This reminds me of when my husband took our lab for a walk and was met by a lady walking(in town) with her dog off leash. Granted it's a small town, but there is a leash law. Our lab wanted to pull and meet this other dog. The owner of the other dog just rolled her eyes and kept walking. I can't remember if my usband said anything to her or if her dog was coming towards Otto. But still. You never know.

I've had to kick at a couple of dogs after giving a warning(saying "NO") and then having the other dogs owner say "they won't bite" or "they're friendly". Really? When the dog charges straight at my dogs and is off leash. Hmm. Yeah. I don't like irresponsible dog owners and their carelessness with their dog(on or off leash).

For that matter some of the long Chuckit throwers are pretty sturdy and could whack a dog pretty hard if you aim for the nose or eyes.

You certainly couldn't be accused of carrying an illegal weapon if you had one of those. I've only met one or 2 off leash dogs and a good firm "NO" had them running off. But I won't hesitate to use the chuckit if the no doesn't work.

The Chuck-it is a good idea..... my daughter smacked me on the leg with it one time... didn't feel good at all.

 Quote: kathy west

I wanted to add: I was so mad when I got home I wanted to go back to the house and let the lady know what happened and that her dog was out but then I wasnt sure because the dog wasnt acting aggressive (mine actually were) so i wasnt sure what I would have said??

I think you should have let her know. Maybe she has no idea her dog is getting out and would rather he stayed in (and off the road) This happened to me once. I was letting two of my dogs in the yard unsupervised for short periods, since they were pretty good. I was always home but would be doing something inside the house, for maybe 15 minutes at a time. My property backs onto a city park.

One day, I let the two "good ones" in and had a 3rd dog out with me (on leash, in my fenced yard). A woman came up and told me that my "other dog, not that one" had let himself out of the yard, barked at her and her small dog, then let himself back in the yard. She then showed me the area in the fence where he was getting through. Although that particular dog of mine "is friendly", I had no idea he was squeezing himself under the fence and getting into the park, and I certainly did NOT want him doing this. I thanked the woman for letting me know and immediately fixed my fence.

I wonder now how many times he did that before I found out? He was always IN the yard when I called him back into the house....

I hate to say it but in all of my experiences calling animal control has done squat, here. If the dog is not aggressive, they don't care.

Most of the time a loud firm No, or Go Home in the same tone works. Once or twice I have resorted to throwing a newspaper at them (I never even come close to hitting the strays, but the raised arm and the projectile seem to make the point). The newspapers- btw- are a freebee that litter the whole neighborhood. If I wasn't so annoyed about them throwing them in my flowers, bushes, driveway, etc. UNREQUESTED, I'd be happy that there are all of these free handy things to throw lying around, lol. Realistically I feel like a monster throwing stuff at the poor animals, but letting them get too close would be much worse.

To the OP, Good luck, I can empathize with your situation.

Yes, I think I should have said something. Maybe she doesnt know or maybe she thinks its not that big of a deal but if someone told her it was then hopefully she would take action to fix the problem- I would want someone to tell me if roles were reversed but unfortunately not everyone is a responsible dog owner. Maybe I could use the chuck it on my dogs since they were the ones acting all crazy -JK - thats another issue

Also once I had a 3 legged chi follow me and sampson (my younger dog) awhile back, I could not get it to leave us alone but luckily sampson was probably more scared than anything and didnt want to have him for lunch - its sure getting tough to get our dogs exercised these days