Other dogs off leash.

[ctx57]

Hi, i'm new to this forum, so firstly hi to everyone here.

I have 2 GSDs, a 3year old male ( Ollie ) & 2year old female ( Poppy ) Poppy is a X and we think she's crossed with a malamute, she is a rescue that we have had since she was 9months old.
Poppy hadn't been around other dogs at all until she came to us. She gets on great with Ollie, which is fantastic, but we have problems every time we go out with other dogs running up to her and causing her stress.

When she first came to us we took her out with Ollie and allowed her off the leash, this was a bad idea as she chased every dog she came across and nip their bottom, she would also make such horrible screaming noises as she doesn't seem to bark like you would expect a GSD to do so.
So we decided that we needed to start again with her and her manners and have kept her on a leash.
She will now walk past other dogs ( who are on leashes ) without lunging or screaming at them, so i feel we have made good progress, the only problem we have is with other dogs or should i say owners of other dogs, where ever we go everyone seems to have their dogs off leash and we end up having a very stressful walk as owners will not keep their dogs from running up to us. Poppy goes mad as most dogs are running at us at full speed right up into her face, sometimes we can have 5 dogs running crazy around us, i try to keep calm, but it's very difficult, if i say to the owners could you please keep your dog away from us i usually get a response like, my dogs fine, it's yours with the problem, or if you did'nt have that type of dog, i just don't get why people think it's fine to let their dogs run up all the time, i even started carrying some pet corrector spray, to try and keep dogs away from us, this hasn't gone down well with other dog owners, but i'm not sure how to handle the situation. Please if anyone has any advice on what i should do. I wish we had dog parks here where owners knew where their dogs could go off leash rather than just freely everywhere.
Sunkissed,
UK.

[JakodaCD OA]

THis CAN be a problem and is most likely stressing poppy out more than she needs to be stressed,,,Unfortunately avoiding those areas, or spraying the dogs is about all you can do, and I wouldn't care if the owners of unleashed dogs get peeved,,to bad,,YOU are responsible for protecting your dog.

Unfortunately there are alot of difficultowners who are not going to "get" what your trying to convey,,do you not have any leash laws in your area?

GoodLuck !

[Riley's Mom]

I don't know if there are leash laws in your area or not, but I would check. If there is, I'd start writing down the addresses of every dog that is loose if you can pinpoint where it lives. Then report it to the Police for which you'll need a good description of the dog as well. I do this myself. I got sick and tired of seeing dogs offleash and me having to find detours around them, I should be able to walk down the sidewalk without having to be constantly on guard for fur-missiles.

It's your job to protect your dog and this is really difficult under the circumstances you describe. You can also say something to the owners such as "are you aware there is a leash law?" or "if you cared for your dog's safety you'd keep it on a leash when walking." Things like that. You don't have to be rude or anything, just bringing it to their attention may help. There are always going to be law-breakers and people who just flat out believe a dog should roam free, they would be wrong in their belief but they have it anyway.

I'm one that never did understand why people by common sense (ok so some people have none) do not keep their dogs confined (leash or fence). It's a safety factor, they can't run in the road and get hit by a car or injured some other way by running at large. People who don't have dogs don't want dogs poo'ing and pee'ing in their yards. People w/smaller dogs take a huge chance some big dude dog w/a bad attitude isn't going to attack the little fuzzy one.

I don't care how well behaved a dog is or how well it listens to it's owner, a dog is always an animal first and animals will revert to instinctual behavior under the right circumstances such as "just the right squirrel" scooting in front of the dog and once that happens ... you get the idea I'm sure.

In the early part of your post you mentioned allowing her offleash which you found out was the wrong thing to do. If nothing else, I would keep in mind that you don't like other dogs offleash so it should work the same for you.

GSD's have a bad rep and I doubt anyone in our lifetimes is going to change that so you're gonna get comments like that or at least people are gonna think it. Then you have to remember some people are with their dogs like they are w/their kids ... their kids can do no wrong and neither can their dogs. Little dogs are worse then big dogs when it comes to starting trouble and because they're small and cute some people don't consider a growling little dog to be a threat or that it's being aggressive. Instead you'll get things like "isn't that cute, he thinks he a big dog."

Blow it off as being an unimportant comment and don't let it get to you. you may find you need to get some thick skin because some people can be ruthless in their breed comments. The bottom line is that a dog offleash is a dog offleash, a dog charging you is a dog charging you no matter what the breed.

[ctx57]

Hi,

Thank you for the response, this is such a great site and iv'e picked up many tips.

There are no leash laws here in the UK, which i think is crazy.

Sunkissed.