Barking at other dogs

[Sunshine679]

I am really fed up of other dog owners either approaching on lead and letting their dog bark at mine, or the same off lead.

Surely if you know your dog is reactive/aggressive you keep your distance from other dogs?

I’m desperately trying to keep my two year old neutral to other dogs, so maybe over sensitive. What is the general consensus? Dogs will be dogs.. or is this rude?

It kind of depends- agressive bark- I wonder why they’re around other dogs, excited I do think ‘ah that’s cute!’ My dog just looks at them, he’s a people’s dog and would go with no dog contact if he could!!

There’s a big chow chow who lives near us and all the other dogs, including mine, bark like mad at him! They really don’t like him! The chow chow ignores it mostly, I just think the rest of them aren’t quite sure what to make of a giant teddy bear of a dog.

I wonder if he knows they are all confused 🤣

I can't get annoyed at a dog barking - it's kind of what they do.

It's not the same as being reactive or aggressive.

Yes, as someone who has a DDog that has been labelled anxious and reactive, been to behaviourists, trainers, vets and on medication, we do get up at stupid times and stay up till stupid times to walk our dogs when there is no one else about to gossip and bitch about them.

We don’t tend to let them off leash and let them run up to other people’s dogs leastwise some kindly soul suggests that our/my dog (who has no bite history) be muzzled/put down/properly controlled/trained!!

He is a rescue and I have no clue what happened to him before he came to us other than what the rescue centre told us, I only know how much he has improved. He can now walk past other dogs on the same pavement. I can walk him and it is an enjoyable experience, not an early morning/late night military exercise type event.

As someone who hung out in forums with other reactive dog owners, none of us wanted our dogs face to face with your or anyone else’s dog and I don’t know anyone who I spoke to who walked their dog off lead unless it was in an enclosed area.

Dogs communicate by barking.
I would rethink your opinions as to how the majority of reactive dogs and their owners behave.

It is nice to not have to get up at 5am to walk my DDog anymore but it took a lot of work on his and my behalf. Also, plenty people let their completely unreactive off leash dogs, with no bloody recall run up and bark in his face.

I’m obviously not aiming this at anyone with a dog who is trying their best to manage various issues. I’m in the same boat.

I was just fed up and ranting last night as I was surprised in the dark by an off lead dog running at and barking at mine (not playful at all), and it happened the night before as well with one on lead who’s owner just didn’t seem to care and had walked straight at me in an open space.

My 3yo rescue is a reactive barker. It’s so difficult as I am really trying to train her with the help of a behaviourist but she just barks at every dog she sees. She isn’t aggressive it’s excitement as she wants to play but has no recall so can’t at the moment.

I get it @Sunshine679
It's fine people saying barking is "how dogs communicate" but that isn't true of all dogs. Guarding breeds like mine will often only bark on home territory.

Our current pup absolutely hates smaller dogs coming up and barking in her face. She never responds, other than to move away from them, but I'm always slightly terrified of the more aggressive barkers pushing her into being reactive.
She's always on a lead and, fortunately, now she's bigger, people seem to be calling their dogs away a lot more. She loves making friends with quiet, calm ones, but the barkers clearly bother her, and I do live in fear of something surprising her in the dark, as you describe happening with your dog.

Even if a dog isn't reactive, people shouldn't be letting their dogs approach other dogs without checking with the owner. I'm not averse to my dog interacting with other dogs, but I don't really see the benefit unless it's in the context of meeting up to have a run around together off lead. Many dogs, even well socialised ones, are fine off lead but reactive when on the lead, so it seems sensible to assume any dog you see on a lead is likely to react.

I find people in general (not just dog owners) are becoming increasingly oblivious to their surroundings. It feels like we're now experiencing the opposite to social distancing and people now walk as as close as they can to you! Even as a pedestrian when I don't have my dog with me, I would give any dog I pass as much space as I can.

@Sunshine679 You mentioned reactive/aggressive dogs specifically.

I have no experience with aggressive dogs but I know that the vast majority of people with reactive dogs really do look to manage reactivity because of the way we are treated by other members of the public if, god forbid, our dogs do react.

My DDog had a great walk yesterday,85% of the time he does now and very, very rarely do I come home covered in blood from clinging to his lead and crying never again. That makes him sound awful but he strains at the leash, yowling like the cat on the old ‘Charlie says’ (now we will find out how old we all are……) at specific triggers. It looks awful. He once got away but just sat down, in the middle of a bloody road!
Hence the hanging on.

We do come across other dog owners who don’t give a toss. There is a man who seems to think antagonising my dog is entertaining. After standing yelling at us from across the street whilst my poor DDog was losing his spoons, he then, after we were away from both of them round the corner, returned to exacerbate the situation and criticise me. Thankfully, my DDog was calm, but by ankle was and is twisted and my hand is bruised.

OP some dog owners just don’t care.

I’m inclined to agree with @hididdlyho that people are increasingly unaware of their surroundings (and what their off leash dogs are up to) these days. I recently met a woman walking a dog with a yellow leash. She was glued to her phone. I politely shouted over to ask if her dog was reactive, because of the coloured leash. She didn’t register. I tried again, still scrolling. We went round by a different route just in case.

Because of one awful person who wasn’t around for the very many good walks and doesn’t know my DDog’s history, who made a bad situation worse and told me I couldn’t handle my dog; I lost my rag to an embarrassing extent when this idiot wouldn’t leave us alone as a small part of me felt that I was right back at the beginning and made me start to doubt everything we have achieved.

I don’t know why this other dog barks at your dog, but I do think people have far less awareness of what their dogs are up to. I have seen lots of people locally walking off leash dogs in town and it does make you wonder, they trust their dogs 100%?!

I don’t like everyone I meet, some people give me a bad feeling. Yesterday, with my ankle aching, being yelled at, a small part of me was thinking ‘Go boy! Bark at the B*stard!’

I hope you said something to the people/ person who let their dog randomly run up to your dog and asked them to keep an eye on their dog or keep it on a leash.

Sorry for hijacking your thread. I really cannot express what bad press you seem to get if you have a reactive dog and the bad days, like yesterday are pretty hell.