There’s a trail I usually take my puppy to while on a long line since it’s got a nice amount of routes, and in nature etc. it’s supposed to be an on leash area only, and of course every time we’ve gone on walks here, there’s no fail one or more dogs just off leash doing what they want. Some owners are really responsible and don’t let their dog near us, however there’s been numerous run ins with this one specific guy that has his pointer? Off leash throwing a ball ahead of him, and the dog goes and gets it, brings it back, and repeats over and over.
Normally, I can go a diff route to avoid this douche, however just 30 mins ago we meet up with this guy in one of the small sections with no where else to go. My pup obviously starts pulling like crazy, barking, whining, and going ballistic because of this dog doing it’s thing.
Does the guy care? Not one bit, just continues to let his dog do the same thing, while seeing me struggling with trying to get my pup under threshold. Is there some tips on what to do in this scenario besides calling this guy a dick head next time? His dog is obviously super trained, just curious why there’s no etiquette in mind of putting his dog on a leash like it’s supposed to be, or letting us go by.
Just yesterday we were finishing up our walk like today, and a guy had two whippets (one a puppy) just running around in the fields and the puppy one comes straight up to us. Yes, he’s cute but dude your puppy can’t recall, and here I’m pushing it away while my boy was actually doing great and sat down. Then started to bark at the puppy once it got in our face and didn’t get the clue. I was afraid the second dog would come up behind us, and get him while I’m fighting off the other one.
There’s another time with a puppy off leash, and the dude recalls and puppy doesn’t care. Comes straight up to us, and got in my pups face. My pup again was neutral (since been trying to work on him being that way) and then the other puppy just lunges at him. Owner walks up, and doesn’t even say sorry. Just “huh.”
It takes everything in me to not curse these people out, or grab their dogs until the owner decides to want to intervene. It’s gotten so bad, I carry pepper spray on me incase I need to use it. I just now have to sit and expect off leash dogs on this trail, and I hate how if it keeps happening that were the ones that have to go somewhere else, and not the owners that aren’t following the rules.
Not in the last month but I do want to share my experience I've had.
When we had recently adopted our reactive German Shepherd mix (her breed has relevancy to the story), we were doing the 3 3 3 rule. We had recently started implementing daily walks as part of her routine and she was enjoying her walks. One day we were leaving the house for a walk and all of the sudden I see at the distance my neighbor washing their car and I noticed her dog was off leash. Her dog ran towards our dog and my dog was getting ready to lunge and bark. My neighbor had no sense of urgency and wasn't trying to immediately get her dog. She was simply walking ever so slowly with no worries meanwhile my partner and I were trying to control the situation. What's worse is that when she picked up her dog she never apologized when we had mentioned to her please get a hold of her dog. Her dog was a tiny little shih tzu and I knew for a fact that my dog being a german shepherd was going to be 100% blamed all because of her breed.
The most recent one was an off leash dog ran towards my dog and I was walking her by myself. The owner's dog wasn't around and I want to say it wasn't a stray because the dog looked pretty upkept and clean. I had to carry my dog in my arms and I screamed for help and no one came to the rescue. I was so traumatized I didn't want to walk my dog for days after that.
Along the same lines as "don't worry, he's friendly !" would be "don't worry, he's a puppy !" for me. This is the 2nd time in the passed few weeks I've been chased by dogs while walking. 4 dogs in total, all 'harmless puppies' who also happened to be a huge, unleashed, and reactive dogs. Puppies can be just as threatening as fully grown dogs people !!
Neighbor at the end of our alley has a GSD. The thing has hopped the fence twice at seeing us (luckily no physical damage) but now I am highly anxious at any dog in a yard, my poor pitty has become reactive, and my anxious terrior who was making strides forward has completely backtracked.
We have completely changed our route to avoid this house and am putting the work in to help my dogs forward and me as well. Just frustrating as anyone knows.
I was walking my dog today and 3 huge dogs (2 white large something, 1 pitbull) came out of nowhere to the park with kids and surrounded me and my dog. I had to pick my dog up and carry her across the park as they continue to circle me while my dog was trembling in fear. I don't own any guns, mace, pepper spray etc, but if any of those dogs would have charged at my dog those dogs would not see the next daylight
A house down the street has two dogs normally tied up, today they weren’t. I of course have to slide on the mud and eat it into the sidewalk. One dog go my dog pretty good. My dog got one of them. It’s so easy to be mad at ourselves when things out of our control happen. I’m lucky I didn’t get more hurt and we’re both lucky none of our dogs got any good bites in. But sometimes it can be so tiring. The amount of streets I can’t walk down because of off leash dogs. Which is the reason I have a reactive dog. It can be exhausting.
So to myself and everyone else in the thread, some days are better than others. Be kind to yourself and your dog.
My neighbor has a schnauzer that charges toward us in his front yard. The dog is held back by a long chain and has wide range of the front yard. It barks loud and non-stop, as we approach and pass by.
The first time it happened, my dog (80+ pounds, shelter rescue) nearly jumped out of his skin.
The way I deal with it is this: As we approach the yard, I look for the schnauzer so at least I’m not surprised. If he’s out there and barking his fool head off, I make my dog sit quietly, and we just watch the schnauzer for a bit. I stay calm and give my dog a corrective tug if he wants to stand or react.
When I’m ready we walk forward again (heeling), and I stop and make him sit quietly again. My goal is for him to realize that we’re not in a dangerous situation. I’m feeling good about this approach so far!
... damn.
That just sucks but on god they wont cross that fence xD
Train your dog to not react is a double edged sword so no I don't.
Other than don't expose ur dog to that.
Having the same problem nearly daily when I walk, no matter where I am. Today I was chased by 3 big dogs I'd never seen before who came out of nowhere in their backyard. Hoped there was a fence, this time nope. I just don't know what to do anymore either. Wish there was some kind of signage to tell me when there is actually a fence !!
Some woman walking her chihuahua off leash. Jake and I were in training mode and he was doing well when all of a sudden I see him come to a halt and his ears perk up. Next thing I know I see this chihuahua charging towards us from a side street. To top it off there was a car coming down the street Jake and I were on. I was struggling to control Jake cause it totally caught me off guard and I was concerned knowing this car was coming, not very fast cause it was still in a residential area, but still. Then I see and hear this lady running after her chihuahua. The car slowed way down, Jake did get away from me as he is 95 lbs of muscle, the chihuahua ran out in front of the car with Jake now chasing the chihuahua. The lady is screaming for me to get my dog. Jake and the chihuahua just run in circles barking at each other. I finally get Jake, then she grabs her chihuahua. I yelled something like “keep your dog on leash” but with a few swear words. As the lady walks down the street and gets ahead of us a ways, she puts the chihuahua down on the ground again but she was far enough away and moving in the same direction that Jake didn’t really care as much. I yelled again “ put your dog on a leash”. That whole situation infuriated me but also thinking she not only didn’t have a leash with her but also no poop bags and you can’t tell me that dog didn’t poop in someone’s yard and she left it there.
Her dog could’ve gotten killed by the car or my dog could have gotten injured or killed or me. I haven’t seen her since that day and it is fine with me.
I have 1.5yo mini dachshund who is shy and fearful. He started to be dog selective - i would exactly because of the amount of off leash dogs running to him... i am trying to teach him to ignore other dogs . we meet / greet other dogs only when I talk to the owner and see how reliable the owner is etc... when I see an off leash dog in front of us I stop and see if the owner will get the dog to heel or put it on leash then we continue . or I ask them to hold the dog while we pass.
