[LaRen616]

So my boyfriend and I took Sinister to our towns annual car show/carnival today. He was very well behaved, like always, he met some small kids, a GSD puppy and some dog lovers. He walks through a crowd of people without an issue and doesn't even attempt to eat food on the ground. He ignores other dogs when he walks by and minds his own business. Everything was going great, we were enjoying ourselves. Then I noticed a very large black dog, possibly a Newfie mix, the dog seems interested in Sinister and I see that his owner is not only not paying attention to his dog but he is barely holding it's leash. I tell my boyfriend to stay on my left to block the dog's vision and we move over so that there is distance between us and the dog. Well we keep walking and Sin doesn't even look at the dog and the next thing you know the dog yanks the owner over to us and charges Sinister. The guy didn't say a word and had no physical control over the dog. Sin stayed right next to me and gave his "back off now bark" and we continued to walk away while the other dog proceeded to bark and pull his owner. We left shortly after that in a much angrier mood.

On another note, I can't believe how many adults walk up to a dog and start touching it or as they are walking by they stretch out to run their finger along a dogs face without asking if they can pet it. I also had 2 different babies touch my dog as they walked by and the parents let them do it. It blows my mind how people act around strange dogs. Luckily my dog loves people of all shapes and sizes.

 

[ragu]

Yeah it amazes me what some people do. And of course if your dog was to bite one of these complete strangers you'd be the one having to do some explaining. Lately I've told a few people not to pet my dog when we're walking at the park. They might think I'm rude but I can care less. And shame on the person that had no control over that dog. Glad your boy kept his cool.

 

[Nigel]

For the first part of your post, why be mad, your going to run into less than stellar dog owners occasionally, you and sinister did great. For the second part, I think if you take your dog to an event like this your gonna have people assume its fine to pet/touch your dog, again be proud, you both did fantastic.

 

[selzer]

Ya know what, you shouldn't be at a carnival atmosphere if your dog isn't bomb proof. If the dog was going to bite a strange human for petting it, it simply should not be there.

There are plenty of places to socialize a less than stellar dog, that you don't have to resort to taking them to a carnival -- that is a disaster begging to happen.

So I glad that Sin is awesome and belonged there and the Newf's owner probably shouldn't have had his dog there, but what can you do? You can only change your own behavior. But as for the people, a crowd like that, you should expect people to bump into your dog and kids to run up and pet, or even hug your dog. If he cannot take that, don't bring him.

 

[NewbieShepherdGirl]

But as for the people, a crowd like that, you should expect people to bump into your dog and kids to run up and pet, or even hug your dog. If he cannot take that, don't bring him.

I very much agree with this, and I'm thinking the OP knows this as well, but I think it's more shock that people are so careless with their own safety (and that of their children) than anything else. Yes, the only dogs that should be at places like that are dogs that aren't going to bite BUT the reality is is that there are many people who take dogs that aren't bomb proof to public areas so it's dangerous to pet a strange dog or to let a child pet a strange dog without asking. I always think this when I take Sasha places. She's a sweetheart, and would never bite anyone who was non-threating, but others don't know that and I've had people do some crazy things. I was at PetCo with Sasha one day and Sasha was in a sit while we were in line and I looked away for about 15 seconds to look at some keychains and what not that were on display. I turned my attention back to Sasha and this lady was kneeling down kissing/loving on Sasha. I was floored. Sasha was, naturally, loving it, but I just couldn't believe some stranger felt like that would be the most prudent thing to do.

As to the dog pulling their owner over, that kind of thing is annoying. Sasha, much like it sounds like Sinister does, handles those things well, but it's annoying to have to deal with it. I understand big dogs are harder to control than little dogs, but a well trained dog isn't hard to control at any size and in my opinion dogs that aren't trained shouldn't be in high traffic areas. It just creates issues for all involved that shouldn't be there.

 

[AngVi]

It totally amazes me too that people will just reach over an pet their head or face etc.
Especially if the pup doesn't see it coming. My two are 13 month old girl, and 8 month boy.
Both are very friendly an of course "adorable"
I've actually politely said no- we're training - but people STILL walk over and touch!
One of the worst places is Petco for that...for some reason people think its a playground for puppies. Ill take them in and walk around only for the distractions - not to play




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[doggiedad]

your dog did well. nice training. don't be surprised that adults
and children will touch your dog without asking. it's nice knowing
you have a dog that can be touched without notice. when my dog
was a pup i asked strangers to pet him and touch him all over, step
over him, approach him from the rear, etc.

