How do I protect my small dog from irresponsible dog owners who can’t control their dogs

[Rinoachicken]

I have a small dog. She’s a chug. She is usually on the lead for walks - mainly because her recall is not 100% so she has to stay on a long lead, or the extending lead, depending on where we are walking. But increasingly I keep her on the lead as it’s the best way to keep her safe from out of control off lead dogs.

She’s well socialised, not afraid of other dogs, and is not dog reactive.

But because she is small herself she prefers to socialise and play with dogs her own size or similar. We have got to know a few local ones and if it’s safe to do so we let them off lead and they have a great time playing safely.

Dogs much larger she will hang back from and avoid, but if they approach (because they are off lead and the owner isn’t around or is clueless) she will sniff greet but then she wants to just move on and I can tell by her body language that she is wary. She ‘freezes’, her tail is down her ears back, super submissive ‘please just sniff me and then go!’

Even if she’s keen I don’t always allow her to play if the size difference is too great - it’s just common sense - she’s at risk of being hurt accidentally. Spaniel size is the limit unless I know the dog well.

But I am SO SO fed up of the increasing number of irresponsible dog owners who let their dogs run around off the lead WITH NO RECALL. Their dogs come charging up to me and my dog and are straight in her face.

The owner is half way across the field either not even looking or powerless and not even bothered to do anything.

We had an incident like this yesterday where I was walking her on lead, minding our own business. Saw an off lead lab up ahead. Labs are too big to be safe playmates for my dog. Lab sees us and comes charging over and is immediately on top of my dog. I could see it was young, and it was in ‘play’ mode - but my dog did not want to play, and was trying to get away.

Owner called her dog when it first set off towards us and of course it completely ignored her. I expected her to then come and get it - but no! She just turns around and starts watching her kid in the park instead.

Mine is now tying herself up in knots between my legs trying to get away from the dog that seems to want to pick her up in it’s mouth. I yell at the woman to get control of her dog - she looks at me all dumbfounded ‘what?’.

Then my dog yelped so I’m afraid I lost my temper and yelled louder ‘come and get your fucking dog!’

She then scuttled over and put her dog on the lead. I said to her ‘if your dog doesn’t come back when you call them it shouldn’t be off the lead’ and started to walk off. She didn’t even apologise or ask if my dog was ok. I then hear her say TO HER DOG ‘see X, what have I told you’

I turned back and said it’s not the dogs fault - it’s your fault! You’re the owner!

It’s just so irresponsible. Why do some dog owners seem to think they have the right to put my dog in danger? It would only take one bite and she’d be dead. It should be up to me to decide which dogs she will be around and when - not for other owners who aren’t even physically there half the time and probably have no idea of her size before they let their much larger dog barrel into her. It’s the equivalent of letting a 16yr old have a wrestling match with a 4yr old.

I don’t care if you think your dog is friendly and it ‘just wants to say hello’. If it doesn’t come back when you call it then it is NOT under your control. You need to train it better or keep it on a lead. End of. I’m DONE with feeble excuses and apologies, entitlement and faux hurt feelings because I’ve dared to call them out on their lax and irresponsible attitude to dog ownership.

Im just so fed up with it. It’s happening more and more. I’ve now ordered a dog deterrent spray so I have some additional defence for me and my dog. And of course there’s always my boot (I have big heavy toe capped boots for dog walking).

Would mutually agreed coloured leads help? A friend has an agressive lurcher she only ever walks on lead but that lead is bright orange and screams beware. Though I guess numpties wouldn't bother noticing.

Definitely going to focus more on the dog and telling it NO etc and body blocking - and less on the owner next time - thanks for all these tips I do appreciate it

It may be different for you, but I have to say, I have tried this.

While my own dogs are very obedient and respond to even a stern look from me, on the occasions I have been approached by a loose unknown dog and tried the whole stand infront, hard stare, sternly tell them no thing, the troublesome dog has paid ZERO attention.

Personally, if I’m faced with an off lead dog that is interested in my dogs, I scoop the smallest one up and I walk away.

@SurpriseWombat

Mine has played with dogs of all shapes and sizes and has never once been injured.

As has mine, and she will continue to do so.

I am not talking about mutual play.

It sounds like they would get on well :). My greyhound isn't dog-aggressive at all (he'd rather run away) but he doesn't care to socialise apart from with a handful of other calm dogs where he chooses to participate in the interaction. I can't blame him at all for this really! I don't where this assumption comes from that all dogs are happy to meet each other all the time.

