How Would You Feel About This Situation?

[kelpiecuddles]

A couple of days ago I took my girls to a local leash free beach. The place is kilometres long and was practically deserted apart from a family with their lovely 9 month old am staff who played with my two for a while until they left. We'd been there for a while when a couple of people wandered along the top of the sand dunes with their malamute on lead and sat down quite close to us. A moment of distraction a few minutes later when one of my kids asked me a question and Sascha trotted over to say hello. Next thing the dog, which was one a long lead, leapt down the sand dune and tried to grab her, one of the owners actually had to leap down the dune and grab the dog around the neck. Of course it only took a moment for me to realise and call Sascha back, thankfully her recall is good.

What i don't quite understand is why they would sit so close to us if their dog was not good with others. It was clear that the guy knew what to expect by the look on his face and his speed in leaping down to grab the dog so I don't feel like this was an isolated incident. I keep thinking that maybe they were trying to expose it to other dogs but if I was doing that I wouldn't risk having it on a long lead or for that matter in an offlead area and I'd probably muzzle it to be safe, they had no idea whether my dogs' recall was any good. For the record, I do partially blame myself for losing track of her in that moment but it still seems all too risky to me, if the situation were reversed I'd be worried about my dog biting another and ending up with a dangerous dog declaration.

[Dame Aussie]

I would say technically you were in the wrong by letting your dog approach the other dog.

Having said that though, I do agree that it isn't the best place for a dog aggressive dog to be, but unfortunately there's no law to back that up :/

[kelpiecuddles]

I do agree with your first statement Aussie, which i said in my post. She didn't make it all the way to the other dog(which was only about 20 metres away) I called her back before she got there.

[Dame Aussie]

I know if I had a dog aggressive dog there's no way I'd be taking it to an off lead area.

You could be right about them trying to socialise the dog but if that was the case they should have asked you and let you know to keep your dogs away.

[megan_]

I would say technically you were in the wrong by letting your dog approach the other dog.

Having said that though, I do agree that it isn't the best place for a dog aggressive dog to be, but unfortunately there's no law to back that up :/

Our council laws say that you must be in control of your dog at all times. Neither owner was in control of there dog here.

With regards to socialising, socialising isn't taking a dog to an uncontrolled situation. If they wanted to socialise a DA dog they should consult a professional and do it in a controlled - leashed - setting.

[Rascalmyshadow]

Unfortunately legally if an altercation occurred I guess your dog would be in the wrong because it was the one off lead, however I think the other owners were quite irresponsible and have a lack of common courtesy.

I never understand why people with dogs that can't be let off leash exercise them in off leash areas, they are able to take them anywhere else and are often the ones that cause problems.

[Dame Aussie]

I would say technically you were in the wrong by letting your dog approach the other dog.

Having said that though, I do agree that it isn't the best place for a dog aggressive dog to be, but unfortunately there's no law to back that up :/

Our council laws say that you must be in control of your dog at all times. Neither owner was in control of there dog here.

With regards to socialising, socialising isn't taking a dog to an uncontrolled situation. If they wanted to socialise a DA dog they should consult a professional and do it in a controlled - leashed - setting.

I know that, I just meant that there is no law against taking aggressive dogs to parks.

[Leah82]

I was at Ruffey Lake Park in Doncaster with our 2 yesterday afternoon. A couple of standard poodles ran over when we got there, one lost interest fairly quickly but the other was a little tooo interested in Sarah and at one point put it's mouth around Sarah's neck when I was in the process of shooing it away, mean while their owner was calling and calling from about 30 metres away, once my OH and I got between our dogs and the poodle it eventually went back to it's owner.

Bit scarey, bit frustrating, but I guess you just do what you can to protect your dogs. Hopefully their owner is now practicing a bit of recall.

After a not so great start we still had a great time at the park, as you can see from these happy and tired faces.

I'm just glad that our 2 don't seem to be particularly interested in other dogs at the park and tend to just stick together.

[Yonjuro]

Scary situation for sure.

I don't think Mals are an aggressive breed but they are big. I believe most Mal owners keep them on a leash as they can be a bit like Huskies and don't have great recall. Hard to know whether the Mal was playing as they are quite mouthy when playing and look very scarey. Dunno really, but glad no one was hurt, I am also glad that the Mal owner was able to hold their dog back because they are super powerful.

