German Shepard just charged at me, terrifying!

[FreshHelll]

Was walking in a park just now. Saw a man walking, then looked to my left and saw about 15 meters away, a black German Shepard charging towards me at full speed. Terrifying, l shouted to the owner, put him on a lead. Then the dog charged again. It's was very frightening, a fully grown big dog making a very fast bee line towards you. Time sped up, l sort of did a standing phoetal pose. I shouted again, put your fucking dog on a lead! The man said quietly, lm very sorry. My adrenalin was pumping, l was hyperventilating. Just posting to get it out of my system. It was a young dog but fully grown. Please keep big and young dogs on leads. If that happened to a young child, it would be awful!

What happened when it got to you?

I had that happen to me before. Fucking terrifying. When i shouted over to him to put his dog on a lead he followed me for about 200 metres shouting and swearing at me.

I hope you're okay OP.

This is really frustrating and it gives all dog owners a bad name. If your dog has no recall then you have no business letting it off the lead - and I say that as the owner of a beagle who can only be trusted off the lead on the beach 🙈

Thank you both for the kind words 🙂. Most dog owners are responsible. Was surprised how scared l was! He was galloping full tilt. His long black fur flying. On reflection the man didn't act fast enough either.* *It was like a Stephen King film come to life😆

What did the dog do when it reached you?

@TeaWithFlorence Sorry, you had a double whammy, dog plus man. Do the sort of people who allow dangerous dog behaviour, have a violent side🤔

yikes

I'm sure you will get over it, as long as it doesn't happen again.

I live right near a big field and the amount of times I've been sitting over with my son, and a dog has come charging over.
I'm terrified of dogs as I was attacked by a German shepherd when I was a child.
I always shout over to the owner to put the dog on the lead as it's walking all over my blanket and picnic food.
Dog owners just say... it's okay he/she is friendly.

I don't give a fuck mate! Put that stinking slobbering thing on a lead! And get it away from my face and food

For those asking what the dog did when it reached the OP, don't be ridiculous. Having a large dog charging at you is frightening enough, it doesn't have to actually bite or knock you over to be terrifying.

The law is on the side of the person who feels threatened, not the owner.

What did the dog do when it reached you?

I'm not sure people are implying that the dog charging was not frightening/ that op shouldn't be bothered by it. Just wondering what happened next

A dog ran towards you, you hyperventilate, time sped up (did you mean slowed down?) and you went into "a standing foetal position" and began screaming at the owner?

Then presumably the dog just came to a stop and ran away?

What a very odd story.

I’m really sorry you were frightened. Sounds like the owner was too.

I always think it’s useful for everyone to have a good understanding of dog behaviour, and actually even more important if you’re naturally frightened of dogs. Then you can accurately judge what’s an attack or aggressive behaviour, and what’s an excitable young dog bounding to play. Learning positive assertive body language posture yourself to use to signal to the dog ‘back off’ is also useful.

you are not answering the question about what actually happened. A 12 month GS is still a pup and probably just trying to be friendly. I do understand the school of thought that even if being friendly, many people do not want that interaction so should not be allowed. GS are bred to shepherd. They try to round people up. When ours came on family walls they would constantly run from front of group to end of group and back to try and keep us all together. They have a bad reputation because they are big dogs and if not we'll trained can do a lot of harm but there is a reason they are chosen as police dogs and that is because they are highly intelligent and loyal and obedient.
I do not wish to minimise your experience but it sounds like it is more about your fear of big dogs. It does not sound like you were in any danger unless dog was snarling or barking close to you.

I'm not keeping my dog on a lead, no. He has recall.

People's whose dogs have no recall, yes they should be kept on a lead

It must have been scary and the dog should have been under control but you weren’t actually hurt.
Are you generally unsure around dogs? If that happened to me I would assume it was coming to play but I appreciate that for other people it might be different

Irrelevant.

Have to walk back through that park now the hyper-vigilence is real. My eyesight got tuned up, my heart was pounding for about 15 mins. It was a lot. I just hope l don't see him again, the man was not up to owning a big dog like that. A young, big dog should definitely be on a lead for a number of years. I've trained dogs and horses, when they go rogue it can be dangerous.

No. It does not sound like it's more about the OP's fear of big dogs. Ffs. It's about a large dog being off lead in a public area when it clearly is not under control.

Without knowing what happened next, how does it differ from a dog just running in her direction though? Like, how close did the dog get? Was it actually running towards the owner?

Genuine question

it doesn't matter if 'nothing' happened.

the dog was not under close control as per the law. it should have been on the lead.

most dog owners are responsible but an annoying minority destroys trust.

So you’re sure it was an aggressive dog, as you have good experience of dog behaviour and are not usually scared of dogs?

It isn't irrelevant is it. The op hasn't said even how close the dog came?

Young dogs actually shouldn’t be constantly on leads, btw, as you can’t train recall without letting them have some freedom from which to recall. Sometimes it’s not 100% while they’re learning but they still need to learn. You work up to it, obviously, with long lines and so on, but teenage dogs can be buggers.

Obviously you were there and you were scared but it’s not fair to generalise to all dogs from one incident.

OP why aren't you answering - what did he do when he got to you?