I have 1 of each but i rent a fireld off a farmer for off lead walking just to be on the safe side, when walking to the field i do let my non reactive off but he never goes out of sight and i always put him back on his lead if i see another dog approaching just to be safe.

I do envy these owners with dogs who actually ignore other dogs and just trot past, we meet these too, how do you train that lol?! My Zeke is so nosy and unless the dog is obviously unfriendly and a bit scary then he will go and say hello to everyone if I don't call him 1st!

Thanks for all the replies, I had a bit of a bad experience earlier, v frustrating when Tom is progressing so well , we had met 7 dogs on our walk some on lead , some off, all in sight and control of the owners and he was great , needed reassurance but no reaction.

Then out of nowhere a little JRT appeared behind us so we didnt see him coming , and he was running round Tom and Bellas legs before I knew it, Bella wasnt bothered at all , but it set Tom off. I kept him in control and calmed him and the owner eventually came round the bend , Bella is having a sniff at the dog , Tom is taking all my attention to remain calm, I shout to her , can you call you dog back please , she says

'No point he wont come as she runs to pick him up and then says , you should control your dog !!

I now know why I never use this local route and wont be again , its ok in the winter and the rain as many of the walkers seem to appear only in the Summer when it is dry !

Its a shame a minority of people spoil it for others , if I had a dog I could let off the lead and knew recall was 100% I am sure I would do so but never without consideration to others.

I always feel like its whinging when I post like this but it is so frustrating when a dog is making so much progress and you have put in lots of time and effort to be set back by inconsiderate people , but onwards and upwards , I am sure it will happen again , just need to grow those eyes in the back of my head !

My last two were non reactive and although they'd go into bushes where I couldn't see them they were always told to wait if we were coming up to a corner. I trusted them not to start anything but that's not the point, there could have been horses, people on bikes, dogs who weren't friendly or anything around that corner.

As the owner of a reactive dog now I just wish more people took that into consideration and told their dogs to wait at corners. Crashing through the undergrowth is a bit different though imo.

Tomthelurcher sorry to hear about your bad walk, it is frustrating that people let their dogs off without having any recall at all! I'm often seen shouting 'can you call your dogs back please' and when I am met with a 'i can't' look I just have to stop, sigh and roll my eyes with my hands on my hips as I watch them squirm to try to catch their dogs.

I agree with the above. I have three non reactive dogs all with excellent recall but I would never ever let them out of my sight in case they met a reactive dog and also I am paranoid about dog mess not being cleared up and how would I know if mine had pooped if I couldn't see them.

My 2 are non-reactive with any animal but I never allow them to bother another dog out on a walk.

They only play with another dog when invited to.

They dont even re-act when an idiots dog has attacked them, they just sit and wait for me to get the other dog off.

I'm protector, not them.

ours are mainly off leads, but they don't bother with other dogs....having said that and knowing this I still don't let them go too far off and like to see them.
Overtime they have learnt to stay close by.
TBH they have no interest in other dogs at all, but there have been occassions where someone dog has had a knock at them.....which I stop immediatly with LEAVE IT as mine watch each others backs

I forget to call Parker back round blind bends sometimes. Did this the other day and there was a lady with an on-lead Shar Pei but it was ok as she said he was friendly and he was!

Met a lady yesterday with a Cocker spaniel on-lead so I stopped Parker and asked if her dog was friendly. She said yes just nervous but poor dog was absolutely terrified even though Parker did all the polite stuff like sniffing the ground and approaching in an arc. I called him back when I realised how nervous her dog was. It had been attacked by 2 Staffies and was absolutely petrified of other dogs poor thing. I said it may help if she could met up with calm, friendly dogs on a regular basis.

Crashing through the undergrowth - I'm not going to get in the way of a good undergrowth crash.

On footpaths, for my own personal peace of mind I like him where I can see him - he's an antisocial lil ****** anyway though - quick nose sniff, bumsniff and he's off on his way leaving a dog confuddled about why no playtime in his wake.