Advice on how to deal with issue on dog walk.
Discussion
Please just think that not every one wants a dog bounding over off lead, so many times we have heard, "mines OK off the lead, " but ours just survived an attack, chihuahua against a staffy that had got out of a massive hole in their fence, £4k later, but thank God we still have him and he does not want to say hello, met lovely lady out walking her dog and she said at puppy classes she was told if a dog is on a lead, then its on a lead for a reason so let them be xx
Mexican cuties said:
Please just think that not every one wants a dog bounding over off lead, so many times we have heard, "mines OK off the lead, " but ours just survived an attack, chihuahua against a staffy that had got out of a massive hole in their fence, £4k later, but thank God we still have him and he does not want to say hello, met lovely lady out walking her dog and she said at puppy classes she was told if a dog is on a lead, then its on a lead for a reason so let them be xx
We've had this too, with small dogs it is really worrying. I know it won't 'save' my dogs but it might buy me a few moments so, since our horrible incident we always carry some Pet Corrector spray as my two smaller guys just don't want to join in with rough and tumble, one has had major spine surgery and the other is fearful - we just want to walk past. A quick squirt can 'interrupt' unwanted behaviour if your nervous dog on lead is 'bounced' by an off lead bigger dog (often owners not even in sight!)... and just give you a few seconds to move them all on and nobody comes to any harm.
OP Sounds very long winded, if it was me, knowing the previous I would get my dog out the way and stand in front of it. Quick kick up the arse gets most dogs moving , rights/wrongs/ins/outs wont matter if your dog gets attacks because you couldn't get it out the way.
Even though its on lead sounds like the walker has no control over it and could break free at any time, as its happened twice I would report it to whomever would be interested (who do you report it to?) what happens if it was some small kids sitting there instead of your dog?
I would also given them some friendly advice
I had similar with a mastiff the other day, owner down park was more interested in her phone call than her dog, the dog wanted to play with ours but would just get the ball and not give it back! It was funny the first time, but after 10 mins of not giving it back and destroying the £10 ball I just bought it was a pita! My dogs just sat there watching him! In the end I walked over picked up his hind legs and rolled him over, he let go, the barstard was the same weight and size as me!! Then he kept biteing my hands to get at the ball, which hurt! Owner didn't give a s
t and was quite far away and just shouted its name about 50 times! He then started jumping on me! After a short wrestle I had to put him on my lead and tie him to the wall, was bloody ridiculous and if it was my son down out with my dogs it would have scared the living st out of him! Told the owner my feelings and she looked really shocked and presumed it was normal behaviour!
Not knocking mastiffs, just lazy oblivious ignorant owners!
Even though its on lead sounds like the walker has no control over it and could break free at any time, as its happened twice I would report it to whomever would be interested (who do you report it to?) what happens if it was some small kids sitting there instead of your dog?
I would also given them some friendly advice
I had similar with a mastiff the other day, owner down park was more interested in her phone call than her dog, the dog wanted to play with ours but would just get the ball and not give it back! It was funny the first time, but after 10 mins of not giving it back and destroying the £10 ball I just bought it was a pita! My dogs just sat there watching him! In the end I walked over picked up his hind legs and rolled him over, he let go, the barstard was the same weight and size as me!! Then he kept biteing my hands to get at the ball, which hurt! Owner didn't give a s
t and was quite far away and just shouted its name about 50 times! He then started jumping on me! After a short wrestle I had to put him on my lead and tie him to the wall, was bloody ridiculous and if it was my son down out with my dogs it would have scared the living st out of him! Told the owner my feelings and she looked really shocked and presumed it was normal behaviour!Not knocking mastiffs, just lazy oblivious ignorant owners!
Edited by TwistingMyMelon on Monday 24th August 13:41
TwistingMyMelon said:
OP Sounds very long winded, if it was me, knowing the previous I would get my dog out the way and stand in front of it. Quick kick up the arse gets most dogs moving , rights/wrongs/ins/outs wont matter if your dog gets attacks because you couldn't get it out the way.
You think kicking what could be a 10 stone mastiff is a good idea? What do you think could be an outcome? Not a pro dog trainer are we?!!?
Somebody was pushing our AmBull away with his feet recently when he ran over to say hello to their spaniel, I had to firmly tell the bloke to keep his feet to himself & calm down as our dog was doing nothing wrong! Thankfully ours is not at all aggressive, as said above though, I wouldn't be booting an unknown Mastiff up the arse!
Jasandjules said:
TwistingMyMelon said:
OP Sounds very long winded, if it was me, knowing the previous I would get my dog out the way and stand in front of it. Quick kick up the arse gets most dogs moving , rights/wrongs/ins/outs wont matter if your dog gets attacks because you couldn't get it out the way.