I have real problems to stay calm when there is an off leash dog running to us and i dont have time to react. I keep pulling my dog on a leash trying to get him away from the off leash dog - kicking my leg to get the dog away and yelling like a mad person 😂 I know it makes the whole situation worse but sometimes I just panic 🥺
so it happened today and the owner finally got to us and said maybe your dog should have bitten mine so that it will stop running to other dogs... lots of owners said that to me when I try ti explain mine is not friendly. But it can end so badly for mine because most of the other dogs are way bigger and stronger :(
I always feel so bad when I react like this and want to cry. I feel like i am the one ruining the training for him...
Saw a giant dog wandering around unattended today with the owner nowhere in sight and he approached my dog. We quickly moved away but he started following us. I didn't know what to do. This dog was 3x the size of my dog. Then we turn a corner and there was the idiot owner holding a leash with a baby strapped to him. I told him, you need to leash your dog. He said "ok" and I cursed at him. I was so pissed, I don't care if his dog is "friendly". Your dog wanders up to the wrong dog or person something bad is going to happen. I am proud of my dog for staying calm though because he is terrified of larger dogs.
Definitely be proud of your dog if he didn't react given his history with larger dogs. That's great. That dog owner was a total jerk. If you can't control your dog LEASH THEM!
I live in an area where people have a lot of large dog breeds, one particular owner has two beautiful cane corsos that he lets loose inside a certain area of the park. This area is not meant for dogs and there are multiple exists and I am always afraid to encounter them as they have tried to chase me and my dog more than once. The owner yells at them but one of them always seems particularly locked on my dog and has even tried to jump the three foot high fence to get to us before. Just yesterday a man on the street had a loose pitbull (nothing against the breed just irresponsible owners) and when I told him that my dog was reactive and he should leash his dog he not only did not react by doing so but just said “don’t you train your dog?”
A couple weeks ago we were walking through a park and a dog came racing towards us, we managed to run away (he chased us for half a block) and the owner finally caught up to her dog. I had told her to leash him but once she caught up she just stood there and I had to yell at her to leash him again. This caught the dog’s attention and we were chased AGAIN for another block. I left but never saw the dog leashed.
I’ve had owners of loose dogs tell me I’m the one reacting badly by running away from their dog AS the dog chased us with clear intent.
There's currently public meetings that have been going on in my municipality about whether they should start enforcing leash laws in a particular park that is not supposed to be an off-leash park but where everyone lets their dogs off leash. I watched the televised meeting and it was filled with SO MANY of these "free the dogs! let the dog roam free! all our dogs are friendly!" people. All I could think was, YOUR dog is friendly, the concern is your friendly dog thinking OTHER dogs are friendly. I don't bring my dog to this park, but surely at least some other people with reactive dogs do, thinking "my dog is on a leash, and we're in a town with a leash law, awesome." If your friendly dog runs up to a leashed reactive dog to say hello, this could be dangerous! It's my own greatest fear any time I go anywhere.
At a minimum I hope they add some "warning: off leash dog" signs or something, if they're going to keep not enforcing the law, so that people with reactive dogs don't accidentally stumble into the park.
(And this is not like, a typical dog park. It's a park with hiking trails and stuff where you wouldn't enter and immediately see the off leash dogs. You could be happily walking along by yourself and then be surprised when they suddenly came around the corner.)
Neighbor REFUSES to acknowledge that it's a problem that her dog is constantly getting out. It's literally a weekly occurrence where her dog gets out and comes at mine while we're on a walk. And I'm just supposed to be chill and let her dog jump all over mine. Lady, I'm trying to teach my dog that other dogs do not equal play time. I don't give a fuck that you think your dog is friendly and is only a puppy, my dog is on leash and yours is all over mine. Fix your effing gate.
This was happening with my pit and Jack Russell for many weeks. We didn’t know because the neighbor would take them in their house let them play with their dogs and bring them back before we got home. One day she leaves a note saying she would be out town the next week and couldn’t watch the dogs if they got out. I was upset because we actually never knew as everytime we came they were there and happy. Worries me so much and so happy nothing terrible ever happened. Our Pitty was a big baby the Jack was the one of concern. We fixed the issue by keeping them in the house when we weren’t home. Looking back I still can’t believe I used to let my dogs be outside all day I would never do that now.
My neighbor’s dogs got loose recently, one an aggressive pit bull and the other a non-aggressive shepherd mix. The pit bull approached us growling and barking, looking me dead in the eyes with its shackles raised. It tried to attack my dog a couple of times, but I yelled and moved my dog around, and somehow no one got bitten. My dog is 80+ pounds and was doing protective growling. I kept him under control (leash and martingale collar).
I called 911, and it took 8 long minutes for animal control to arrive. The 911 operator kept telling me to stop yelling at the dog, to which I responded that we were being attacked and I had to do something!
Since then I’ve bought mace, and I won’t hesitate to use it if I have to protect myself or my dog!
Sometimes no other option. I’m all for avoiding conflict no matter what I think will happen I will make every effort to go another way even a longer one if necessary. People do this to me. I now have a small cute 12lb pup and she is very clear about her boundaries - don’t touch my mom and don’t come any closer. People ignore because they are overloaded by her cuteness . I have to explain she is not in the mood. Ofcourse I get oh she’s wagging oh she looks so friendly. Again she’s not in the moody know my dog.
A neighbor had their two dogs off leash in front of their house. A residental neighborhood where dogs MUST be kept on leash by law.
We passed them without an issue and my dog did so well. When we were already around the corner one of the dogs chased after us, the owner ran after him screaming but of course his dog didn’t care about that.
My dog snapped, his dog snapped and he had to beat his dog on the head to let go of mine.
Ever since my dogs reactivity is worse than ever and we have to start training all over again.
Also she is now afraid of all dogs, including her buddy who‘m she knew since puppyhood.
They always got along so well and had regular playdates, but now my dog gets scared and doesn’t dare to play at all.
Best thing about this:
Fast forward three weeks later, that neighbor walked his two dogs and saw my dog barking uncontrollably at him and the dogs and he had the AUDACITY to say: "That dog‘s really protesting isn’t it?" and laugh.
I told him after the "incident" she‘s been a nervous wrack around other dogs and he didn’t even realize what I was talking about! He seems to have forgotten about it already!
By the way this guys wife had threatened me calling the cops because my dog regularly barks when we walk past their house and she also feels like I‘m abusing my dog, because my dog always seems so distressed - YEAH WELL OF COURSE IT DOES!
Happened today. A dog in the neighborhood slipped their collar while being handled by kids. Ran across the street and down our driveway and bit my dog. Two years of working on reactivity training just to have our worst fear come true. My dog did not bite and was very brave at the vet after the fact, despite having an absolute fear of the vet's office.
I’m so sorry. This happened to me today too, only my dog thankfully did not require veterinary care. It was terrifying (the other dog charged through busy traffic to get across the street to my dog) and I can’t get the image of my poor dog just cowering with her tail between her legs out of my head. She had been doing so well with her training, too, and just went for a walk with a newly acquainted dog less than a week ago. It’s so frustrating to put in so much work everyday for every millimeter of progress, only to see it knocked over by a moment of someone’s carelessness.