I wouldn't say that either of you were in the wrong. It is natural for your dogs to be curious and it seemed the mal owner was keeping a good eye on his dog and acted quickly. In a perfect world your dogs wouldn't have approached the other dog and the mal wouldn't have reacted - but hey, we are seldom blessed with perfect scenarios :)

[Alkhe]

I guess two things spring to mind for me.

One, your dog was the one who approached their dog, so if anything happened it'd probably be your fault.

There are hundreds of vent-y posts on DOL about people (particularly with reactive dogs) being approached and rushed by off leash dogs. I actively keep my dogs away from leashed dogs in off-leash areas, on the assumption that they're not off-leash for a particular reason. It's just safer and less stressful for everyone.

Maybe they were waiting for you to leave, so they could give their dog a run while the beach was free. I dunno. To be honest though, like Yonjuro said, I don't think either of you were particularly in the wrong. Neither of you had 100% control over your dogs but really, neither or you had NO control over your dogs either. Yours had good recall, theirs was on a lead and the guy was obviously paying attention and stepped in when he felt he needed to.

Edited July 18, 2013 by Alkhe

[twodoggies2001]

Scary situation for sure.

I don't think Mals are an aggressive breed but they are big. I believe most Mal owners keep them on a leash as they can be a bit like Huskies and don't have great recall. Hard to know whether the Mal was playing as they are quite mouthy when playing and look very scarey. Dunno really, but glad no one was hurt, I am also glad that the Mal owner was able to hold their dog back because they are super powerful.

I wouldn't say that either of you were in the wrong. It is natural for your dogs to be curious and it seemed the mal owner was keeping a good eye on his dog and acted quickly. In a perfect world your dogs wouldn't have approached the other dog and the mal wouldn't have reacted - but hey, we are seldom blessed with perfect scenarios :)

I've seen the aftermath of a malamute after it killed a toy poodle belonging to a gorgeous elderly gentleman with no provocation whatsoever. This sweet old man was absolutely devastated to say the least. But the worst part was that the rotten piece of !!!!!! walked away with his dog and offered no assistance. On the other hand, another Malamute owner had the sweetest most gentle huge boy who loved the little dogs and was ever so gentle with them.

[melzawelza]

I think this is just one of those situations that happen sometimes, with both parties contributing. Your dog shouldn't have rushed over but they were equally a bit silly to take a reactive or aggressive dog, on leash, to an off leash park.

Scary situation for sure.

I don't think Mals are an aggressive breed but they are big. I believe most Mal owners keep them on a leash as they can be a bit like Huskies and don't have great recall. Hard to know whether the Mal was playing as they are quite mouthy when playing and look very scarey. Dunno really, but glad no one was hurt, I am also glad that the Mal owner was able to hold their dog back because they are super powerful.

I wouldn't say that either of you were in the wrong. It is natural for your dogs to be curious and it seemed the mal owner was keeping a good eye on his dog and acted quickly. In a perfect world your dogs wouldn't have approached the other dog and the mal wouldn't have reacted - but hey, we are seldom blessed with perfect scenarios :)

There is no such thing as an aggressive breed :) Each dog, even within a breed, is an individual. You can't say that this dog's behaviour was, or wasn't, aggressive because of it's breed.

Edited July 18, 2013 by melzawelza

[Yonjuro]

Scary situation for sure.

I don't think Mals are an aggressive breed but they are big. I believe most Mal owners keep them on a leash as they can be a bit like Huskies and don't have great recall. Hard to know whether the Mal was playing as they are quite mouthy when playing and look very scarey. Dunno really, but glad no one was hurt, I am also glad that the Mal owner was able to hold their dog back because they are super powerful.

I wouldn't say that either of you were in the wrong. It is natural for your dogs to be curious and it seemed the mal owner was keeping a good eye on his dog and acted quickly. In a perfect world your dogs wouldn't have approached the other dog and the mal wouldn't have reacted - but hey, we are seldom blessed with perfect scenarios :)

I've seen the aftermath of a malamute after it killed a toy poodle belonging to a gorgeous elderly gentleman with no provocation whatsoever. This sweet old man was absolutely devastated to say the least. But the worst part was that the rotten piece of !!!!!! walked away with his dog and offered no assistance. On the other hand, another Malamute owner had the sweetest most gentle huge boy who loved the little dogs and was ever so gentle with them.

