Personally i think its a case of such a blame culture that anthing which may not be great is to be blamed on someone!

Dog growls = vicious! get it away etc...

never mind the fact that dogs arent telepathic so need to be able to voice some things to other dogs -
everyone is so "leave me alone" nowadays that communities no longer exist there is less tolerance and it shows in every aspect of life unfortunatley..

But don't you think dog attacks etc have always happened, we are just more aware of them now??? There's always been the nasty dog in the park thing hasn't there?

Yes, I remember that nasty dog in the park, but then I always kept away from it???

There's another bod who walks a big lab, and he always seems to be right in the spot I want to get Georgie out of the car to get on the green, so I usually wait for him to go past first, because he has stopped me and warned me that the reason he keeps said dog on lead is because he's pretty nasty with other dogs! He's a rescue and the bloke is a vicar, so you can't argue with that!!!! Mind you, having said that, Georgie did escape on a return journey to our car one morning, went up to the dog, said hello and came straight back to me and jumped in the car!

I must admit, I've never really been a socialising dog walking person in the past with any of my dogs. I've always had gsd's as you know, we've always gone into the middle of nowhere to give them a good walk up on the downs with some of them, then others have always come up to the stables with me, so the only dogs they ever saw were the stableyard dogs, or at training classes. I never tended to walk in any dogwalking areas with any of my dogs, it was either the South Downs or the Beach. Georgie is the only dog I've ever had who just goes up on the village green to meet his pals, coz that's all he wants, he's not interested in mile long walks, it'd kill him, he's never had them! Sorry if I've gone a bit off-track here, but it's all relevant isn't it?!

For that very reason, I really couldn't say whether things have changed or not nowadays. All I CAN say is, as I said before, I always err on the side of caution for both our sakes, he's a very large dog with very large teeth, nuff said!

well I get really fed up of the people who whisk their dogs into their arms and say 'get them away get them away'
Normal dog behaviour dictates that they will sniff bums, stand over each other and play My Head Is Higher Than Yours, growl, put their hackles up, roll each other over and do 2 falls and a submission - and then they play!!! but no one seems aware of this anymore, why get a dog if it isn't going to be a dog, they treat them like little fragile objects, and perish the thought if they get muddy!!! My kennels say they love my dogs because they are dogs and not spoilt divas Really funny because at dog training there is a yorkie about the size of Cariad's head and the minute she stands over it it turns on her, growls, and she runs behind me, Lona is already behind me by the way

I have had that happen Ramble, but I must say that is why I LOVE Sutton Park and Pype Hayes park............that must be where they have all gone too, because dog walkers are of the 'old' style, polite, socialable and very chatty. Yesterday over Sutton Park, we came face to face with a 2 guys with NewFoundlands x 3 and 1 HUGE irish wolfhound, Bruce looked like an ant compared to them, one of the guy's said 'Thats right love, you let him socialise' then we were chatting for ages. Bruce got pushed over a few times, but we laughted. and the girls thought they were HANDSOME then we met a Bull Mastiff with his dad, they all played, we met Queenwillow with Dylan and Willow, not to mention all the others (too many to say) Bruce had a wonderful time with them all. So I know what your saying....thats a great day out, no-one with 'offish' ways.

oh you are so lucky. I would love to find more people with dogs that will get along with my dogs without an over anxious owner screaming abuse at me. that in turn makes the dogs think there is something to get worried about and then it kicks off. My dogs charge about growling, rolling each other over, killing each other several times, getting wet and muddy and generally having the time of their lives and people clutch their dogs to them and look at them as if they are aliens!!!
I was once walking along the tow path with my 2 on a lead and this girl came towards me with an English Bull Terrier, it immediately charged at mine and dragged her over and she let go of the lead and started screaming, I let my 2 go and left them to it and went over to her and said it is all noise and wind and water, leave them to it and see what happens and she was clinging to me saying you don't know what he is like...well a minute later they had finished the floor show and were just doing the following each other round sniffing bums routine and then she could get the lead and walk off...she couldn't believe it, because she had never ever let him behave like a dog, I knew my 2 were quite safe because I know how it all goes, I am not saying no dog will ever bit another dog, but 99 times out of 100 they will sort it out with a lot of noise and spit - which is probably terrifying to someone who has never bothered to find anything out - and then it settles down and they either walk away from each other or play