My stupid boomer neighbors think their small dogs running off-leash is cute. We have a park nearby and there's always a few idiots who have their pups running in a field without a leash. At least buy a 50-100 ft one or something.
Also, my neighbor a couple of houses down from us, has a bunch of small white dogs who often escape through the front door and run at my Sheepadoodle. He's reactive and while he's gotten better, he reverts at times.
Just yesterday, some kid was running behind their dog with one of those expanding leashes. He ran across the street to our house and wanted to playfight with my dog. My dog didn't like it and was shaken up.
My dog was attacked badly by my exes dog and ever since doesn’t like other dogs. I am still scared as well after seeing that - but I try to stay calm when other dogs approach and have definitely been more vocal about telling people to move or hey can you wait until we cross.
There’s one couple in my neighborhood who has two dogs, one on leash and one off. Every time I see them I try to avoid but unfortunately w e crossed paths and their dog off leash ran up to my dog. I said as he was coming over my dog doesn’t like other dogs and was attacked and is very afraid - dog still came over. Sniffed my dog and the owners say oh he’s so friendly. My dog doesn’t care if your dog is friendly or not - and then the rest of the walk she was totally over threshold. We have made a lot of progress and every time this happens - it’s one step back.
I have been doing some training with her in the front yard - always on leash but if I see someone with a dog out - we wait until I know they are at the distance she’s okay with right now and I keep her calm / she will sit and watch me.
Now one ladies dog got out the front door and ran up on my girl - she sat and I was holding her trying to calm her as I saw the dog coming - she did a warning bark to the dog - which the dog backed off and the lady actually said her dog deserved that - and apologized profusely as she could see my dog was terrified.
Edit - especially leash a dog in a neighborhood. If you want your dog off leash so bad, take it somewhere where it’s you alone.
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Enjoying a morning walk with my pup in the cemetery, and a dog runs up and jumps in the water near us. I thought we were alone, so I was confused. I also realized I had seen this dog once before. To which I said. "put a leash on your dog." My pitty starts barking and lunging. Owner walking up with another dog (on leash) at the same time. Says "sorry, she just wanted to play in the water. I didn't know anyone was over here." Uh, yeah don't you think you should check before letting your dog off-leash, asshole? I wish I had said that. I did get upset and let out some "fuck yous" as I walked away. I wish I didn't react that way, but it made me so angry that it was the same people I ran into before. She was reactive the rest of the walk and I couldn't get her to relax :( We have been doing so well, too. It sucks. I hope I don't run into them again.
Coming up on one year since it happened. I've endured several braces, cortisone injections, and physical therapy. I have not had a single pain-free day. I will likely never regain full use of the injured limb.
Leash your fucking dog.
I’m so sorry to hear this.
I don’t understand why people feel so proud of their dog off leash. Any dog can be unpredictable.
I feel proud of my dog on leash (we actually use 2, because I’ve heard of leashes snapping) and being a responsible owner.
Welp, it happened. We were going on a sniff walk in a nearby meadow today. Its pretty secluded amd we can keep our distance easily if another dog comes along. Usually, my husband comes with, but he's been working nights (I work days) and I've been trying to build confidence doing it on my own. All was going well, we were able to work on some recall skills and focus while another dog was a good 30+ or so feet away. That dog and their owner eventually leave, so we have the place to ourselves, which is awesome. There's a river bank at the edge of the meadow but dips down, so you can't see a ton of the field. Usually, when there's two of us, we have someone play lookout while the other lets doggo lead sniffs along the river. I kept him in the field this time and honestly glad I did, even though I initially I felt bad depriving him. This pair of ladies had two off leash dogs with them, one older one younger (maybe 6 months) that are WAY ahead of them. I start leading us off further away from them as calmly as possible. Their puppy spots us and books it towards us. I shout at it to stop, twice. It does for like 5 seconds before rushing up. I'm waving and trying to create distance without overstimulating either dog. Owners are literally meandering over while this is happening. I shout at them. "Can you come get him?" One of them says yup and continues to walk slowly. Meanwhile, the puppy is getting in my dog's face and their sniffing each other. Puppy very much wants to play, and mine keeps backing away. I toss her dog's leash towards her and tell her that my dog doesn't like dogs. She takes up the leash, and then the older dog comes barreling at us, unleashed too. She yells at him to stop, which he listens to. They walk off, and we head in the opposite direction.
I am so proud of my boy, though. He's had some not so great moments the last couple weeks, so today's lack of growling/snapping was huge!
We usually do sniff walks for about 40 minutes, but we to cut it to like 20. I thought about sticking around as it seemed like the ladies and their dogs were leaving, but didn't want to risk it. I felt like saying something about keeping your dog near you but I don't know. I think I was really trying to stay as calm as possible. I'm hoping I handled it alright.
Oh god I just made a post about this, it happened today. My dog was leashed and this other dog was off leash with no owner in sight and came running at us, it got right up in my dog’s face and as I tried to pick my 65 pound dog up he redirected on me and bit my hand. I feel defeated.
I was out on a little used hiking trail on an early Monday morning (he loves hiking but we have to pick times where we’re unlikely to see other dogs out there). Things were going well until we got to the water and someone had their dog out there running around and weren’t even watching him. He comes running up to my dog and I’m trying to stay calm so as not to freak my dog out more but I’m also trying to get the owner’s attention. Sure enough the dog gets to my dog and my dog goes on the defensive. I had to break them up myself until the owner finally realized where her dog was. The lady had the audacity to act like it was somehow my fault (“MY dog is friendly”), whereas my dog was leashed and we were keeping our distance. Why can’t people understand that A. You have a responsibility as a dog owner to keep your dog leashed and to keep a close eye on them if they’re not and B. Just because your dog is friendly doesn’t mean you can let them invade other dogs’ space?!
We were going for a walk with my dog and our new puppy when another puppy ran from across the street. My dog got a good latch on the little guy and scared him pretty bad. I think she was more reactive because she was being protective of the new puppy. Of course it was a neighbor up the street, so the whole block heard about it. I feel like my dog is probably being labeled as a monster. I don’t even like walking her around the neighborhood now because I’m afraid of people thinking she’s dangerous.
I have one that just happened today! I was at a public park that has access to a dog park inside of it. It’s inside of a mega shopping center/mall and a large number of luxury apartments. Saying that it is an on leash park as it gives access to different parts of the residential area and crosses into parts of shopping district.
My dogs reactivity is at a point now where I can walk him around the shopping and bar area during low traffic and the residential areas for a structured walk and end my training with some play at the park (on a line) and then train some calm and obedience outside of the dog park (I always stay a good 20-50 feet away and not directly in front of the entrance).
Well I go to the public park side and as usual there are two three dogs off leash spread through the park. It’s usually fine as they are at a distance and most people are recalling them back to them. My dog is not aggressive nor is he fearful of dogs. We actually train to work on his hyper arousal when he sees dogs and fixation to greet and play.
Usually I will politely tell someone if there dog is coming over, “my dog is training. He can’t play right now.” And everyone so far has understand that is fine especially since this entire part of the park is suppose to be on leash, like there are signs everywhere.
Well today I was sitting with my dog in the shade about 50 feet from the dog park hand feeding him his kibble while he calmly watched the dogs. I see this guy and his dog walks up and he looks at the dog and doesn’t recall it. So I say, “hey I’m actually training right now with food. Can you recall your dog. Mine can’t play right now.”
