Sanity check - park/lead etiquette

[Shouldof]

Just had a bit of a run in with another dog walker and despite being sure I was right she was so unapologetic that I am staing to question if I am over sensitive.

Basically i was out at park with my 12 week old mini schnauzer (so about the size of a small cat and not much experience on the ground). We were walking along the path with mini on lead and a couple of dogs, a lab and a labradoodle way off spotted us and came bounding over. Mini looked a bit nervous but at first I let them meet, owners were miles away sauntering along, but the labradoodle started getting rambunctious and leaping up on my daughter and all over my mini so I picked mini up as he started crying and reaching for me.

Finally owners reached us and I (honestly politely) suggested they keep labradoodle from leaping on small puppies on leads as it's very intimidating for them. Woman replied he was only being friendly and he was in training so he didn't always respond and she can't keep up with him so I replied perhaps she should keep him on lead until she felt she could control him. She replied that puppy classes had taught her to let him roam and meet other dogs as the best way to socialise and repeated that he was only in training himself.

I was a bit annoyed by her lack of concern about having no control over such a large dog so I got A bit sarky and asked whether puppy training really told her she should allow her dog to bound up to and jump all over small puppies on lead far away from her control and did she allow her dog to do that to children and astoundingly her unashamed reply was yes but apparently that was fine because he dog was still learning and some children like it.

Should I be accepting that out of control dogs will leap all over my puppy and children if we go to the park?, actually I can handle that as mistakes happen but she was acting like it wasn't a mistake her end but that others should just accept it, ie it was my problem not hers.

She should have control of her dog shouldn't she? And if he's a pup and mistakes happen, she shoulda accept responsibility and apologise and not get pissy with me, surely?

She should have control of her dog shouldn't she? And if he's a pup and mistakes happen, she shoulda accept responsibility and apologise and not get pissy with me, surely?

Yup.

welcome to the world of dog ownership!!! where you discover how inconsiderate others are!!!

She was in the wrong, BUT you will discover that as a dog owner our dogs do show us up sometimes. (I have a giant and his recall is about 95% when it comes to other dogs, therefore I am hyper vigilant when it comes to when he is off lead, but occasionally he spots a dog before me - let me add I am very careful when I let him off lead......I wouldn't let him off in a busy park)

Her second mistake was not to apologise profusely, and agree that yes she should keep her dog lead and put him on lead. just not acceptable for a large dog to jump all over smaller dogs and children.....but sadly it won't be the last time you experience this.......

Mrslaughn yes I accept mine will show me up, owner said same to me, but my response to her was that I would (i hope and assume) accept responsibility for that not take her approach of expecting others just to accept her dogs beaver because he isn't trained yet.

I am worried I am biased as have never been a fan of dog owners after a few bad experiences so I do hope I am doing my by best to be a responsible dog owner as a result.

As has been said, slip-ups do happen, but if you know your dog is unlikely to respond to you, you should have it on lead. If/when an occasional slip-up does happen, of course you should apologise and accept responsibility, being 'in-training' is not an excuse if you are making zero attempt to control the dog and it's miles away from you harassing someone else.

I'm feeling ratty today because some idiot decided it would be a good idea to use a ball flinger to throw a tennis ball, which was then rapidly followed by a hyper Border Collie - straight at my on-lead dogs this afternoon, causing one to get excited and bouncy at the prospect of a game of ball and the other to freak out because an off-lead dog was careering towards him.

Who in their right mind would think it a good idea to lob a ball directly at two large on-lead dogs?

... he didn't just do it once either. In the end I had to abandon the dcs with my Mum and rapidly exit the park with my dogs, because it seemed no matter how far up the path we got the ball flinger was determined to chuck his ball in our direction.

I've spent months and months working on my younger dog's fear of off-lead dogs. We were just starting to get somewhere and that ball flinging numpty has probably set us back several stages.