It’s been done to death...

[DiddlyWiddly]

But when faced with a dog that won’t piss off, what do you do?

For the third time now I’ve had the same young, boisterous, enormous dog with piss poor recall harass my dog when I’m trying to play ball with her.

I always stay well, well away from other dogs so there is zero need to approach us but alas, it runs miles away from its owner to reach us.

It was constantly blocking my dog from returning to me today and in the end I got so cross I went to leash the bastard and return it to its ineffectual owner but it ran back as soon as I went to clip it.

It’s a big dog and of a strong guarding breed so frankly, although it is clearly a friendly, exuberant adolescent I am nervous about trying to restrain it or discourage it in any way because if it bit me it could do some damage.

I see it’s owner regularly and intend to talk to them the next time I see them and insist they keep their dog away from mine, I imagine that will go well

I knew it!
I’ve been here years and thought I remembered you talking about your jack.
Do NOT tell me to socialise your dog when you openly admit yours is aggressive and cannot be trusted around children.

MY dog.
Though hey, maybe you should just let your dog socialise a bit with kids 🤷‍♀️
I’m sure he really wants to be friends really!

Have you considered pavement walks. It sounds easier

Take some twine and tie it to a bench ?

@Suzi888

Have you considered pavement walks. It sounds easier

The OP doesn’t have an issue with her dog , if other dogs left hers alone he wouldn’t bother them so why should her dog be condemned to a life on a lead / pavement because other people can’t call their dogs away .

Have you considered pavement walks. It sounds easier
Oh dear.
It all sounded so sensible in the beginning but it appears in the last lot of posts the ‘my fur baby just wants to play and your mutt better take it graciously’ brigade have joined the party...

My dog is not obligated to socialise with other dogs any more than I am obligated to stop and chat to random folk on the street.

It doesn’t make her savage or ill socialised or dangerous either.
She just doesn’t want to interact with dogs she doesn’t know and there’s no i thing wrong with that.

So called ‘playful dogs’ are not well socialised, nor playful.
They are rude and lacking in impulse control and recall training and understanding of basic dog body language.

I started the thread to get advice on what to do to get rid of dogs who persist in trying to socialise when it isn’t wanted.
That’s it.

I will buying a cheap slip lead, possibly a can of pet corrector too and I will be talking to the dogs owner when I next see them.

I am hoping they turn out to be reasonable and not a member of the My Furbaby just wants to play and your mutt better take it graciously brigade.

I suspect that they will be members of the brigade and I’ll end up keeping an eye out for them and walking not just a field away but out of eyeline entirely whenever I see them but you never know, they may surprise me!

That's terrible Lola. I hope you have recovered from your trauma.

My 76yo mum walking her dog had a doggy friends adolescent dobie jump up excitedly at her and scratched her, she's on blood thinners and had to go to the surgery for dressings for a week afterwards.

@lovelylurcher

This is difficult and I'd be interested in responses because I'm slightly on the other side of this.

I have a big, bouncy dog who has just turned one (not a guarding breed though). Her recall is improving all the time - she no longer bounds up to every dog she sees, she will always return to me (eventually!) and is generally well behaved.

HOWEVER, we often go to a field where several other dogs are let off leads, so they can play together. If my dog sees a ball, even from some distance, she's going to be interested in it...she might run after it, and is certainly not at the point whereby I could make her drop it immediately and return to me. Many of the other dogs are the same - and this seems to be accepted by the majority of walkers as it's a 'dog friendly' field. Dogs play together, they chase each others' balls, everyone is happy etc...

Of course, if you were at some distance away, on your own playing ball with your dog - and my dog ran over and bothered you and didn't come back, I would race over and get my dog on a lead as fast as I could. It doesn't sound like the owner did that, and I can totally see why that's frustrating - but does seem to an attitude on Mumsnet that if your dog doesn't have utterly perfect recall, then it should be on a lead at all times. But how do young dogs learn, in that case? You say that it went back to its owner, so...

Genuinely interested because I don't want to be the owner who pisses people off!

I hate to be boring about this but - you buy a 30 foot longline/horse lunge rope until your recall is perfect. And by perfect I mean will stop mid chase or anything and come to you.

I've got an 8 month lab who I literally recall every couple of minutes to a treat and a big YES. Every walk. All the time. I don't use her name to recall - I say heerreee. I recall her when she's feet away, when I don't need her to come and every time she locks on/focussed on anything exciting. Means I have to watch her all the time but I can now recall her mid playing and from long way away - because I'm more interesting to her - she always gets a treat. She was pretty good after a few weeks but not 100%. She's 100% now but I still do lots of random recalls on every walk. 20-30 times on a hour walk.

