People Who Blame Your Dogs, For Their Dogs Problems

[Guest Willow]

My friend has a giant breed, very sweet & friendly. Siad a quick hello in passing to another very large dog in the local offleash park. All good. Owner of other dog wanted to put her boy on lead to leave, and as she did so he bit her....so she turned to my friend, poited accusingly at her and said "YOUR dog made my dog bite me!!!!"

[tlc]

My friend has a giant breed, very sweet & friendly. Siad a quick hello in passing to another very large dog in the local offleash park. All good. Owner of other dog wanted to put her boy on lead to leave, and as she did so he bit her....so she turned to my friend, poited accusingly at her and said "YOUR dog made my dog bite me!!!!"

geez it takes all kinds doesn't it! I guess they have to have someone to blame other than themselves! Sad people!

[Bec n Shad]

My friend has a giant breed, very sweet & friendly. Siad a quick hello in passing to another very large dog in the local offleash park. All good. Owner of other dog wanted to put her boy on lead to leave, and as she did so he bit her....so she turned to my friend, poited accusingly at her and said "YOUR dog made my dog bite me!!!!"

Oh yeh of course he did! Because, you know, dogs plot with each other to destroy their owners...

I can completely understand your situation OP.

Having a small dog who is not shy to tell ANYONE to back off, makes it difficult at times in the park. We go for walks twice a day and know most of the regulars and are fine with them. But there is this one GSD who really is still just a pup, but the owner drives him to the park and lets him run wild. No, he's not aggressive but he is darn persistant and will charge out of the car and straight for my mini poodle if he sees him. Now, Shadow has been attacked before (dog slipped its leash and went after him from across an oval) so he gets on the defensive if he is charged at; though he knows that Mum means protection so always stays by my side when this happens. My issue is not so much that the dog is coming to attack, which he's not, but that that dog has much bigger teeth and a lot more weight behind it so that IF Shadow did snap to defend himself and the other dog decided that was a no-no, the bigger teeth would most likely win out. To make it worse, this dogs owner thinks this is OK, even though I have repeatedly told her how Shadow reacts to this kind of dog behaviour and if she cannot recall her dog to put it on a leash! None-the-less, because her dog likes to "play with small fluffy dogs" I now walk to the other side of the park and wait behind the trees until she is gone. Shadow never goes up to any dog unless I've given him the OK to, but, such is life

[m-sass]

The amount of times I have had a small dog charge Roscoe (my 9 month old GSD puppy), barking snapping snarling away, only to have the owner say. "Oh, its because he's a German Shepherd"

When did this become an acceptable reason for bad behaviour? When did it become ok for your dog to act like a little beast, because another dog is a certain breed or gender?

Roscoe does not ever go after other dogs, he doesn't have any real interest in playing with dogs and hes not taken to off lead dog parks. Hes either walked on a short leash, or a tracking line if we aren't in a off leash area. So all the times this has happened, hes been leashed accordingly and reacted in the best way possible

Todays example: I went to the local oval/park this afternoon in the pouring rain. Its 2 huge ovals connected by a bush track, and there's also a fenced dog park nearby. Roscoe was on a leash as was Riddick, my Lab. I noticed 2 women and 5 dogs, (4 small, 1 Ridgeback) standing under the small undercover area that's next to the toilets. None of their dogs were on leash. To walk down the bush track you have to walk within about 20 metres of the undercover area, or loop all the way around the back through the kids playground.

So I made my way down the track, both dogs in nice heel positions and walking great :D. I get close, and all 5 dogs go off. Lady grabs her Ridgeback who throws himself forward barking, other women starts screeching for her little dogs, 2 had charged at Roscoe and tried to snap at his face. Roscoe was fantastic, turned his head and just ignored the little beasts. I shoved them away with my gumboot and got some nice little scratches were they tried biting down.

