Stranger has just filmed me and my dog

[NewMeNewUs]

We have a 8 month old Labrador. She has good and bad days when it comes to recall, we are still working on it.

i take her down to a large green near my house which is usually empty and don’t often see anyone else and we practice our recall. Today we were there and there was a man with a dog sitting on a bench quite far away from us( could just about make them out) Anyone I let my dog off the lead to practice our recall. Typical she was having a bad day today and wasn’t listening well, so I was calling her name a lot, shouting for her. 2 other dogs appeared out of no where also off their leads. My dog ran over to them (she wasn’t listening to me) she said hello to them and was playing with them. I apologised to the owner and we were chatting for about 5 mins while the dogs ran around.

anyway as we were leaving the green, I was struggling to put the slip rope lead back on the dog was jumping etc. I look up, and that guy that was sitting in the corner of the green was in his car window down filming me and my dog!
he was talking to the camera saying how this large dog is out of control, this lady cannot control her dog yet still lets it off the lead…. I’ve watched this dog attack 2 other dogs, owner has been calling her dog and the dog doesn’t listen etc. I was saying what are you talking about the dogs were saying hello and playing, she’s a puppy we are practising our recall etc.

he was saying I’ve got your whole walk on video as evidence, I’ve got an XL bully and he is much better behaved and controlled then your dog…….

he then drove off. My gosh I am SO upset I can’t stop crying about it.

im trying my hardest with this puppy and it’s been hard. But she is a good girl and by no means out of control. She’s sooooo friendly and playful. It just hurts to hear someone observing thinks your dog is out of control, like I’m basically doing a shit job.

im also concerned about what he is going to do with a video of me and my dog. I was called her name like a lunatic, and struggled the get the lead on her etc, may have shouted at her also. Embarrassing video for me to see of myself I’m sure!

fully expecting some tellings off for letting her off the lead etc which I can accept but please be kind. Thanks for reading x

I can see why you're upset at the filming, I would be too. But I would suggest that you hire a dog field to practice your off lead training, or do it in your garden (if you have one), or a friends garden. Basically somewhere there are no other dogs. Not all dogs take kindly to others saying hello, so it's best to keep yours on lead until the recall is 100%

Your dog IS completely out of control, and it's bloody annoying. You're running around screaming for your dog like a lunatic, your dog is totally ignoring you, and you think that's being in control or that it's acceptable because the dog is a "puppy?" It's because of dog owners like you that I will not be getting another dog, even though it breaks my heart. I just can't deal with irresponsible, entitled dog owners anymore. I can no longer deal with being accosted by unruly dogs whilst walking my own. It has gotten far, far worse in the last 10 years.

I took my dog to a 6 week puppy training class, then did a further 6 week puppy follow on training. All in all 12 weeks of training.

It helped a lot and personally, I think it should be compulsory for all new dog owners.

What wasn't working for someone, they got help via a different technique. One time, everyone else in the class didn't turn up, except me, so I got lucky with a 1-2-1 class!

Personally, I'd get help, go to classes or at least hire a reputable trainer for a few private sessions

Often it's actually less about dog training and more about training the human to train the dog. A lot of our own stresses and frustrations can hamper things as the dog picks up on it.

I kept mine on a longline for ages, and we only let her off at about 8 months in a controlled environment once we were 100% certain she'd not run off. Up to that point we were constantly working on training, recall and getting her attention. We also taught her both verbal commands and a hand signal (so I can tell her to sit/stand etc on a busy train or bus for example, without saying anything) if we are across a park, we hold out our arms and she sees that from a distance and runs back.

As a result of her training I was able to teach mine a few fun extra tricks like boop my nose, or snoot where she places her snoot on my hand etc

But that came after the important stuff obvs.

Find a good trainer, you won't regret it.

Sadly lots of xl bully owners will be feeling frustrated and angry right now. Think no more of it op. But any ddog that doesn't come when called is out of control imo.

My friend was recently filmed by an xl bully owner. She was just walking her dog past the xl owner, both on leads. But my friends dog is a bit yappy so she crossed the road before hand to avoid any issues.

