Horrible experience today

[TessApricot]

I had a horrid experience walking my 3 year old golden retriever today. I’d just put her on lead as I’d heard some barking ahead when suddenly a lady and four big dogs came into our view. The only dog she had on lead was also a golden retriever which was barking and lunging, and the others were all off lead and ran towards my dog, surrounded her and were barking aggressively, one of them was going for her ears again and again and growling, showing teeth etc. My poor dog just sat there cowering whilst I shouted at the dogs and told the woman to recall them but for most of it I was just scared and stood still. The owner had absolutely no control!! Eventually they followed her away but I’m furious that someone would be walking four out of control aggressive dogs alone! My dog is so submissive and friendly - I really hope this hasn’t shaken her too much. The owner didn’t even come forward to try and grab her most aggressive dog who was going for mine.

I was really shaken when it happened, but tonight I feel really guilty that I just froze and didn’t do enough to protect my dog. :(

@Branleuse

im sorry that happened. Its so scary when it does. Im glad other people have said let the dog off lead, as when thats happened to my staffie, Ive always tried to keep hold of her, but in actual fact, maybe if she had a go back, the other owners might think twice about letting their shitty barky dogs run up and aggress mine.

Letting them off the lead when they are approached by an off lead dog is to de-escalate the situation. When a dog is on the lead and another comes into it, it feels trapped and likely to snap. If you drop the lead, it gives them the option to stand their ground or run.

How awful.

My lovely, friendly lab was attached about 3 times when he was around one.
A terrrier twice and a bulldog. The owners did nothing. Now I have a fearful hugely reactive dog who can’t really be off the lead.

I wish I’d never got a dog to be honest. I had no idea they would fight so much. It’s such a common problem.

Attacked

Unfortunately this happens. I fail to see how anyone can control four large dogs on a walk if a situation arised. Next time you see her walk the other way. I have this situation mainly with dog walkers. They are walking other peoples dogs and just let them off leash expecting them to come back. More and more people have bought dogs under lockdown as if its a craze. Some councils have different regulations on how many dogs can be walked but four is legal in most areas. Out of control dogs is not legal however. Next time you walk check to see if they get into a dog walking work van. We've had to report a few dog walkers in my area due to livestock deaths and leaving poo. The council and police went straight for them.

My friend's beautiful Lab, Bertie, was killed in the summer. A "professional" dog walker had six dogs off the lead in their local park, two of them went for Bertie. My friend let go of the lead, Bertie ran and was pursued by the dogs right out of the park, on to the road, where he was hit by a van. 😢😢😢

Poor Bertie was PTS later that day by the vet. The dog walker was spoken to by the local police and / or dog warden, but is still in business and still has packs of dogs off the lead. To be fair, she was full of apologies at the time, and did offer to pay the vet's bills but my friend refused as she didn't want anything else to do with her.

I always say that I love all dogs, but I love mine more than anyone else's. I've never been in that situation myself, but I really think that I would kick another dog if that happened to us.

Glad your dog is OK OP, I've had Retrievers myself and they were lovely dogs, soft as butter.

@carriemoonbeams How awful for your friend. Personally I think local councils should limit the amount of dogs people can walk. I know ours are looking into due to the amount of incidents there has been with so called "professional " dog walkers.

When our small dog on lead hot attacked by 2 big dogs off lead and owner in sight my dh picked up our dog and when 1 big dog went to bite him do he kicked it hard several times until it backed off. Our dog peed in fear and did not want to go out for a walk and kept pulling back in for several days. It turned out the 2 dogs were owned by very old lady who had zero control of them.

It's a difficult one to get right though isn't it? In the situation with my friend's poor dog, and in some others mentioned here, it happened when a "professional" dog walker had a pack of dogs that she had no control over - I'm guessing those dogs didn't have the bond with her that they had with their owners, so were less inclined to obey her. Or of course they just weren't well trained in the first place. Or indeed that she wasn't enough of a "dog person" to read their body language in advance so she didn't realise this was going to happen.

But I have 6 dogs myself, all trained to a high standard. I don't often walk them all together because they are a fairly motley crew of breeds, ages and abilities so they don't all like the same type of walk. I also cannot be arsed with people most of the time anyway, so I prefer quiet walks in remote places, or I have access to a field I can use when I want them all to have a blast together. Obviously at home they're all together and we have a massive garden so they can run/sniff/womble slowly around depending on their own preferences.

Many of the posts here are about owners with their own one or two untrained, aggressive dogs though, so we can't restrict them. I'd also hate to be told that I couldn't walk my wee gang together because I exceeded some Council limit.

It's terribly sad to read these stories.