 

[Rangers_mom]

I know what you are talking about. Several years ago we took our 80 lb, blue merle Aussie boy to my son's soccer game. He is quite striking and people are always commenting on how beautiful he is, but still beautiful does not correlate to friendly. Anyway, he was tethered to me and laying down behind my seat. I turned around to look at him and 3 toddlers were sitting next to him petting and prodding him - parents were nowhere in site. No one asked me if it was okay. Luckily for me and the toddlers that is the day that I realized that Buzz absolutely adores toddlers. He was in heaven with those kids but I still can't believe any parent did that.

Your dog did great. And I agree with the others that you are going to have to expect people to approach your dog if you take him to a crowded public place. I am not saying it is the right thing for them to do but it is going to happen.

 

[ksotto333]

When I grew up in the 60's and 70's, people did not take their dogs everywhere. I don't ever remember seeing dogs at festivals or public events, but times have changed. That said,in my opinion it is very irresponsible to take a dog into public venues if the dog can't handle anything that might come his way. Your dog did great, and obviously can deal with new environments, too bad the Newfie owner was clueless. I would like anyone to ask before they pet Tess, but I never have a fear that she would be aggressive to anyone.

 

[doggiedad]

i think having adults and children touching a dog should
be included as a part of training and socializing.

It totally amazes me too that people will just reach over an pet their head or face etc.
Especially if the pup doesn't see it coming. My two are 13 month old girl, and 8 month boy.
Both are very friendly an of course "adorable"

>>>> I've actually politely said no- we're training - but people STILL walk over and touch!<<<<<


One of the worst places is Petco for that...for some reason people think its a playground for puppies. Ill take them in and walk around only for the distractions - not to play




Sent from Petguide.com Free App

 

[LuccaVonCyclone]

Some people have NO common sense. Sound like your dog Sin behaved beautifully though!!

Just this last week I took Lucca (5mo) to a street festival. He pays next to no attention to strangers and isn't bothered by being pet at all. Anyways, I had him sitting down so a toddler and his grandpa could pet him. Lucca was sitting there calmly as the little kiddo gently patted him on the back, when a very well-dressed lady rushed up from behind me and before I could so much as utter a word or move she grabbed Luc's cheeks and shoved his lips up with her thumbs and said "SMILE!". And then she was gone. I was completely utterly dumbfounded!!! Lucca took it in stride and didn't really seem to care, didn't flinch, didn't try to mouth her, didn't get agitated in any way that I could tell, other than looking a bit confused. It totally floored me though, how anyone could be stupid enough to come up to a strange dog, a GSD no less, and just grab the dog's mouth like that? If she has stuck around for more than half a second I would have given her a pretty memorable chewing out. Ugh.

 

[Shaolin]

i think having adults and children touching a dog should
be included as a part of training and socializing.

You are correct, but the owner should be able to control the touching for training purposes. Finn had the nasty habit of not so much jumping up on people, but he'd put his paws gently on the persons' chest or abdomen and slowly stand up to lick faces. He'd do this on adults only and for kids, he'd lay or sit down and accept every form of affection they'd give him.

I needed to control the adult "touch" to properly train Finn on how to properly accept the "touch", but I couldn't do that if I had some ninja human swoop down and start poking and prodding him like an overzealous doctor and when he jumped and I'm giving him the "off" command, they are ruffling his face and holding him closer saying, "Oh! It's fine!"

So, there's nothing wrong with limiting or banning "touch", especially when it's in a training scenario.

 

[Dainerra]

I think the problem is that some of those "petters" aren't nice about it. You have the toddler who likes to poke dogs in the eyes. Or stick fingers in their ears. Or as happened to me once, run across the park and flying tackle jump onto your dogs back.

 

[selzer]

This afternoon I let my six year old nieces manage the leash and take Babs to the park. One walked her there, and the other walked her back. I was right there, and I took the leash in the park.

