Vent - 2 Unleashed Dogs On Our Walk Tonight

[MsKatie]

Trying to get out for a walk regularly with the kelpie so took her tonight at about 8 - it's dark so I have taken a well lit route that goes past my kids school - all is going well until - rushing at us from up ahead 2 unleashed dogs - poor Rosie is on leash - gets rushed by these two and reacts - so i have grabbed her and pulled her away and the &^^&%)(* owner of these 2 dogs is sauntering along about 20 ft back listening to her Ipod - my comment as I passed "You might want to get a couple of leashes for them!!"

So I continue - she goes around the school oval and across to where I am still walking my dog on leash on the footpath - mind you by this time I have a large stick in hand and am fuming at this stupid owner. Luckily there were no other incidents.

It is the first time it has happened and i refuse to change to a less well lit path or a different time just because of this (this time of night suits me as my kids are going to bed and I can get out while OH does the night time routine) but I will programme the council number in my phone AND will be ringing it if it happens again!! Plus I will have some choice words for the owner ....

OK - vent over - and apart from that Rosie and I really enjoyed the walk.

Edited April 7, 2010 by KelpieHoundMum

[Mas1981]

Know how u feel, this morning I was walking my lab around the path across the road and a man ( whose dog has tried to go for mine before) was walking his dog off lead and his shepherd rushes up to my dog and tries to attack him, he was muzzled thank goodness but somehow my dog still got a cut on his back leg. I am less than impressed

[gillbear]

It must be the week for it. My brush with stupidity this week involved a walk along a busy road.

My personal Twat was "walking" her entire male offlead while she pelted along on her mobility scooter. Thankfully we were near a corner so as soon as I saw her dog posturing and hackling up my sister took my boy around the corner while I stood guard in between.

Thankfully the distance was enough to defuse the situation but If I had allowed them to pass by it would have gotten nasty.

Plenty of fools around atm.

[Mas1981]

It must be the week for it. My brush with stupidity this week involved a walk along a busy road.

My personal Twat was "walking" her entire male offlead while she pelted along on her mobility scooter. Thankfully we were near a corner so as soon as I saw her dog posturing and hackling up my sister took my boy around the corner while I stood guard in between.

Thankfully the distance was enough to defuse the situation but If I had allowed them to pass by it would have gotten nasty.

Plenty of fools around atm.

I saw the dog and I know what its like so i was heading home, was just about to cross the road when it pounced, owner was admiring the colour of the sky ...................

[Whippetsmum]

Really glad that you and Rosie are OK.

Recently the entire suburb (possibly state) that I live in has been declared leash free, how did I miss that memo? Maybe the on leash rule doesn't apply to everyone? I'll have to ring council and ask how much the "exemption" would cost

(Yes I am being sarcastic!)

[gillybob]

I walk three dogs and try to stay away from other people.

Yesterday Im walking them and a women sees me and comes towards me to go to the park with her dog.

I stop and wait till she goes into the park.

She sees me waiting and walks straight towards me, so i turn around and go back more.

Obviously she cant hear me when i say dont come too close.

Because she walks straight at me with her bloody dog.

She laughs and says, Ive changed my mind, I want to go this way.

There is another bloke who walks a Stafford and an Amstaff, along the creek were i go, my dogs are always on leeds, his are never on leeds.

It gets to me.

[helen]

And I love those famous last words 'oh my dog's friendly' as it proceeds to attack yours

In my experience anyone who knows anything about dogs will make sure it is OK before letting their dog run up to others, most especially if the other dog is on lead

Edited April 1, 2010 by helen

[Dame Aussie]

We were walking our two the other night when a little Pap x bolted over to us like a mad thing, may I add that it bolted ACROSS THE ROAD, and the owner just kept walking..... the bloody thing got right in our dogs faces and we were calling for him to come and get his dog, well he ambles across the road and says "Oh he does that all the time" I told him he neds to be careful as his dog doesnt exactly look both ways before crossing

Our two are fine with other dogs, but one of them is around 45kg and if he was DA....it could have been no more Pap...and this guy wasn't even concerned...some people are just stupid.