You think kicking what could be a 10 stone mastiff is a good idea? What do you think could be an outcome? Not a pro dog trainer are we?!!?
LordHaveMurci said:
Somebody was pushing our AmBull away with his feet recently when he ran over to say hello to their spaniel, I had to firmly tell the bloke to keep his feet to himself & calm down as our dog was doing nothing wrong! Thankfully ours is not at all aggressive, as said above though, I wouldn't be booting an unknown Mastiff up the arse!
Whilst I don't agree with kicking dogs, I have been on the other side of this - trying to calm down my (on lead) dogs whilst a 'friendly' dog comes over to 'say hello'. On two occasions, the so called 'friendly' dog has taken a chunk out of one of mine. As has been said by others, dogs are generally on lead for a reason. Your dog may be friendly, but the other one may not, or may be elderly, or may be ill/recovering from an operation. I've exercised my dogs off lead too, but have always observed the common courtesy of putting them on lead when I see other dogs on lead.LordHaveMurci said:
Somebody was pushing our AmBull away with his feet recently when he ran over to say hello to their spaniel, I had to firmly tell the bloke to keep his feet to himself & calm down as our dog was doing nothing wrong!
Doing nothing wrong, running over to them off lead with who knows what intentions? In yours and other dog owners eyes their darlings are angels and would never hurt anyone, until they do of course. Sounds like the other person was acting nicely by just pushing them away with his foot and getting a telling off for his trouble. Charming.I met one of these friendly dogs on a cycle path in the lakes, it "ran up to say hello" and my 4 year old did something to set it off, what I have no idea. I jumped off my bike to get inbetween the snarling barking dog and my terrified son and got bit on the leg for my trouble. Not wanting to provoke the situation in front of my 3 scared young kids I didn't attempt to kick the living s
t out of the dog and just waited for the owners to wander over. Got the usual excuses about never done anything like this before, yada yada. Unfortunately we were miles from anywhere and no phone coverage so that dog is still free to do what it likes with owners who don't bother putting it onto a lead as it is a good dog.cb31 said:
LordHaveMurci said:
Somebody was pushing our AmBull away with his feet recently when he ran over to say hello to their spaniel, I had to firmly tell the bloke to keep his feet to himself & calm down as our dog was doing nothing wrong!
Doing nothing wrong, running over to them off lead with who knows what intentions? In yours and other dog owners eyes their darlings are angels and would never hurt anyone, until they do of course. Sounds like the other person was acting nicely by just pushing them away with his foot and getting a telling off for his trouble. Charming.I met one of these friendly dogs on a cycle path in the lakes, it "ran up to say hello" and my 4 year old did something to set it off, what I have no idea. I jumped off my bike to get inbetween the snarling barking dog and my terrified son and got bit on the leg for my trouble. Not wanting to provoke the situation in front of my 3 scared young kids I didn't attempt to kick the living s
t out of the dog and just waited for the owners to wander over. Got the usual excuses about never done anything like this before, yada yada. Unfortunately we were miles from anywhere and no phone coverage so that dog is still free to do what it likes with owners who don't bother putting it onto a lead as it is a good dog.I do agree with you though. Even if dogs are doing nothing wrong it is not fair or right to expect others to be ok with being bounded over at. (I am a dog owner and not be ok if he did this, though I can say hand on heart say he would not be a snarling thing!)
moorx said:
Jasandjules said:
TwistingMyMelon said:
OP Sounds very long winded, if it was me, knowing the previous I would get my dog out the way and stand in front of it. Quick kick up the arse gets most dogs moving , rights/wrongs/ins/outs wont matter if your dog gets attacks because you couldn't get it out the way.
You think kicking what could be a 10 stone mastiff is a good idea? What do you think could be an outcome? Not a pro dog trainer are we?!!?
The opinions on this remind me of those on the "What's going on with dog walkers these days??" thread
Our dog is only let off his lead in particular circumstances. 1) If he is with known and trusted playmates, when they run around like loons, rough and tumble and generally mess about until they need a breather. If another unknown dog appears in the distance, on or off lead, then he is recalled and put on his lead. Even if it's a playmate in the distance and that dog is on his lead then he stays on as maybe that dog has been injured or some other good reason. 2) Also particular places eg forest and common where it's quiet and we can keep tabs, recall early when at a distance etc.
Even when walking on lead if we meet strangers on footpath, say, we shorten lead, which isn't an extendable - hate those damn things, close control and steer him to one side and wait. If the others want to come up and say hello then that's fine, he's always up for a fuss and a tickle behind his ears, WE know he's friendly, but THEY don't and it's only polite and being considerate as we have no way of knowing their reaction to dogs. Plus of course it reinforces his behaviour knowledge that this is the way to act and we don't bother strangers on the street.
