DOGS

It’s a horrifying story. I live in a place (London) where dogs are only really leashed on sidewalks and footpaths and the rest of the time they run around. It seems to me that leads to better socialization. The author seems to be implying that all dogs should be leashed... whenever they are outside and might encounter another dog? That seems like a recipe for really poorly socialized dogs who are MORE prone to unexpected behaviour? Anyway I was shocked that the author casually mentions her brother actually KICKED the problem dog the first time he met him?! Because the dog “came at” hers. I dunno them whole story is a little weird. After this attack that has left her dog covered in blood the pit bull’s owner just.. brings the pit bull back inside? Everybody goes home? No conversation about insurance? Anyway I guess I’m biased because I love letting my spaniel run around off the lead but the idea that you can live in a cabin in the Adirondacks with your dog and need to keep him on a lead at all times feels absolutely mental.

when a dog is on the leash they develop an on the leash psychology are way more likely to bark or act aggressive at other dogs, off the lead is the only way they learn to socialise. Mine likes to occasionally act tough when he's on the lead but is much more cautious and friendly off it.

Where I live the only place where dogs are allowed to go off-leash is in a dog run. Not sure if they have those in London. It's just a fenced-in area inside a park for the purpose of dog owners bringing their dogs there and letting them off the leash. Outside of that, it's fairly rare to see a dog off a leash. Some people do let their dogs off the leash in other park areas, usually to play catch or something like that. There are also a few particular dogs who I sometimes see walking without a leash. One of them is a three-legged dog, I've seen numerous times with his owner. But those dogs always seem very well behaved and not at all threatening. It doesn't personally bother me, and I imagine people know their own dogs well enough to make the call. Where I live is a very dense urban environment though, where sidewalks are often narrow, congested and near busy streets with lots of traffic, so I imagine most people would want the extra control of a leash in any case. I think for most dogs who've been raised from puppyhood in an urban environment like this, who are used to meeting lots of strange dogs on the street, and who have probably almost never been in a serious dog fight, this is not at all unusual and the chances of anything more happening than the occasional heated exchange of barks and growls at the dog run are extremely low. For dogs raised in a rural environment or for dogs who spent some of their formative years as strays, who maybe have never worn a leash, who are naturally wary of any strange dog, I think this could be a very strange and threatening environment, and chances of a mishap are much higher. But people who adopt rescues kind of know what they signed up for.

You would hope, but it's often not the case. Some rescues are so keen to get the dogs off their books that they will give them into unsuitable homes, causing trouble for everyone. But that's one good thing about COVID: there are more people looking for dogs than there are dogs, so rescues can be a bit choosier.

There's a guy who lives near me who has a Malinois (Belgian shepherd) dog, the ones that are definitely the dog of choice these days for people who want to prove they can own a potentially dangerous dog. He did all the things you do with a dog like that when you want it to be antisocial: wouldn't ever let it near anyone while out walking it as a puppy, and shouted at it if it ever tried to interact with another dog. Now the dog is a young adult, and he walks it on crowded narrow pavements between his house and the beach by cycling on the path and letting the dog run behind him off-lead. Every time it stops to sniff something or somebody, he roars at it until it follows him again. One of these days it's going to run into the road to avoid someone coming out of their driveway, or another dog barking at it, and it's going to get hit by a car. And then he'll just get another one, because he's the kind of guy who only cares what his dog says about him, not what's best for his dog.

:/

my uncle had a belgian malinois named fiona but he lived way out in the middle of absolutely nowhere. apparently they are very loyal and their instinct is to protect their owner. he let it run around in the woods in his property and we asked him one time if he was ever worried it would just run off and he laughed and shook his head, like, that's the last thing in the world that would ever happen. he couldn't get the dog to ever leave him alone. but yeah they are huge and anybody who ever came close to my uncle would get some aggressive vibes from fiona (her name) until he told her to calm down. my kids lived in fear of fiona. and this was a very normal, socialized dog. can't even imagine what one who hadn't been treated well would act.

I should say, the dog is fine. I don't think he beats it or anything. Its attitude when following him is very much "I'd love to stay and chat to you, but I have to follow this clown around to make sure he doesn't hurt himself."

