I would of reacted the same way as you too, I unfortunately get this sort of behaviour alot when Im walking my girls, even the people who stop to say how beautiful my girls are tend to take a wide birth while saying it,
its just ignorance on there part, unfair on the spanial they own though, they are teaching it to be scared/causious of dogs the way there going on

just had exactly the same thing happen to me. Just going up on the towpath, girls full pelt in front of me, when a guy with (I think) a mini schaunzer (on a flaming extending lead) comes down the banking. Girls rush over to say hello, he is SWINGING the poor thing around by its neck shouting get them on the lead, get them on the lead.... I called them over and (somewhat begrudgingly-they enjoyed trying to catch the poor little dog as it swung around ) they came to me. He is shouting at me like some maniac and I said it is you who are at fault, you should let your dog off to socialise then it wouldn't start flaming yapping, if you want to walk your dog on a lead take it on the road, mine are staying OFF lead on here! I just walked off, what is the point of taking your dog into an open area and keeping it on lead? Can't understand it myself. If they see a dog off lead they usually run over say hello and then follow me on, it is the on lead dogs that cause the trouble in my experience, for some reason it is a sort of magnet to them. OK - MY rant over now!!!!

gawd glad to see I'm not alone. I was relating the story on the phone to my Mother today who has a working Lab who is obviously never on a lead when out in the fields. Apparently she gets this a lot, people taking unsocialised/nervous dogs out in the open countryside on leads and then going off on one when her dog trots over to say hello.

I just view refusal to socialise as a form of animal mistreatment. Those dogs will grow up whimpering and scared and probably end up biting someone out of fear. The thing is, those owners wouldn't stop a young child from saying hello or playing with other children, they'd probably consider it cruel and bizarre....yet they'll do it to a dog and think that's 'proper' ownership.

Mouth breathers! (as my Mother would say).

we take china out in open areas and keep her on lead because
a) she goes deaf and refuses to learn recall
and B) she can be dog aggressive so i tend not to take any chances....

i have had to tell people to call their dogs away because they crowd china and she gets aggressive and i cant handle her if she is crowded by other dogs...

Alex
xx

To be honest in that situation I would of lost my temper completely!

It is far from irresponsible letting your dog off the leash, infact I think its only in the most extreme circumstances (when your dog has no recall at all) its irresponsible to never let your dog off the lead!

These people obviously know naught about what being a truely responsible owner is.

It so sad that people think big dogs are dangerous.

I know that almost every time Jess goes near a puppy or small dog people pick them up or shout at her for going near.

Im sorry to hear that you had this bad experience, I would ignore them, they are obviously imbeciles.

I would of been the same, What is wrong with some people.
If a dog comes up to you and sits down ready to give his paw well he must of been ready to jump on that poor puppy and hold it down
some people are so blind they only see the breed of dog.

oh oh well just wait until your Mastiff is fully grown,oh the joy,apparantly there is nothing funnier than allowing little yappy dogs run up to them to snarl,snap and bark in their faces,whilst owners smile indulgently on,while of course I am hanging on for dear life,yep hilarious,
to date I have had a broken ankle,a fractured collar bone chipped teeth,shiner,whilst owner says "oh you really should not own a dog that size if you cannot control it"
arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
well hello,whose miniature mutt has just run up caught my dogs jowel enough to make him bleed,(my delicate little flowers have very soft jowels by the way)and um,I also have to say I end up yelling at them in a very common as muck way,
Wendy

was there a full moon last night??,sounds to me like these idiots need a big dose of common sense,and a large helping of dog owners manners .in your place i would have acted exactly the same ,good for you

I would have done exactly the same. Some people just are not fit to be dog owners . Poor little spaniel , I hope it doesn't suffer long term with all that yanking around. Why do idiots like that get a dog and then think they have the god given right to tell other people how to handle their dogs ? This (IMO) is where a test of knowledge and competence would be useful. I'm a novice dog owner but I have taken the time to learn and train my SBT properly. If anyone started yelling at me on a walk , I'd go nuts at them.

I really and truly believe that if everybody bothered to take their dogs to training class, even if it is only to bronze standard, the dogs themselves would benefit greatly just because of the socialisation opportunities it offers. We have had quite a few dogs come in ours that are very dog agressive, but after a few sessions working with all the dogs they are good as gold. It can be done, I am not saying my recall is 110%, my dogs can throw a deafen as good as the rest of them, but they are not agressive, mainly because when they have been attacked (usually by a small dog incidentally) the trainer has been there to intervene and work both dogs through it to the point where they will quite happily sit next to each other and not offer any sort of agression to each other. I don't believe that swinging a dog around on its lead is of help to anybody!
I also don't think people understand that dogs sniff each others bits as a way of introduction and it is wrong to stop them