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!

Joggers aren’t obviously out jogging when they suddenly run round a corner or appear in the woods running towards you - until you clock they’re out jogging for that first few seconds they are in fact a random man running towards you.

The, huh, what’s happening here? fright, really isn’t that different to the first few seconds of a dog running at you before you realise it just happens to be running in your general direction.

which is all the op actually says the dog did.

Not sure why you’re not saying what happened after the dog charged you, OP, so I’ll tell my story.

When I was about 13, my brother came home from university on break with a German Shepherd puppy. Then he went back to school and the puppy became mine - mine to feed and walk and clean up after, etc etc.

One time, about four years later, I was walking her and went around the corner to see a group of my friends talking. We stopped to visit. One boy made a silly joke, and I laughed, and with the back of my hand, tapped him on the arm as if to say, “go on.”

My sweet dog lunged at him and bit a big mouthful of tee shirt at his chest — completely unprovoked. We were all stunned. I had to pull her off him, and it scared me to death. She was fiercely protective of me, and I guess she thought I needed help.

I was forever on guard after that. It was scary for us all, but I can’t imagine the fright it gave my friend.

Looked a bit baffled at why this human was wailing and screeching, cocked its head to the side, then went on its way to the owner he was already heading straight towards as part of reliable recall when he'd been understandably flummoxed by a banshee?

After all, the OP reckons they've been a dog and horse trainer, but talks about animals Going Rogue, then has a story about overstepping limits in taking out dogs at a rescue centre, can neither spell Shepherd nor Alsatian, and then goes on about putting a child in charge of somebody else's large dog, letting them take it into a location where there is somebody else's child + livestock and then seems to be surprised that something messy happened. She's not exactly giving the impression of having the slightest Scooby about animals, really, is it?

So a dog charged you ? Do you mean run up to play.

@NeverDropYourMooncup i was thinking the same.
I can't get my head around this story...

But we don't know if the dog stopped 20 feet away from her and complied with its owners command. We don't know this because she refuses to tell us what exactly happened!

Did you ever scream at the Cistine Chapel OP?

I dont understand why even after being asked countless of times the OP still hasnt said what happened when the dog reached her

Nothing by the sound of it.

The reason she hasn’t answered that question is because nothing happened and the fact that nothing happened completely undermines the whole drama of her story.

Or the we haven’t heard because the dog charged at her knocked her flying have a catastrophic but delayed injury like a head wound or punctured lung which allowed her to come to mumsnet do a massive drip feed but has now left her incapacitated thus unable to return and tell us about the final part of the ordeal 🤷🏻‍♀️

Or the stress has upset her so much she has had to book into a wellness retreat for a few weeks and she is without internet.

I don’t understand the “it constitutes an attack if the victim feels afraid” thing. Many, many people are terrified of dogs, but would have no case surely against most. When walking my dog on the lead I have encountered people who cross the road, or walk past flapping their arms like birds, or even shout “Get away!” when my dog is walking to heel minding his own business. He is not a scary-looking breed, so heaven help them if they encounter a German Shepherd etc.

I appreciate they feel terrified (I am extremely uneasy about lone men without dogs on walks) but I think the threat needs to have a reasonable basis otherwise every single dog owner would be behind bars.

I dont get this thread at all. A young dog was running at full speed to his owner and 6ou happened to pass in between and for some reason, freaked out. Why? Would you have reacted the same if it was a small Yorkie? Why assuming he was a dangerous beast?

German Shepherds need to have a lot of exercise off leash. They can appear terrifying because they are strong and fast. For someone unfamiliar with the breed, I can see why they might be scared. It's unfortunate that there is so much prejudice against the breed though. Although they are used by the military, they have incredibly sensitive natures - an almost human-like quality to them which is not to be seen in any other breed. Their traits are precisely why they are chosen as military working dogs. Unless the owner has mistreated the dog, or trained it to attack on command, you have nothing to fear from a German Shepherd off leash.

Why is this thread still going?

I am a bit confused about what happened, I totally understand a large dog running near you could be scary but was it actually charging at you? There is a big difference. Although of course I agree that owner should be more careful if the dog is likely to run up to people.

I have a large dog, hes 6 months old and at the beach today he was playing really nicely with a smaller dog, they were running along the beach together, mine had a long line on which was trailing but I was in reach of it, another lady who had a bigger dog than mine actually picked it up and handed it to me, I said no he's fine and she said her dog was scared as mine was charging at hers.

This was totally untrue he was purely running and playing with the other dog, the other dog was off lead in front of them, she was nowhere near her dog. He's a gangly uncoordinated goofball at the moment and has never charged at anyone or any dog. I was really upset about, I know I need a thicker skin if I have a big dog but I feel like the story she would tell is that a big dog charged at hers because I had dropped the lead.

The OP hasn't even said if the dog was actually running near her, he may well have just been running round in a circle and would have gone back to owner. Fair enough if it ran over and jumped up at the OP, that would be scary, doesn't matter if it was friendly, still pretty upsetting. I don't trust my dog to not do that yet hence why I have him on a long line that is in reach of me at all times.

Just saying that if the OP walked between the man and the GSD, would not the GSD be demonstrating its excellent recall if it was running back to its owner past the OP? She can't have it both ways! It must have wondered what was going on when the OP starting shrieking.

Why do we keep resurrecting this daft thread?

IKR? Bizarre!

I know I am adding to it... But it's probably because people keep commenting on it....

It was near the top of The Doghouse topic so looked new I guess