i hate off-leash dogs.

[elegy]

mushroom got in another fight with an off-leash dog tonight. it makes me freaking bonkers. he generally likes other dogs, but not when he's on a leash and they run up and get all in his face and in his space. this, of course, is what happened tonight when my mom and her friend and i were out walking the boy dogs.

we walked past the elementary school athletic field and there were two kids and a pit bull in the field. i didn't realize the dog was off-leash until it was headed our way. the parents came across the street and generously stood there and did nothing to get their dog under control.

it ran right up into mushroom's face, and i'd gotten 75% of "you need to not let your dog run up to other dogs" out of my mouth when mushroom went grrr and the other dog went oh HELL no and then it was on. so i ended up with mushroom in my left hand, the other dog by his collar held up on his back feet in my other hand, and a bunch of people standing there with their mouths hanging open.

honest to god, people.

they said "he's never acted like that before." yeah, well, he has now. i lost my hold on him and he went back toward mushroom but i kicked at him and yelled at him and he circled around us, head down, hackles up, eyes huge. they still hadn't caught him as we were walking away, suggesting that perhaps a LEASH might be useful.

stupid. just stupid.

and it pisses me off even more because it was a pit bull.

 

[Dekka]

Owning a small dog, these stories scare me. If that dog had ran at dekka, she would have leapt snarling at it, and would have been a mouthful.

 

[Toller_08]

I hate people like that. There's some guy who frequently allows his pit bull to run around loose and Tango's been attacked by him a couple times. The guy doesn't at all care and never bothers to apologize or even grab his dog. The owner certainly isn't helping their bad reputation at all, and his dog has put Tango's training back tons as far as being comfortable around other dogs.

I'm sorry you had to deal with the sort of the same situation.

 

[Whisper]

I'm sorry elegy. That sort of stuff really gets on my nerves. :/
I know it's very disrespectful and incredibly annoying but I'm glad it wasn't a worse fight.

 

[elegy]

i'm glad it wasn't worse, too. the last time something similar happened there was no owner around and i had both mushroom and luce. mushroom and the loose dog, a sheepdog, ended up bloody. the other dog just kept coming and coming and i couldn't stop it. it was horrible. just horrible.

it took me *months* before mushroom stopped wigging out at every freaking dog and started becoming dog-friendly again. i'm afraid of how much of that may have been undone tonight.

 

[SizzleDog]

Oh, I hear ya... what a horrible theing to happen! It seems to be the current trend that when your dog is doing something BAD (i.e. attacking other dogs) the best course of action is to just stand there, collecting flies.

A neighbor of mine frequently lets his bulldog walk onto my patio - my dogs freak out, barking and hitting the glass - especially when the Bulldog is allowed to take a pi$$ on my patio furniture!!! GRRRR..... and the owner just stands there, mouth-breathing, stupid dog on a flexi. Some people, I tell ya....

 

[bubbatd]

It sure takes all kinds !!! My Bubba ( and others ) could be off leash , but would always be at a heel . If any dog would approach I'd have them sit and tend to the invader . NO dog should approach another dog without permission !

 

[mrose_s]

that frightens me to, busters only ever had one fight, ofcourse it was an offleash dog running acorss the road when he was onlead, it got too close to fast and it was on.

thankfully the owners were there and were over helping quick and apoligised heaps once it was over. atleast they had that decency

 

[milos_mommy]

i don't *hate* offleash dogs.

i don't hate responsible owners who let their well-trained dog off leash either.

what i do hate is the morons who let their completely unreliable dog-aggressive troublemaker off leash.

 

[elegy]

i cannot tell you the last time i saw an off-leash dog that was under control. that plus we have a leash law. so, yeah, sorry if i generalized a bit here. but this is twice in the past three days that i've had encounters with off-leash pit bulls and it's getting really bloody old.

 

[Scooter]

Your situation was terrible, but please don't lump all off-leash dogs together. I take Zoe off-leash and she wouldn't hurt a bumble bee if her life depended on it! Now, when I see another dog that is on leash, I do pull her back in respect of the other dog owner. I've even put her back on leash if the other dog owner looks wary.