We took home this buddy last week. Though he needs some training, he is a very good little guy (8 months) and gets along famously with out 8 year old American Staffordshire very well— she's happier (and more tired) than she's been since we lived in the woods.

His name is Wiz Wit'.

https://i.imgur.com/5EvxZQB.jpg

good lord that’s an adorable photo.

beautiful dog!

He's much more photogenic than our girl, who seems to hate having her photo taken.

He's a beautiful dog. I bet he's delighted to be in your house.

He is! He was in foster, and previously was in an abusive situation where some asshole was obviously very mean to him— he has some shy/fearful behaviors that don't really manifest in "bad behavior," but things that are kind of odd. We'll be getting him used to a home where he'll be loved and spoiled properly, and it already seems to be coming along.

Luckily, like our girl, he loves other dogs and loves people, which is a real relief— we attempted to adopt a pup last summer, and neither the fosters nor the shelter informed us that by "anxious" they meant "this dog lunges at random people for no reason." It...did not work out.

Our dog has done the random lunge thing a few times, which is disconcerting, but we've worked with a trainer with him and it's gotten in much better control. For one thing we started giving him some anti-anxiety supplements, we also have some prescription anti-anxiety medication in reserve, but the supplements seem to be enough. We've also learned to be more alert to the things that set him off and to anticipate when something or someone is approaching that is likely to set him off, to be able to recognize when he's about to react, and to try to train him with positive reinforcement to look at us and acknowledge the presence of the anxiety-causing stimulus without reacting. It's a slow, gradual process, but he's on the right track.

o.nate, this was at our elderly neighbor, at random people on the street, at a park ranger, trying to jump out of the car to attack the young woman handing me food in a drive-thru window. and this was when he was *on* prescription meds, and a high dose! he needed training and help that we weren't prepared to provide, because neither the fosters nor the shelter informed us that "occasional stranger danger and protectiveness" meant "wants to kill everything he sees." he got along great with us and with our other dog, but we live in a city— he would have been an excellent farm dog.

i should say, the fosters took him back and got the shelter to begin paying for training.

and he is still up for adoption...though i think it might be a case of foster fail

That's definitely a tough one to deal with in a city. It sounds like you made the right call. We live in a fairly dense city as well, so we have to be careful. He barked at an elderly guy the other night, because the sidewalk was slippery from snow and this tall elderly fellow was lumbering stiffly, doing his best Lon Chaney impression, which to be fair did look a bit creepy, and my dog started barking and pulling towards this guy. Luckily I had already started pulling him in the opposite direction when I saw this guy coming, because I suspected it would be trouble.

my brother-in-law's mother-in-law has a dog that is going to get in trouble some day. she doesn't work and he's never left alone, she walks him plenty, she takes him to training etc. but he is beyond anxious and protective of his owner and has too much aggression and im worried he will one day bite a kid or a small dog and have to be put-down. he's a doodle so im not really worried about what he will do with an adult - although it could get him trouble - but he has for instance bit me for no reason (i was leaving an apartment he was in and he assumed i was coming in and forgot he knew me (despite me walking past him towards the door?) and would've pierced skin if i weren't wearing a heavy jacket

Ooof. The only times I've been bitten were when I was rough-housing with a pup and when I surprised a pup. Both times nothing major, and both times slightly deserved on my part.

Though the latter was a dog named Queenie, who belonged to a guy named Ray who lived in his van next to the truck that we lived in. We got along great with Ray, and Queenie and I got along, but Ray had spent a decent amount of time in Santa Rita Prison, and he definitely had to *train* that dog to like us rather than want to kill us.

<3 keeping up with this thread, even the trials/tribulations, as it's as close as I'm going to be able to get having my own for the time being.

I have the opposite problem to some of you, in that I have ended up with a toy dog more or less by accident. Last week he went off his food and strongly hinted that he was terribly ill, so ill, mammy, I think I might be dying, mammy.
He screamed and ran away from a piece of carrot and he would not eat his walk treats for a couple of days. So he's just back from having tests and a full dental at the vets because I thought all the lepping about the living room and wiping his muzzle on the floor and screaming at his food might mean a broken tooth. €200. There's nothing wrong with him. He's just a prick.

lol! some dogs are just proper dickheads.

