Had two incidences recently, the first, walking in an on leash area. I have two large friendly dogs btw. I see a small terrier dog walking off leash far ahead of owner and crouching as it neared us and i could tell it was going to run at us, but I didn't want to be "that" person coz honestly if the dog is under control i could care less if its off leash, its not bothering me. Of course dog runs at us, i yell "call your dog!", the dog is very agressive and is lunging at my dogs, I jerk my poor two dogs who are on prongs to the other side while this guy is saying to me "its fine. hes fine", dog lunges again at my dogs so I kick it and it snarls and tries to bite my boot but I yell and scare it and it finally backs off. "no its not fine" i say to guy, "why not" he says. I say "coz how do you know my dogs are friendly?" To which he says "well if their not then you should have a yellow ribbon on your leash!

First of all if he knew about the yellow ribbon doesn't he know not to allow his dog to run at other dogs??? Secondly he had no control so it would've made no difference anyway. "I dont need a yellow riboon you need to control your dog" I say, he tells me to calm down as I point out theres a leash law.

Second incident: On leash park filled with bunnies and ducks etc. French bulldog puppy running crazy like at my dogs, so I ask man to please call his dog, which he does and of course dog does not listen. I keep walking as puppy chases us, I am off path in the grass as the guy is calling his dog who is franticlly chasing us trying to jump (friendly but none the less) at my dogs. I can see this man cannot catch his dog so holding my dogs leash in one hand I grab the dogs harness and scoop her up. He comes charging at me yelling in my face not to pick up his dog like that, that hes not touching my dogs, he leans over to touch my dogs then thinks better of it(cane corso&dutch shep) I say "I didn't want her to get hurt, you're welcome." He grabs her harness exact same way I did ironically and storms off in a huff muttering under his breath. "its called a leash law" I call out. We pass him again and dogs on leash, to which I smile and say thank you and he just jerks his dog along and says "comeon lets go" to his dog.

Honestly if there had not been so many people around I would've considered calling cops as I felt pretty threatened as he was a large man who ran at me and screamed in my face. I truly was just trying to catch his dog for him as I could tell dog wasn't agressive.

I had had worst week too and gone to get some peace with my dogs. It shook me up and wrecked my whole night. Of course my bf is never around for any of these and I dont even want to walk them alone anymore. We live in a safe neighbourhood but i am so sick of this I could cry! I get left being made to feel like the bad guy for wanting to enjoy a peaceful walk in an on leash area without being harassed. Is this too much to ask?? I feel I always get nervous and freeze up and dont know what to say . I dont want people thinking my dogs are mean, they are actually great with all critters and I want to keep it that way, not to have them have a bad experience. People seem to think its ok if their dogs are small and its cute. If I have my 17 yr old dog with us I cant afford him to even have a little bite and have to be put under, he could die! I dont want him to fall either as hes unsteady.

This is soley a rant i realize but its really been upsetting me and I knew the folks on here would understand.

My question is this, what incidences have you had and what do you say?do???

Thanks for listening

You can't fix STUPID! And these kind of people are stupid, self centered & basically have little to no dog owner/ training skills.

Glad that you & your dogs were not hurt.

My dogs have been attacked 5 times on local fields by out of control/ no recall trained dogs. One of the dogs attacked me, also.

I will never understand why people will let their dogs run around free with no means of calling them back. I guess they have little regard for their dog's life & well-being. Just stupid people. Too bad for their dogs.

Cat, I go back and forth. After a couple of good shouting matches, I'm on a little bit of a just let it go mood. One day I smacked a dog in the face with a couple of rubber frisbees and let the owner know how a I felt about it. Then I thought about it and shook hands with him, showed him the frisbee wouldnt hurt his dog.

The other day a female beagle looking dog came out of no where and had her nose buried in my dogs butt while he was playing tug with me. For whatever reason, he ddnt care, so I just let it go.

I've been bit. My dogs have been bit, and it never ends. The only thing I've ever seen help, and its always only temporary, is a few people go to the police and they give out tickets.

Thanks for understanding guys. I would never call the police unless a dog was agressive, and even then they will usually just take off by the time they get there. I feel like most people really just have no idea at all that some people dont want their dog going up to them, and I really believe a lot of folks with the small dogs think that we will all have a good laugh about how their cute little dog thinks it can take on my big dogs. I try to keep emotions in check and not scream but at the same time let them know its not ok and im very annoyed! It all happens so fast I get flustered and think of things I'd wish I said later.

Im so sorry you have both have had your dogs attacked, I hope not too badly. My dutch shepherd got bit a long time ago but my bf was there and i chased the lady and got her info and she paid the vet bill. It wasn't a bad bite luckily. But i feel she was a bit better with dogs before it but she was younger than too so who knows, shes still great.

