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).

If your dog is off lead, it shouldn't approach other dogs unless by explicit permission of the dog owner. Especially if the dog is on a lead when that should be not ever. I don't care how big/small/friendly your dog is.

In the last six months, two puppies on leads have been badly mauled near me. One needed £6 k worth of surgery and has life changing injuries. The other one is dead.

Control your dogs.

Just catching up with the more recent posts.

Its depressing how common this is for a lot of people, and also how it seems
to bring out real victim blame-y attitudes:

• walk somewhere else/different time
• use a lead that says stay away
• pick up your dog
• teach your dog not to just accept being attacked/jumped on
• stop being so paranoid
• get a bigger dog?!

No

Obey the law - control your dog - keep it on a lead if that’s what it takes.

Focus on the approaching dog, shout at it, walk towards it and say go /leave /no aggressively, really bellow!
Don’t pick up a stick - or kick at the dog for obvious reasons.

I have a lab and I’ve done this to a stray dog, no owner in sight, large breed. He’s old and doesn’t like to be mounted and I don’t want him getting in a scuffle.

Don’t pick up your dog either, this just makes your dog think they have to fight for you and makes you an extension of your dog in the strange dogs eyes.
I don’t think dogs can read 😳so a lead saying stay away is pointless. Who said that 😂

Unfortunately this is happening more and more. Lots of people got dogs during pandemic and did little to no training with them. Poor recall is one of the biggest problems. I always get between my dog and the bigger one if it's ignoring its owner. A stern tone usually does the trick. Then I mouth off to the feckless owner. It's never the dog's fault - just lazy, useless owners.

I don't think it's victim blaming to suggest some kind of tag for the lead - even if she isn't an anxious dog, as an anxious owner it will bring more attention to you both.

I take my small/medium dog to a popular dog walking park and she is off lead and will run towards dogs, but stops about 5 meters before them to gauge their attitude as she is quite submissive herself, but playful. If they are reactive or ignore her she comes back. If I see the dog she's heading towards has a yellow tag on the lead I recall her straight away and she comes back, even if I can't read what it says.

As an aside, shouting and swearing at someone isn't going to get you an apology 🙃 even if you're in the right with the initial problem!

I agree with you. Unfortunately you can’t control everyone else, only yourself.

I have a yellow harness for mine. (Even though he’s not at all anxious unless another dog just won’t leave him alone.) You can get collars or jackets etc if you don’t like harnesses. They really do help.

I don’t have an issue with yellow harnesses etc. and if the owner is bothering to pay attention they can work well.

But they won’t work at all with an owner who isn’t paying attention in the first place, and dogs don’t care less what colour your lead/harness is - so again it’s back to the owner of the out of control dog.

What I have issue with is people saying that if I don't want dogs approaching my dog then it’s down to me to have a yellow lead.

No

You should not allow your dog to approach other dogs without invitation. End of. Regardless of the colour of the lead!

I shouldn’t have to kit my dog out in yellow because other people can’t control their dogs!

And the reality is the only people who will pay any attention to that are other responsible owners. Those who’s dogs are in their control anyway so would be perfectly fine to meet.

The ones who are half a mile away, looking at their phone, don’t care what their dog is up to - they won’t even notice the yellow anyway!

I will probably end up having to get her a yellow coat or whatever - but I have no real hope of it making much difference because as I said, the ones who will notice aren’t the ones that are the problem in the first place!

Totally on your side OP. I have a puppy who will eventually be spaniel size but is very small at the moment. We live very close to our local park and dog is currently not great at street walks so it's our go to place for walks- working on this- but I hate having to stand up to dogs or their owners on his behalf because they'll be walking past my house several times daily. It's very frustrating though, I know. I properly yelled ah a neighbour's dog who wouldn't back off as her husband wouldn't call him back and she's very offended but what was I supposed to do 🤷‍♀️

You obviously don't have to use anything to alert others, but you have identified an issue you are having, and that is a possible solution. It might not be perfect, but surely if you have concerns you would try something that might help instead of just saying it's not your problem.

I'm not saying it's your fault, but I'm saying that if you don't change something, you will come across this issue again and again. There are things you can do to avoid/help it. You don't have to do those things but you aren't helping yourself or your dog if you don't. It's not an ideal world!

I did say I’d probably have to get her a coat. Don’t have to be happy about it though 😉

I live rurally so it’s really common to have larger dogs and smaller dogs both within one household and out and about. They play/interact perfectly normally, and I would say your dog lying down and being sub when approached is “good manners” and shows she’s ok with the interaction. It’s sounds to me like the other woman was supervising children and had been pushed into having her dog loose at the same time and was explaining to her friend in a “this is the kind of situation I was talking about” way. How did shouting at her help?

She wasn’t talking to a friend - she was talking to her dog 🤣

I only shouted at her from distance. Once she was close enough to grab her dog I didn’t need shout.

The only way to keep your small dog safe is to pick it up when a large dog approaches. Yes I know you shouldn’t have to, but the fact is you can’t do anything about bad owners who let big dogs run riot. All you can do is protect your own dog.

Does your dog get much of a chance to sniff and play with other dogs?

@redbigbananafeet are you asking me?

I have a giant breed, anxious dog (terrified of dogs) who is always on the lead. (And halter) It is always people with bloody oodles off-lead and miles away from them who finally trot up saying “Don’t worry, he’s friendly” while their little floof is bouncing in my dog’s face and my dog is provoked into growling. They end up glaring at ME like I’m the unreasonable one.

First sensible post

Shouting and swearing doesn't actually help . It probably excites the dog and stresses the owner and makes everything worse

I have this issue too but when we're riding. It's a bridleway but some dog owners simply don't give a shit. "He's just playing", FUCK OFF! My horse panics when a dog runs at his legs and it's likely to be me or their dog that gets hurt, but a horse was put down locally this summer after a bite got infected I've started carrying a dressage whip to deter approaches and swinging him so he can see the approaching threat but it's spoiling our rides. My 5yo DD rides with me and has a bombproof pony but she has started pre-empting and panicking too because my horse is so stressed and I don't want her to not love dogs.
Some owners have such amazing recall that you wish they'd share the best practice! Could do with it on my 3yo sometimes

I'd agree. The vast majority of dog/dog interactions, including those between large dogs and small ones, end amicably. The odd one escalates into a verbal punch-up, and some times one dog will growl and air-snap, but it's very, very rare for there to be any actual damage.

I used to have a very large and fairly reactive dog and I regarded it as my job to keep him out of trouble, not other people's job to be able to mind-read him from fifty feet away and recall Fluffy. Yes they should be able to recall Fluffy, and it's bloody annoying when they don't, and I agree that you should call your dog back from one on-lead, but the reality is that most inter-dog exchanges are entirely peaceful. That perhaps is worth keeping in mind.

I agree, I have a Golden Retriever and a Cairn Terrier.

The Cairn is really well socialised with large dogs. When she interacts though she does the submissive thing of rolling over.

I find the opposite to the OP owners of larger dogs tend to be concerned that I'll be worried about their dogs being too big/ boisterous for mine.