Leash Etiquette

[Sitdowncupoftea]

With the amount of new dog owners at the moment it's unbelievable how stupid some are. My dogs are never off leash due to the breed. I walk them on a leash and switch to a long line. If I see another dog they are brought to heel in the sit or down position depending if the other dog is under control. Only yesterday I was out for a walk and twice I had to shout at dog owners with no recall to control their dogs. My poor dog was sat behaving at my feet and had to endure a GSD running up with a full force jump on him. I could see it coming and shouted to the man get your dog under control. The man took no damn notice. In the end my dog had enough and bit his dog. I didn't apologise I had nothing to appologeise for. I just felt sorry for the GSD as the poor dogs owner is a complete imbecile. Dogs are on leash for a reason. I won't muzzle my dog unless he's in close proximity of humans however I'm pig sick of people with off leash dogs that think this behaviour is acceptable. For a you newbie dog owners if you see an onleash dog don't let yours run up and jump on it.

I agree

Completely agree. I have a nervous, onlead dog and she hates uncontrolled dogs running rings around her. Boils my blood

Even when muzzled a man brought his ddog to sit next to us in a bench.. Poor ddog was nearly exploding! Some people are just fools..

Very annoying. I have a well behaved dog with very good recall but he ends up having to be on a lead because of the badly behaved dogs chasing him and jumping all over him - he's older and more nervous than he was since he can't run as fast. Thankfully there's places near me usually deserted

Absolutely 100% agree

I agree. I have a nervous tiny spaniel who constantly gets harassed by big dogs with no recall off leads, the owners never do anything to stop them and just seem to think it’s funny 🙄 she now gets so scared that she plants herself to a spot and shivers. She had to go on a lead now, so she doesn’t run off in a blind panic. I am getting bored of irresponsible dog owners!

I agree. We only left the house last night and an unleashed poodle type came running down the road to my reactive GSD. She nearly lost her mind. Of course all anybody could see was my dog barking, lunging and snarling at this cute little dog, while I knew she was simply terrified.

So sick of people who can't/won't control their off lead dogs and I'm tired of having to fight off dogs that want to leap all over me or my dog.

My dog is 10 years old now and a small breed. She's now becoming quite nervous of other dogs, especially big ones, as it's happened so often.

I've had so much abuse as well, from people when I've asked them to get their dogs under control; swearing at me, isn't going to teach your dog how to recall, idiots.

Where I walk DDog, people tend to walk their dogs off lead and then put them back on when you meet people. I often ask if they want to let their dog say hello, in which case we do a short greet and keep walking.
I have unfortunately (a few yrs ago, not covid related) had a large GSD run at and attack DDog and his owner stood about 50ft away and never came near us and never apologised. I felt sorry for the GSD as I stopped the attack but was so pee'd off at the owner.

Absolutely agree, usually here on MN you get the 'it's just dogs being dogs and you're wrong to not like dogs approaching your dog' brigade. Quite frankly these tend to be self entitled fuck everyone else I'll do what I want and take no responsibility for my own actions type of people. They piss me off.

I had a rather unusual problem the other day - my dog was off lead and an owner with a puppy on lead followed him around the park so their puppy could harass him

They'd had a perfectly polite greeting - the sort where you have essentially approached each other because you're coming in opposite directions on a path in the park. DDog then ambled off because he's now a bit middle aged and CBA with puppies. Puppy owner proceeded to follow him with on lead puppy to allow puppy to harass him.

I had to have a word in the end - they weren't getting the hint, DDog was getting increasingly irritated, and eventually he would have snapped at the puppy.

Idiots everywhere!

Completely agree. I was so cross with myself the other day. My nervous lab was on lead and a massive Doberman bounds over out of nowhere. No recall. My lab growled and went for him but no contact. Owner looked at me annoyed so I apologised. I think it’s because I was alone in the woods and it was a man and I didn’t want confrontation.

But it was completely his fault! I’ll be shouting more at owners in the future. It’s so hard though.
My dog is just telling them to go away and he is on lead!