He immediately gets offended and goes, “well my dog is friendly, you shouldn’t bring an aggressive dog to the park. Dogs are going to play together.”
So I say, “I never said he wasn’t friendly, I said he was training and I have food on me.”
And he said, “well you can’t expect dogs not to go up to other dogs.”
And I immediately said, “yes I can, this is an leash park. There is a sign right next to you that says that.”
So then he goes on and on about how it doesn’t matter, everyone uses it as a dog park anyways, and the cops come by and haven’t said anything so it’s fine.
So immediately respond, “that doesn’t change the fact that the sign says that your dog should be on leash. I’ll asked was for you to recall your dog.”
And oh boy does he get mad. He tells me that I’m being mouthy and to go fuck myself and sends his dog to go sniff. Again my dog isn’t aggressive but I just grab his dog by the collar while restraining mine and move the dog back (the entire time I’ve been sitting on the ground while this dude tries to stand over me and get in my face). I very calmly tell him that was stupid because if my dog was aggressive and bot his it would be his fault since the dog was not restrained.
So he goes around again and tells me to go fuck myself and then has a pity party further into the park (it’s not a very big park). We are literally two of maybe five people there not counting the two people in the dog park.
After he tried cussing me out I just ignored him and continued training my dog, I think after I grabbed his dog and just calmly moved her, he realized I wasn’t going to feed into his bullshit. At the end of all of it he did end up going all the way to the other side of the park and eventually leaving quickly after. I do pity that dog though, as someone who lives super close and worked at bars in the shopping area there are actually a lot of reactive dogs, under socialized dogs put over threshold, and dog aggressive dogs living in that community. Eventually his dog is likely to get attacked by another dog if he doesn’t learn to restrain and at least ask to interact with other dogs.
I worked security for years and have been a bartender for many more. I unfortunately have dealt with way too many aggressive and belligerent people in my life and can tell when someone is just posturing. I also have an extensive background in competitive fighting of different mediums so I’m not scared of someone trying to physically threaten me because I will more than likely just hurt them be it physical restraining or a self defense weapon once my extensive patience is at its limits. Unless you have a gun and that’s still a toss up (I’m someone so crazy in high stress situations that I casually walked away from an armed robber and told him no when he wanted me to go into our office where he was holding my boss at gun point) I’m not going to be intimidated.
I’m saying that sometimes it is best to walk away and not even give the person your time of day. I try to just be proactive majority of the time and just leave when I run into assholes in the wild. But today I was sitting down and had all my stuff out already so by the time we started arguing I wouldn’t have been able to pack up my stuff and just leave.
If you have an active animal control calling on them and reporting the area for loose dogs will probably be much more effective. For aggressive people carry some pepper spray. No one deserves to be harassed by over entitled strangers and if someone is attempting to stop you from leaving and you feel endangered spray the shit out of them.
Mine today was a big "friendly" golden retriever. I was out in a forest trail working off lead with mine.
Our training was making sure she is constantly responding and engaged when off lead, never more than a few meters from me and checking in regularly (no more than 30s between check ins)
This forest does allow off lead dogs but I feel there is an expectation that you should be able to see your dog at all times. The golden retriever starts coming through the woods so I recall and pop my girl back on the lead. We walk in the opposite direction from the retriever but it starts following us. No owner to be seen anywhere. It's only once when my girl starts barking I hear a whistle from somewhere, it ignores the first whistle but goes back immediately on the second.
This is clearly a well trained dog but the owner needs to not let them wander off out of site! I hate it when dogs follow us, it's so stressful.
I then ran into a man later out working on a small industrial digger and the noise scared my girl. He kindly stopped and let us come over so she could investigate and sniff it. We got to talking and he has a GSD too. He asked if I let mine off lead (in the UK there is an obession with having dogs off lead, I constantly get told I need to let me girl off more). He then told me his basically roams the forest while he walks them...but it's ok because he has a tracker on so he can get him back later!!
If you have got great recall and want to let your dog off lead in suitable areas then I'm all for it but for the love of dog keep them in your site at all times.
Mine today was also a friendly golden. We were walking in an on-leash area and the owner has his dog off leash, was on his phone, and then had the event tell me that my dog shouldn’t be out because he lunged at the golden. Already having a had day and ended up bleeding from leash burn and crying from feeling overwhelmed and frustrated.
Off leash chihuahua charged my 2 German shepherds last night (my dogs were both leashed and harnessed). One of my dogs was able to get a bite in before we could react and the little devil ran away screaming. The owner then came out of their house (yes the dog was outside untethered and unsupervised) to yell that we need to control our dogs and we yelled that they needed to keep their dog leashed.
Fortunately we’ve call animal control on this particular dog 3 times in the past month so we called the police who assured us that it isn’t our fault and that if they press charges the paper trail backs us up
The weather is beautiful out today so my husband and I were walking our 3 dogs around closeby streets. Some woman was in her yard doing yard work and my husband calls to me that her dog is running toward ours. The woman tries to recall her dog 3-4 times and the dog completely ignores her.
I am walking the two smallest dogs (and pregnant as well) and I immediately pull them away quickly while putting my body between the dog and them. My husband is walking our bigger dog and the loose dog runs right towards her. Our dog tried to nip at her but seems like she didn’t get her. The woman finally got her dog and apologized as we kept trying to walk away.
I can’t help but feel sad and shameful that my dog nipped even though I know it was that persons dog who ran toward us and left our leashed dog with nowhere to go. I especially feel bad because her dog seemed friendly and I am so scared it could’ve been hurt.
My neighbors across the street never have their dog on a lead and it went running across the road to where my dog was chained the other day. He’s already terrified of dogs running up on him and that really doesn’t help
Our dog is not really reacting in the agressive manner but she's definitely very interested every time she sees a dog, like fixating and not wanting to move anymore. I feel that every time an offeash dog runs directly at us every progress we've made in training since the last time that happens goes away. Because our dog doesn't bark/growl the other owners seem to think everything is perfectly ok. There are really nice walking paths around where we live (river, forest) which I feel we just can't use because of the off-leash dogs and particularly the owners that don't seem to care. Instead we most often keep to the paved paths that are less popular. I don't think it's fair that in order to use the nicer paths we'd need to jump extra hoops.
Note: I'm ok with my dog playing with another dog while both dogs are off leash and there was an acknowledgement from the humans involved, but dogs just running to us when on leash either ingoring their recall cue or the humans ignoring to even call them is beyond frustrating.
My fear reactive Dobie/Rottie cross was charged by one of those giant poodle breeds from 100m away and got attacked.
The owners had their dog off leash (it's an untrained dog) at night and when it started to run us down they had zero control of their animal.
i had to front headlock their dog lifting it off the floor while simultaneously holding my dog away from it (a 45kg dog himself).
When they came over they started screaming at me in mandarin, i told them to put their dog on a leash as it is not trained.
i got a "he went to puppy school".
They live 100m from me and every time i see them i scold them. Their dog is always off leash and bullying other dogs or stealing toys. When the owners try to get the dog back it runs away from them. It's painful to watch.
I live next to people who just let the dogs run amok so taking my dog for a walk or to the car for a ride is terrifying. I’m so tired of it .
