Off lead dogs - help?

[ItsBouqeeeet]

I'm hoping for some advice!

Despite owning a dog, I have this very big fear of off lead dogs and its actually starting to impact my life.

Where I live, there's at least one dog a day that's escaped and they're usually big dogs! I'd quite like to walk to work but I'm petrified at the thought of bumping into an off lead dog. I'd like to walk my dog more (husband usually does it) but again, the thought of bumping into an off lead dog scares me.

Any advice? Any reassurance? Anything at all? 🙈

It sounds like you want to prepare for how to respond if a dog approaches you (rather than try to completely avoid the scenario). Obviously this won’t work with all dogs but you can try to take control of the situation when a dog approaches, bend down to pet them so they don’t jump, use commands like ‘sit’ or ‘no’ or ‘stay’ (even have some treats on hand to encourage them to do this). When I have visitors who are nervous with dogs I always try to remind them of both these things before they meet my dog who is exited for visitors but will respond to commands. If someone is panicky my dog will also panic so you want to try and remain as calm as possible so they hopefully copy you.