Ruined walk - a view from the other side

I read a lot on dogsey about members whose walks have been ruined by out of control dogs bounding up to their dog aggressive/fear aggressive dogs...I thought I'd post a view from the other side having had a bad experience tonight and wanting to vent. Not expecting much sympathy as I know the views held here but please be fairly gentle

I have the opposite problem to a lot of the guys on here - my dog is a very friendly bouncy young 11 month-old who loves playing with other dogs and will always take the opportunity to say hi if allowed. I don't think she has an aggressive bone in her although being a big dog she does sometimes play boisterously which I would think is normal.

Anyhow recall isn't fantastic - it works 90% of the time if no other dogs near but if she sees another dog it's about 50% whether she will go over to say hello or not unless I can spot the dog before or as she does (she sticks fairly close to me so I have a good chance of getting her in that case). She is improving but unfortunately other dogs are still more exciting than me, treat or stick. So as a general rule I keep her on lead on the canal and other footpaths where we are likely to meet other dogs, just in case.

Well there is a useful field which is enclosed and left fairly wild which is quite popular with dog owners as it only has the two entrances onto the canal path. It's not busy with dogs but you quite often find someone there, usually with dogs off-lead and they can have a play. I use it to let Akira off so she can have a charge around as she likes. Never had any trouble with anyone in there, all pretty friendly and like a chat and let their dogs play.

Today was another matter. Now there is a guy who walks a couple of BCs. I've noticed him on the canal path before, mostly because for a dog-walker he is unfriendly as! I guessed his dogs might not be friendly as he kind of holds them to the side of the path as you go by (or sometimes I have moved akira onto side to let him go by) but he never smiles or says hi, or thanks, or you're welcome. Which is unusual as most people are friendly.

So I'm in the field, doing a little training with akira but also playing just running around so she chases me (also use this as a kind of emergency recall as she likes to be nearish me so will generally follow if I run). It's dusk and field overgrown so can't see too well. Then notice akira standing tall like she's seen something. I call her back but she's trotting over already. Think 'oh no'. Either I run in opposite direction which might get her to follow me, but this isn't fail safe and other person might wonder why I'm running away and not dealing with my dog. So I run over and catch up a minute or so later.

As I am running up he shouts 'get your dog away from mine'. Well ok, he might have guessed that's what I'm running to him for but ok, fair enough. The dogs are kind of sniffing around (his dogs are also off-lead). I grab Akira, say 'I'm really sorry if she scared your dogs, she is friendly'. He says 'well mine isn't that's why I walked in opposite direction', turns round and stalks off. I say again 'I'm really sorry' but he just has a face like I have crawled out a sewer and doesn't reply.

Now I realise that I am not the best dog trainer and don't have the best controlled dog in the world and that in a perfect world the situation wouldn't have arisen. However, it's not possible to go from 0 to hero and the point is that me and OH ARE working on training and getting results. Mistakes do still happen though. I'm not one of these arrogant people who can't say sorry - it was my mistake not his. However I do honestly believe the following:

- If you have a dog aggressive dog, why would you go to a field where there are regularly dogs running off-lead (bearing in mind that this is in a rural area where we aren't limited by space etc. so it's not the case that this is the only dog park in town or something)

- Yes it is absolutely my responsibility to learn to control my dog which includes 100% recall from any distraction. I also believe it is equally a dog aggressive dog's owners' responsibility to train their dog to respond appropriately to other dogs. In both instances there will be errors and mistakes before the 100% comes but I think responsibility is on all dog owners to aim to have a correctly behaving dog.

- What is gained from being rude? I apologised to him and it would have been nice to at least have him accept that or say 'no harm done' or something instead of stalking off. After all, no one got bitten, not even a growl or bark. I feel thoroughly miserable tonight and now am paranoid that I will meet this guy again.

- Also, realise that I know nothing about this guy or what training he may/may not have done with his dogs but surely it's not going to help dog aggression if he never lets them cope with meeting other dogs. OK not my dog running up to say hi, but his whole body stance when I have met him with my dog leaded is blocked, saying 'go away'. I can't see this helping the dog's aggression.