There’s a trail I usually take my puppy to while on a long line since it’s got a nice amount of routes, and in nature etc. it’s supposed to be an on leash area only, and of course every time we’ve gone on walks here, there’s no fail one or more dogs just off leash doing what they want. Some owners are really responsible and don’t let their dog near us, however there’s been numerous run ins with this one specific guy that has his pointer? Off leash throwing a ball ahead of him, and the dog goes and gets it, brings it back, and repeats over and over. Normally, I can go a diff route to avoid this douche, however just 30 mins ago we meet up with this guy in one of the small sections with no where else to go. My pup obviously starts pulling like crazy, barking, whining, and going ballistic because of this dog doing it’s thing. Does the guy care? Not one bit, just continues to let his dog do the same thing, while seeing me struggling with trying to get my pup under threshold. Is there some tips on what to do in this scenario besides calling this guy a dick head next time? His dog is obviously super trained, just curious why there’s no etiquette in mind of putting his dog on a leash like it’s supposed to be, or letting us go by. Just yesterday we were finishing up our walk like today, and a guy had two whippets (one a puppy) just running around in the fields and the puppy one comes straight up to us. Yes, he’s cute but dude your puppy can’t recall, and here I’m pushing it away while my boy was actually doing great and sat down. Then started to bark at the puppy once it got in our face and didn’t get the clue. I was afraid the second dog would come up behind us, and get him while I’m fighting off the other one. There’s another time with a puppy off leash, and the dude recalls and puppy doesn’t care. Comes straight up to us, and got in my pups face. My pup again was neutral (since been trying to work on him being that way) and then the other puppy just lunges at him. Owner walks up, and doesn’t even say sorry. Just “huh.” It takes everything in me to not curse these people out, or grab their dogs until the owner decides to want to intervene. It’s gotten so bad, I carry pepper spray on me incase I need to use it. I just now have to sit and expect off leash dogs on this trail, and I hate how if it keeps happening that were the ones that have to go somewhere else, and not the owners that aren’t following the rules.
Not in the last month but I do want to share my experience I've had. When we had recently adopted our reactive German Shepherd mix (her breed has relevancy to the story), we were doing the 3 3 3 rule. We had recently started implementing daily walks as part of her routine and she was enjoying her walks. One day we were leaving the house for a walk and all of the sudden I see at the distance my neighbor washing their car and I noticed her dog was off leash. Her dog ran towards our dog and my dog was getting ready to lunge and bark. My neighbor had no sense of urgency and wasn't trying to immediately get her dog. She was simply walking ever so slowly with no worries meanwhile my partner and I were trying to control the situation. What's worse is that when she picked up her dog she never apologized when we had mentioned to her please get a hold of her dog. Her dog was a tiny little shih tzu and I knew for a fact that my dog being a german shepherd was going to be 100% blamed all because of her breed. The most recent one was an off leash dog ran towards my dog and I was walking her by myself. The owner's dog wasn't around and I want to say it wasn't a stray because the dog looked pretty upkept and clean. I had to carry my dog in my arms and I screamed for help and no one came to the rescue. I was so traumatized I didn't want to walk my dog for days after that.
3 off leash dogs in my residential neighborhood on a walk at 6:30 this morning. Did well with two. Ugh.
Along the same lines as "don't worry, he's friendly !" would be "don't worry, he's a puppy !" for me. This is the 2nd time in the passed few weeks I've been chased by dogs while walking. 4 dogs in total, all 'harmless puppies' who also happened to be a huge, unleashed, and reactive dogs. Puppies can be just as threatening as fully grown dogs people !!
Neighbor at the end of our alley has a GSD. The thing has hopped the fence twice at seeing us (luckily no physical damage) but now I am highly anxious at any dog in a yard, my poor pitty has become reactive, and my anxious terrior who was making strides forward has completely backtracked. We have completely changed our route to avoid this house and am putting the work in to help my dogs forward and me as well. Just frustrating as anyone knows.
I was walking my dog today and 3 huge dogs (2 white large something, 1 pitbull) came out of nowhere to the park with kids and surrounded me and my dog. I had to pick my dog up and carry her across the park as they continue to circle me while my dog was trembling in fear. I don't own any guns, mace, pepper spray etc, but if any of those dogs would have charged at my dog those dogs would not see the next daylight
A house down the street has two dogs normally tied up, today they weren’t. I of course have to slide on the mud and eat it into the sidewalk. One dog go my dog pretty good. My dog got one of them. It’s so easy to be mad at ourselves when things out of our control happen. I’m lucky I didn’t get more hurt and we’re both lucky none of our dogs got any good bites in. But sometimes it can be so tiring. The amount of streets I can’t walk down because of off leash dogs. Which is the reason I have a reactive dog. It can be exhausting. So to myself and everyone else in the thread, some days are better than others. Be kind to yourself and your dog.
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My neighbor has a schnauzer that charges toward us in his front yard. The dog is held back by a long chain and has wide range of the front yard. It barks loud and non-stop, as we approach and pass by. The first time it happened, my dog (80+ pounds, shelter rescue) nearly jumped out of his skin. The way I deal with it is this: As we approach the yard, I look for the schnauzer so at least I’m not surprised. If he’s out there and barking his fool head off, I make my dog sit quietly, and we just watch the schnauzer for a bit. I stay calm and give my dog a corrective tug if he wants to stand or react. When I’m ready we walk forward again (heeling), and I stop and make him sit quietly again. My goal is for him to realize that we’re not in a dangerous situation. I’m feeling good about this approach so far!
This is very helpful thank you!
You’re welcome!
... damn. That just sucks but on god they wont cross that fence xD Train your dog to not react is a double edged sword so no I don't. Other than don't expose ur dog to that.
Having the same problem nearly daily when I walk, no matter where I am. Today I was chased by 3 big dogs I'd never seen before who came out of nowhere in their backyard. Hoped there was a fence, this time nope. I just don't know what to do anymore either. Wish there was some kind of signage to tell me when there is actually a fence !!
Was your dog alright?? That's absolutely insane
Thankfully I was alone that time !! But yeah, it's odd really
Some woman walking her chihuahua off leash. Jake and I were in training mode and he was doing well when all of a sudden I see him come to a halt and his ears perk up. Next thing I know I see this chihuahua charging towards us from a side street. To top it off there was a car coming down the street Jake and I were on. I was struggling to control Jake cause it totally caught me off guard and I was concerned knowing this car was coming, not very fast cause it was still in a residential area, but still. Then I see and hear this lady running after her chihuahua. The car slowed way down, Jake did get away from me as he is 95 lbs of muscle, the chihuahua ran out in front of the car with Jake now chasing the chihuahua. The lady is screaming for me to get my dog. Jake and the chihuahua just run in circles barking at each other. I finally get Jake, then she grabs her chihuahua. I yelled something like “keep your dog on leash” but with a few swear words. As the lady walks down the street and gets ahead of us a ways, she puts the chihuahua down on the ground again but she was far enough away and moving in the same direction that Jake didn’t really care as much. I yelled again “ put your dog on a leash”. That whole situation infuriated me but also thinking she not only didn’t have a leash with her but also no poop bags and you can’t tell me that dog didn’t poop in someone’s yard and she left it there. Her dog could’ve gotten killed by the car or my dog could have gotten injured or killed or me. I haven’t seen her since that day and it is fine with me.
