Well having a chihuahua and chi x I never worry that my two will intimidate other dogs!! Its amazing how many owners see my two happily playing off lead and call their perfectly friendly dogs away, obviously thinking I will freak out if their beastly animal comes near my darling pooches!!!
Mine will happily play quite rough with each other but generally only want to sniff or play chase with other dogs. They are taught to stop and wait before approaching another dog for permission to meet and greet. Also if Im concerned about a big dog or group of dogs approaching I crouch down and call them under me. Then they can greet the other dog from safety, at their level, and if theres trouble I can easily grab the other dog and 'try' to pull it away!! Im lucky where I am in that most dogs just sniff and go, they are more interested in their own doggy group or their owners than my two midgets!

Sorry I haven't got time to read the whole thread but I will later on. When you say about those puppy parties being totally out of control, I think you are right there. I met a guy on Saturday who has two little jr pups and he was off to his puppy party which he goes to every Saturday and he said it's total bedlam there, they are allowed to play and fight and all go hyper! Thank goodness I never went to that one coz the one I went to at the vet's was more than under control with only 6 dogs attending at any one time, which is also good I think?

Re the walking and meeting up with other dog owners, oh in an ideal world, it would be nice to know that you can just walk past other people in the full knowledge that your dogs will not get mauled or attacked, and hopefully will just say hello and move on with you! Ideal scenario, and thankfully, I've had that most of my life with all my dogs. However, it seems to me nowadays, that we have to protect our own dogs from being aggravated by loonatic dogs totally out of control heading towards us, owner nowhere in sight, or if he is, he just doesn't care! I've witnessed myself one of my neighbour's poor dog's tail being bitten off in full view by a jogger with a gsd!!!!! I've seen a young girl with a rescue lab who goes barging up to all other dogs and if they're aggressive then he's definitely up for it, and I've seen him barge a tiny young 14 week old border collie, fling her in the air, she yelped and ran off towards the road frightened out of her wits and the owner of this lab? Well, she just carried on walking Personally, I think ALL dog owners should be MADE to go to ettiquette/training schools before they are even allowed to own a dog and that way, won't it be nice, that we can walk our dogs in peace, knowing that every dog we meet up with, will have good manners, be pleasant to our own dogs, play if they and the owners want or just move on and enjoy our walk - perfect! No, that won't happen will it, coz we have numpties who know nothing about dogs, letting them off their leads, letting them cause havoc in busy dog walking areas, letting them attack our dogs and totally ignoring it, and quite honestly I'm getting fed up to the teeth of some of these people around here, and yes, I do fear for one of my dog's lives coz she couldn't defend herself and the other one would go in for the kill and I'd probably get done for it! It's getting right up my nose!! I won't dare to venture out late mornings of a week-end now because of this type of person, who only give their dogs a walk at week-ends anyway, and why should I have to? I really wish something could be done about it quite honestly. I have no objections whatsoever, walking past anybody who has their dogs on or offlead as long as they are in control and not threatening my dogs aggressively, friendly is fine, I have no problem with friendly, in fact I encourage it, but a lot of them out there now aren't are they?!

There is a man I see most mornings with a VERY aggressive lab, and he always has it on the lead, and this morning, I just happened to pull up and park where he was walking. I asked him if he was walking across the gallops with his dog, knowing that both of mine would be offlead and the youngster MIGHT attempt to go over and say hello if we walked behind him or in front coz he was just setting off himself. He said he was, but, he also then said that he would walk up the other track out of my way, so that I could have a nice walk without any problems!! Now wasn't that nice! I told him there was no way I was going to stop him walking where he wanted, but he said unfortunately, his dog would probably have the puppy for breakfast if she went anywhere near him, and I didn't want her on a lead on this particular walk, it's nice and safe and she could be free to enjoy herself. Not everybody would have been that accommodating would they, and not everybody would have told me that fact about their own dog either! (He WAS a vicar though )

Totally agree with your post Helena,

We meet numpties every single day,and weekends around here are a nightmare,one numpty is bad enough but to meet several on one walk does my head in!

Sometimes I just think one of these days I might just let Meg get on with it,Of course I wouldn't but it does get you in that frame of mind.

