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?

Definitely the dog off the lead. If you can't recall your dog back from an on lead dog, your dog should be on a lead because it isn't under your control.

You can't tell why a dog is on a lead, so the correct procedure is to check with the dog's owner before letting your dog approach.

You also shouldn't let your dog approach people without checking that it is OK. Clearly some people make it obvious that they are dog lovers before your dog reaches them, but you shouldn't assume this.

My dog is aggressive to other dogs, we generally walk him at night when there are less dogs around. However if we go out in the day and see another dog i put myself between the other dog and our dog, move to the side and stop walking. It amazing me the amount of people that let their off lead dogs come tight up to us and say oh it's ok he's friendly, hmm but mine isn't and I thought that was pretty obvious! Definitely the off lead dogs fault.

Definitely the owner of the dog off lead. I have a four year old spaniel who is mostly friendly, but if I see another dog on lead when he's off lead, I recall him and pop his lead back on. He gets frustrated, and barks, but I'd rather he get frustrated than cause problems for another owner.

For example, he wanted to play with a lady dog who'd just been spayed, both dogs were on lead. She wanted to play too, both were play bowing to each other, but the thought of what that could do to her stitches just didn't bear thinking about.

Dog of the lead, obviously.

How far back do you expect a person to be able to pull their 'on the lead' dog?

Also, why the Fuck should they?

Our old dog was a rescue and could be very stroppy with other dogs. I always put him on lead if we were approaching another dog as I couldn't predict his behaviour and in his later years he was muzzled. Dogs bounding over unchecked were my absolute nightmare.

I now have a puppy who loves to play and will approach anyone. I always call him away from dogs on lead and we walk at a local 'dog walkers' park where most dogs are well socialised and off lead. Last week he approached a spaniel who growled at him but her owner said she was okay. He backed off and then decided to try again - I called him back as she looked unsettled (she was off lead) but as I did so she nipped his ear. I blame myself and my puppy for this. Amd we're working tirelessly on recall for this very reason . He's brilliant 95% of the time but I'm aware that the other 5% could get him hurt.

I have an 18 month old dog who is scared of off-lead dogs, but happy to walk past dogs on the lead or those that are walking slowly with their owners, under close control and even greet those that approach quietly and calmly. The reality is though, that he would most probably prefer not to socialise with other dogs and would be quite happy just having our other dog as his only friend. Other people seem to find this concept impossible to grasp and seem to think their dogs can somehow miraculously make him friendly and sociable.

In actual fact, he's only scared of off-lead dogs because of the number of times he has had dogs charge up to him and leap all over him. In fact, the first two walks he had when he was allowed down after his vaccinations he was rolled by dogs that did exactly that, having run the length of the park to get to him. Poor pup was absolutely terrified and has never got over it. I couldn't ask either owner to call their dogs back either, because in both cases they were on the other side of the park completely ignoring the chaos their dog was causing. I'm sure both dogs would be considered extremely friendly towards other dogs, but in reality they were rude bullies with absolutely atrocious social skills.

My lad now starts barking as soon as he sees a dog on the horizon and is constantly anxious and hypervigilant for the possibility of another dog appearing in the distance.

I've done a lot of work with him and had specialist help and support from a number of excellent professionals, but the reality is that he will probably never completely get over it and walks will never be as relaxed as they could have been for us, purely because of the total lack of disregard for others displayed by the other dogs' owners.

I don't understand people's reluctance for their to be a mutual agreement between owners before letting dogs off to play together. It only takes a second to sort out and would eliminate so many problems if everyone did it.

The off lead dog is at fault.

It never ceases to amaze me how many people think their dogs are well socialised and yet their dogs fail to recognise the really obvious body language from my dog that says DO NOT APPROACH - I do not want to say hello. I do think that adult dogs that rush over and are in my dogs face are not super friendly as their owners would have us believe but bullies who want to dominate or just incredibly stupid and have never grown-up.

My dog is all bark, she just wants to be left alone by most dogs. However if a polite dog approaches slowly and calmly, she will say a brief hello.

Our dog gets very worried and uncomfortable when on the lead and an off the lead dog runs over and gets in his face. You can tell he feels trapped. He tries to get as far away as possible and sometimes when cornered like this will act aggressively. He is never aggressive otherwise.
I hate it when people just let their dogs do this. They shout things like 'don't worry, she'll not touch you.'. I wish I had the nerve to say 'get your great big jumping dog away from me and my little dog'.

Definitely the dog off the lead at fault, and really pisses me off when this happens.

This is one of my biggest gripes about dog walkers who have their dog off the lead. I had a springer spaniel fantastic family dog but when he was a puppy he got attacked by another dog and since then - well lets just say attack was the best form of defence. I reluctantly with a very heavy heart realised that I could never allow him to be off the lead just because I couldn't run the risk of him attacking another dog. However, the other stupid dog walkers would allow their dog off lead and come up to mine even though the owners could see he was desperate just to get at that dog. It was horrendous, I remember comments like "it's okay my dog's friendly" I used to shout back at them "well mines not and it's gonna have yours" It used to drive me mad and I used to dread walking him because of other peoples stupidity, so in the end my dog would suffer because I didn't like doing the long walks or I would drive to places with him to keep him away from other dogs. So yes definitely the owner with the off lead dog because as far as I'm concerned the other owner is acting responsibly in the first place.

Often I see an owner with two dogs, one on and one off the lead which is confusing. and then while I am deliberating, they call out, He is ok, ie. I dont need to lead mine

Ime most people I meet in the park struggle to call their dog back from approaching another dog. I am the person in the park trying to train my dog on a long lead, often dogs will run up when I'm in the middle of training, annoying dogs will hang around goading Dpup to join them, the owner will be nowhere in sight. Pulling my dog away doesn't work because the other dog just follows. I would say that only 10% of people have trained their dogs to the point where they can control an introduction or call their dog back from approaching another dog. They sometimes say daft things like "oh come on pooch you know you're not allowed to hassle dogs on a lead" - given their dog doesn't get a one word command like come it's hardly going to understand a sentence!
However I've yet to come across an aggressive off lead dog and most of the time the dogs that greet us while Dpup is on a lead are lovely so we just muddle through it.

Ime most people I meet in the park struggle to call their dog back from approaching another dog

I find it really really hard. Silly puppy is just about 6 months and I'm constantly playing "spot the dog" to get him on lead and stop him from approaching other dogs. Every once in a while I miss the other dog and away silly puppy goes. It's only over the past few weeks that he's stopped half way and reluctantly come back to me (I shout, "NOODLE COME!" Over and over while walking the other way).

He is getting much better. Yesterday we ran into the same GSD 4 times on our walk! The first two times he was on lead so I called silly puppy back. The third time he was off and running in a field with other dogs and silly puppy looked at me for permission before joining in. At some point I think it's likely he will grow out of running up to every dog but I'm not sure how I'm going to get to the point of realising that!

I'm practicing the stop and then wait command when Dpup sees other dogs.