[Adnil444]

Trying to get out for a walk regularly with the kelpie so took her tonight at about 8 - it's dark so I have taken a well lit route that goes past my kids school - all is going well until - rushing at us from up ahead 2 unleashed dogs - poor Rosie is on leash - gets rushed by these two and reacts - so i have grabbed her and pulled her away and the &^^&%)(* owner of these 2 dogs is sauntering along about 20 ft back listening to her Ipod - my comment as I passed "You might want to get a couple of leashes for them!!"

So I continue - she goes around the school oval and across to where I am still walking my dog on leash on the footpath - mind you by this time I have a large stick in hand and am fuming at this stupid owner. Luckily there were no other incidents.

It is the first time it has happened and i refuse to change to a less well lit path or a different time just because of this (this time of night suits me as my kids are going to bed and I can get out while OH does the night time routine) but I will programme the council number in my phone AND will be ringing it if it happens again!! Plus I will have some choice words for the owner ....

OK - vent over - and apart from that Rosie and I really enjoyed the walk.

Hi, this experience is always horrible and I certainly feel for you. I always take my mobile with me now on walks (there was an incident where a man came off his bicycle and I was the only one around and had to call an ambulance), but I mainly take it so if I needed to call someone (police, rangers etc) that I can quickly. Does your phone have a camera? If it does, take some photos and advise the owner that the dogs are being reported to the council along with the photos - if she wants to walk them off lead, take them to a dog park, if they are not socialised, then I'm sorry but she has to walk them on leads at all times. Everyone has a right to feel safe regardless of if you have dogs or not, and this type of behaviour from members of the dog community only puts ammunition into the hands of the non-dog community.

Report her!!

[Robbi]

Poor Rosie, I know why so many people end up walking their dogs with large sticks. It seems so unfair that it is always the responsible dog owners who end up walking in the dimly lit more isolated areas to avoid the idiot element

At least you are both okay.

[CBL]

We were walking our two the other night when a little Pap x bolted over to us like a mad thing, may I add that it bolted ACROSS THE ROAD, and the owner just kept walking..... the bloody thing got right in our dogs faces and we were calling for him to come and get his dog, well he ambles across the road and says "Oh he does that all the time" I told him he neds to be careful as his dog doesnt exactly look both ways before crossing

Our two are fine with other dogs, but one of them is around 45kg and if he was DA....it could have been no more Pap...and this guy wasn't even concerned...some people are just stupid.

A similar thing happened to me recently - but the size was reversed. I was going for a run with my iggy, we came to a major road and I saw a big X breed out the front of its house with his owners - no collar, no lead. He saw us and immediately ran hell for leather across the busy road at us. The woman behind screaming 'he's friendly, he's friendly...' I didn't know whether to pick Oscar up (and in hind sight I should have - but I was worried about it encouraging the dog more) but instead poor Oscar circled around me while the other dog followed. No he didn't attack my dog, but they had absolutely no control over him (the male owner had to come and carry the 30+kg dog home).

Stupid woman just kept telling me he was friendly, and I pointed out how easily her dog could have been hit by a car. She then even had the nerve to want to pat my terrified iggy!

[Whippetsmum]

Obviously, how we deal with the owner varies, have a talk, educate them report them etc, we deal with that later. How should you deal with the dogs at the time? I am interested to know what the correct thing to do is with a dog barrelling towards you? Should you bring your dog closer, pick it up etc? Should you stand still or keep on with where you were going? If the dog circles, do you turn to keep it in fornt of you? Does it change if it's more than one dog, it always seems much more threatening from a human perspective? Any ideas about what is least likely to cause the situation to worsen, is waving a stick actually going to help? Telling the oncoming dog "No", or "Stay" hasn't worked in my experience, which surprises me when all the owners claim their dog is an obedience genius......."It's OK, he's friendly, he's done obedience"

Seriously, any tips on handling these situations from a dog behaviour point of view?

[MsKatie]

Does your phone have a camera? If it does, take some photos and advise the owner that the dogs are being reported to the council along with the photos - if she wants to walk them off lead, take them to a dog park, if they are not socialised, then I'm sorry but she has to walk them on leads at all times.

