Quote: Ross Rapoport

One woman walks a senior Lab and a 3-year-old American Bulldog. The kicker is, the Lab (who is incapable of more than a slight shuffle) is always leashed, whereas the Bulldog (huge, scary, fast, inquisitive) is ALWAYS off-leash.

Oh.... but Ross... I'm sure the crazy AB 'just wants to say hi'!!!!! I bet she does not have a hope of he!! controlling him on leash, so she's just opted to skip it, since she knows she can control the lame lab.

Yeah, it's obvious that she's just too lazy to bother with leash training him. God, she's such an idiot.

She has maintained all along that her dog is friendly and won't hurt anybody, but the first day I saw him she said "You'd better not come any closer."

Actually your post is even funnier because when he rushed us, she was calling out "He just wants to say hi!!" as I prepared myself for gouging out his eyes.

 Quote: alec garrison

Last week I talked about a loose dog that chased after Jeter and I as we were biking through the neighborhood.

This little Min Pin chased us for half a block until a neighbor came out and saw that I was peddling my ass off in order to prevent my dog from snatching this little thing up and doing serious damage. The neighblr was able to call the dog to her and she probably saved its life.

Jeter wound up with a torn pad on his front paw. I have resolved to avoid confrontations with loose dogs at all costs but from now o n I will not sacrifice my dogs well being to protect these idiots dogs.

I feel bad for the loose dogs that don't know better but I'm done.

Regarding avoiding confrontations - years ago my husband and I set off for a walk in our San Diego neighborhood with our beautiful smooth fox terrier - on leash of course. Before we went two blocks we had been harrassed by several dogs who were off leash. So we went back to the house and he got a piece of closet dowling about 4 feet long and 2 inches in diameter - a hag basher he called it. So we set off again and had a nice pleasant walk ending up at a neighborhood park. We were walking across the park when I see running toward us at a dead heat a GSD/monster mix. He's not making a sound - just heading straight for my dog. I scooped him up, jumped behind my husband and w/o thinking Steve just brought the stick down on the dog's head as it reached us. The dog went down with a whumph and his kid owner came screaming at us about why did we hit his dog? "Because he was about to kill ours", we told him. The dog was fine - I imagine he saw stars for awhile. But I am convinced that he would have killed my dog on the spot that day if we hadn't had that stick. I believe that most dogs won't come through you to get at your dog, but I still figured I needed some more space which is why I jumped behind my husband. Very scary!

 Quote:

I believe that most dogs won't come through you to get at your dog.....

I've seen plenty who would try. You can always tell the dogs who run the show at home, because they tend to see a human blocking their approach as more 'post' than 'threat'. They just keep trying to go around you to get to your dog, and don't even bother to look up at you.

I have had to shout "back off!" and really get obvious with the body block a couple of times to make an impact on dogs with this mindset. They look up, completely surprised, and usually run off but not always. Once I had to kick a dog several times (until his owner grabbed him) to keep him from attacking my dog. I felt terrible doing it, but not as terrible as I would have felt if my dog had been hurt and I just stood there and let it happen.

Having a stick is a great idea.

 Quote: kristel smart

 Quote:

I believe that most dogs won't come through you to get at your dog.....

I've seen plenty who would try. You can always tell the dogs who run the show at home, because they tend to see a human blocking their approach as more 'post' than 'threat'. They just keep trying to go around you to get to your dog, and don't even bother to look up at you.

You read my mind!! I remember a particularly worrisome incident involving a loose, intact, Akita/"wolf" mix (a 120lb young adult male) that, while not particularly aggressive himself, was INTENT on getting around my loud and gesturing self to get to my grumbling dog (it was Oscar's reaction to the Akita more than the Akita's attitude that I worried about, and we all know how quickly nice can turn nasty after the right challenge - and this dog was BIG!). The Akita had the inquisitiveness and perseverance of a puppy, so it took some time to finally make our escape - thank goodness my better half was with us to help coax him away... I was pretty unnerved - and PISSED - and don't know how I would have managed on my own.

~Natalya

I encounter loose dogs fairly frequently on our walks, but fortunately they have always been smaller and fairly easy to deter.

A large, persistent dog is an issue that I need to have a game plan for...

When I bike with Jeter I don't have a stick because its too much. A dog tethered to my bike that I have to be careful with, all the cars and of course I have to keep my hands on the handlebars.

jeter loves to run along side the bike so much that normal distractions that exist during a walk he ignore while we ride. he is focused and just running.

The experience I described here is one that is different because I am not afraid of my dog being attacked. am afraid of my dog killing another. If this little dog or any of the other loose dogs that I have encountered in my neighborhood don't back off when I yell or raise the stick and they insist on coming it is them that are in trouble.

Jeter doesn't play well with others (dogs) and I am very careful to manage him accordingly. I went through a major expense with fencing and an elaborate dog run in my yard so that he has everything he needs in order to have a full life. Of course I have to take him for walks and runs in order to provide the exercise he needs.

The interesting thing about the issue that happened a week or so ago is that if I had stopped the bike to address this little dog in the moment it takes to stop the bike the dog would have caught up to us and at that point its too late for him.

So my questions is do I let Jeter eat this dog?

 Quote: Alec Garrison

When I bike with Jeter I don't have a stick because its too much. A dog tethered to my bike that I have to be careful with, all the cars and of course I have to keep my hands on the handlebars.

jeter loves to run along side the bike so much that normal distractions that exist during a walk he ignore while we ride. he is focused and just running.

Am I understanding you correctly? You have a dog who you know does not like other dogs and would kill them, but is running off leash next to you while biking?

On re-reading the post, I see you might mean the dog is tethered to the bike, not running loose. I may have misread the first time around, I apologize.

 Quote: Alec Garrison

When I bike with Jeter I don't have a stick because its too much. A dog tethered to my bike that I have to be careful with, all the cars and of course I have to keep my hands on the handlebars.

jeter loves to run along side the bike so much that normal distractions that exist during a walk he ignore while we ride. he is focused and just running.

The experience I described here is one that is different because I am not afraid of my dog being attacked. am afraid of my dog killing another. If this little dog or any of the other loose dogs that I have encountered in my neighborhood don't back off when I yell or raise the stick and they insist on coming it is them that are in trouble.

Jeter doesn't play well with others (dogs) and I am very careful to manage him accordingly. I went through a major expense with fencing and an elaborate dog run in my yard so that he has everything he needs in order to have a full life. Of course I have to take him for walks and runs in order to provide the exercise he needs.

The interesting thing about the issue that happened a week or so ago is that if I had stopped the bike to address this little dog in the moment it takes to stop the bike the dog would have caught up to us and at that point its too late for him.

So my questions is do I let Jeter eat this dog?

Would you be totally opposed to getting a really nice, classy, breathable basket muzzle for him? Maybe a nice leather one? I know it may not be ideal, but it would take a lot of stress off of you, and allow the little dogs not to be eaten, and in turn, allow Jeter to not get in serious trouble.