O/H has stopped fishing our local lake due to the offlead out of control dogs,I went down there last year with both of mine,both onlead as there were guys fishing,kids running wild etc and a young Lab x dog came from nowhere,it was totally hyper,it's owner was running after it shouting,the dog charged through all O/H's fishing stuff,knocked everything over,jumped all over my dogs,before finally chasing the ducks,geese and swans and jumping in the lake

I was fuming,the woman apologised and O/H gave her a piece of his mind,telling her that the dog should be onlead(there are signs up stating all dogs must be kept on lead) and she obviously had little if any control and recommended traning classes,this didn't go down very well
Apparently it was our fault the dog came charging over because we had our dogs with us and they were onlead

I get totally fed up with it all and say to O/H,wonder how many idiots I will meet today, and the excuses they come out with are laughable!

We have some idiots opposite too,they don't use leads,they just open the gate and let the dogs in the car,problem is if they see another dog they run off in that dog's direction,the younger bitch is also aggressive,I can see a whole lot of trouble coming there way and again dragging my breeds reputation through the mud!

The thing is, I think there are probably more dogs around now and they are walked in fewer places and with more constraints...there are far fewer 'latch key' dogs.

I think yes, there are numpties, but there always have been, perhaps we are just more aware of them? Certainly weekends and school holidays are more difficult as the 'part time parkers' are out in force....but still...

I don't know, I think there are more dogs in less space and so the problems are bound to stick out like a sore thumb.

I wonder...do people see more well behaved dogs and owners..or more numpties? Is it just that the 'stories' stick in your mind more?
I know I am guilty of posting about negative encounters, but don't tend to post about the positive ones?

Great post Ailsa. I think you are right. There are more people in less space, as well as more dogs, and so confrontations are happening more regularly.

Thank goodness I live in the sticks!

Obviously it is a massive generalisation, but I have found that dogs up here (very rural) are more sociable and perhaps more to the point, the owners are far more laid back about their dog interacting and the odd scuffle happening. I think country people tend to understand animals more than city dwellers (obviously another huge generalisation!) but most country folk have grown up and been surrounded by all manner of animals and therefore understand them (and their odd disagreements) far better than some town or city people who may have only owned one dog.

Well we`ve just got back from the beach. A sweet little guide dog in training puppy (he had his little jacket on) approached Shamus who cautiously sniffed him then wandered off, so he followed Daisy and was fascinated by her swimming - going in for a little paddle after her. The owner stood and chatted. In the end the pup pushed his luck and tried to steal Daisy`s ball and she told him off, but no harm was done. Then he tried to hump her - again, got told off. So that pup learned an awful lot in that short space of time and my dogs had a chance to be sociable, which was nice.
A bit boring, I know, but an antidote to the negative ones?

I think it's great when dogs learn from each other and the best way for them to become more balanced IMO.

I most certainly agree

I was going to say something like this. My puppy is very playful and doesn't yet realised that not everyone (dogs included!) wants to play with him all of the time. I don't have a problem with him being told off by other dogs. Although he is small, I wouldn't not allow another dog to approach him, however big they be, as long as they 'play nice'.

It is hard not to pick up your dog is they're being charged at one dog or more, especially if your dog is small. Recently, Oscar had a bad experience. A big dog ran up to him and started snapping aggressively. The dog had clocked him from a way off. It had run so far that I don't even know if he would have heard his owners, not that they looked at all bothered by the situation, at first! My gut feeling was too pick Oscar up but I didn't need to, in the end. However, if this dog had continued, I would have picked him up. Stupidly, I put my arm in between Oscar and the dog. The dog did look as if it might go for me but luckily, the owners had come over and dealt with the situation. I am not afraid of dogs approaching mine or even running towards mine but if they're showing signs of agression, I'll do anything to protect Oscar.

I don't let my dog off-lead even though he's now 9 months old. His recall is not fantastic but if I'm honest, I'm more afraid that he'll get attacked. Don't get me wrong, in the park we go to, there are some lovely dogs and Oscar has lots of friends. However, the bad owners ruin it and I've seen lots of nasty incidents and it makes me nervous. I'm a new dog owner, which means I am even less confident.