Now lab = extremely motivated by food so that helps. Also we'll see how she goes when she hits the teenage years - back on the lunge rope.

I picked up some excellent tips from Southern Dog Training in TikTok and YouTube.

She's on kibble and that's what I use as treats - she gets at least half her daily allowance of food this way.

I've leaned a lot from reading threads in The Doghouse about how annoying even friendly dogs with no recall are She's extremely friendly and a cute puppy but a dog reactive dog doesn't care about that.

I have fostered dogs in the past including an extremely dog reactive lurcher and I got extremely fed up with ineffectual people who let their dogs bound over while saying "it's OK he's friendly". I was in high vis, she was in a muzzle and had on 2 yellow leads with nervous dog on them.

Most of them had no recall at all. Now my foster was a lurcher and I had her pretty anchored but a bigger unmuzzled one could do a lot of damage.

I want my dog to be off lead as much as possible. And I want to be able to relax in walks. Which is why her first year is all about getting absolute, instant recall. Safe for the dog, safe for me and means she can have the freedom to be a dog without putting herself or anyone else's dogs in danger.

I'm pretty passionate about recall as you can tell.

OP are you seriously suggesting you might use spray on someone else's dog? If so you are crazy.

Also I do find it odd that you refer to this dog as a bastard???

@LolaSmiles

I have no chance of recall if a sausage roll appears Then keep them on a lead.

To be fair I have no control of myself around sausage rolls!

You need to be on a lead Missy

Actually OP I really don’t think you should be putting leads on other people’s dogs. It’s a weird thing to do unless it’s an emergency situation.
You need to go over to the other owner (talking your dog with you) and talk to them. The other dog will almost certainly follow anyway.

@savvy7

You need to be on a lead Missy

Around sausage rolls (and any kind of cake) certainly

OP are you seriously suggesting you might use spray on someone else's dog?
If they won’t fuck off and my dog is getting distressed, possibly.

If so you are crazy
You know what?
I really don’t care.
My poor dog has been bitten, chased, pinned, lunged at, by all manner of different dogs over the years.
Often unprovoked.
I will not have her retirement years ruined by dogs ignoring her requests to leave her alone.
I don’t care whether they are just ‘playful’, she isnt.

Also I do find it odd that you refer to this dog as a bastard???
Oh no.
Do you think the dog used its magic telepathic powers to listen in to my inner thoughts and was very hurt?

It’s a weird thing to do unless it’s an emergency situation
Tbf, my dog had gone through ignore - walk away - growl - air snap, I was concerned she would escalate further and the sheer size and strength of the dogs means that would probably would have been catastrophic for her if it had decided to fight back.
But I take on board your comment.

Have you tried shouting off/away, and for the want of a better word, commanding the other dogs away.

A few times I have very assertively got in front of the offending dog and shouted off and pointed away and this sometimes works. I wonder if it's more of not listening to the owner but another human they will. It also shows any owner in listening distance that they really should get their dog back.

I think you should keep your dog on a lead OP. Most owners will recognise that a dog is on a lead for a reason. If your dog is off the lead and running around, people probably think your dog is friendly / well.adjusted.

God this place is full of shut dog owners. If your dog doesn't have 100% recall when other dogs are around, put it on a lead.

The end.

Shit. Shit, not shut.

The problem is the neurotic dogs not the nice friendly dogs ...

@savvy7

The problem is the neurotic dogs not the nice friendly dogs ...

No it really isn't.

The problem is the crap dog owners.

My dog isn’t ‘neurotic’, she just doesn’t want to interact with dogs she doesn’t know!

Why the fuck should she have to put up with a dog running at her and repeatedly blocking her way and ignoring her polite requests to leave her alone when she’s trying to enjoy a game of fetch..?

She is not obligated to play with dogs she doesn’t know!

Maybe controversial but I've got a dog that can be reactive (not always but may snap). I have her on a long line and under control. A trainer mentioned a way to repel a persistent dog is to helicopter the lead round, obviously not touching pesky dog but enough to get it to bugger off. I've tried it and it works! No one gets hurt and all parties can remain calm

Would you put up with someone you didn’t know following you then repeatedly standing in front of you demanding you interact with them and ignoring you when asked to leave you alone?