weird dog encounter stories

[steppemum]

I have had 2 funny/weird encounters in the last week, so I thought I'd start a thread.

I have a big dog, who is nice with people, but loves to bark at other dogs, especially when on a lead in a restricted place, so if I am walking down the road on the pavement and a dog comes towards us on the other side, he will bark and go nuts. (he is a rescue. 100% better than when we got him, but still an issue)
So I will wait for other people to move on by, duck into side road until they have passed, stop behind a parked car etc. The goal is no reaction, calmly watch the other dog go by.

incident 1.
T junction. I walk up the stem of the T. I see a man going across the top of the T with a smallish dog. There is an entrance to a park there. So I stop with Big Dog for a moment and he sits beautifully next to me with a treat on his nose, other dog passes and we head off down the road and turn away from the park. A lady gets out of her car and says - excuse me can I ask why you decided to walk this way instead of to the park. Was it because there was a Staffie? I am a bit confused, didn't notice what type of dog had walked across, was too busy concentrating on Big Dog. Er no, my dog is reactive, I just waited for them to go past, and I am going home, in that direction???
She looked puzzled and said Oh right and got back in the car!

incident 2.
Walking down a road and see lady with spaniel coming towards me. Narrow road and no parked cars, so I know we won't be able to walk passed without Big Dog going nuts.
There is an open grassy space, so we walk across it and stand at the back of the space, with Big Dog sitting, treat ready, me encouraging him to be chill. Lady takes AGES to cover the 20 feet on her side of the road, and then sees me and crosses towards me. (!) I call out - my dog isn't friendly. Oh Ok she says and meanwhile I am doing a running commentary with Big Dog in a calming voice (good boy, just sit nicely, LOOK treat ready that's it, no need to bark etc etc)
Oh look doggie, says the lady to her spaniel, they are doing TRAINING. How lovely, let's just sit here and watch them training. She stopped and got her dog to sit and watch us.
(WTF???)
So I call out - please don't, we are actually just waiting for you to go on past as my dog is reactive. She looks really put out and SLOWLY gathers dog and walks off with dog.
I am just staring after her thinking - on what planet?.......

Yes, I agree. It is some weird thing when people know you have a reactive dog.

I have had people deliberately slowing down and hindering my progress.

Three days ago I was working on lead walking, literally from my garden into the cu-de-sac area of my street and a man with a barking dog stopped and watched me from the end of the street.

I am not sure what it is, maybe performance parenting. Its very weird and odd though.

People get very weird when they see you actively training your dog IME.

I have a lead-reactive dog and I do the same as you - lots of praise, treats and dodging behind cars etc. to distract him and keep our distance. Some people are really nice and smile and say how good he's being, but others give me such odd looks or if he does bark, make such unnecessary comments.

I was walking him yesterday and he barked at two dogs in fairly quick succession as we were on a narrow path, and then a person walked past (no dog) and gave me such a filthy look. I mean, really? How do you think that helps? lol.

Interestingly, both the dog owners know me (and him) and said good morning quite happily!

The weirdest encounter I have had with my dog involves a really nice lady in the park who gets down to their level and lets dogs -other people’s dogs that she doesn’t know - lick her face. Actually lick her face. I said I probably wouldn’t do that if I were you, (she’s a Labrador puppy, she eats shit, literally - cat, hedgehog, fox…and had done on that walk already .) and she said ‘oh, she’s only a baby!’

what the hell is wrong with people???

We were in the park and a large six month old lab-cross was playing a bit too boisterously with our lab, and our lab was becoming anxious. We asked other owner to call his dog away and he threatened to punch my dh’s lights out!

On walk back home, came across same dog walker who apologised for his language, and then said something along the lines that his mother didn’t bring him up to talk like that. It was a really weird choice of phrase.