Wow, that is horrible, the same thing happened to a poodle at our local dog beach the attacking dog was a Great Dane. But yeah, any breed can be aggressive and the bigger they are the more dire the consequences. This mal in question may indeed have been agro, but had this been the case it would have been very very hard to restrain. They are bred to pull great weights. Any way, I am just hypothesising on the event :)

[Yonjuro]

I think this is just one of those situations that happen sometimes, with both parties contributing. Your dog shouldn't have rushed over but they were equally a bit silly to take a reactive or aggressive dog, on leash, to an off leash park.

Scary situation for sure.

I don't think Mals are an aggressive breed but they are big. I believe most Mal owners keep them on a leash as they can be a bit like Huskies and don't have great recall. Hard to know whether the Mal was playing as they are quite mouthy when playing and look very scarey. Dunno really, but glad no one was hurt, I am also glad that the Mal owner was able to hold their dog back because they are super powerful.

I wouldn't say that either of you were in the wrong. It is natural for your dogs to be curious and it seemed the mal owner was keeping a good eye on his dog and acted quickly. In a perfect world your dogs wouldn't have approached the other dog and the mal wouldn't have reacted - but hey, we are seldom blessed with perfect scenarios :)

There is no such thing as an aggressive breed :) Each dog, even within a breed, is an individual. You can't say that this dog's behaviour was, or wasn't, aggressive because of it's breed.

I agree with what you are saying. As I said it is hard to know whether the mal was being aggressive - there is no way in hell that I would say I was certain it wasn't :)

[kelpiecuddles]

From the behaviour of the other dog I can honestly say that it was being quite aggressive, it literally jumped down a 2 metre high sand dune growling to get to where my dog was approaching(and then it's owner jumped down the sand dune after it and held it's head up and back to stop it from moving any closer). Just made me very glad the girls recalled just as I wanted them to. Sascha wasn't rushing over, just trotted casually over in a very relaxed way, had she been running I wouldn't have realised where she was before the dog got down so i'm glad it was only a few seconds that i was distracted and that she's got such a chilled, polite temperament about other dogs.

I would never try to excuse the fact that I didn't see what Sascha was doing, I was rather annoyed with myself afterwards that i hadn't been paying full attention at the time.

All i keep thinking was that if the tables were turned and I had a dog with aggresssion issues I'd be too worried about it being potentially put to sleep if it were to attack another dog or a person to take it to places where there was a risk of that sort of interaction. As well as the dogs I had three children under 9 with me and while I realise that dog aggression doesn't equal human aggression if something happened and one of my kids got caught up in the middle of it the consequences could have been huge.

[Yonjuro]

Fair enough, you sound like a responsible and thoughtful owner. I am just glad that it turned out okay, albeit a bit stressy :)

[Good Thanks]

I think no matter where you were, the law would still favour the owners of the dog that was ON LEASH.

[kelpiecuddles]

Never said it wouldn't? I was wondering if others might have had insight into why the other owner may have made the choice to be there when they knew their dog had issues, that's all...

[Dogsfevr]

But who says it truly was DA ??

Mals approaching other dogs do it in a manner that to others may seem aggressive so really without knowing the facts i wouldn't be quick to judge .

They may have been more worried about your dog approaching them with no owner i now i get peeved when dogs wonder up to mine & take protective action

I have a dog here who is very social but is full on when approached & as such i take great care ,his play method alone could hurt a dog or create an issue & people presume the worse.

There dog was onlead your dog wasn't turn the tables ^ these people may have experienced an issue with an offleash dog

[RuralPug]

Actually, since your dog came promptly when you recalled her I would call that effective control. But, as you said, had you been paying attention, you would have called her back earlier so maybe not. Hmmmm, geez, I am such a great help!

Glad the Mal's owner was on the ball there. Even people with DA dogs should be able to exercise them (believe me, muzzling them gets too much flak from idiots. More trouble than its worth. )

So the guy with the Mal sat down far enough away so that you could have (and did) recall your dog in time for him to react and stop any aggro from his dog?

I would say that you are both reasonably responsible owners.