I have to agree with you Ramble , When my girls were only puppies people were only to pleased to let them greet there dogs , And have a little play ,But now they are bigger people seem to avoid them or say oh no my dog does not like big dogs ,Its such a shame as my girls love nothing more than meeting other doggies for a play (Well Skye and Beau ) do anyway ,,. Lady would be slightly more wary ,But they get all the time to play at zb house when we visit so they get to interact with other boxers and have loads of fun, They also play with my mum jr and sisters dogs xxdk

Totally agree with you Ramble...

and TW you pretty much sum up exactly how I feel.

The sad side to it all is that, I almost always expect owners to be 'funny' due to amount of bad encounters we have had with over anxious people, so as soon as I see most people I'm calling my dogs back to save any cross words and then head in a different direction then if it happens to be a person who probably didn't expect me to do that they look at us funny like their is something wrong with my dogs and if they didn't want to steer clear initially they do now lol - I feel like I just can't win most of the time and I feel like I'm playing a guessing game.

Then if I do give people the benefit of doubt and think they may like to 'meet' I get shouted at for being near them and I wish I hadn't thought for 1 second that they were actually going to be normal, then I go back to avoiding people.

I know accidents can happen and I know you can't trust everyone or their dogs but you can't ensure anything else in life either so I do think it is good to always be sensible about things but not so uptight to where people are getting into arguments over nothing and spoiling an otherwise nice walk.

You have to be careful crossing the road too but you don't need to scream at the sight of a car coming down the road.

Also, I have learned many lessons and I always endeavor to put mine back onlead if I see another one onlead but I get confused at people with offlead dogs who start flapping and lynching them skywards when they see us.

I love it when mine meet a tiny dog that shows it is a dog and when they all can get on but so many people don't let them get the chance to interact and treat their little dogs like a prey item.

Likewise I get confused when a dog almost as large as mine is whisked away if mine show they might be a little more dominant. Why does that bother people?...You are sometimes going to have them take either a more submissive role or a dominant one [9 x's out of 10 it's only when two of them refuse to be anything other than dominant that you get a problem] Personally I am happy for mine to be either, if Takoda [100lb / 29" male] gets dominated by a little bossy JRT I just laugh I don't take it personally, if he gets dominated by a bigger dog - I'm happy because it means he is happy to take either role I certainly don't think it's ok to allow dogs to be over bearing on another dog but as far as ordinary behavior is concerned I see many other people unwilling to let their dog interact if it is being a bit submissive as if they think of it as disrespectful.

Saying that I had a lady round our house to visit with her dogs and she allowed her dog to hump on my girl Keena for the whole 5hr plus duration of her visit and that was p*ssing me off, Keena was getting real fed up with it but is so good mannered she wouldn't show it and she kept sitting in holes they had dug previously to try and cover herself up then the dog just humped on her head - it was gross as he kept slobbering all over her and in general it just wore thin with me after all that time - I would have expected the lady to step in and tell her dog no after the first few rounds but she laughed it off - Now that is where I am different I don't let my dogs behavior 'take the p*ss'. All in all I would say I have alot of common sense when it comes to dogs - I just wish other people could give people, like me, the chance to show it.

Well, we get that a bit, but I presume it is because most people are apprehensive of Rotties. Also some dogs take exception to them regardless of bad experiences or not, some are just intimidated by their size and appearance I guess!

I could count on one hand how many times Marius has had off-lead play with peoples dogs when out sadly.