Last nite while Enzo and I were at the local school where we go every day for training, we had an incident that reminded me how stupid people can truly be. This school has 3 very separate grassy areas that are large in space. The one we normally will work on was being occupied by a GSD and his owner practicing frisbee; so I decided to give them as much space as possible. The 2nd field had people sitting on the track and I didn't want to deal with Enzo getting to close to humans, so I went to the last field where I observed a lady running around, playing with her dog who was dragging a leash; we were easily 70+ yards away from them. Plenty of space as far as I was concerned.

Enzo began our normal routine of heeling, focus, sending him around objects and finally doing retrieving drills. None of these activities takes him more than 50 feet from me. The whole time I worked him I kept an eye on both sides of me where both dogs were playing off leash. Enzo has excellent recall and has no interest in interacting with other dogs, so I never really worry about him taking off on me. Plus he always wears his ecollar.

Anyway, about 20 minutes into our play time, as Enzo was doing a triple retrieve, I look over and see this bulldog running full speed over to where Enzo is. I recall Enzo to come to me, however, he is having trouble carrying all 3 bumpers in his mouth without dropping one along the way. As I run towards Enzo and grab him, I start yelling at the lady, who has started to walk laterally away from my direction, to come get her dog - that my dog isn't friendly! At first she does nothing and continues to walk sideways. I start screaming at her that my dog bites and will kill your dog! She finally begins running her ass towards me. In the meantime, I didn't have a good grip on Enzo's collars (he had a very loose flat collar on (useless), his ecollar and a DD ); I was unable to get a hand on the DD collar, so here I was stringing him up by the ecollar as this stupid bulldog was jumping on his back and biting him. Luckily Enzo kept a bumper in his mouth and wasn't willing to drop it, however, he was turning around and growling and lunging towards this stupid dog. As we are circling around, I'm still screaming at the lady to hurry the f* up, as I'm kicking her dog off Enzo and trying to not let go of him.

Finally she reaches me, grabs the leash and says nothing. I'm freaked out because I know that if I wasn't able to hold on to E that he would have hurt this dog terribly as the stupid dog was charging at him, jumping, growling and biting his back. His back was soaked in slobber. Anyway, my adrenaline is pumped, I'm breathing hard and I finally say to her, 'if you can't control your dog, keep him on a leash!' She says nothing and walks away. grrr....! Not sorry, not one word.

At that point, Enzo was more interested in gathering his bumpers together and had his eyes on me so I didn't have to worry about him going after the other dog, but I'm pissed that I have to punish my dog by strangling him because an idiot owner can't control their dog.

Other than yelling at this woman to keep her dog on a leash, is there anything else anyone else have done or said to her to get your point across? Sometimes I wish I could just let Enzo do the talking so people will realize how stupid they are by not having control of their dog at all times.

I don't know what a bumper is but I sure would like one in a situation like that.
Walking today with my GSD (working) ,man comes up stands four square in front of us,stares hard at the dog,pushes his face forward nearly into the poor dogs and says "Hello Doggie"!
They just don't get it.

Driving to work this morning, about 7:45am, on a state highway, four lanes, 45mph. As I'm nearing a doggie hotel on the left, everyone in front of me, both lanes, slams on their brakes. Once I collect myself, while still trying to retrieve my lunch with my right hand from the passenger floorboard, I see the problem; There's a 50lb mixed pit bull running back and forth across all four lanes. I think to myself, this dog's time is short, as someone's going to hit him sooner or later. Then I see a human dashing between cars (which are trying to get past this fiasco) trying to catch the collarless dog.
Now of course, this dog doesn't know anything about traffic, so this is wildly entertaining to him. By this time several good samaritans have pulled over, and a nearby construction crew has stopped to help, so the dog now has an entire posse running willy-nilly between cars that are still trying to get through and proceed to work. Finally he tires, walks back to his human, sits and waits patiently while the guy fumbles a collar from his pocket and puts it on.
I saw two other dog owners standing quietly with leashed dogs near the entrance of the doggie hotel, so I'm guessing the establishment doesn't open until 8am, and they were all hanging out waiting. Why the dog wasn't collared and leashed I'll never figure out.

