Hi all. I know this has been done to death, but jeez, I need a rant! WHY are some dogwalkers so clueless/entitled and think their dog can do absolutely what they like without challenge and somehow its everyone else thats in the wrong?
So on our way to a local playing field this morning, down a shared pedestrian/cycle track. It is usually very busy with people and bikes, so I prefer to keep ddog on lead until we turn a corner into semi-woodland which leads onto the field. We have JUST turned the corner, when over a small hill comes an unknown large black enthusiastic dog, offlead, woofing and bouncing, with two owners nearby. Barrels straight into ddog, whose tail immediately goes between his legs and he runs round the back of me. He is not a big fan of being ''accosted' by other dogs when on his lead unsurprisingly. The familiar call of ''she wont hurt him'' ensues, but no attempt at recall. She continues fussing and bouncing on him, whilst he is clearly nervous and trying to get away. So I calmly say ''can you call her off please'' whilst trying to reassure ddog and disentangle myself from the lead in order to try and walk away. I get ''the look'', and a half-hearted ''come on daisy'' After a couple more ''requests'' she decides to disengage and bounces off. It was pretty clear they had no real interest in actively moving their dog on...she was offlead and that was that. You get the picture.
I rewarded ddog with a biscuit for being reasonably calm under duress, and said ''not all dogs want to play, especially when they are on a lead'' to which I get ''well they wont play if they're not let off to socialise''
So is the expectation that when encountering a dog such as this, I should immediately release mine regardless of whether I am comfortable doing so given the location, or if he is nervous, fear aggressive, injured, post-surgery, has bad recall, etc. etc ...in other words any of the numerous reasons why a dog may be leashed. When making comments like this, do people like this give any thought to the consequences for their OWN dog, i.e. mine was already displaying nervousness, what if I had let him off and he had decided to react by snapping/biting/chasing theirs off out of fear because he didnt actually WANT to be forced to play? I think this would make me rather irresponsible, but damned if you do, damned if you dont, right?