Sorry for long post, just wanted to explain how it is and how it felt tonight

To be honest, you sound like a very sensible owner and I wouldnt say you've done anything wrong. If you'd seen him first, you would have put your dog on a lead. He sounds like a miserable old sod to be honest. Im sure he has his reasons for wanting to keep his dogs away from others and thats his right but there is no need to be quite so rude about it. I would just avoid him as much as possible.

I can sympathise with both sides.
Basically,if I had a dog that didn't like other dogs I can see how it is annoying if people let their dogs run over.

BUT

(and this is a big but..)

My pup is just 6 months old, and if there is another dog in sight he TOTALLY blanks me now (this all started a couple of weeks ago), and will run over to that dog straight away, so I totally get where you are coming from!!

Luckily everyone has been nice, but I spend my life apologising now!

Hopefully this will get better, at the mo, even your 50% is better than his maybe 20% recall if he sees another dog lol

I definately feel your pain there as my 17-month-old Slovak is much the same (recall around distractions very much work in progress!). Just ignore the grumpy old git you ran into and certainly don't beat yourself up about it; he isn't worth a moment of your time. Take comfort in the fact that as you said yourself, the majority of dog walkers are a friendly bunch.

The bloke didn't have his on lead either so he has to take responsibility as well, he could have called his dogs away, you haven't done anything wrong ! if his were on lead then i could understand it but they weren't. He is just an ignoramus, just treat him with the contempt he treats you with and ignore him as well !

Ok, as the owner of a dog aggressive / fear aggressive dog, yes, I would have asked you to call your dog back if he or she came bounding over to me and my dog after we had changed direction but he or she still followed us.

It has happened to me on several occasions before. My usual comment would be 'Could you call your dog back please' in a friendly way. If they do, I say 'thank you'. If they can't / won't and say 'they only want to play' I will reply 'well, mine doesn't' que panicking owners trying to retrieve their dog!

I have never been rude though. Yes, in an ideal world any dog off lead should be able to be recalled. But, if we lived in a perfect world, Max would have been properly socialised by his previous owners as a puppy and I wouldn't need to ask people to call their dogs back. It is give and take on both sides I think.

I also have the same situation as you my 11 month lab sounds very similar, ignore the miserable sod. It sounds like your doing a good job.

Hello, thanks for your replies - I wasn't sure whether I'd get any sympathy (this being Dogsey) so thank you

Have also had a chat to OH who works away from home for 3 nights a week who has a much more bullish 'F* em' approach than me and am feeling more upbeat.

@Greyhound: Can't actually fault the guy for having his dogs off-lead as they were clearly well-behaved enough to stick by him so not sure it made much of a difference - though I guess if one had gone for mine he wouldn't have had so much control. If his had been running around too I wouldn't have been so apologetic to him for sure!

@Kammi: I'm guessing this is partly an age thing as mostly if dogs have run over to us it turns out they are also young so hopefully it will improve for both of us! Although there is an older massive mastiff-x who lumbers over to say hi about 5 min before owner reaches the field (I'll admit he scares me slightly simply cause he is enormous but he is friendly enough). So I'm hoping that continued training and a little more maturity will mean Akira's recall improves although it may be partly a breed thing - the NI (husky x) side isn't known for great recall. On the other hand she doesn't like going too far from us (sticks to a 15-20 m radiance when she is running around) so I don't have the worry of her just taking off and not coming back. I do like going out with friends and their dogs as she is more likely to stick with the other dog and not go after strange dogs.

his dogs were off the lead.

thats the accepted signal that the dogs can mix

so its his fault.

hes just miserable.

I do have issues with dog owners who allow their off lead dogs to hurtle over and bounce all over mine, who is always on lead. However if once I have explained that my dog is perhaps not 100% trustworthy and please could they take their dog away, then the majority of decent people do just that.........and you are clearly one of those.

All situations can be resolved with good nature and common sense, but sadly the odd individual turns up who has neither of these qualities and is downright rude to boot. It helps nobody, and leaves the normal nice people such as yourself feeling rotten.