He gets an opportunity to run about off lead almost every day, it's a very rare day when he doesn't get at least half an hour free off lead as part of a couple of hours out and about.
To me that's responsible dog walking, assisted admittedly by ready access to suitable areas with only a modicum of effort.
LordHaveMurci said:
Somebody was pushing our AmBull away with his feet recently when he ran over to say hello to their spaniel, I had to firmly tell the bloke to keep his feet to himself & calm down as our dog was doing nothing wrong! Thankfully ours is not at all aggressive, as said above though, I wouldn't be booting an unknown Mastiff up the arse!
I'm afraid I too take issue with your "was doing nothing wrong" bit.Someone has already mentioned a dog which is very timid and has spine problems. A dog "just being friendly" can cause problems there.
My parents current dog is a rescue animal and had been mistreated both by its previous owners and the previous owners other dogs. Trouble is, it is quite a large dog (thought to be an alsatian/doberman/? mongrel). My parents found out the hard way when they first had her the consequencies of another dog "just being friendly".
- Their dog- on the lead and minding her own business
- some other dog (fairly small and yappy) runs up all bouncy yapping away and wanting to play.
- Their dog- draws back to try to avoid it. Can't get away because on the lead
- my parents to other owner - "please control your dog, she is upsetting mine"
- other owner, "Don't worry, he is just being friendly"
- Other dog - more yapping, nose up the bum, usual sort of bullying but "friendly" behaviour
- Their dog, obviously feeling threatened, growls and give a brief snap as warning.
Now at this stage all would be well if the other dog had taken the warning. Or the other owner had called it off or restrained it. It didn't, kept up the yapping, actually running multiple times into parents dog. Parents dog loses it and goes for it, pretty much tearing it apart. (only a £4k vet bill saved it....)
Some would (did) say it was my parents fault for having a "dangerous" dog in public. I would strongly disagree. It was on a lead, minding its own business but just happens to have issues meaning it feels threatened when pushed around. And, like a lot of animals (including people) will fight back when threatened. It never had a problem when being left free of the lead as it would run away from dogs it didn't like. On the lead though it couldn't which I think caused it to be stressed. Yes it could have been muzzled (and was from then on for about 5 years until it started getting over it's issues). But it still had to deal with the stress of being jumped all over by other dogs and not being able to do anything about it. Is that reasonable? I've taken that dog for plenty of walks and had to push away other dogs the owners could not, or did not see the need to, restrain.
I also used to cycle or walk to work on a path frequented by dog walkers. Regularly I would get a "friendly" dog jumping up, either putting muddy footprints all over my work clothes or a hard nose in my groin. Normally accompanied by a "he is just being friendly" comment. I soon developed a knack of knocking them aside just before they impacted but that obvious didn't go down well with a lot of owners (and wasn't sensible with larger dogs who might then get agressive).
Now I love dogs, grew up with them and, if allowed by my lifestyle, would have one now. But "he is only being friendly" is just an excuse for having an out of control dog in my eyes!
rant over
FiF said:
moorx said:
Jasandjules said:
TwistingMyMelon said:
OP Sounds very long winded, if it was me, knowing the previous I would get my dog out the way and stand in front of it. Quick kick up the arse gets most dogs moving , rights/wrongs/ins/outs wont matter if your dog gets attacks because you couldn't get it out the way.
You think kicking what could be a 10 stone mastiff is a good idea? What do you think could be an outcome? Not a pro dog trainer are we?!!?
The opinions on this remind me of those on the "What's going on with dog walkers these days??" thread
Our dog is only let off his lead in particular circumstances. 1) If he is with known and trusted playmates, when they run around like loons, rough and tumble and generally mess about until they need a breather. If another unknown dog appears in the distance, on or off lead, then he is recalled and put on his lead. Even if it's a playmate in the distance and that dog is on his lead then he stays on as maybe that dog has been injured or some other good reason. 2) Also particular places eg forest and common where it's quiet and we can keep tabs, recall early when at a distance etc.
Even when walking on lead if we meet strangers on footpath, say, we shorten lead, which isn't an extendable - hate those damn things, close control and steer him to one side and wait. If the others want to come up and say hello then that's fine, he's always up for a fuss and a tickle behind his ears, WE know he's friendly, but THEY don't and it's only polite and being considerate as we have no way of knowing their reaction to dogs. Plus of course it reinforces his behaviour knowledge that this is the way to act and we don't bother strangers on the street.
He gets an opportunity to run about off lead almost every day, it's a very rare day when he doesn't get at least half an hour free off lead as part of a couple of hours out and about.
To me that's responsible dog walking, assisted admittedly by ready access to suitable areas with only a modicum of effort.