The absolute barmy cow who wanted to buy my dog 🤣🤣
She asked if her daughter could say hello, I said yes, that’s fine- thanks for asking. Daughter said she wanted to keep the dog after some petting. Mother asked me how much I wanted for her. I just laughed because I presumed she was joking. But no, she went on and on “however much you want, I’ll triple it”- it got very uncomfortable very quickly, so I went on my merry way and the daughter (aged maybe 8?) had an absolute tantrum. “I want that dog. Make her bring it back” and her mother starts FOLLOWING US saying “I’m serious- she really wants this dog” I threatened to call the police for harassment and they left us alone, but only after throwing some foul language in my direction.

I kept expecting Ant and Dec to pop out and announce I was on a hidden camera show. 🤣🤣

As a side note, no idea who they were. Never seen them before or since.

@feelingalittlehorse Thats hilarious. Spoilt brat or what!

We have a people nervous dog and it's really tricky. She used to have an anxious dog lead to try and stop people petting her randomly but we found it made people worse!

People were forever telling us how they completely understand, their dog is nervous to etc all while trying to pet her. She's never mean or barky towards people but clearly hiding behind legs etc and they insist on bending down to her.

We've had to ask people not to reach under the bench we were sat on to pull her out, and once in a restaurant not to crawl under the table.

Half of me thinks it's arrogance and the other half it's because once they've bent down they feel they have to style it out rather than just give up.

I completely agree that people are fascinated by people actively working with a dog, but I think it also triggers some form of self defensiveness in people or guilt they aren't?

She's going through a teenage state Where she wants to leap on every dog that passes (to wrestle not maim!) And we are really clearly doing work eg distract and treat, sitting off the path and the amount of people who allow their dogs to greet is insane

We specifically do it in an onlead area, and people with flexi leads will allow their dog to cross the path over to a dog with a yellow nervous warning, with someone clearly working with them and blocking them.

On the plus side, we've had some really lovely comments from people who say they see us walking each day and have come over to say they see the difference.

Last week a couple did a little silent yay, when they saw her do a good look at dog and back to me and told me she was clever

It does make me cheerlead anybody I see actively working with a dog.

There's a lady who is clearly struggling with a reactive dog near us who is doing all the right things and she's making great strides. It's really tempting to cross over and tell her so, but realise that makes me one of those people that comes over to a dog being distracted!

Sometimes I feel like there's a bit of a secret club of people having to put a lot of effort in to our dogs, and sometimes people want to say "me too! Isn't it hard?" But equally end up doing the wrong things in approaching to share that enthusiasm

I do a lot of gundog training with my two, and due to location and timings I do some of it on our local playing fields. Most people give us space and leave us alone. Some people stand there and watch and then ask me how I do it (time, effort, patience, gundog trainers). Some let their dogs come tearing over when mine are quite obviously not supposed to be playing and then their dog is likely to get told off by one of mine - no teeth, just a verbal reprimand. The responses there are about 2/3 who say, 'Yeah, served mine right, I'll get out of your way' and 1/3, 'Waah, your dog is being aggressive!' (She's not, she's doing your oik a favour by explaining canine manners to him.)

Then there's the one with the Labrador with no recall whatsoever who once said to me, 'You're not STILL training those dogs?'

AAAARGH!

The other irritation is when I see an on-lead dog approaching, with a yellow lead or a 'Nervous' jacket. I call mine in, get off the path, pop their leads on or put them in a sit, and wait. And the dog and owner meander slooooowly along, get distracted, meander some more. Eventually I get bored, emerge from the bushes and walk past, and get a dirty look for my pains. Mate, I used to have a dog who barked at unknown dogs, I feel your pain, but for fuck's sake, if someone is being considerate, don't take the piss.

I have Skye Terriers. Known as real dour Scots.. Problem is, being a rare breed, people tend to be interested out & about, “what are they? Oh aren’t they gorgeous!” So they like to say hello to them. They never normally bother with people, don’t bark at other dogs, happily walk past strangers…Until someone decides to talk directly to them, make a fuss of them etc. Well…then they are subjected to a right mouthful of cursing & swearing from them. Once the person stops talking to them & just talks to me they shut up again as if nothing has happened….butter wouldn’t melt.