I am with you 100% @Rinoachicken The number of poorly trained dogs with irresponsible owners seems to have increased massively. My dog is medium sized and friendly to all, but he isn't allowed to approach other dogs indiscriminately. It's very annoying when a dog comes bounding up to him and the owner is either nowhere in sight or feebly calls from a distance and the dog takes no notice.

Yes. I don't have a dog but a do a lot of walking across fields with footpaths.
An off lead dog heads straight towards me with ineffectual owner calling "Jeff! Jeff!" and being ignored.
Jeff jumps his muddy paws all over me then heads back to owner, does a 360 and heads back to have another go.
Jeff ignores owner again but I shout No! firmly and Jeff stops dead in his tracks

Just went for our evening walk and met an on lead spaniel on the way - after checking with the owner they touched noses and then spent the next 20minutes rolling around in a happy mess of fur and slobber.

She is not an anxious dog. She is happy to meet and play with most dogs. Which is why when she makes it clear she DOESN’T want to meet/play with a dog I pay attention to that and respect her choice and follow her instincts. She’s obviously picked up something about the dog I have no clue about.

What pisses me off is when owners remove her (and my) choice by allowing their dog to run around unsupervised and uncontrolled, with no means to get it back because it has no recall, and therefore allowing the dog to do as it pleases and charge up to any person or dog it sees.

Yet if she ever snapped back in defence you can bet they’d be complaining and saying she should be muzzled.

Nope - keep your dog under control. Simple.

I've got a big reactive dog that's kept on a lead for a reason! But the amount of dogs that are allowed to run upto him is shocking.
I now carry pepper spray and I don't give a shit if people don't think it's nice 🤷‍♀️
If they can't control their dogs they get sprayed simple.

I also talked about how we deal with unwanted interactions (essentially, by walking away).

FWIW the owner in my local park that makes my blood pressure rise is the one with a perfectly nice small poodle cross that's here there and everywhere. Unfortunately the owner has no control whatsoever and spends her walks squeezing a squeaky toy and bleating the dog's name to absolutely zero effect whatsoever. It's a nice natured dog but unfortunately one day it's going to get inself into a sticky situation and the owner will have no way of getting their dog back.

I've got a big reactive dog that's kept on a lead for a reason! But the amount of dogs that are allowed to run upto him is shocking.
I now carry pepper spray and I don't give a shit if people don't think it's nice 🤷‍♀️

If you use it, your dog will inevitably get a dose of pepper spray itself, and you will reinforce the reactivity, as your dog will associate the already unpleasant interaction with the dog with the pepper spray.

Pepper spray is also illegal under the Firearms Act so you're not going to have much fun if someone reports you for carrying it.

You need a walking stick .as the dog runs towards yours hold out the walking stick to kept the dog back .
owners will come running if they see the stick in use

Yet if she ever snapped back in defence you can bet they’d be complaining and saying she should be muzzled.

This is where I think a lot of dog ownership has gone wrong.

Dogs setting boundaries with each other is an entirely normal thing and it's one of the ways dogs learn to be less obnoxious.

So long as it is done only when more subtle methods have failed (see the canine ladder of aggression) and in a measured way that stops the moment the other dog backs down... It's normal.

Mine has been snapped at on a few occasions and I can't remember the last time he got any sympathy from me. I think the last time was when he mounted another dog during play; "well you deserved that" were the next words that crossed my lips. Likewise he's snapped at a few dogs (most recently two dogs that barged into him while playing with each other, and an overenthusiastic lab, both deserved it tbh, neither owner was upset).

Snapping, when justified, shouldn't be vilified at all.

I have a small dog who hates other dogs. He is always on a lead, the lead is yellow with huge writing on it saying ‘I need space’. I am also going to get him a collage saying something like ‘no dogs’. When I see another dog I take him away. I have had to pick him up many times. It is to me as many many owners don’t care and won’t change. Op I am afraid to say that you need to stop expecting owners to care and you need to be the one to take action here.

This sums it up completely. I don't know what the answer is OP. I run a few times a week with my dog and it is staggering how many ignorant stupid owners of out of control dogs there are. There are at least 4 ridgebacks in my local common and not one of them has any recall. Also a huge number of big breeds that will lie down in your path staring at you and then lunge at the last minute. It's terrifying and the owners are usually way ahead on their phones or with earphones in. I get so angry. They may know their dog is "just playing" but I bloody don't and neither does my dog!

My Lab doesn’t ‘amble’. She would approach at 50mph, jumping and play-bowing so she doesn’t get the chance to do so, with small or large dogs. Small dogs she knows are treated with respect and aren’t for her to practice Chase with.