I also don't mean kick, more like push with feet, quite hard if needed. I'd also be wary of taking a dog out that I couldn't move if it decided it wanted to sit down. I know other dogs that sit down mid walk, the owners stand there for ages politely asking it to move ,before bribeing it with treats! Not on my watch! I'm all for building a bond with dogs, but not being dictated to when they don't want to move.
I don't want to sound harsh and your the innocent party, but less reasoning more doing.
I agree about friendly dogs bounding up to new dogs the owner might know its friendly but no one else does!
moorx said:
Jasandjules said:
TwistingMyMelon said:
OP Sounds very long winded, if it was me, knowing the previous I would get my dog out the way and stand in front of it. Quick kick up the arse gets most dogs moving , rights/wrongs/ins/outs wont matter if your dog gets attacks because you couldn't get it out the way.
You think kicking what could be a 10 stone mastiff is a good idea? What do you think could be an outcome? Not a pro dog trainer are we?!!?
No I'm not a pro trainer at all, I would just want my dog out the way of one that isn't under control
LordHaveMurci said:
Somebody was pushing our AmBull away with his feet recently when he ran over to say hello to their spaniel, I had to firmly tell the bloke to keep his feet to himself & calm down as our dog was doing nothing wrong! Thankfully ours is not at all aggressive, as said above though, I wouldn't be booting an unknown Mastiff up the arse!
And you have no idea why the other dog that yours runs up to is on a lead. Just because it is what you assume is one of the less aggressive breeds doesn't mean that you're right. Cue one dogfight.How is the other owner who doesn't know you from Adam supposed to know whether your dog is aggressive or not?
Utterly ridiculous and irresponsible.
paintman said:
And you have no idea why the other dog that yours runs up to is on a lead. Just because it is what you assume is one of the less aggressive breeds doesn't mean that you're right. Cue one dogfight.
How is the other owner who doesn't know you from Adam supposed to know whether your dog is aggressive or not?
Utterly ridiculous and irresponsible.
The spaniel was OFF the lead, as were all 3 of ours. Just so you can all sleep at night, he hasn't been off the lead since & won't again until I'm sure he is 100% under control. How is the other owner who doesn't know you from Adam supposed to know whether your dog is aggressive or not?
Utterly ridiculous and irresponsible.
He did no harm, I can see why some people may be alarmed but I did make it very clear he was Ok & he was asked to calm down & keep his feet to himself, he was not 'told off'!
He has been attacked while on the lead twice, both terriers, both times he still wanted to play.
In 30yrs of dog ownership I've never had any real issues with dogs fighting & we've had various breeds, maybe I've just been lucky.
LordHaveMurci said:
The spaniel was OFF the lead, as were all 3 of ours. Just so you can all sleep at night, he hasn't been off the lead since & won't again until I'm sure he is 100% under control.
He did no harm, I can see why some people may be alarmed but I did make it very clear he was Ok & he was asked to calm down & keep his feet to himself, he was not 'told off'!
He has been attacked while on the lead twice, both terriers, both times he still wanted to play.
In 30yrs of dog ownership I've never had any real issues with dogs fighting & we've had various breeds, maybe I've just been lucky.
Then that's a different situation, and he had no real reason to complain or to use his feet.He did no harm, I can see why some people may be alarmed but I did make it very clear he was Ok & he was asked to calm down & keep his feet to himself, he was not 'told off'!
He has been attacked while on the lead twice, both terriers, both times he still wanted to play.
In 30yrs of dog ownership I've never had any real issues with dogs fighting & we've had various breeds, maybe I've just been lucky.
moorx said:
Then that's a different situation, and he had no real reason to complain or to use his feet.
Not in my point of view, I personally don't want anyone's dogs running up to me and bothering me, friendly or not. I'm sure people wouldn't want me or my kids bothering them so why do some dog owners seem to think it is ok?cb31 said:
Not in my point of view, I personally don't want anyone's dogs running up to me and bothering me, friendly or not. I'm sure people wouldn't want me or my kids bothering them so why do some dog owners seem to think it is ok?
If you don't want dogs running up to you, may I suggest you stay away from areas where people exercise their dogs LordHaveMurci said:
If you don't want dogs running up to you, may I suggest you stay away from areas where people exercise their dogs
Or only exercise a dog off lead that has sufficient recall to not run over to other dogs?A dog that wants to play can still be at risk, some dogs are nervous aggressive so will attack as soon as a dog is in range, regardless of a waggy tail. Many dogs are on lead for a reason. Other dog walkers should respect that.
Oh, and worse than friendly dogs off lead (which don't bother me personally but I know many whom it does) is those tw*ts who have their aggressive dogs off lead.
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