I saw a video of a dog that was limping so was taken for an expensive x-ray at the vets which showed there was absolutely nothing wrong, it turned out because the owner was on crutches at this time the dog was putting on a solidarity limp!

Just had a weird and somewhat upsetting reaction while out walking the dogs. I saw an older woman on the sidewalk walking toward me with a tiny Yorkie. I walked my dogs out into the street because no cars were coming, and then once I passed her, I went back onto the sidewalk. She then decided to stop, and my younger dog got a little aggro because he wanted to play— I had him under control, though, and there was no chance he was getting near this woman's dog.

She proceeded to start yelling at me to control my dog, then yelling about how her dog had already been bitten by a larger dog, and then how "all these people" have big dogs and don't know how to control them. She kept repeating "control your dog" to me, and so I just sort of stopped and looked at her as she was ranting at me. I then said, "I have him under control, ma'am, as you can see," and then a young man watching this whole scene said to me, "Hey man, stay calm," at which point I said, "I am calm, she came for me!" and then proceeded to walk on, saying a few select curses under my breath.

Am I right to say that this is weird behavior? I legit don't understand why she was so aggressive toward me.

I've dealt with quite a few like that, it's almost a well rehearsed routine they are just dying to use on someone. Things have been better since I stopped going into the park to avoid arseholes like that. And going a bit more off the beaten track you tend to bump into a more chilled set of dog walkers (with them off the lead) and we've had a few conversation about how the park has been taken over by lots of miserable arseholes and it's currently a no-go zone.

I mean, she was probably trying to get out something about the trauma of having her dog bit before, but instead it came out as really needlessly aggressive.

Believe it or not, if I see her again I actually want to apologize to her, because I really intended no harm. That young man, though, can fuck right off.

I live in a very densely populated area with an exceptionally large concentration of both people who are highly neurotic (including myself, probably) and dogs.
I wanna say these kinds of encounters, though unpleasant, are just an inevitability and will happen from time to time when you are walking a dog and ime there is nothing you can really do to resolve it. I def don't think you're wrong but i also don't think it really benefits anyone to fixate on this or on who is in the wrong here, my suggestion would be to just try and put it out of your mind.

xp
Yeah the young guy was obv a prick.

My own situation is still annoying a lot really because it's a really nice park with a moated island at bottom containing the remains of ancient hall. And I'd been frequenting the place for 10 years without any troublesome encounters until last year. I definitely wouldn't apologise to any of the people I've previously told to fuck off there.

I probably would’ve hit her with a ‘really?!?’ and some kind of obvious disdainful facial expression before moving right along, because you don’t owe people like that, who are spoiling for some kind of confrontation, anything at all.

Having said that, my puppy is the dickhead who will steal your dog’s ball and run circles around any human or beast until he’s bored. Thank goodness most of the other people walking their dogs around here are pretty nice.

I've had a very few encounters like this, but Deflatormouse, I think you're in the right.

I guess I just try very hard to be a good and conscientious dog owner, and when people accuse me of being otherwise when I'm clearly not doing anything wrong, it gets me riled up.

What annoys me is my dog has grown up a lot in the last year and his approach to other dogs is more often than not impeccable these days. He takes it slowly and kowtows down for a minute or two. He never just runs up to them unless he knows them. He's almost perfectly socialised at this point and people want to shout at me.

But the danger is when you are constantly rowing with these types of ill mannered angry ants you might just become as bad as them and there is only a finite amount of people you cant tell to f-off before they start forming a club to do you in!

It's funny to say "put it out of your mind," (which is obviously the right thing to do) because when something like this happens at the start of a dog walk, well, you now have an hour or so to do nothing but chew over what was said to you and what an asshole the other person was.

I also find that, for me anyway, humour can help (also my dogs are small). Shouting things like "you thieving little bastard!" at them when they rob a ball and run off with it, or "you don't own the path, you know" when they bark at other dogs can help to defuse potential narkiness. Most of the time. But my god, my list of grievances is long and the retaliatory speeches I compose in my head are extensive and detailed.

