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The doghouse

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Original poster

German Shepard just charged at me, terrifying!

223 replies

FreshHelll · 09/07/2022 08:51

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!

OP posts:
Onceacheetah · 09/07/2022 11:14

Lol at the "and then what happened?" people. I wish ye wore badges so we'd know to keep well away from you and your dogs.

greenacrylicpaint · 09/07/2022 11:14

eatyourcrustspls · 09/07/2022 11:12

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

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.

bathroomshell · 09/07/2022 11:15

What did the dog do when it got to you? It sounds really frightening and I can't think how it ended?

AllThingsServeTheBeam · 09/07/2022 11:15

Onceacheetah · 09/07/2022 11:14

Lol at the "and then what happened?" people. I wish ye wore badges so we'd know to keep well away from you and your dogs.

Why? My dog has never approached anyone, but I still fail to see why op can't actually say what happened

RichardsGear · 09/07/2022 11:17

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?

What does it matter? If the dog cannot be trusted to respond instantly to commands from its owner then it should not be off lead in a public place. And if people say "Well, that might be the first time the dog has done that," then doesn't that indicate that dogs should probably never be off lead in public areas if we accept there is always a chance that things like this may happen?

I have had dogs of my own, so am certainly not anti dog. My late Golden Retriever was so greedy I simply couldn't let him off lead in parks etc in summer months because if he got the slightest whiff of a picnic he was off like a bloody greyhound.

SlouchingTowardsBethlehemAgain · 09/07/2022 11:18

Young dogs need to be off lead sometimes for training and socialisation. I understand that you are afraid of large dogs, I wonder if you would benefit from
gradual desensitisation.

coffeecupsandfairylights · 09/07/2022 11:19

NoSquirrels · 09/07/2022 11:11

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.

It's not other people's problem that your dog is a teenage bugger, though.

If your dog has no recall then they DO need to be constantly an a lead - for their own safety as much as anything else. I'm constantly seeing Facebook posts about off-lead dogs who have run off and been hit by cars, or worse, killed.

As a dog walker myself, one of my biggest bugbears is people letting their unruly off-lead dogs barrel over to my on-lead ones - normally with a shout of "don't worry, he's friendly!" or "he's just a pup!" - I don't care - if you can't control them, then put them on a lead.

A dog won't die because it's kept on a lead for most of it's life. My own dog can't be trusted off the lead (beagle) so he stays on unless he's at the beach. He still gets plenty of exercise but most importantly, he's safe and can't get hurt or bother other people.

The law says dogs have to be under control and has recently changed to say that if a person is frightened of your dog, you can be fined/sanctioned by law for having an out-of-control dog. They don't need to bite to be considered dangerous - if they jump and knock a child over or frighten a passer by, that's enough.

SinisterBumFacedCat · 09/07/2022 11:19

eatyourcrustspls · 09/07/2022 11:12

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

Why do you all keep asking? Are you deliberately trying to minimise how scary it was just because the dog didn’t bite her?

Spudlet · 09/07/2022 11:20

Goodness, how dramatic.

Horses generally react well to calm and reassuring handlers, so I hope you manage to keep a lid on it around them.

MagpiePi · 09/07/2022 11:20

I want to know what happened when the dog reached the OP. Was it just running around and happened to be going towards the OP? Was it chasing a ball and the OP got in its way?

Come on! Tell us!!

coffeecupsandfairylights · 09/07/2022 11:20

SlouchingTowardsBethlehemAgain · 09/07/2022 11:18

Young dogs need to be off lead sometimes for training and socialisation. I understand that you are afraid of large dogs, I wonder if you would benefit from
gradual desensitisation.

Nope.

Dogs should only be off-lead if they come back to their owners call. If your dog can't be trusted, use a secure field or long-line, don't just let them off and hope for the best.

SpookyButTrue · 09/07/2022 11:20

What happened when the dog got to you OP?

coffeecupsandfairylights · 09/07/2022 11:21

eatyourcrustspls · 09/07/2022 11:12

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

She doesn't need to answer - it's irrelevant.

