No more ‘green’ walks

[Powertothepetal]

I’m sticking to pavement.

I thought it would be nice for the puppy to experience the woods today.
Despite living in an area with ample green spaces, I don’t take my dogs to them terribly often mainly because of the off lead, aggressive or just rude and plain out of control dogs and owners that can often be found there.

So anyway, braved a nice little walk to the woods today when I came across a big dog off it’s lead on the path ahead of us.

Both my older dog and puppy were on leads, my older dog doesn’t tend to like other dogs and they often don’t like her so I made a point of shortening her lead very very short so she is now in heel position.

You’d think a sensible person would see this and put two and two together and put their dog on lead or ask it to heel or make it sit or similar so we can pass but no.

We get closer and immediately I can tell the big dog isn’t friendly.
Hard, direct stare straight into my older girl, deathly slow, stiff walk towards her not breaking eye contact.

The last time a dog approached her like that she was bitten.
In fact, I have never, ever, had a dog approach us in that manner and not go for her so I was absolutely terrified.

I stepped in front of my old girl and blocked her so she’s now behind me, you’d think at this point a sensible person would have definitely realised that we don’t want to interact and called their dog, leashed them, whatever but no.

So, after a moment of sheer terror absolutely glued to the spot shaking like a fucking leaf I managed to squeak ‘lets go’ and walked away.

I was shaking the whole way home.
My nice little walk ruined. Again.
I am so sick and tired of it.

Why are people like this?!
They know we don’t want to interact!!

This happens all the time in the ‘nice’ spacious, scenic, green areas.
Off lead dogs that either race up to mine and pester her or aggressive dogs that try and have a go and owners who either ignore or get aggressive or claim their dogs are friendly 😡

So, I feel stuck with just keeping to boring pavement walks where dogs are always leashed and I can at least get away from aggressive ones relatively easily.

I just feel so cross about it!

Was the owner there? Did you tell them to leash their dog?

That’s such a shame love. Round here everybody’s ready to snap their leads on again if they see an on lead dog. We only had one incident with a stupid man years ago.

Full empathy here OP, I had the same with my old dog (she's gone now) - I just couldn't risk walking her anywhere where there might be off lead dogs, so roads at 5am it was. She was extremely reactive and aggressive.

There isn't an answer, people are generally dicks I'm afraid. Maybe there is a quieter, less popular route you could try? I have a super-friendly dog now but he's a goof so I don't risk the really heavily walked routes, he'd just fuck off to greet everyone so would have to stay on lead himself.

Oh yes meant to add, not to twist the knife, but we've moved to a very rural area and everyone falls over themselves to put a lead in their dog if they see ours is. Was very different where we moved from - down in that part of the world you'd be lucky to even see the owner of the loose dog.

I guess your next step if they don’t do it automatically would be to shout to the owner to put their dog back on. Did you ask them? I know it can often be too late but hopefully they’ll learn the basic dog-walking etiquette.

Yes he was there.
Entirely unconcerned even though it was so fucking obvious I was scared and trying to keep them separated.

I don’t interact with other owners at all now because it never ends well.
It’s always some variation of ‘dogs need to socialise’ or ‘oh he’s really friendly’ or ‘you should have it muzzled if it’s not friendly’.

When she was bitten, I had actually turned around to get away sharpish because I didn’t like the body language of the dog and I was subjected to appalling verbal abuse from the owner for doing so, then another dog when his dog lunges forward and bit my retreating dog!
So no, I don’t interact ever.

• another load of abuse when his dog bit mine I meant to say

Well that was really bad manners from the other dog owner. That said, some dog owners are inattentive dickheads and you really need to spell it out to them, ask them to put their dog on lead.

It's a shame to deny your dogs lovely walks and off lead freedom because of some other owners. Maybe carry a walking pole or an aerosol to scare off dogs that go for yours, and shout out when you need someone to leash their dogs.

The buggers should be on leads at all times regardless of whether or not they're "friendly".

If owners want them to have a run around they should buy a house with a bigger garden.

This happened to my friend and her pup except hers was bitten. She now has an anxious dog that is reactive to other dogs.

Look for a secure field, there are loads you can hire for private hassle free walks.

I also avoid public places like the plague (roads are fine) too many dicks around

Just back from walking ours. Most people are sensible but there's a few off-lead over the fields. I use a long lead and pull it in so he can run a bit but call back if I see another dog. I'm constantly looking around though so it's not a stress free walk

I can empathise, as this happens to my dog a lot. Big, off-lead dogs bounding up to him and intimidating him (even if they genuinely only mean to be friendly - he's nervous of them).

So many times, the owners of the dogs have been totally clueless. Soooo many times, we've had one or multiple big dogs following us for way too long, while their owner does nothing and my dog darts nervous "Are you going to do something or shall I snap?" glances at me. He also goes into territorial/protective mode if a big off-leash dog jumps up at me.

It's one of those maddening things. You have to do what's best for you and what makes you feel the most comfortable, relatively speaking.

In general, I tend to just hurry on along. If we can't get away, I body block, stand firm, motion, and tell the other dog to go back (which surprisingly has worked on many occasions). Or I sometimes make eye contact with the owner, smile a bit, and say "het gets protective - you might want to get your dog". This seems to work pretty well.

Whenever I've said "my dog gets nervous / reactive / scared", it's prompted unwanted comments about "is he intact?" "he should be on lead then" "ah let 'em play" "mine is very friendly" yadda yadda. "Protective" seems to alarm people enough to get the F away from us, more often than not.

@dustofneptune. Good advice

why do they ask if he's intact?

mine is 'intact' for now, is that my fault? dog owning is a bit of a minefield

Does you older dog never go offlead @Powertothepetal ?

Not really, she’s going deaf but still runs for miles so it isn’t very safe!

Though I will say, I have of late been walking with my DH who likes her to have some freedom so I have been letting her (and the puppy) off again and recalling her when she gets a bit too far.

@gardeninggirl68

why do they ask if he's intact?

mine is 'intact' for now, is that my fault? dog owning is a bit of a minefield

Neutered dogs can be aggressive to intact ones.

If owners want them to have a run around they should buy a house with a bigger garden
This made me laugh! Mine would have to be a very very large garden to make up for 1h1/2 walk, so only a few millions!

The owner was indeed stupid and should have reacted. I'm lucky that I very rarely come across stupid owners on our daily walks in the country. On the opposite, owners tend to be over cautious as my dog is very small, but she doesn't mind big dogs most of the time.

I find that there isn't always a clear right or wrong way to behave so communication is a must. You should feel comfortable saying 'sorry my dog gets frightened/anxious/aggressive' around dogs close to her, would you mind calling yours.

The benefit of open spaces though is that if you have a dog like yours, you can normally spot those coming the other way from afar and move out if the way to avoid any issues.

You have my sympathy OP, I've been in similar situations, people can be so inconsiderate, ignorant or even deliberately aggressive.

After many years I'm finally comfortable advocating for my dogs, anything from a cheerful "ahh, he won't want to say hello, thanks," to obviously moving well away from an oncoming dog or turning around completely and walking away to, if the circumstances warrant it and there's nowhere else to go, "please call your dog away," and body blocking.

As you say, I still dread interacting with dog owners like that as it doesn't seem to matter which approach you take, at best you'll get the unsolicited advice crew and at worst shouted at, told you're rude/miserable/unreasonable, called names, followed. One man made me feel so unsafe I actually stopped walking a certain route.

I've had to resort to putting a bright yellow sleeve on my dogs lead that says: "Reactive No Dogs" people soon put their dogs on leads when we come along.