I have 1.5yo mini dachshund who is shy and fearful. He started to be dog selective - i would exactly because of the amount of off leash dogs running to him... i am trying to teach him to ignore other dogs . we meet / greet other dogs only when I talk to the owner and see how reliable the owner is etc... when I see an off leash dog in front of us I stop and see if the owner will get the dog to heel or put it on leash then we continue . or I ask them to hold the dog while we pass. I have real problems to stay calm when there is an off leash dog running to us and i dont have time to react. I keep pulling my dog on a leash trying to get him away from the off leash dog - kicking my leg to get the dog away and yelling like a mad person 😂 I know it makes the whole situation worse but sometimes I just panic 🥺 so it happened today and the owner finally got to us and said maybe your dog should have bitten mine so that it will stop running to other dogs... lots of owners said that to me when I try ti explain mine is not friendly. But it can end so badly for mine because most of the other dogs are way bigger and stronger :( I always feel so bad when I react like this and want to cry. I feel like i am the one ruining the training for him...
Saw a giant dog wandering around unattended today with the owner nowhere in sight and he approached my dog. We quickly moved away but he started following us. I didn't know what to do. This dog was 3x the size of my dog. Then we turn a corner and there was the idiot owner holding a leash with a baby strapped to him. I told him, you need to leash your dog. He said "ok" and I cursed at him. I was so pissed, I don't care if his dog is "friendly". Your dog wanders up to the wrong dog or person something bad is going to happen. I am proud of my dog for staying calm though because he is terrified of larger dogs.
Definitely be proud of your dog if he didn't react given his history with larger dogs. That's great. That dog owner was a total jerk. If you can't control your dog LEASH THEM!
I live in an area where people have a lot of large dog breeds, one particular owner has two beautiful cane corsos that he lets loose inside a certain area of the park. This area is not meant for dogs and there are multiple exists and I am always afraid to encounter them as they have tried to chase me and my dog more than once. The owner yells at them but one of them always seems particularly locked on my dog and has even tried to jump the three foot high fence to get to us before. Just yesterday a man on the street had a loose pitbull (nothing against the breed just irresponsible owners) and when I told him that my dog was reactive and he should leash his dog he not only did not react by doing so but just said “don’t you train your dog?” A couple weeks ago we were walking through a park and a dog came racing towards us, we managed to run away (he chased us for half a block) and the owner finally caught up to her dog. I had told her to leash him but once she caught up she just stood there and I had to yell at her to leash him again. This caught the dog’s attention and we were chased AGAIN for another block. I left but never saw the dog leashed. I’ve had owners of loose dogs tell me I’m the one reacting badly by running away from their dog AS the dog chased us with clear intent.
There's currently public meetings that have been going on in my municipality about whether they should start enforcing leash laws in a particular park that is not supposed to be an off-leash park but where everyone lets their dogs off leash. I watched the televised meeting and it was filled with SO MANY of these "free the dogs! let the dog roam free! all our dogs are friendly!" people. All I could think was, YOUR dog is friendly, the concern is your friendly dog thinking OTHER dogs are friendly. I don't bring my dog to this park, but surely at least some other people with reactive dogs do, thinking "my dog is on a leash, and we're in a town with a leash law, awesome." If your friendly dog runs up to a leashed reactive dog to say hello, this could be dangerous! It's my own greatest fear any time I go anywhere. At a minimum I hope they add some "warning: off leash dog" signs or something, if they're going to keep not enforcing the law, so that people with reactive dogs don't accidentally stumble into the park. (And this is not like, a typical dog park. It's a park with hiking trails and stuff where you wouldn't enter and immediately see the off leash dogs. You could be happily walking along by yourself and then be surprised when they suddenly came around the corner.)
Neighbor REFUSES to acknowledge that it's a problem that her dog is constantly getting out. It's literally a weekly occurrence where her dog gets out and comes at mine while we're on a walk. And I'm just supposed to be chill and let her dog jump all over mine. Lady, I'm trying to teach my dog that other dogs do not equal play time. I don't give a fuck that you think your dog is friendly and is only a puppy, my dog is on leash and yours is all over mine. Fix your effing gate.
This was happening with my pit and Jack Russell for many weeks. We didn’t know because the neighbor would take them in their house let them play with their dogs and bring them back before we got home. One day she leaves a note saying she would be out town the next week and couldn’t watch the dogs if they got out. I was upset because we actually never knew as everytime we came they were there and happy. Worries me so much and so happy nothing terrible ever happened. Our Pitty was a big baby the Jack was the one of concern. We fixed the issue by keeping them in the house when we weren’t home. Looking back I still can’t believe I used to let my dogs be outside all day I would never do that now.
My neighbor’s dogs got loose recently, one an aggressive pit bull and the other a non-aggressive shepherd mix. The pit bull approached us growling and barking, looking me dead in the eyes with its shackles raised. It tried to attack my dog a couple of times, but I yelled and moved my dog around, and somehow no one got bitten. My dog is 80+ pounds and was doing protective growling. I kept him under control (leash and martingale collar). I called 911, and it took 8 long minutes for animal control to arrive. The 911 operator kept telling me to stop yelling at the dog, to which I responded that we were being attacked and I had to do something! Since then I’ve bought mace, and I won’t hesitate to use it if I have to protect myself or my dog!
People that walk towards a barking and growling dog, why?
Sometimes no other option. I’m all for avoiding conflict no matter what I think will happen I will make every effort to go another way even a longer one if necessary. People do this to me. I now have a small cute 12lb pup and she is very clear about her boundaries - don’t touch my mom and don’t come any closer. People ignore because they are overloaded by her cuteness . I have to explain she is not in the mood. Ofcourse I get oh she’s wagging oh she looks so friendly. Again she’s not in the moody know my dog.
A neighbor had their two dogs off leash in front of their house. A residental neighborhood where dogs MUST be kept on leash by law. We passed them without an issue and my dog did so well. When we were already around the corner one of the dogs chased after us, the owner ran after him screaming but of course his dog didn’t care about that. My dog snapped, his dog snapped and he had to beat his dog on the head to let go of mine. Ever since my dogs reactivity is worse than ever and we have to start training all over again. Also she is now afraid of all dogs, including her buddy who‘m she knew since puppyhood. They always got along so well and had regular playdates, but now my dog gets scared and doesn’t dare to play at all. Best thing about this: Fast forward three weeks later, that neighbor walked his two dogs and saw my dog barking uncontrollably at him and the dogs and he had the AUDACITY to say: "That dog‘s really protesting isn’t it?" and laugh. I told him after the "incident" she‘s been a nervous wrack around other dogs and he didn’t even realize what I was talking about! He seems to have forgotten about it already! By the way this guys wife had threatened me calling the cops because my dog regularly barks when we walk past their house and she also feels like I‘m abusing my dog, because my dog always seems so distressed - YEAH WELL OF COURSE IT DOES!
Happened today. A dog in the neighborhood slipped their collar while being handled by kids. Ran across the street and down our driveway and bit my dog. Two years of working on reactivity training just to have our worst fear come true. My dog did not bite and was very brave at the vet after the fact, despite having an absolute fear of the vet's office.
I'm so sorry this happened to you and your pup.
I’m so sorry. This happened to me today too, only my dog thankfully did not require veterinary care. It was terrifying (the other dog charged through busy traffic to get across the street to my dog) and I can’t get the image of my poor dog just cowering with her tail between her legs out of my head. She had been doing so well with her training, too, and just went for a walk with a newly acquainted dog less than a week ago. It’s so frustrating to put in so much work everyday for every millimeter of progress, only to see it knocked over by a moment of someone’s carelessness.
