I have a friendly, playful gsd, or rather I DID have, before other people's dog started hurfing up to us and sometimes launching themselves at her, so now I find myself with a rather "unpredictable" one which I'm working on. You sound like a very responsible owner, and I'm glad you're working on your recall, because to me, a gsd needs 100% recall, it's very scarey for other dog owners to have a dog of this size running up to them, especially as their dog has probably "been attacked by one of those before" as I keep getting rammed down my throat! You're lucky you've got a gsd, because they never want to leave you (except my old rescue who couldn't care less if there's a dog he wants to say hello to, but hey, he's slow, he's old and he's harmless! lol!), so you're halfway there, or should be.

I've also been on the other side of the fence with a dog aggressive gsd (and that's why I don't want another one with my youngster!), and I only let her off somewhere I KNEW there would be no dogs, no people, otherwise she stayed onlead. I remember walking her on the edge of a massive field one day, all the dog walkers were walking along the path in the middle, and this big old english sheepdog came hurfing over to us and of course, my dog took a chunk of fur out of it's trousers before it ran off, and I will never forget the abuse I got from the woman, who said she was a baby and only wanted to play, so I told her my dog didn't want to play, she was minding her own business, ONlead with her ball in her mouth, and she should be training her dog to stay away from us.

I'm now in the same boat, I only let my dog play with another dog if I know for sure it's going to be friendly, otherwise she gets told to stay with me, and when I'm on the bike, she gets told to stop and wait, I grab her collar and wait till the dog's gone past, because quite honestly, I think it's safer this way. She has me to play with and my other dog, and only her very best friends coz I just don't want to run the risk of her getting hurt or turning aggressive telling these nasty dogs off (if they ARE nasty of course!). So to allow your dog to run off to greet another dog is asking for trouble, even if he is 100% friendly, who's to say the other dog is even if it's offlead, I certainly wouldn't take the risk from what I've seen around here, and I live in the sticks with proper dog walkers roaming around all over the place coz I'm in the middle of the South Downs with space galore to wander, so if one comes over to us and my dog ends up having a go at it, even though she's WITH me, right by my side minding her own business, then I'm afraid it's tough luck! I'd probably be apologetic to you though, but I'm darn sure I'd state my mind, but without the long face!

I'm happy that people with aggressive dogs can be offlead in big open spaces, JUST SO LONG AS THEY STAY AWAY FROM ME, which at the end of the day, this bloke was trying to do wasn't he?

HE was only doing what you were doing, i.e. letting his dogs have a free run somewhere he thought was safe, there would be no other dogs around, and that's exactly what your intention was because of your worry that yours runs up to other dogs. The only difference is, his were right by his side, and he probably would have chucked a ball for them had he seen nobody else around, what's wrong with that?

I've seen it/had it from all sides, and all I want is for people to keep their dogs to themselves unless WE, the owners, decide all is well and we can let them play, but then that's an Ideal World isn't it I'm afraid

Please work on that recall, it won't take much with a shepherd, you are their world afterall, why would they leave you!

yes, but the thing is some things can be easily prevented. things happen in life we cant control, i know that, but not allowing a dog to attack, or be attacked, is the responsibility of the owners involved, and if i had a dog who would approach another dog to attack if given the chance, then i would see the responsible thing is to muzzle the dog as a precaution. that is JMO, and like i said, being in the position may change my opinion but that is what it currently is!

But a dog on lead cant approach and attack , can it!

As I said, we cant predict every "what if"! that might happen at some point in the future, all we can do is be more aware of equipment husbandry .

Maybe not in this case as i said i didn't realise the OP knew the bloke !

I agree with what you are saying about muzzling but unfortunately other people cannot be relied upon to keep their dogs away. Its happened to me before when i had a DA foster dog but he was always kept on lead and muzzled or he would have bitten the dogs of owners who think its ok to let their dog come over even though he has a muzzle on and is onlead

Different scenario but i do however think PA dogs should be muzzled.

I have one dog who loves to play and will take the opportunity to ignore me if he sees another dog, one who is totally indifferent and ignores others and one dog who is happy to say hello and then move on and nothing more (he doesnt like to play, he doesnt like being followed with a nose stuck up his bum etc and will snap if a dog persists).

I will get Jed's collar or leash him if we see a dog which could be a problem, and heel Flynn and Jessie. Or, more commonly I will simply make them all sit out of the way until the other dog has passed. I make no apologies to anybody who's dog gets a telling off if it approaches mine when they are under control.

The last incident was when my 3 were within a few feet of me, minding their own business. 3 dogs came running over, no owner in site and made nuisances of themselves, one wouldnt leave Flynn alone. Eventually a lady appeared but made no effort to call her dogs, just continued to walk off so at that point I gave up caring if her small dogs felt my bigger dogs teeth. I could see Flynn getting agitated and TBH, the dogs were getting on my nerves so I shooed them away. Finally she came nonchalantly wandering over saying "come on, those dogs dont want to play" to her dogs at which point Flynn snapped and made one of them yelp. I made no apology, just simply walked off.

Yes, I guess I was rude but i'll gladly take all blame if my dogs run up to others (which is very rare as I never allow it if possible) and get bitten or whatever and I will sincerely apologise. I will be rude if other dogs instigate trouble and owners dont do anything to control them but I am alot more understanding if I can see owners are struggling and perhaps have a young dog. I do warn them that Flynn is grumpy and wont tolerate dogs in his face. After all, I had big problems with Jeds recall when he was younger and even now he can throw a deaf ear so I am sympathetic.

Your arguement is that your dog should be allowed to enjoy it's walk as it wishes, in the style it wishes. My dog prefers a walk without other dogs, so shouldn't my dog be able to do that?

I have a Border Collie who was attacked as a puppy, he will never approach another dog, but will snap if another dog approaches him. If I am coming head onto another dog I put him on a lead, but if there are some dogs at the other side of the field I won't, as my dog is under control. If your dog runs across the field, then I'm afraid your dog was the one not under control.


You have no idea how difficult it is to solve aggression. It's absolutely no fun to have an aggressive dog, I'd LOVE for my dog to play with others but it's just not for him and would be incredibly stressful for him. I have worked tirelessly to improve his aggression but it's not as simple as giving him a treat for being a good boy, it's incredibly complex and in some dogs, I believe, simply inbuilt.

You admit yourself your dog is not perfect but you do not keep it on a lead. My dog is not perfect either but he IS under control. I have another dog who LOVES other dogs, who has a 99% recall. I do not let her run over to other dogs, I put her on a lead when I see another dog until I have met the dog and know it likes to play.

Sympathetic, yeh, we have all been there re recall problems.

But if your friendly dog runs up to my aggressive dog and she rips bits out her, I ain't gonna be paying your vet bills, that's your fault, not mine. And no, I am not going to muzzle my controlled dog at her expense, to save your out of control dog! THAT is NOT my problem!

Having a dog aggressive dog (through no fault of his/her/your own), is NOT fun, it's hard hard work, harder than the frustration of crappy recall problems, so yeh, I can understand why the guy was impatient. If it were me i'd have probably said yeh fine, no harm done as i'm usually even tempered unless really pushed. Not everyone is! You are saying to us, look at it from the other side but I don't think you fully comprehend it from the other side to yours...

JMO

Brilliant post, exactly what I was trying to say, agree 100%.

I totally agree it's extremely hard work,you get so far then some muppet wth a loose, out of control dog wrecks all your hard work
Some dogs never recover,Meg hasn't she is 4 and a bit and we have been dealing with her issues since she was 12 months old, and totally not her fault.

It's something we have to live with, and deal with because of selfish, thoughtless idiots whose dog has never done that before