So this morning before work I was walking my 11 month old golden retriever on lead in our local park. I often have him on a longline in this park but today we were doing a sniffy on-lead walk around our local area and also some heel training. We're entering the park, my dog is pretty calm and focused on sniffing about, largely ignoring any other dogs walking past (which is also something we're working on). We're on the path, not the field area where dogs tend to play.
A dog we know, which my puppy has sometimes played with, spots us (from about 200m away) and comes bombing over. I know that this dog plays very roughly and noisily with lots of rolling around and barking, pinning etc. My dog enjoys playing with him but gets overexcited so in the past I would only let my puppy play with him in short bouts, with both owners nearby and watching. Owner not watching her dog at this point as she was even further away chatting with someone.
This is not the first time this has happened (this dog racing over while my boy is on lead) so I was a bit prepared and stood in front of my puppy and said loudly 'Dog's Name, no, sit'. He barrelled between my legs and started properly going for my dog - it was 'play' but really full on, physical and fast. My dog was then also trying to play. I tried to grab other dog's collar but he was twisting around and I kept losing my grip and almost lost my balance (I was also holding onto my dog's lead because I didn't want him running off, the park is not enclosed). Owner started walking over but took her time (she is pregnant). I was trying hard to separate the two dogs, but it was difficult. I hurt my fingers and arm trying to grab dog's collar because he was so full on (he wasn't biting, just twisting and whirling around and my fingers got trapped in his collar). Owner eventually gets over, grabs her dog (who I now have a grip on), says 'sorry I can't run right now' and just turns round and walks off. Another dog walker came up to me to see if I was ok. My puppy shook it off and went back to sniffing about - luckily he has a very calm temperament.
I wasn't exactly frightened because I do know this dog and know that he is loud and physical but not bitey. But if it had been an unfamiliar dog I would have been really scared. It's the second time this has happened with this particular dog and of course we won't be allowing any play and will avoid wherever possible. But I am a bit shaken up by how difficult it was to intervene on my own. I'm a new dog owner and I haven't had to try and separate dogs like this before. And I'm so pissed off that it seems like I can't walk my dog on lead, on a paved footpath, in our local park, without risking this bloody dog barrelling over. I just can't believe that this owner knows she has a very bouncy, very physical, very loud dog, over which she has limited control, and she doesn't even bother with a long line and just lets him roam the park. I know he's 'friendly' but actually, it's not acceptable for a dog to push past another owner's legs then start jumping, barking, and trying to pin their on-lead dog down. It's bloody shit dog ownership and so irresponsible. If it had been the other way around and my 37kg pup was the one barrelling past her to get to her dog it would be so dangerous as she's pregnant. I could easily have been knocked right over and almost was. I'm so grateful that my boy is generally quite placid and calms down easily. If this dog hadn't come racing over my dog would have spotted him as we walked round, pulled a bit on the lead to try and go over to play, then been happily distracted by a bit of turkey and carried on sniffing away.
Anyway I just wanted to have a rant because it really threw my day off, my fingers and forearm are still quite painful from being twisted, and I really want to say all this to the owner but I can't because she just walked off and I didn't want to follow a heavily pregnant woman through the park shouting. So I'm having a go here instead!
In hindsight I suppose I should have let my pup's lead go and then I would have been more free to try and grab the other dog properly. But I wasn't really thinking, it all happened so fast. It's made me realise how hard an actual dog fight would be to deal with - this was 'just' a badly mannered dog which plays too rough and goes from 0-100mph in an instant. Experienced dog owners - what's the best thing to do if this happens again?