I'm so so sorry 😭
My stupid boomer neighbors think their small dogs running off-leash is cute. We have a park nearby and there's always a few idiots who have their pups running in a field without a leash. At least buy a 50-100 ft one or something. Also, my neighbor a couple of houses down from us, has a bunch of small white dogs who often escape through the front door and run at my Sheepadoodle. He's reactive and while he's gotten better, he reverts at times. Just yesterday, some kid was running behind their dog with one of those expanding leashes. He ran across the street to our house and wanted to playfight with my dog. My dog didn't like it and was shaken up.
My dog was attacked badly by my exes dog and ever since doesn’t like other dogs. I am still scared as well after seeing that - but I try to stay calm when other dogs approach and have definitely been more vocal about telling people to move or hey can you wait until we cross. There’s one couple in my neighborhood who has two dogs, one on leash and one off. Every time I see them I try to avoid but unfortunately w e crossed paths and their dog off leash ran up to my dog. I said as he was coming over my dog doesn’t like other dogs and was attacked and is very afraid - dog still came over. Sniffed my dog and the owners say oh he’s so friendly. My dog doesn’t care if your dog is friendly or not - and then the rest of the walk she was totally over threshold. We have made a lot of progress and every time this happens - it’s one step back. I have been doing some training with her in the front yard - always on leash but if I see someone with a dog out - we wait until I know they are at the distance she’s okay with right now and I keep her calm / she will sit and watch me. Now one ladies dog got out the front door and ran up on my girl - she sat and I was holding her trying to calm her as I saw the dog coming - she did a warning bark to the dog - which the dog backed off and the lady actually said her dog deserved that - and apologized profusely as she could see my dog was terrified. Edit - especially leash a dog in a neighborhood. If you want your dog off leash so bad, take it somewhere where it’s you alone.
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Enjoying a morning walk with my pup in the cemetery, and a dog runs up and jumps in the water near us. I thought we were alone, so I was confused. I also realized I had seen this dog once before. To which I said. "put a leash on your dog." My pitty starts barking and lunging. Owner walking up with another dog (on leash) at the same time. Says "sorry, she just wanted to play in the water. I didn't know anyone was over here." Uh, yeah don't you think you should check before letting your dog off-leash, asshole? I wish I had said that. I did get upset and let out some "fuck yous" as I walked away. I wish I didn't react that way, but it made me so angry that it was the same people I ran into before. She was reactive the rest of the walk and I couldn't get her to relax :( We have been doing so well, too. It sucks. I hope I don't run into them again.
Coming up on one year since it happened. I've endured several braces, cortisone injections, and physical therapy. I have not had a single pain-free day. I will likely never regain full use of the injured limb. Leash your fucking dog.
I’m so sorry to hear this. I don’t understand why people feel so proud of their dog off leash. Any dog can be unpredictable. I feel proud of my dog on leash (we actually use 2, because I’ve heard of leashes snapping) and being a responsible owner.
Welp, it happened. We were going on a sniff walk in a nearby meadow today. Its pretty secluded amd we can keep our distance easily if another dog comes along. Usually, my husband comes with, but he's been working nights (I work days) and I've been trying to build confidence doing it on my own. All was going well, we were able to work on some recall skills and focus while another dog was a good 30+ or so feet away. That dog and their owner eventually leave, so we have the place to ourselves, which is awesome. There's a river bank at the edge of the meadow but dips down, so you can't see a ton of the field. Usually, when there's two of us, we have someone play lookout while the other lets doggo lead sniffs along the river. I kept him in the field this time and honestly glad I did, even though I initially I felt bad depriving him. This pair of ladies had two off leash dogs with them, one older one younger (maybe 6 months) that are WAY ahead of them. I start leading us off further away from them as calmly as possible. Their puppy spots us and books it towards us. I shout at it to stop, twice. It does for like 5 seconds before rushing up. I'm waving and trying to create distance without overstimulating either dog. Owners are literally meandering over while this is happening. I shout at them. "Can you come get him?" One of them says yup and continues to walk slowly. Meanwhile, the puppy is getting in my dog's face and their sniffing each other. Puppy very much wants to play, and mine keeps backing away. I toss her dog's leash towards her and tell her that my dog doesn't like dogs. She takes up the leash, and then the older dog comes barreling at us, unleashed too. She yells at him to stop, which he listens to. They walk off, and we head in the opposite direction. I am so proud of my boy, though. He's had some not so great moments the last couple weeks, so today's lack of growling/snapping was huge! We usually do sniff walks for about 40 minutes, but we to cut it to like 20. I thought about sticking around as it seemed like the ladies and their dogs were leaving, but didn't want to risk it. I felt like saying something about keeping your dog near you but I don't know. I think I was really trying to stay as calm as possible. I'm hoping I handled it alright.
Oh god I just made a post about this, it happened today. My dog was leashed and this other dog was off leash with no owner in sight and came running at us, it got right up in my dog’s face and as I tried to pick my 65 pound dog up he redirected on me and bit my hand. I feel defeated.
I was out on a little used hiking trail on an early Monday morning (he loves hiking but we have to pick times where we’re unlikely to see other dogs out there). Things were going well until we got to the water and someone had their dog out there running around and weren’t even watching him. He comes running up to my dog and I’m trying to stay calm so as not to freak my dog out more but I’m also trying to get the owner’s attention. Sure enough the dog gets to my dog and my dog goes on the defensive. I had to break them up myself until the owner finally realized where her dog was. The lady had the audacity to act like it was somehow my fault (“MY dog is friendly”), whereas my dog was leashed and we were keeping our distance. Why can’t people understand that A. You have a responsibility as a dog owner to keep your dog leashed and to keep a close eye on them if they’re not and B. Just because your dog is friendly doesn’t mean you can let them invade other dogs’ space?!
We were going for a walk with my dog and our new puppy when another puppy ran from across the street. My dog got a good latch on the little guy and scared him pretty bad. I think she was more reactive because she was being protective of the new puppy. Of course it was a neighbor up the street, so the whole block heard about it. I feel like my dog is probably being labeled as a monster. I don’t even like walking her around the neighborhood now because I’m afraid of people thinking she’s dangerous.