The xl owner filmed her and started going on about how they’re getting a bad rep an people cross the street because of her xl. It’s not fair etc, etc.

My friend was proper annoyed!

@Workawayxx 😄😄

Chuckles 😄😆

If I was you OP I’d just take this as a lesson learned, I can see you’ve said you have now ordered a longline and that is definitely the best and safest way to create a bulletproof recall. Just let the lead trial the floor but with the longline she never gets a chance to fail, because if she does try to bolt you simply reel her straight back in. The problem you have is she has been rewarded for running off today, because she got to play with the other dogs, so she will want to run off even more next time because she will remember how fun it was. The longline will remove her ability to do that again. It is difficult and tedious, but honestly teaching a fool proof recall is so so important for the safety of your dog as well as others. I also have a Labrador he’s 2 now and I do remember all too well the days of longline walks, it does get better!

The fact is your dog was out of control, and if your dog were an XL Bully who had done the same thing and it was posted on here then the owner would be getting ripped to shreds about it. Learn the lesson moving forward and just leave it at that x

He is an XL Bully owner. He is looking for 'evidence' that his breed of dog has been unfairly scapegoated.

It thankfully has nothing to do with your or your dog- it's all about what is going on in his head.

Take advice from people on here about how to help your dog next time but give this man not one more second of your headspace.

Yes and don’t ever ( even though I have seen trainers do it ) step on the line . I did that and somehow 🤷‍♀️ the line got whipped around my ankle and my dog slammed dunked me on the beach and dragged me along. Now that’s embarrassing and painful.

Get yourself a long line. I know your dog is friendly but her running over to my dog and playing would absolutely ruin our walk. He is not aggressive but he hates other dogs getting in his face and would rather ignore them. It makes him very stressed and upset when other dogs run Iver to "play"

Glad you’ve ordered a long line. I think you would benefit from some actual training sessions with a professional too. Lots of reading about dogs, as sorry to say you don’t sound like a very clued up or knowledgeable owner. Continuously shouting your dogs name won’t make it come and will just confuse the hell out of it in the long run.

What can you do about the filming? Not much. Try and forget it. It’s likely not to go any further than his phone and filming you in public isn’t illegal but I can see it would be unsettling.

Sorry to hear this OP. I like to think of myself as a responsible dog owner who has invested a lot of time into training, but I can think of many moments when things haven't gone quite as planned in public. As PP said, training in a safe environment is a completely different ball game to the "real world" with distractions. We can do our very best at training our dogs but at the end of the day, shit happens and it sounds like you've gotten some great advice already.

I also hear what you're saying about your lab being friendly with the other dogs that were off-lead and reciprocated; I think that's very different to a dog jumping up on an unwilling child, for example, and the owner brushing it away with "don't worry, he/she's friendly."

Hopefully the video won't be put online, definitely someone with a chip on their shoulder.

There are just weird people out there. Someone stopped to yell at me once because my dog was off lead and there was a sheep a speck in the distance. My dog was sitting next to my foot at the time, awaiting instructions. She was also almost fully blind and couldn't have seen the sheep to chase it, even if she chased sheep, which she didn't. My point is don't take it personally.

People have shared good advice and ideas about recall training on here though which you've acted on, so actually that guy inadvertently did you a favour 😆

Thank you all for your replies and advice.
i was wrong, she WAS out of control today. As she wasn’t listening to me.

I’ve learnt that although she is friendly and playful , doesn’t mean she can’t be out of control.

I've ordered a longline lead which is arriving tomorrow and continue with the training. Like someone said, I have learnt my lesson from this. And just hope if that video is uploaded anywhere that he blocks my face out or something!

thanks again for all your advice it’s been really helpful

OP says herself that her dog isn't reliable and often doesn't listen, though.

Yes, there's always a first time to let a dog completely "free" but you only do that if you're 99% sure that they'll come back again. Whether they're friendly or not is irrelevant.