 

[elegy]

most dogs who run up to my dogs "wouldn't hurt a bumble bee" and that's totally and utterly beside the point, because MY dogs are dog-aggressive and WOULD hurt other dogs if they had their space invaded. a lot of people really don't get that.

allowing your dog to run up to other dogs is rude and dangerous no matter how nice your dog is.

 

[Jules]

i don't *hate* offleash dogs.

i don't hate responsible owners who let their well-trained dog off leash either.

what i do hate is the morons who let their completely unreliable dog-aggressive troublemaker off leash.

It does not matter if the off-leash dog is dog aggressive or not.. what if a friendly off-leash dog runs up to a leashed DA dog? Especially with a bully breed... guess which dog is going to get the negative attention? Not the off-leash lab/poodle/whatever, but the leashed pit.

I get all nervous and anxious when I see an off-leash dog running over when I walk my dog... and that feeling goes right down the leash to my dog... which is absolutely unnecessary.

Yes, you are right, there are *some* responsible people who have dogs with a dead on recall, but those are so **** rare. Why do you have to give other people with leashed dogs a heart attack? If you go to an area where you know you will likely meet others and your dog is just trotting next to you offleash anyway, put it on a leash.

I let T-Bone off-leash, too, because she does have a dead on recall... but I only do it in areas where I can see a long distance ahead and have plenty of time to put her on a leash before the other owner will even notice that she is off-leash.

 

[milos_mommy]

It does not matter if the off-leash dog is dog aggressive or not.. what if a friendly off-leash dog runs up to a leashed DA dog? Especially with a bully breed... guess which dog is going to get the negative attention? Not the off-leash lab/poodle/whatever, but the leashed pit.

I get all nervous and anxious when I see an off-leash dog running over when I walk my dog... and that feeling goes right down the leash to my dog... which is absolutely unnecessary.

Yes, you are right, there are *some* responsible people who have dogs with a dead on recall, but those are so **** rare. Why do you have to give other people with leashed dogs a heart attack? If you go to an area where you know you will likely meet others and your dog is just trotting next to you offleash anyway, put it on a leash.

I let T-Bone off-leash, too, because she does have a dead on recall... but I only do it in areas where I can see a long distance ahead and have plenty of time to put her on a leash before the other owner will even notice that she is off-leash.

That's why i said "well trained." My dog is DA. If a strange off-leash dog ran up to him (which has happened) i'd be pissed. I don't care if the dog is off-leash, as long as it's attentive to it's owner, with a reliable recall, and isn't running around all over the place.

 

[squirtsmom]

My neighbor lets his heinz 57 out all the time, and usually when I am out with baby on her leash. He will run up everytime and try to hump her. I know this is dog activity, but I do not like it. DON'T HUMP M Y DOG. He also craps in the yard. I have tried to talk to him, but he is an idiot.

 

[houndlove]

Fortunately neither of my dogs has an ounce of dog aggression in them but I still absolutely hate it when people let their dogs off leash without a drop-dead recall and heel (that they then use when other dogs come by, because clearly it doesn't matter how under voice control your dog is if you don't actually use it). It makes me insane. It makes my dogs more difficult to control because while they wont' aggress, it does make them nervous when off-leash dogs are running towards them and Conrad is a bit reactive and my dogs together nearly outweigh me, it's really not a good situation.

Last week we were at our local parklet (NOT off-leash by any stretch of the imagination) and I hear this jingling tag sound and this galloping sound and I turn around and there is a full-grown great dane running top speed towards us. The owners (and hopefully this scared them enough to maybe not do that again) were running too and freaking out because I think they probably knew that their dog was in serious risk of getting in to a fight with these two leashed dogs out for a walk by behaving that way. To keep them from having a heart attack I did call out that it'll be okay, we're friendly and just stopped and waited for the dane to arrive and greet. They caught up and leashed him (and his baby puppy little brother who had also decided to join the fun) and apologized, which was nice because seriously the apology almost NEVER happens.