The dog was (by law) out of control. That's enough.

greenacrylicpaint · 09/07/2022 11:22

SpookyButTrue · 09/07/2022 11:20

What happened when the dog got to you OP?

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.

milord · 09/07/2022 11:22

I'm a dog owner. I'm also a bit nervous about german shepherds. A lot of them are failed police dogs, so you never know if they've been trained to take people down. Either way, it's the dog owner's responsibility to not make anyone else feel scared, as I make sure no one is with my (super friendly with a bad reputation) staffy. So you are not unreasonable.

MagpiePi · 09/07/2022 11:23

Have just read the OP again - the dog 'charged' twice, apparently.

vodkaredbullgirl · 09/07/2022 11:24

I have 1 lab that needs to be on lead, he ignores me when I call him back. Other lab is no problem, she's more concerned about her ball and chasing it.

Philandbill · 09/07/2022 11:26

@SlouchingTowardsBethlehemAgain - "Young dogs need to be off lead sometimes for training and socialisation. I understand that you are afraid of large dogs, I wonder if you would benefit from
gradual desensitisation." How phenomenally patronising. Why are you assuming that the OP wants to tolerate out of control dogs off leads?

MagpiePi · 09/07/2022 11:27

Also the owner seemed apologetic. Was he calling the dog back and it was responding? How do we know it was out of control?

I think we need more details, otherwise it's just a case of someone being startled by a dog running about.

AllThingsServeTheBeam · 09/07/2022 11:27

SinisterBumFacedCat · 09/07/2022 11:19

Why do you all keep asking? Are you deliberately trying to minimise how scary it was just because the dog didn’t bite her?

Show quote history

Or even get within 20 foot? 30 foot? 6 yards? How can we judge without knowing what happened

collieresponder88 · 09/07/2022 11:27

Did the dog bite you then ? Hmm

Anotherdayanotherdollar · 09/07/2022 11:29

RichardsGear · 09/07/2022 11:17

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?

What does it matter? If the dog cannot be trusted to respond instantly to commands from its owner then it should not be off lead in a public place. And if people say "Well, that might be the first time the dog has done that," then doesn't that indicate that dogs should probably never be off lead in public areas if we accept there is always a chance that things like this may happen?

I have had dogs of my own, so am certainly not anti dog. My late Golden Retriever was so greedy I simply couldn't let him off lead in parks etc in summer months because if he got the slightest whiff of a picnic he was off like a bloody greyhound.

I'm not a dog owner, nor am I in the UK so not aware of the law. I suppose I was wondering whether it was possible (as both the OP and the man were both walking) that the man noticed OP and called the dog back, but as the OP was still walking she kind of came in between the 2? I dunno, I'm not sure of how "close" close control is. Maybe 15m is too far away.

coffeecupsandfairylights · 09/07/2022 11:29

MagpiePi · 09/07/2022 11:27

Also the owner seemed apologetic. Was he calling the dog back and it was responding? How do we know it was out of control?

I think we need more details, otherwise it's just a case of someone being startled by a dog running about.

OP states it charged up to her twice. That's not an under control dog.

If the owner had the dog under control, it wouldn't have approached OP in the first place, or it would have turned around and gone back to the owner as soon as he called it away.

A dog that charges up to someone (twice) is not a dog that's under control. I don't know why so many people are keen to make excuses, tbh.

I mean, it's not hard - if your dog won't recall properly, put it on a lead.

coffeecupsandfairylights · 09/07/2022 11:29

collieresponder88 · 09/07/2022 11:27

Did the dog bite you then ? Hmm

It doesn't matter.

CoastalWave · 09/07/2022 11:32

So a large dog ran in your direction- and you were terrified?

Did he bite? Growl? Attempt to attack you?

Or simply ran in your direction? Could have seen something behind you?

It is relevant what happened - because it sounds more like an OP who is scared of dogs rather than the dog actually doing anything dangerous?

I'm just confused how he charged once from 15m, and then charged again. What so he stopped? Stopped when you shouted at the man to put him on a lead?

So many unanswered questions.

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