There was a large GSD mix that was acting like he wanted to get to Babs, and Babs would have been happy to clean his clock though he was a LOT bigger. But she was good and stayed by mid side.

As we were walkng out, a little girl was explaining to a boy how the motarized skateboard/scooter worked. We kept on going, but when I heard it behind me, I stepped off the paved area and up against the baseball fence. Well the scooter went by on the pavement about 3' from me, and in between the scooter and me, the little girl ran past.

She was so close to us I could have tripped her without moving hardly at all. The wrong dog would have clipped her. I was proud of Babs, she didn't have any problem with it. It freaked me out and I lectured my nieces as to why that was really dangerous.

 

[Walperstyle]

Our GSD loves to go meet other dogs. Sometimes barks at first, but generally wants to go and say hello. The sucky thing that we are trying to correct is how when someone stops and looks at him, he gets offended and barks at them. He generally only likes our family, and other people are seen as something to be cautious of.

The E collar helps. Whenever we see him get in a set of mind where nothing else matters, we give him a beep... and if he barks or goes for another person, we shock. So far he hasn't had to be shocked, but the beep reminds him he needs to listen to us.

 

[Gwenhwyfair]

Exactly.

Though most people do ask, even then they can get pushy about it.

When I was training my dogs to sit politely while being petted I told the people if you want to pet you must have some time and pet them on my cue.

Actually ran into some teenagers in the park who were nice kids and they didn't get resentful at following my one simple request, stop petting if Smitty lifts his behind off the ground. They could only pet him when he held his sit. They were great!

Worked out really good that day.

On a few rare occasions I've had people try to sabotage my training too. There are some people who have this weird innate desire to prove that they are dog magnets and all dogs love them. If they encounter a dog that doesn't melt at their very touch/voice it challenges their sense of self worth I think. Some people get really upset if a dog doesn't get all lovey and mushy with them at a drop of a hat.

Ilda is aloof to strangers and thus has been labeled as 'mean' (even though she doesn't growl or bark at them) because she won't break a sit or down to get petted by a stranger walking by who calls to her or tries to entice her to come to them.

When I hang around the more 'serious' dog training people you'll notice they don't usually get all mushy over other people's dogs. We talk training, we compliment good training in a dog but the handlers pretty much leave each other's dogs alone.

You are correct, but the owner should be able to control the touching for training purposes. Finn had the nasty habit of not so much jumping up on people, but he'd put his paws gently on the persons' chest or abdomen and slowly stand up to lick faces. He'd do this on adults only and for kids, he'd lay or sit down and accept every form of affection they'd give him.

I needed to control the adult "touch" to properly train Finn on how to properly accept the "touch", but I couldn't do that if I had some ninja human swoop down and start poking and prodding him like an overzealous doctor and when he jumped and I'm giving him the "off" command, they are ruffling his face and holding him closer saying, "Oh! It's fine!"

So, there's nothing wrong with limiting or banning "touch", especially when it's in a training scenario.

 

[Lilie]

Very good job, Sinister!!!! I would have expected no less!!!

 

[LaRen616]

I understand that people will touch my dog without asking and I would never bring a reactive dog to such a busy place with children all over but it still amazes me that so many people don't think before they act. I would never let my baby get close to a strange dog let alone allow my baby to reach out and touch it.

 

[nikitadoggies]

While it is always flattering that people want to pet my babies, I hope that they always ask first. I'm too possessive / protective of my fur babies and prefer to allow people to pet them when I say it's okay.

It's kind of like people thinking that they can just touch your belly when you're pregnant --- whether you want them to or not. It's just bad manners to not ask first.

 

[GSDolch]

Some people don't have control over their dogs, and they don't think. It's good that your boy behaves himself when other dogs act that way.

I am two fold with the touching.

If you have a child or adult come running from across the way to your dog to pet them, I can understand the frustration and the need to maybe say something to them. If you are trying to stay away from people, at a distance, then it should stand to reason that you may not be ok with people touching your dog.

If you are, however, walking your dog in a crowd where people just have to extend their hand out some without any actual effort, or if a baby in a stroller can throw their hand to the side and its close enough to touch the dog, then I don't think there is a right to complain. Not if you are going to have your dog that close to people. It stands to reason that the dog and owner is OK with this happening.