@Delatron gosh, how annoying! I probably would do the same! I have been in the same boat as I don't want to be seen as an over protective dog owner and I want her to socialise with other dogs..however she is a tiny spaniel and is getting trampled by labs etc, I am getting frightened that they end up hurting her. I take her out early in a morning now to avoid all these idiots!

Dogs off lead shouldn’t approach on lead dogs without permission. (Sometimes we meet young dogs who do want to say a quick hello!)
But @Sitdowncupoftea what breed of dog can’t be allowed off lead?

@Glitterb @pigsDOfly I could have written both your posts! I have a tiny, anxious, placid, older dog.

Walked her on a close lead as usual last week and she was jumped all over by a bigger dog, off-lead. Asked, then told, then raised my voice at its owner to Call. Their. Dog. Off. I didn’t swear or scream I just wanted them to control their bloody dog who was scaring mine witless.

Result - I got insulted, sworn at and told to fuck off.

So that’s that lovely walking spot spoiled as I saw the same person out the next day and don’t want to walk there any more.

@Glitterb yes it’s so frustrating. I’ve progressed to shouting ‘he’s not friendly’ if a dog is bothering him. And I have a yellow bandana that says ‘caution I need space’ but lots still ignore.

Same here, they tend to be the same type of dog owner that thinks they don't have to pick dog poo up!

Just this morning I was walking my dog along the road, just about to turn into my street. We came across a much bigger dog not on a lead, who tried to run over to my dog. Luckily the man called the dog back with a treat, but it still scared my dog, who reacts to off lead dogs approaching her when she is on the lead. No apology nothing.

I think this mindset from other owners stems from the constant misinformation everywhere that puppies and dogs need to be “socialised” lots with other dogs and people to make them a well rounded dog. So people interpret that as letting their dog play with as many dogs as possible. Socialisation is a misleading term and needs better explanation. In some ways it is antisocialisation that is needed, so dogs learn to ignore unknown people and dogs. I once had a husky jump up and lick my sons face while the owner shouted “it’s ok he is friendly”. I tried to tell the owner as politely as possible that it is scary for the children if a dog does that. And he said in a patronising voice “that’s why I am telling you he won’t hurt you” like I was terribly stupid. Like that fixes everything and dog has a given right to approach anyone/any dog they want.

This is the bane of my life! I keep my puppy on a lead because she is a puppy with absolutely no recall yet! I don't want other dogs that are out of control coming over and jumping on her - it infuriates me!!!!!

I was walking my 5 month old in her pram through the park last week. Some asshole with a boxer dog was lobbing a tennis ball along the path for his dog to catch.

There are two massive green spaces on either side of the path that wher obviously not good enough for him to do this on instead.

Anyway he lobs the ball and it misses me and the baby by inches which causes the Boxer to charge towards us. I froze in a panic. Thankfully a couple where walking by at the same time and the man intercepted the dog before it collided with us.

They started to give off to the dog owner about being irresponsible but he just gave the three of us the finger and walked on without even taking his headphones off.

@Turquoisesol FFS. As if knocking a child over or catching it with a tooth or claw wouldn’t cause injury!!
And that’s not friendly. It’s rude!!
I allow mine to greet people they know or approach people who ask to interact with with.
I don’t allow them to bother on lead dogs. Being well socialised doesn’t mean being allowed to bounce on lots of other dogs!

Yes wolfiefan it ruined my weekend I was just furious for ages afterwards. I could have accepted it as a mistake and profuse apology that they dog shouldnt have done that. Everyone makes mistakes occasionally. But the owner seemed to think we were in the wrong somehow.

Some people seem to think their dogs should be allowed to behave however they want and get really unpleasant when you ask them to recall etc.
And yes I have dogs. I just think we need to be responsible and mindful of others. Seems to be quite an unpopular view at times.

Well I only have a puppy at the moment so I can’t be sure I will succeed with training, but I really intend to train best I can so hopefully she responds to my commands. I would be mortified if she didn’t, but I do understand it isn’t always easy. I think the very least an owner can do is apologise. I noticed an advert the other day I think it was council/government ad that was stipulating that dogs should be under control. I wonder if there could be a campaign underway to change peoples mind sets (there really should be)