In our city the ONLY public places dogs are allowed off leash are the designated off leash exercise areas in a couple of the local parks. Any other off leash dog is breaking the law yet people act like you're asking them to cage their children when you request they leash their dogs. It drives me insane!

 

[MafiaPrincess]

Only time Cider has been in a dog fight, was of all places in class.. Think it was intermediate agility.. Maybe advanced, we had the same group of people most of the way through. Nice people, people you wouldn't expect to stand stock still if their dog got into a fight..

We finished our agility run, and I took us to a corner to tug. I was in the zone with Cider.. back to the room, and a Belgian had been let off leash, ran directly to the corner, jumped Cider. Whole class stared.. I jumped on the dogs. Think I laid on the Belgian, and tried to push Cider away.. It was mainly noise. A trainer grabbed one dog, another trainer grabbed the other.

I was shocked the owner didn't do anything but look like a deer in the headlights.. So sadly even people I'd expect to be informed, help if something happened between dogs don't..

Mine aren't DA. But I've been nasty and sometimes when approached and the owner is yelling their's are friendly, I'll yell back mine aren't.. When asked first, I am more than happy to have mine play. When ambushed, not so much..

 

[dogsarebetter]

when i go walking there are these two mean wiener dogs that bite at Ruckus. they run lose, Ruckus is on a leash. and the owners set outside and watch. i have told them to get their dog and they have the guts to laugh! i used to walk Ruckus close to me where he couldnt fight back. SCREW THAT, i started letting him have all of the leash and letting him defend himself. he is not on their property, and the dogs are off leash. so if my dog competly lays into on of them yappy evil wiener dogs then its not my problem. of course with these being two pits, thats complelty diffrent. but just trying to make a point here.

 

[happypaws]

when i walk my tiny milo my eyes are peeled simply because im so scared of these dogs off their leash. dogs shouldnt be off the leash unless they are in their own yard its unacceptable because as trained as your dog can be, you never know

 

[milos_mommy]

Only time Cider has been in a dog fight, was of all places in class.. Think it was intermediate agility.. Maybe advanced, we had the same group of people most of the way through. Nice people, people you wouldn't expect to stand stock still if their dog got into a fight..

We finished our agility run, and I took us to a corner to tug. I was in the zone with Cider.. back to the room, and a Belgian had been let off leash, ran directly to the corner, jumped Cider. Whole class stared.. I jumped on the dogs. Think I laid on the Belgian, and tried to push Cider away.. It was mainly noise. A trainer grabbed one dog, another trainer grabbed the other.

I was shocked the owner didn't do anything but look like a deer in the headlights.. So sadly even people I'd expect to be informed, help if something happened between dogs don't..

Mine aren't DA. But I've been nasty and sometimes when approached and the owner is yelling their's are friendly, I'll yell back mine aren't.. When asked first, I am more than happy to have mine play. When ambushed, not so much..

*Sigh* at one of our agility meetings (which is strictly offleash unless you're running) i literally had Milo sat IN BETWEEN my feet. At least 5 different dogs ran up to him in his face, after i warned the owners they were dog aggressive (some of these dogs were onleash, and the owners were just standing ON TOP OF US). There was also this STUPID woman with a ridiculously poorly behaved DEAF dobe offleash, who THANK GOD wasn't DA or i would have needed stitches. I pushed this dog away from Milo at least five times. She actually got kicked out after the dog, Heidi, ran onto the advanced course while someone was running, and the woman screamed HEIDI for ten minutes, then FINALLY gets off her ass and gets the dog, going "she doesn't hear very well at all, she's deaf."

Anyway, the trainer eventually started yelling at people to watch their dogs, saying how it wasn't physically possible for me to keep Milo any closer to me, and i was clearly ready to feed Milo my arm to prevent him for biting THEIR dogs. And like five stupid people are just staring at her with their mouths hanging open looking like they can't even comprehend.

In my opinion, if my dog is on a leash at my side, i tell you "he's dog aggressive", and you proceed to completely ignore your yorkie and it gets ripped to shreds, it's not my problem or fault.