My dog snapped at a dog who approached it

[postitpatty]

I'm annoyed. Was out today walking dog, he can be anxious, we always walk him on a short lead and we're working on his social skills. Busy woodland park type place. He's been good as gold, sniffed and been friendly with at least ten dogs that we've passed also on lead, I always tell the other owners he's anxious and may react before allowing an approach. He has no interest in humans and ignore people passing him. Anyway, almost at the end of the walk and this small white yapping fluffy dog come running over to him, off lead, barking, our dog backed into our legs but the suddenly snapped at the white dog . The owner then came running over screaming and picked her dog up. I said 'you need to have your dog on a lead' and we continued our walk. Our dog didn't actually bite the white dog but to be fair it may have done if she hadn't picked it up.
We continued walking, I turned round and she was taking photos of us! So now I'm probably on social media somewhere labelled as having an out of control dog, even though it was her dog off lead running up to on lead dogs uninvited.
Our dog is a mongrel about spaniel sized.

Why do people with small dogs seem to think it's fine to let their dogs run up to anything any everything? It's always bloody little dogs that seem to run up and approach uninvited.

I genuinely don't think we did anything wrong. How are we supposed to work on socialising him without taking him to places where he will see other dogs. I can control who he approaches but unfortunately I can't control other peoples off lead dogs.

He's a rescue but we've had him from being a very young puppy. He's now 2yrs.

Our DDog is a snapper if off lead dogs approach her and won’t leave her alone. It is their way of saying GET OUT MY FACE, as in dog language it’s very bad manners to approach head on like that. DDog is a slightly grumpy border collie who doesn’t want to make friends with dogs she doesn’t know and quite frankly just wants to play with her ball thank you very much.

You had your dog on a short lead. An off lead dog shouldn’t be approaching. Legally you had your dog under control. She doesn’t have a leg to stand on!

I have an anxious dog and put one of these on the lead, it generally stops people coming up to him or at least asking to approach.

The owner of the white dog is a dick, unless you have bomb proof recall, you shouldn't let your dog off the lead

Exactly this.
Our dog doesn't really like other dogs usually. It's hit and miss between totally ignoring them and getting snappy. To counter this he's ALWAYS kept on a lead. If someone else's dog is out of control (legally speaking when off lead they're not in control) and decides to approach my dog, then whatever happens is not our fault. If I can see an off lead dog approaching I'll always shout to the owner that my dog doesn't like other dogs, and if they can't recall their dog there's not much I can do.

My ddog has absolutely no interest in any ddogs except of her same breed.. Indifferent to others. Except white fluffy ones! They give her The Rage!
Accept your ddog doesn't like all ddogs. Do you like all people?
That woman is a tool. Give her no thought.
My dh was poop scooping and a woman walked past. Ddog pulled a bit and she started shouting at dh that she hadn't seen them and he needs a tighter lead..
Dh is 6.4, 18 stone. Walking a Husky.. She walked a straight path right into them.
Some people need to stay home and not own a ddog.

My dog is an absolute toad, and gets super over excited around other dogs. She's kept on a lead, but we have had incidents (2, in the space of a week would you believe!) where the lead clips failed and she's ran up to dogs.
Both times she was lucky and the dogs were ok with her, BUT if she'd chosen the wrong dog to bother and the dog snapped at her, I'd consider her lucky it was just a snap, apologise profusely to the owner and feel bloody embarrassed.
You, nor your dog, did anything wrong OP

If yours is on lead then it's tough shit if they let their dog approach. I'm always saying one of ours is naughty but owners don't believe me because he's cute. Until he does his psycho air snapping thing and then they're like 'oh I see' 😂

Thanks people, I was expecting to be told not to take him to place with other dogs and the other crazy things you get told on MN! I feel better seeing responses so far.
I think it's because when you look at the cute fluffy white dog next to our bigger scruffy mutt that looks like he was found in a skip, people judge and think the fluffy little white one couldn't hurt a fly!

Well it certainly wouldn't win in a fight but it can bloody well start them right enough!!

You are doing everything right. The woman with the white dog is in the wrong

sorry this happened you you and DDog

It isn’t even about a fight. Any dog that rushes over and makes yours feel uncomfortable is behaving out of control.

YAsooooooNBU

We came across a dog we know today who DDog has snapped at in the past (admittedly when the other dog was a puppy, DD does not do well with puppyish behaviour).

I let them have a sniff, DD was perfect, then when she approached the second time I said to the owner 'I'll just let you walk on ahead shall I, as we know DD has been grumpy with her in the past.'

Owner didn't leash her, call her off or anything, just nodded and walked on, leaving her dog nose to nose with my leashed dog. FFS. It's not you. It's not even small white yappy dogs. It's terrible owners.

There are always idiots around - doesn't matter the circumstances. My service dog (mentioned so you can guess the level of training) was "off-duty" in the local park and exploring off the lead. He never goes far from me and is constantly watching where I am and what is going on. Six adults, two prams and NINE on lead dogs walking along the path and my dog is about 20 feet away and not on the path. Their dogs start being aggresive, growling. barking, acting as a pack and DRAGGING the owners along to get at my dog. Who is ignoring them. They get too close to me so he moves to me and warns them off with a single growl from standing right by my side - making no effort to approach the dogs. He was basically telling them all to stay away from me. The humans started aggressively swearing AT ME to get MY dog under control!!! Whilst still being dragged across the park by their own dogs!