Didn't think of that - I do take my phone with me when I walk so next time will make sure I get it out and take photos - I haven't been able to find who I ring yet - nothing on the council website but I have emailed them.

Sorry to hear about so many other incidents - some dog owners just have no consideration. I just kept thinking about how much worse it could have been.

Recently the entire suburb (possibly state) that I live in has been declared leash free, how did I miss that memo? Maybe the on leash rule doesn't apply to everyone? I'll have to ring council and ask how much the "exemption" would cost

Mine too I think

[poodlefan]

I feel your pain.

[Tilly]

I had a large group of young guys last night (about 15 to 20) ... very loud and probably had a few drinks from the behaviour of a couple of them (language, kicking fences, knocking over bins, swinging off signs etc). They were heading towards us and were on both sides of the road so crossing the road to move away from them wasn't an option and heading back the way I came wasn't a good option because it was dark and further away from houses. I wasn't going to make the gate to the school grounds to take the dog in there to get away from them so I move to the fence as far as possible from the path/road and got the dogs to sit on each side of me.

I clipped the lead around the fence post (so they couldn't pull out of my grip if there was a problem) and then held on too their collars. The older boy we full on protective and the younger one was following his lead.

Thankfully both dogs never left their sit position and the couple of guys who were the worse got the message when I explained they were "security dogs" ... even though the pup isn't. At least their size and growling/barking was enough to keep them far enough away and they pasted with minimal issues.

I was particularly concerned for a short period of time but thankfully there wasn't a problem ...

I think I would have preferred an off-leash dog or two last night

Edited April 2, 2010 by Tilly

[MsKatie]

to you Tilly - that must have been nerve wracking for you and your dogs

Edited for spelling

Edited April 2, 2010 by KelpieHoundMum

[Tilly]

My boys were absolutely perfect last night ... so they went to bed with an extra yummy treat. I love my boys soooo much right now that I didn't even get mad when I found a few chewed plants this morning and the hole.

Normally I only take one of them to my mothers place for an overnight visit but I haved decided to take them both for the day instead ... stopping off for a nice swim of course

[Amika]

Well I can't pick either of my two up......65 and 52 kg, but I still get tired of the little dogs of all breeds who rush up and bark in their faces and the owners do nothing about it because "they're small dogs and can't do any damage". No they may not be able to, but they still cause problems and should be undercontrol, after all mine have to be otherwise they would be targeted and blamed for any bad outcome.

[poodle proud]

We get that in my suburb a lot.

But thankfully when it has happened I have managed to use a bit of cesars tips to stop them in their tracks.

I know people have mixed feelings about him but the last three times we have been rushed I have placed myself in a powerful stance (upright, puffed chest, assertive) and placed myself between the oncoming dog and my two. As I see them coming I stomp in the dogs direction and let out a gutteral "HEY!" and it has stopped dogs before they can reach us.

In my area its just dogs wandering free with no owners in sight so I either take control or no one does.

You shouldnt have to but I'd rather do it then have to clean up after or have my guys frightened.

[stormie]

Really must be the week for it. 3 offlead dogs on our walk this afternoon. 1 is an older Boxer who lives 3 doors up, that the owner lets 'patrol' the front yard when he's out working in the yard. The dog just barks at any other dogs that go past, so we cross the street to avoid it. A few blocks down and we get to an elderly Shep x laying out on the corner of the street right across the footpath. Started barking so we gave it a wide berth and fortunately was too old to get up quick enough to catch up.

Finally nearly home and I see a young Staffy x offlead playing with the older Boxer from earlier. His young owner was on his bike trying to call his dog to follow him. His dog then sees us coming and rushes straight up to Orbit. Orbit spun around a few times and slammed into my legs so hard he nearly took me down. Owner continuously trying to call his dog but he was too busy running circles around Orbit.

Not a happy jan....

We did encounter a couple walking their little Staffy offlead, who as soon as they saw us coming up the path, called their dog back and put him on lead straight away. Need more people like this!!!