I have one that just happened today! I was at a public park that has access to a dog park inside of it. It’s inside of a mega shopping center/mall and a large number of luxury apartments. Saying that it is an on leash park as it gives access to different parts of the residential area and crosses into parts of shopping district. My dogs reactivity is at a point now where I can walk him around the shopping and bar area during low traffic and the residential areas for a structured walk and end my training with some play at the park (on a line) and then train some calm and obedience outside of the dog park (I always stay a good 20-50 feet away and not directly in front of the entrance). Well I go to the public park side and as usual there are two three dogs off leash spread through the park. It’s usually fine as they are at a distance and most people are recalling them back to them. My dog is not aggressive nor is he fearful of dogs. We actually train to work on his hyper arousal when he sees dogs and fixation to greet and play. Usually I will politely tell someone if there dog is coming over, “my dog is training. He can’t play right now.” And everyone so far has understand that is fine especially since this entire part of the park is suppose to be on leash, like there are signs everywhere. Well today I was sitting with my dog in the shade about 50 feet from the dog park hand feeding him his kibble while he calmly watched the dogs. I see this guy and his dog walks up and he looks at the dog and doesn’t recall it. So I say, “hey I’m actually training right now with food. Can you recall your dog. Mine can’t play right now.” He immediately gets offended and goes, “well my dog is friendly, you shouldn’t bring an aggressive dog to the park. Dogs are going to play together.” So I say, “I never said he wasn’t friendly, I said he was training and I have food on me.” And he said, “well you can’t expect dogs not to go up to other dogs.” And I immediately said, “yes I can, this is an leash park. There is a sign right next to you that says that.” So then he goes on and on about how it doesn’t matter, everyone uses it as a dog park anyways, and the cops come by and haven’t said anything so it’s fine. So immediately respond, “that doesn’t change the fact that the sign says that your dog should be on leash. I’ll asked was for you to recall your dog.” And oh boy does he get mad. He tells me that I’m being mouthy and to go fuck myself and sends his dog to go sniff. Again my dog isn’t aggressive but I just grab his dog by the collar while restraining mine and move the dog back (the entire time I’ve been sitting on the ground while this dude tries to stand over me and get in my face). I very calmly tell him that was stupid because if my dog was aggressive and bot his it would be his fault since the dog was not restrained. So he goes around again and tells me to go fuck myself and then has a pity party further into the park (it’s not a very big park). We are literally two of maybe five people there not counting the two people in the dog park. After he tried cussing me out I just ignored him and continued training my dog, I think after I grabbed his dog and just calmly moved her, he realized I wasn’t going to feed into his bullshit. At the end of all of it he did end up going all the way to the other side of the park and eventually leaving quickly after. I do pity that dog though, as someone who lives super close and worked at bars in the shopping area there are actually a lot of reactive dogs, under socialized dogs put over threshold, and dog aggressive dogs living in that community. Eventually his dog is likely to get attacked by another dog if he doesn’t learn to restrain and at least ask to interact with other dogs.
i need you next to me on my walks because I only panic and can't handle the situations very well 😂😅
I worked security for years and have been a bartender for many more. I unfortunately have dealt with way too many aggressive and belligerent people in my life and can tell when someone is just posturing. I also have an extensive background in competitive fighting of different mediums so I’m not scared of someone trying to physically threaten me because I will more than likely just hurt them be it physical restraining or a self defense weapon once my extensive patience is at its limits. Unless you have a gun and that’s still a toss up (I’m someone so crazy in high stress situations that I casually walked away from an armed robber and told him no when he wanted me to go into our office where he was holding my boss at gun point) I’m not going to be intimidated. I’m saying that sometimes it is best to walk away and not even give the person your time of day. I try to just be proactive majority of the time and just leave when I run into assholes in the wild. But today I was sitting down and had all my stuff out already so by the time we started arguing I wouldn’t have been able to pack up my stuff and just leave. If you have an active animal control calling on them and reporting the area for loose dogs will probably be much more effective. For aggressive people carry some pepper spray. No one deserves to be harassed by over entitled strangers and if someone is attempting to stop you from leaving and you feel endangered spray the shit out of them.
I think I love you 🥰 😁
Mine today was a big "friendly" golden retriever. I was out in a forest trail working off lead with mine. Our training was making sure she is constantly responding and engaged when off lead, never more than a few meters from me and checking in regularly (no more than 30s between check ins) This forest does allow off lead dogs but I feel there is an expectation that you should be able to see your dog at all times. The golden retriever starts coming through the woods so I recall and pop my girl back on the lead. We walk in the opposite direction from the retriever but it starts following us. No owner to be seen anywhere. It's only once when my girl starts barking I hear a whistle from somewhere, it ignores the first whistle but goes back immediately on the second. This is clearly a well trained dog but the owner needs to not let them wander off out of site! I hate it when dogs follow us, it's so stressful. I then ran into a man later out working on a small industrial digger and the noise scared my girl. He kindly stopped and let us come over so she could investigate and sniff it. We got to talking and he has a GSD too. He asked if I let mine off lead (in the UK there is an obession with having dogs off lead, I constantly get told I need to let me girl off more). He then told me his basically roams the forest while he walks them...but it's ok because he has a tracker on so he can get him back later!! If you have got great recall and want to let your dog off lead in suitable areas then I'm all for it but for the love of dog keep them in your site at all times.
Mine today was also a friendly golden. We were walking in an on-leash area and the owner has his dog off leash, was on his phone, and then had the event tell me that my dog shouldn’t be out because he lunged at the golden. Already having a had day and ended up bleeding from leash burn and crying from feeling overwhelmed and frustrated.
Off leash chihuahua charged my 2 German shepherds last night (my dogs were both leashed and harnessed). One of my dogs was able to get a bite in before we could react and the little devil ran away screaming. The owner then came out of their house (yes the dog was outside untethered and unsupervised) to yell that we need to control our dogs and we yelled that they needed to keep their dog leashed. Fortunately we’ve call animal control on this particular dog 3 times in the past month so we called the police who assured us that it isn’t our fault and that if they press charges the paper trail backs us up
All the dog owners at cheesman
The weather is beautiful out today so my husband and I were walking our 3 dogs around closeby streets. Some woman was in her yard doing yard work and my husband calls to me that her dog is running toward ours. The woman tries to recall her dog 3-4 times and the dog completely ignores her. I am walking the two smallest dogs (and pregnant as well) and I immediately pull them away quickly while putting my body between the dog and them. My husband is walking our bigger dog and the loose dog runs right towards her. Our dog tried to nip at her but seems like she didn’t get her. The woman finally got her dog and apologized as we kept trying to walk away. I can’t help but feel sad and shameful that my dog nipped even though I know it was that persons dog who ran toward us and left our leashed dog with nowhere to go. I especially feel bad because her dog seemed friendly and I am so scared it could’ve been hurt.
My neighbors across the street never have their dog on a lead and it went running across the road to where my dog was chained the other day. He’s already terrified of dogs running up on him and that really doesn’t help
Our dog is not really reacting in the agressive manner but she's definitely very interested every time she sees a dog, like fixating and not wanting to move anymore. I feel that every time an offeash dog runs directly at us every progress we've made in training since the last time that happens goes away. Because our dog doesn't bark/growl the other owners seem to think everything is perfectly ok. There are really nice walking paths around where we live (river, forest) which I feel we just can't use because of the off-leash dogs and particularly the owners that don't seem to care. Instead we most often keep to the paved paths that are less popular. I don't think it's fair that in order to use the nicer paths we'd need to jump extra hoops. Note: I'm ok with my dog playing with another dog while both dogs are off leash and there was an acknowledgement from the humans involved, but dogs just running to us when on leash either ingoring their recall cue or the humans ignoring to even call them is beyond frustrating.
My fear reactive Dobie/Rottie cross was charged by one of those giant poodle breeds from 100m away and got attacked. The owners had their dog off leash (it's an untrained dog) at night and when it started to run us down they had zero control of their animal. i had to front headlock their dog lifting it off the floor while simultaneously holding my dog away from it (a 45kg dog himself). When they came over they started screaming at me in mandarin, i told them to put their dog on a leash as it is not trained. i got a "he went to puppy school". They live 100m from me and every time i see them i scold them. Their dog is always off leash and bullying other dogs or stealing toys. When the owners try to get the dog back it runs away from them. It's painful to watch.