Now for the topper: The guy lifts the dog by the collar til its' front feet are a couple of feet off the ground and is shaking the dog and yelling at it. I wanted to pull over and give him a sound thrashing, but I don't think anything I'd done would have made him realize that this was his fault and not the dog's.

Best to have a recall if you think you don't need a leash!

I have had my dogs attacked more times then I care to list. There is no niceness or understanding left in me. With that said:

It depends were you live and what the agencies are like. Where I live I would have called the animal control and if they were more then 5 mins away I would have called the police. I would report a lose aggressive dog thats owner was leaving. They will respond and get the persons info and hand it off to animal control for the follow up. In my county animal control has many many more calls than the police department. I know in most places that is not the case but if you feel you are in danger they should still respond. I have also taken down license plate numbers if people have gotten in their car and driven away.

What animal control does also has to do with the laws. So in my county there is nothing they can do if a dog is attacking other animals. We have on law that they can enforce ( we are trying to change that ). We have one for bites to people. In the county next to us they have a great set of laws for dog aggressing to people or dogs, and they differ depending on if the dog got out of a yard, was let off leash, jumped out of a car ect. I would call your local animal control and see what rights you have.

I am so tired of hearing stories like this!!! I tell my clients to carry walking sticks so they can keep stray dogs away. Your dog would have to learn to hold a down stay behind you no matter what. I am sure Lisa can help you with that. It sounds like your boy has made great progress and you were more shaken up then he was.

 Quote: Ericka Duggan

Your dog would have to learn to hold a down stay behind you no matter what. I am sure Lisa can help you with that. It sounds like your boy has made great progress and you were more shaken up then he was.

I wish I could trust Enzo would hold a sit/stay under these circumstances, but there is no way I could chance it. Unfortunately I need to protect and make sure he will never get the opportunity to bite, because once that happens it's over and I will be breaking up a dog fight. I'm more concerned about him getting hurt, the other dog being hurt and their owner suing me, so I can't trust that he would sit/stay.

It's frustrating because it happens to me all the time. Since Enzo has good recall and has no interest in running towards other dogs, I never have him on leash in open areas like this, so technically I could be liable if he does damage since there is a leash law.

I had a similar incident I was training with Zoey where there is 4 baseball fields, home bases meet in the center.
I'm 75 feet away doing recalls & downs and I see another guy and his dog in the far field, his dog b lines for Zoey and I'm thinking no big deal right because why would you have a dog aggressive dog off leash, wrong.
This dog starts attacking Zoey and shes doing evasive maneuvers and defending her self as I'm running full speed and I punt this dog for a 50yard field goal attempt, dog flies airborne and I stop it.
I'm screaming at this guy and I'm all jacked up while I do a quick check on Zoey, she seems fine and I bail not getting this clowns info. Well big mistake when I get home Zoey's laying on the floor and I see blood a nice 1" gash into her belly and a cut on her face so off to the vet and it's a nice $600 bill to get stitched up.
I combed the area for weeks at different times and asked around but never found this clown.

People can be stupid, I stop taking my dogs to public parks long ago. Erika was attacked TWICE in one day. The last time she was attacked by a Dachshund. She grabbed him by the collar and slung him towards the lack. looked like a doggy baton twirling thru the air.

I put Tucker in a Sit stay, I never put him in a down stay when there is a strange dog around. It makes him even more apt to strike out becauses he's below the level of the other approaching dog, and other dogs may take the fact that he's lying down as a submissive sign.

And I am always between him and other approaching dogs....they honestly don't ever have a chance to get close to him at all. I don't care how i look, I always walk a couple steps towards the oncoming dog, wave my arms, growl "git" and do whatever I can to make the other dog stop for a second and rethink his approach.
Their owners might think im insane...which sometimes help too...lol...but i have yet to have a dog get past me to Tucker.

I know I've said this a lot, but I'm saying again that the "behind me" command that Bob Scott told me how to teach has stood us in very good stead.

It's something we practice fairly often, like the recall, to keep it fast and automatic.

 Quote: Wendy Lefebvre

Their owners might think im insane...which sometimes help too...lol...but i have yet to have a dog get past me to Tucker.

I agree. I don't care at all if I overreact or jump the gun or look crazy. Standing there assuming (or hoping) that the other owner is not a full-on idiot and does have some kind of control over his dog wastes time.