I would be so terrified to own a small dog with all the morons out there, they are so fragile, at least mine could hold their own, little ones could be hurt so easy even by accident, scary!

Steve I too sometimes just let it go if its not worth it, like an old friendly calm golden say, but I worry for that dog going up to dogs who arent friendly, small dogs too that people let run up, I sarcasticlly say "lucky their friendly" and smile...maybe they'll think on it later. I hate confrontation but I can hold my own and when it comes to my dogs, watch the heck out if your a threat to their safety or wellbeing!!

yellow ribbon . . . wtf ?

i got taken down while riding my bike by a couple of little dogs off leash , in a leash area . little bastards ran right into my front wheel and down i went . classic stupid owner knew exactly what was going to happen and sure as HECK , it did . don't know how many more " accidents " she'll cause before she either figures it out or gets her butt sued .

Edited by Connie Sutherland (02/22/2013 10:20 AM)
Edit reason: edited for swearing

Ian....tell us how you really feel. LOL

The little mutts can be the worse...their owners think they are their babies & use very little training or discipline in their lives. They let them run a muck everywhere. They are a PITA for sure.

I can say this because years ago I owned a large toy poodle & she was extremely well trained & went almost everywhere I did. No bad behavior allowed at all...no matter how cute, smart & funny she was. :-)

 Quote: Anne Jones

Ian....tell us how you really feel. LOL

The little mutts can be the worse...their owners think they are their babies & use very little training or discipline in their lives. They let them run a muck everywhere. They are a PITA for sure.

I can say this because years ago I owned a large toy poodle & she was extremely well trained & went almost everywhere I did. No bad behavior allowed at all...no matter how cute, smart & funny she was. :-)

Ditto all the way, and it irritates the hell out of me because I have big real dogs and little toys, too, and little ones are no harder to train in basic ob .... there is just zero excuse, and it gives small dogs this reputation (deserved, but not the dogs' fault).

This hits a sore spot with me. Small dogs need the security of a strong pack leader at least as much as big dogs do.

If it isn’t idiot dog owners, its idiot parents in my world.

I came back across the field the other day, and there was my latest arse pain with a shiny new rescue dog with it brand new Dogs Trust collar and lead. This loon makes a bee line for me and the crew every time he sees us, I change direction, he changes direction, pulled like a fool by his dog, saying that ‘those big dogs don’t want to play with you har har’ damn straight they don’t, and me saying loudly ‘ignore!’ and ‘move!’ doesn’t seem to penetrate his thick skull, I don’t even make eye contact with him!

The screaming, out of control pack of Jacks, the off leash Newfie pup, the Beagle woman who sees us, and waits for us to catch up because her dog wants to be friends, the small bratish child hollering ‘wanna stroke the doggy!’ watched by a gormless parent ..... They are bloody everywhere.

You have my sincere sympathies Cat, morons abound all over the world, and until I get to leg it to my remote Scottish Isle, this is the twice daily occurrence that sends my blood pressure through the roof.

I just recently learned a new move that worked a couple of times. With a leashed dog pulling his owner towards us, or an owner obviously heading over so our dogs could all say hi and have a chat, I put up my palm like a traffic officer and shook my head.

Maybe it just surprised or puzzled them enough to make them stop, but they did, two different people.

And we changed direction.

Of course, this was only in the "clueless owner but dog at least on a leash" situation.

And as we walked away I called "thank you" in a nice voice.


I have a recovering reactive dog, over two years calm now, and I want to keep him recovered! (And anyway, none of my dogs need to meet-and-greet with strange dogs.)

We have Tanka on a tracking line at the park, so when we pass people I can bring him into my side, or allow him to be further away or even down in the stream and still attached. The other day a lady came along with a BIG dog, gray furry can't recall the breed. He runs at Tanka(rottie) and she is yelling "he's ok" from her half mile back. Ugh!!! I hold Tanka's collar while hubby heads off the dog.

Did she learn? No. Later we had just passed an elderly couple with shih-thus who were nervous enough to pick their dogs up even though Tanka was heeled by me. And here comes this same dog, loose and the owner so far back and around the corner we couldn't dven see her. This time it got to us and we had to do some serious "shooing" and hold onto Tanka to get it away. Tanka loves other dogs but we are learning that we don't greet them all. Another thing people can't seem to understand.

At this point, she still thought sorry was good enough. I had to work really hard to not say what I was thinking. My hubby warned her their were small dogs ahead if that made any difference to her, I don 't know. I'm glad he met us and not the elderly couple.

That's one of my biggest fears when Tanka and I go out alone. What if we meet a dog who comes at us. Tanka will try to protect me, he has done it, and I never want him to be in that position. J.