Yes, he was on-leash ... but I had put it under my foot, was I was doing whatever I was doing at that moment, and he started to pull away.

It was a TOTAL SHAME on me moment.

My pup is only off leash in the Crate or in the Tub (with bathroom door closed). I even leave his leash on in the car now. Why? 'cause if he has to go to the bathroom, when I go to get out of the car, he tries to sneak by me.

 Quote: Louanne Manter

Yes, he was on-leash ... but I had put it under my foot, was I was doing whatever I was doing at that moment, and he started to pull away.

It was a TOTAL SHAME on me moment.

My pup is only off leash in the Crate or in the Tub (with bathroom door closed). I even leave his leash on in the car now. Why? 'cause if he has to go to the bathroom, when I go to get out of the car, he tries to sneak by me.

Wow. That seems extreme to ask someone whose dog is on a leash to leave under those circumstances.

I took my pup to the market we have downtown during the summer.. mostly a touristy thing, but it's a small step to socializing her to bigger crowds and more diversity in people.

She did wonderful.

She stayed close, but she was on leash, there were other dogs, bigger, smaller, younger, older. She was very eager to meet them, but I didn't unless their owners were okay with it. I still kept her close, in any case. Most were very well behaved dogs themselves.

And I was thrilled to see how many kids wanted to see her, though a few parents were wary, even while my puppy was loving on some other people who stopped to say hello.

People were very, very nice, and all but one asked to pet her. I wasn't very happy with that kid, but his friend profusely apologized for what he did. I did have one lady bring her young kid over to pet Selene, asking, of course, and showing her kid how to pet nicely and let a dog meet them.

Overall, I was quite happy with how she, and how people around us were during those few hours. It was much better than I had expected.

Some people are very opinionated and extreme. I can walk down a busy city street with my dog and nobody seems bothered, but once I was in a fairly rural area and was sworn at for...well...I'm not sure what. I had taken my Dobe to our usual walking spot, and saw that there was a woman already there walking her dog. I often see other people with dogs there so I thought nothing of it. Murphy's great about ignoring it all. I parked my car way ahead of where she was, asked Murphy to sit before I opened my back hatch to get his leash on, and then calmly and quietly we went on our way as usual. Eventually I heard all manner of commotion going on behind me, and when I looked over my shoulder I see this same woman being dragged down the road by her smallish (50lbs?) but fat, fluffy dog. When she saw me look, she hollered out as loud as she could "I HATE YOUR F****** DOG" Murphy and I just kept walking...what else could we do? I have to admit that later I got a bit of a chuckle out of it . But it's a good example of how irrational some complaints can be. My feeling is that as long as we are in control and are not infringing on anyone's space we have as much right to be there as anyone else. If someone else can't control their own dog(s) or kid(s), that's their own problem to deal with.

Our dog Buster used to be such a wonderful ambassador for his breed when he was out in public (he was a pitbull who died last November).

We always traveled with him when we went camping or anywhere that dogs were welcome. We had a friend who owned a health food store and he was always welcome in his store (on leash of course).

We never had any children try to pet him without asking first. Also, we would always have Buster in a sit and would ask the kids to slowly offer the back of their hand for him to sniff and then told them when it was ok to gently pet him along his side (never on his head). The parents would usually be hovering in the background, smiling, etc. Sometimes they would ask us what kind of dog he was and when we said "pitbull" some would look alarmed and some would say that they knew of other pitbulls who were wonderful pets.

Now our dog Nickie is a little too rambunctious to sit still for indiscriminate petting by kids (he is still young - 10 months). One day I was walking him in the neighborhood and saw two little kids (about 5 and 6 years old) on the sidewalk about a half block away. I purposely crossed over to the other side of the street away from them. As I got closer, they ran across the street at us and said, "can we pet your dog, what's his name", etc.

I put Nickie in a sit (he was on his prong collar) and told them how to approach him. They took two steps and he tried to lunge at them which scared them a little. I told them that maybe it would be best to just stay where they were and say "hi Nickie". They did that and then happily ran back home. I have a lot more work to do on his over-exuburance with anything new!

When I used to take Tasha to pet stores and parks for socialization I would remove her if people became grabby or if I saw people becoming uneasy by her presence. She is great and we usually have an issue with people becoming too grabby rather than uneasy.

I like to think of those places as public too but it is not fair to her to put her through peoples attitudes. Plus I would rather leave on my own before I am asked to leave by someone.

I am very lucky to have friends that own a reptile breeding facility/pet store that I take her to for socialization. They don't put up with loose children at all since they have some 20+ foot snakes.

FWIW, my pup was on a leash too. I think, I will in the future, stay back and away, and observe from a distance. I have no desire to be inadvertantly scaring people. Obviously, that woman was scared (and unfortunately making the "big dog" seem scary to the kids). As for Cato barreling down the playground slides, to this point, he has waited his turn in line , but will definately be shooting for times when the kids are on the swings for us to hit the slide!

Carol, you said it best, it IS WHAT IT IS and those are words to live by...

When I take Carbon to places that are filled with kids, I like to keep my distance for a short time to get the lay of the land. Usually, if there's someone with a big dog phobia (or any dog phobia for that matter) it's usually obvious before we get anywhere close. I have no desire to scare kids, either.

But by the same token, there are very few parks and beaches here on Cape Cod that allow dogs, so I think people at these places have to option to go to the majority of other places that don't allow dogs if they're concerned.

As for being out in public in general--when I'm walking Carbon, he's always in a heel with me and displaying nothing but admirable traits. I get some "looks" sometimes, but frankly, they have more to worry about with the little dogs that are snapping at everyone from the end of their halties.

If someone came up to me and nicely told me that their child was afraid of dogs and asked if I could remove Carbon, I would...and graciously. But I wouldn't be too friendly with someone that overreacted and was nasty over nothing. Frankly, I'd be willing to bet that my dog has more to worry about from THEIR child!

Parents these days are lazy. They'd rather terrify their children than teach them proper behavior where dogs are concerned. In my neighborhood, the parents pay zero attention to what the kids are doing, yet one woman in particular is continually spouting off about how "no one should be allowed to even own a dog like that" (either Caleb(GSD) or Mia(APBT)) My APBT doesn't jump my 6'privacy fence, but the woman tells all the kids she does, and that she's going to "eat them." This same woman's 3yr old is continually riding his tricycle, buck naked, around the block with absolutely zero supervision. I've seen the child drink from muddy puddles in the street. He's actually gotten sick from this before; that's how much attention she pays. BUT-she's suddenly this responsible, over-protective mom where my dogs are concerned. Laughable.

Children now literally RUN past my house. I am somewhat amused by this, but I also find it sad. One young girl was strolling a baby up and down the street while her 4yr old sister yelled out the window to "Run! Don't let him eat the baby!" She spends a considerable amount of time with the negligent mother. I replied, "Yeah, you better be careful. Last time, he just grabbed the baby right out of the stroller and ate in one gulp." She laughed, being old enough to realize that what this woman is spewing is preposterous, but she looked very embarrassed that her sister was repeating what the woman said.

Anyway, got a little off topic, but the fact is that responsibility seems to lie solely with the dog owners today; parents just don't bother educating their kids. If they'd teach them appropriate behavior toward dogs, we wouldn't have this irrational terror breeding hatred toward our dogs. People fear what they don't understand.

 Quote:

Parents these days are lazy

 Quote:

parents just don't bother educating their kids.

Easy Killer.