@NewMeNewUs You have had plenty of replies but I just wanted to add my thoughts to say break what happened today down into smaller parts, do not feel bad, it happens especially with younger dogs (see the last part of my post!)

As others have said the XL bully situation is in play here - I have sympathy for their owners as just like the previous dangerous dog act the plans will cause more problems than they solve. I expect he was filming to gather evidence. I wouldn't worry about what he will do with it - just forget about it.

Secondly - the long line, biothane is good as others have mentioned. They can vary in price considerably so search around - I buy mine from a lady in Scotland, I think it is Alfie's Leads or similar (it is a long while since I had to buy one though). Firstly when using a long line never use it attached to a collar - always use a harness. If a dog pulls on the end of the long line attached to a collar it can damage its neck. Watch videos of long line training of how best to do it. I would also recommend the book Perfect Recall - follow it, even though it is not long line specific, the logisitics of it will work with a long line.

Finally, I have a young, male dog currently who has been rock steady on his recall for about 6 months (he was long lined trained) but has been off the line for quite a while - as dogs have a habit of doing they can always prove you wrong. Yesterday was that day for me. I can recall him in full flight towards something with a whistle, he will turn and recall straight away. Yesterday, he went towards another dog quite a long way off, I may have well not existed when I blew the whistle and called. He went up to the other dog, closely followed by me (red faced and breathing heavily as it was uphill!) - the other dog was a bitch in season. So a long winded way of saying sometimes things happen - im my situation I was not happy at someone walking a full in season bitch, they were not happy my dog had run up to them.

Don't beat yourself up - nobody is perfect.

Your dog was out of control.
She's also young, in adolescence period and absolutely testing boundaries at the moment.
Go back to basics, get a long line and speak to a professional if you feel you need a confidence boost.

But please, do not let your dog off lead if it has no recall and/or runs up to other dogs. My dog has experienced far too many off lead dogs pushing his boundaries and is now very dog reactive.

I haven’t a clue why someone filmed you and your dog or what they are going to do with the video. Unless they have already posted it to fb?

Your dog is 8 months old so should have a fairly decent recall. Have you attended puppy training classes OP? It sounds as if you would benefit from them tbh.

Your dog may be friendly but it is out of control. Other dogs and their owners don’t appreciate being jumped over by out of control dogs.

Sign up for dog training classes in the new year. Good luck 🍀

I also agree with those saying that, as an XL bully owner, he's recording your out of control legal dog to try and prove a point.

There’s a growing number of XL Bully owners trying to prove that other breeds are worse behaved than theirs, he was probably filming to show others that you couldn’t catch your dog etc.

Your dog was out of control, she may be friendly but those two dogs who appeared may not have been and have attacked her, not to mention if she went off the field and someone collected her - dogs should be on leads for everyone’s safety.
Your long line will help massively too.

@crew2022

"also take all comments from the perfect dog trainers and owners on here with a pinch of salt."

Agree with you Crew. Theres a few sanctimonious people on here when it comes to dogs. As for "dogs don't need to be aggressive to be dangerous", what does that even mean.

OP, did you get the man's license plate number? I'd be inclined to report him to the police. I'm not sure where the law stands with filming strangers but I think it counts as harrassment. This would disturb me too. His behaviour was at the very least inappropriate and much more threatening than an 8 month old labrador puppy!

Please don't underestimate how much momentum your ddog can gather either.. Took dhusky down the beach and in her absolutely freedom forgot the line had an expiry length...I did a flip and fell backwards banging my head.. The sheer embarrassment... Then to make matters worse she turned round, saw me sprawled out and propelled herself towards me at top speed. Sitting on me was the way to check I was fine apparently...

Honestly, he basically has. Any out of control dog is unacceptable, regardless of breed.

As for "dogs don't need to be aggressive to be dangerous", what does that even mean.

It means that if your dog doesn't come back to you when called, it could cause a danger to others, even if it's not starting a fight or trying to bite someone.

Oh, I agree with you, don't worry lol.

I'm just saying that will be why it happened - there are loads of videos all over TikTok of out of control legal breeds.