Neither women apologise. The one with the little dogs (still barking away, just on leashes now) says "They really hate German Shepherds!", and the women with the ridgeback chimes in with, "Yeah, and you should get your dog desexed, my dog hates entire males"

..........Really guys? Really!? That is your reaction, to your dogs charging a younger dog, who was quite literally doing nothing. Not even looking your direction. Its his fault, because he happens to be a certain breed, or is still entire. I just find it ridiculous, especially considering if Roscoe was to turn around and defend himself, who would be to blame? I doubt its going to be the small fluffy cross, its going to be the "big aggressive GSD!".

Am I the only one this happens to? People blaming your dogs for the actions of theirs. Its literally happened so many times now, I dont even bother to react. I just keep walking.

Although we don't want our dogs to hurt another, if an off leash dog gets attacked by a dog on leash the off leash dog is at fault especially if the incident occurs in an area where dogs are required to be leashed. The owner of the off leash dog breaches leash laws, breaches the laws of effective control, breaches laws of their dog rushing/attacking another animal and the leashed dog is exempt from retaliation through the defence of provoaction, however I would be making a firm statement to the effect that the off leash dog's aggression towards my dog triggered the defensive reaction and in those circumstances, a leashed dog can't be condemned of any wrong doing regardless of size differential or injury result. This has been tested before in civil matters and the leashed dog wins the case. The only time a leashed dog is at fault causing injury is when the leashed dog has previously been declared dangerous and was exercised without a muzzle. Even if the leashed dog is massively DA, it doesn't matter, dogs unleashed at large have little rights.

Edited April 20, 2012 by m-sass

[Chris the Rebel Wolf]

My friend has a giant breed, very sweet & friendly. Siad a quick hello in passing to another very large dog in the local offleash park. All good. Owner of other dog wanted to put her boy on lead to leave, and as she did so he bit her....so she turned to my friend, poited accusingly at her and said "YOUR dog made my dog bite me!!!!"

With her magical canine-physic mind melding powers, no doubt?

[aussielover]

There is a labradoodley thing that comes to our local park and just runs wild, jumping on people, annoying other dogs, barking incessantly etc.

The owner is oblivious to its bad behaviour and actually thinks its cute. It was annoying the crap out of my dog who just wanted to play with her ball (biting her legs, tail, ear etc) luckily she is a very patient dog. The owner actually got annoyed at my dog for not playing with her dog and suggested that I put the ball away so the two dogs could play together?! Because her dog really NEEDED to play with another dog.

Really took a lot of my self control to remain calm and politely tell her that I didn't think that was the solution, even if I put the ball away, my dog was not in the mood to be playing with another dog as she generally doesn't play with dogs she doesn't already know and would just follow me around and look adoringly at me until i threw the ball again.

I then got told she was a boring dog, and it was a shame she was missing out on the socialisation. I'd rather her be "boring" than be a nuisance. Also this dog was extremely muddy and dirty and jumped all over me. Absolutely no apology from the owner. Obviously I accept that dogs do get dirty and you should never wear nice clothes to a dog park but seriously I try to stop my dog jumping all over people and I would profusely apologise if she were to be wet and muddy and jump all over someone and dirty their clothes even if they were "ugly" dog park clothes anyway.

And yes I have had the breed specific dog haters or large dog haters, who think its acceptable and even funny when their tiny dog attacks my dog and then blames her for being XXX breed or "my dog was once attacked by a xxx breed or large dog" and your point being???

SO now your dog has attacked mine, its ok for her to attack all small white fluffies (or whatever breed they are?)

People are not willing to accept responsibilities for their own (and therefore their dog's) actions. My dog is by no means perfect, and I struggled with her when she was a puppy however, I have found an apology goes a long way to rectifying a situation.

[fuzzy82]

I'm not in any way defending the people in the OP, but sometimes I will say something similar if I'm just taking a mental note of what a trigger for barking might be. Or sometimes I'm just stating a fact: Weez isn't a fan of being near entire dogs. If one comes near he will go about 30 metres away and walk past there. If someone asks me why my dog has moved that far away I will tell them. I'm not blaming their dog, or suggesting they should do anything about it, it's just how it is

I do this too. I generally have them under control, but if something does happen I will apologise and then state the reason why they behaved that way. It's not meant to blame the other person though.