OP, you’re not wrong to be be fed up and I’m sure your dog is adequately socialised with dogs you choose her to be socialised with, so ignore the posters telling you otherwise.

You are irritating more than the OP.

Most of them don't give a flying fig when their "fur baby" is leaping upon and terrorising a small child, so good luck trying to appeal to dog owners to keep them under control around other dogs.

I have literally just got home from walking our two small dogs. We had one of them off the lead as he is friendly enough and has an excellent recall. The other stays on the lead as she is old, partially deaf and dog reactive (will snap, has never bitten).

Walking along we see a man coming with his dog off lead, we call our off lead dog back and put him on the lead. I always get him back when it's someone we don't know as you never know how the other dog will behave. His dog zoomed right up to ours and had a massive go at him then carried on ahead. The man then said "I have to watch him with small dogs on the lead as he can have a go at them!". I honestly didn't know what to say.

Its so fucking annoying.
I put my dog on a lead around other dogs. Normally shes absolutely fine with other dogs but she has been attacked more than once and now gets defensive sometimes.
Theres been several times where a dog has bounded over and ive told the owner that mine wont like it. They then often say something like ' ahh hopefully yours will tell mine off"
It does my head in. I dont want mine to tell their dog off? Its because im careful and control her interactions with other dogs to keep them positive that shes doing so well now. If mine told theirs off and it turned into a fight, thats so stressful

After being attacked as a puppy, my 50kg dog is now fearful of other dogs, and he has to be walked permanently on lead, as his first reaction to off lead dogs that approach him, is to lunge and pin them out of fear. It drives me nuts when off lead dog owners do nothing when their dogs approach him. He wears a yellow harness and lead with "need space" and we always walk well away from other dogs . Visually, the other owners can't miss these signs, yet It's always the usual line when I call out for them to get their dog. "He's friendly and just wants to play". Well my dog isn't friendly and you can guarantee that if he were to hurt their dog, they would say it's my fault.

What really winds me up also, is that it was an off lead dog that attacked him as a pup and he's never forgotten that, and now we have to bear the consequence of that, The only time he gets to go off lead is in secure fields with a few dog friends that he feels safe around. Although he's fine with his on lead walks, I just wish that he could enjoy the other walks we go on, off his lead. I wish that those who let their off lead dogs run at other dogs would learn and understand the bigger picture. They need to teach a strong recall before letting their dogs run loose.

I yelled at a woman yesterday morning in the woods.

I could hear her desperately shouting her dog as soon as she saw us. I didn’t see the little shit until it had run out the undergrowth and bit my friendly little jrt cross. I picked her up and the little bastard started hanging off my jumper!

She tried to front it out at first saying she was teaching recall (bollocks) but I was furious and shook up. Told her that if she wasn’t going to bother training or socialising her dog then it legally needed to stay on a lead, and failing that the secured fields locally were £10 to hire and she should use a long line.

She was probably too embarrassed for either the bollocking or the advice to sink in but it’s the fifth time it’s happened and I’ve had enough of fucking feckless owners!

Luckily we saw two old labs on the way out so Jinx got to say hello, calm down and end the walk on a happy note.

You are part of the problem, allowing your dog to harrass and even mount other dogs. Noone cares if you do or dont have sympathy for your annoying dog, but if he tried to mount mine then im pretty sure a dogfight would ensue and id have to let go of the lead. Its not up to other dogs to train your dog to behave. Thats your job.

Nope - it's not my dog's job to teach random people's dogs how to behave. That's on their owners, not me. By the time my dog has been provoked into snapping he is stressed, scared and having all his fears of other dogs solidly reinforced.

What an unhelpful post. My dog was walking next to me, off the lead, and a bigger dog ran up and attacked her. Unfortunately it does happen and it's extremely upsetting when it does. My dog had a nasty wound on her thigh, which required £170 bill at the vets. The incident really scared us both.

My Jack Russell hates big dogs. We got her at the end of lockdown as I reduced my hours. From day 1 of taking her out, she had bigger dogs jump on her wanting to play.

I am very happy to shout at the crappy owners that my dog hates untrained, badly behaved dogs and will they keep their dog on a lead if they can’t control it. I don’t bother trying to be polite, it would be wasted.

If another dog had a go at mine I would yell at the other dog at the top of my voice " don't you bite my dog!!!" The other dog always ran away- I'm pretty scary!! I don't mean to yell , I just jumped to my dog's defence instinctively!!