The other day we were in the dunes and the things I thought were grassy tussocks were in fact camouflaged soldiers from the local army base, all pointing guns at us. The dogs were NOT amused, and barked A LOT at the soldiers and even ran towards them. "If this was Lebanon we'd all be shot, you dopey shite!" I told them. The soldiers smiled a bit, which is probably the best you can hope for in that situation.

haha whoa.

My experience is that little yappy dogs are frequently instigators, and most of those times their owners brush it off by saying it's cute or otherwise babying them. This has always struck me as fucked because regardless of size, they are being aggressive! And I say this having once had a gigantic Great Dane who was completely docile and loving, and as a result got bullied by Chihuahuas and other little shits repeatedly.

Mostly these days I take the dog (a rescue hound mix) to the local park, and she does well. Lately her game has been to get her mouth on a ball, whether one I brought to play with or one of the many abandoned at the park, and take it to other random people, drop it, look at them, and then start howl-barking hound style at them until they throw it. I also use humor to deflate those situations (“they're not here for your entertainment”, etc) and I don't think anyone has gotten seriously annoyed, but I do wish she'd stop because it gets old.

wow!

yeah Trishyb, I still have a whole speech prepared to the guy who yelled at me across the local green a few years ago about letting my dog poo there. he started yelling at me as i was picking up the business, saying, "kids play there, curb your dog means take it to the curb, etc" and i just stared at him dumbly because what he was saying was so demonstrably hostile and stupid that i had no idea how to respond. (kids don't play there, the playground is on the other side of the green, that isn't what curbing your dog means, please shut up)

Holy shit, trishyb

I found that kind of dog aggro was almost always preemptive, often obnoxious and generally unnecessary. People's reactions are several steps ahead sometimes, like they're responding to a worst possible scenario which has not yet occurred and is not going to occur when it comes to dogs.

It def made my blood boil sometimes, I remember a lot of encounters like the one Table described and a few truly astonishing horror stories.

There has got to be a thread on here for posting the prepared orations against assholes we've carried around for years, and if not there should be.

My dog is frequently an instigator, but it's from anxiety rather than aggression. He gets very anxious if it seems like another dog is coming straight at him, it doesn't really matter how small or harmless the other dog is. When he gets anxious he gets very loud and sounds frankly a bit scary, snarling and barking to let the other dog know that he's capable of anything. He reacts the same way to other things that make him anxious, such as loud trucks passing by.

Young one dive-bombed our older pup today *while she was taking a poo*. I've never been so angry with a dog.

Has anyone used CBD stuff on their pups? I don't want to get him on dog xanax, mostly because it's very expensive and he is quite a normal puppy, but Christ, we just need him to calm the fuck down.

mine was nuts when he was a pup and I had to put him on a muzzle for six months because he would try and eat literally anything outside, including dogshit and spent condoms. And inside I had to constantly watch after he nearly died from a sock blocking his small intestine. It can be a very stressful period but I think more often than not there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Yeah, they really can be little bastards, but eventually they calm down and cop themselves on and it gets easier.

I guess we just got lucky with our first one, who had a few bad behaviors but has always been pretty mellow.

Part of the issue is that this guy came from a sort of unknown (assumedly abusive or traumatic) situation, and is developing late, so he's 10 months old but acts like a 4 or 5 month old puppy. Wouldn't be a problem except he's getting honking big!

Widget tries to eat loads of random shit off the ground but accepts me whipping the things from his mouth.

yeah I've done the same thousands of times, the problem I have is that it turned into a game with him and he's got a very competitive game-playing nature. One day I bumped into two climbers who were practicing on old train bridge. They had a wooden hand brush which I assumed was for brushing moss off the sandstone where they are climbing. Anyway the little bastard knicks it and it took 20 mins to get it back off him and he was gleefully running rings around us all!

We just got Josie, who is a Mi-Ki. They look like tiny Chewbaccas or Ewoks:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51057693562_0993b0cb39.jpg

okay i died

so little!