Yes we get this as certain breeds my boy dislikes so Go's straight on lead yet amount times dogs been allowed to run up snapping at him is unreal

I.always followed of a dog is onlead so.does mine(unless I know the dog and on lead for other reasons

You and your dog did absolutely nothing wrong. If she doesn't want her dog to get snapped at and told off, she should have it under control.

Even if yours had bitten, her dog would still have been the one out of control and running up to strange dogs.

Please don't worry about her and try put it out of your mind, though I know how unsettling these things can be.

The woman is a numpty :(

As a new owner of a small fluffy (but not white) dog, I wouldn't dream of having her off lead anywhere near other dogs as she definitely would run up to them and has bitten other larger dogs in the past according to her previous owner. We're working on it. Training as you would any other sized dog.

My one snaps at certain breeds, not small white fluffies he loves those ;-) but it really annoys me when one of his "banned" breeds come up uninvited. We were stalked by a young bouncy unneutered Doberman the other day ( big no no for my dog), my one was on the lead and the Dobie owner nowhere to be seen, probably on his phone somewhere in the distance. You did nothing wrong! But it's very annoying

This.

My silly puppy wants to play with everything. If we see an onlead dog then she is recalled and put back on a lead until she is reliable at staying with me whilst walking past. It's common courtesy.

Of course the owner of the off lead dog was in the wrong. Sometimes my off lead pup spots an on lead dog and is off before I’ve seen it. Sometimes the other dog communicates ‘go away’ and he will. His recall is getting better daily but I do apologise and usually get him under control with lead or grab his slip collar so he doesn’t approach other dogs. If he were to get bitten that’s totally my fault.

My dog hates when off lead dogs charge him. He is a giant dog but got bitten in the face by a Yorkshire terrier that charged him - it drew blood and the owner laughed. I was furious and reported the owner and dog. Owner of the off lead dog was a wanker. I would actively look for a Facebook post and then post the correct version of events.

We did clicker training so if my dogs looks at me when another dog approaches he gets a click and a treat. It's working. He doesn't get as worried because instead he is excited for his treat and focused on me. We have extremely high value (cooked chicken or sausage) treats only used for this reward.

I have a nervous giant breed who has ptsd thanks to being beaten up by two fighting Pitt bulls. It is ALWAYS idiots with “don’t worry he’s friendly” fluffy white gits that are off lead and miles from their owners that cause this kind of problem for me. I have started taking videos of them and their ambling idiot owners (invariably scrolling on phones) for defence reasons if my dog ever snaps. (I have been bitten by these fluffy arseholes trying to keep them away from my giant chicken, too.)

I genuinely don't think we did anything wrong

You didn't. Off lead dogs should not approach on lead dogs, regardless of the size. Extra obnoxious points if they're barking.

Carry on as you are, try not to let it bother you.

100% this. Your dog gave a warning to the other to go away, that's all.
On a side note, as a DDog owner for many years, why do so many other dog owners expect all dogs to like and play with one another? Humans don't automatically like every other human and dogs are no different. They all have different personalities and likes/dislikes. Always puzzles me.

You did everything right, OP. Some people are just idiots.

You didn't do anything wrong. I had a similar incident, including the photos... I was livid. The only difference was that I was with a dog trainer for a 1-2-1 lesson 😆. To be fair, the other dog owner returned later while we were still there and apologised. He realised he was wrong later.

Mine is a rescue.
He is also huge, with deep loud bark.
When we got him he barked and growled really forcefully at every dog he saw. After a year working with him, he is a different dog. He is mostly calm and can meet other dogs and walk past etc.
But he really doesn't like off lead dogs coming up to him, and he will bark loudly and growl. It sounds quite scary. But even when he barks in their face, it is all noise.

So we always avoid dogs we don't know (he's happy now to meet dogs he does know). I often loop round in a field to walk in another direction, I see it as my job to keep him away from other dogs. Lots of my time is spent walking at distance to keep everyone calm. I always call out to warn people if we end up close (and then I turn away to find more space)

Last week, we turned into a large field. Way on the other side of the field just walking out of it was a woman with a little fluffy white dog. We are pootling along on a lead. The little dog turns round and comes across this massive field towards us. We stop, and I try and walk off at right angles. But my dog has seen this dog coming purposefully towards him and he lay down.
I could have picked him up by the harness and walked him away, but the little dog was coming quite quickly, so it was a bit pointless.

Twice I called out 'My dog isn't friendly' and she tried totally ineffectually to call her dog back. I held the lead tight and firm and said again - He's NOT friendly.

It didn't work. He came up and stuck his face right in my dog's face. My dog growled in a loud scary way, put his (huge) mouth round the head of the little dog (!) and pushed him away and let go, then turned round to me. Not a scratch on the dog, but he yelped loudly and ran away with his tail between his legs.
Not sorry. The whole width of a bloody huge field, and she didn't have any recall at all.
Just because your dog is small and friendly, doesn;t mean it can approach other dogs.