manage to spot the dog 95% of the time. The other 5% of the time, silly puppy will spot them first. TBF to him, he is now consistently desperate to go to them but reluctantly comes back to me. However, because of the obvious desperation to run up to them and jump around them, I always keep a look out for other dogs.

If he were to run up to another dog (and he has done in the past), it would absolutely be my fault if the other dog went for him.

There isn't necessarily any difference from the POV of the dog being approached Everlong.

*OP out of interest did the dog run up in an aggressive way or having a nosey and a sniff?

Because the two are very different.*

Not to a dog who is frightened.

I did my best to walk DDog1 at times and in places where we had as little chance as possible of running into other people but it was impossible to completely avoid other dogs. The "it's ok, he's friendly" brigade were the bane of my (and DDog1's) life. It didn't matter that my dog was shrieking on the floor wetting himself with fear, it was never their fault for letting their dog come over uninvited. Admittedly his was an extreme case but it was people with "friendly" off lead dogs that made it impossible to ever progress with DDog1's training and meant he eventually ended up as a house dog.

Obviously there's no such thing as 100% perfect recall and even the best trained dog will occasionally stick their fingers up at their owners but there's a difference between owners who are obviously mortified and are trying to get their dog back and those who just let their dog run up to whoever it feels like.

Everlong I know you where not talking about your dogs BUT any dog approaching a dog without invitation is a pain in the arse.

As a behaviourist I see hundreds of dogs that have been put under stress by owners of "they are friendly and just want to play" dogs that have literally wrecked other dogs. A introvert dog will not want a dog in their face - many dogs do not want to meet other dogs. Look at the body language of dogs meeting and greeting and there will by about 5% that enjoy it the rest are stressed.

People are crap at reading dogs body language and forcing dogs to interact. Only let your dog go up to another dog if you have checked with the owner of the other dog first. If a dog is onlead NEVER EVER let your dog approach

A nosey and a sniff is a pretty full on greeting for dogs - most dogs will not welcome this, some have learnt to tolerate it, others enjoy it but you are forcing a situation on dogs.

the question was a hypothetical one and 99% of the time my dog is friendly. thus far. There is one I know she isnt keen on and I try to either distract her or call her away or put her on the lead, both of them are off leads btw but I think she is frightened.

i check with dog owners whose dogs are on lead, because quite often they are on the lead because they run away.

Everlong of course it does not mean dogs should not be off lead. They should be trained to walk past other dogs unless both owners are happy for an interaction no biggy just a bit of training or put the dog on a lead.

yes rarely seen as people like me, walk their dogs at times or places where they hopefully won't meet too many other dogs. I hate that a dog running up to my otherwise friendly and completely stupid Labrador turn him into a barking, urinating quivering wreck.

Its not too bad when H walks him as he has near perfect recall then and H will call him and we will run back to H but hes firmly on the lead with me or teen dc.

I'd say 90% the fault of the off lead dog.

But, if you have a dog that is likely to 'go for' any other dog that comes within range then I think there is an onus on you to muzzle them as you might meet another dog unavoidably (passing on pavement etc), and to think about where you walk them - if you're trotting round the local dog park then it's hardly surprising if there are some off lead dogs there. Surely rather than blindly saying 'it isn't my fault' there's an onus on the owner of any dog with an issue to try and avoid the issue. Ditto owners of dogs with recall/over-friendliness/bike-phobia problems.

Off the lead dog. It pees me off the number of owners who yell its ok he's friendly as their dog terrorises mine who is on the lead. He's only on the lead because he doesn't like other dogs chasing him and I can at least pick him up whereas once a dog is chasing him he'll run until he vomits with fear. He's small and a lab/GSD chasing him terrifies him

I could have written Mrs DV's post. My dog completely ignores other dogs and can walk off lead very happily

Mrs DV I'm not really thinking about dogs that will happily walk past others, I'm thinking of the ones that launch themselves, frothing and snarling, at the end of their leads when another dog comes anywhere nearby.

If that's your dog then I think you do have an onus to muzzle, rather than assume that no dog will ever come near you.

TwelveLeggedWalk - that's my dog...he is muzzled, but, he still tries to attack dogs anyway. I don't know if you've ever been hit by a muzzled dog, it hurts, he'll also use his paws, and has cut a dog's lip by doing that. A muzzle doesn't make him safe - for smaller dogs especially...and as he's a large dog that's most of them. He isn't at the end of a lead, I'm practically pinning him down, but I can't control every bit of his body.

You've also got the fact that I've put months and months of work into getting him calmly past other dogs at a certain distance, every time a dog comes closer than that they set back my training. ( at one point across a road was too close for him)

Also, I get injured because at that point I'm just an obstacle to him and he will try to go through me to get to the dog that's too close to him.

The only time that happens is when offlead dogs approach as I'm very very careful about what I do with him. (Because weirdly, I prefer to be able to reinforce his calm behaviour rather than wrestle with him, lol)

everlong - there's no difference to my dog, a dog is a dog no matter how it approaches.