QUESTION

hi on the park with my 16 month old male staffy playing with his boomer ball minding are own business. big dog comes running over i shout to the owner to call her dog she says no hes friendly. i say sometimes he not. so call your dog plz she says no your dog should be on a lead. told her to ****OFF. and that was that. so plz tell me who is in the wrong. thanks.

Both. Why should her dog be on a lead and yours not? You should have called your dog and put it on a lead and asked her to do the same and if she refused and her dog turned nasty it would be her fault and not both parties.

MY DOG HAS NO INTREST IN OTHER DOGS WE WERE ABOUT 150 YARDS AWAY. I DID NOT ASK HER TO PUT HER DOG ON A LEAD BUT TO JUST CALL HER DOG AND SHE SAID NO

I agree....Ty is not the greatest fan of other dogs and for that reason if i see another dog he is straight back on his lead and that way in the eyes of the law he is "under control". If the other party refused to call his dog back and and something happened you would always be the responsible owner as your dog was under control. Dont look at the situation as who is right or wrong look at it that u are keeping your dog safe end of.

Y'know the same thing has happened to me. When Dempsey has his boomer ball he has no interest at all in other dogs. If another dog comes over I ask the owner to take it away. Dempsey will pin a dog down if it tries to play with his ball!

As far as I'm concerned, NOBODY should allow their dog to just run, unnanounced, up to another dog in a park, especially if the other dog has a toy/ball/stick.

So, I'm going to disagree with hayley and say you did nothing wrong.

It really p*sses me off when people let their dogs run up to other dogs like that without so much as a greeting & a "Is your dog friendly, will he play?". Common courtesy.

THANKYOU

We've had this sort of argument before, though & I know a lot of people on here don't think the way I do!

I just want to be left alone at the park. There are a couple of dogs taht Dempsey will play happily with but I still take him over & ask the owners first. I NEVER let him bowl over to another dog, even if that dog is off lead - it's rude and tbh downright dangerous!

I agree he did the right thing by asking her to call her dog, but still the point is that he should have put his own dog on a lead anyway so that as said, in the eyes of the law his dog was under control. We all know whos "fault" it would have been if there was a fight.

As it stands, I doubt that the other person would have been happy if he had put Jock on the lead - they would still have gone on about nasty staffs!!

From what Scott's said, Jock didn't take any notice anyway & it was the other dog being a pain. I know what you mean, and I agree that if it had come to fisticuffs (or rather pawsicuffs!) then once again the staff would be at fault. If a dog comes too close to Dempsey I do put him on lead, but I just get so fed up with other people assuming not only that my dog'sfriendly because it is off lead, but also that I want it to play with their dog!

It's just pure bad manners!

my collie boy is complete bugger when it comes to running up to other dogs. hes relatively well trained (has his gold good citizen) but when he gets his stubborn head on he will not listen to anyone if he wants to go to another dog. However, i endevour to spot any other dogs and put him on a lead before he runs off. I know its awful manners for him to run up to other dogs uninvited. if he bolts before i see the other person i catch him as soon as poss and apologize to the other dog owner. i cant keep him on a lead at all times its unfair. but i do understand how people feel also coz i keep chloe on the lead and ive had a couple of dogs run up to her, which is stressful and annoying.

This seems to be a common problem and the general consensus on the other forum I'm a member of is that you should never allow your dog to approach another dog unless the other owner has said it's OK to do so, on lead or not and I agree.

If you can't stop your dog from running up to every dog then you shouldn't have it off the lead, it's just bad manners so I'd say you were right. You have just as much right to exercise your dog off lead as anyone else as long as he minds his own business and you can stop him going off after other dogs IMO

I agree that it is good manners to address the other dog/s handler/s and enquire whether your dog can play or not. No matter how well trained yours is.

Joey wrote:my collie boy is complete bugger when it comes to running up to other dogs. hes relatively well trained (has his gold good citizen) but when he gets his stubborn head on he will not listen to anyone if he wants to go to another dog. However, i endevour to spot any other dogs and put him on a lead before he runs off. I know its awful manners for him to run up to other dogs uninvited. if he bolts before i see the other person i catch him as soon as poss and apologize to the other dog owner. i cant keep him on a lead at all times its unfair. but i do understand how people feel also coz i keep chloe on the lead and ive had a couple of dogs run up to her, which is stressful and annoying.

I can understand what you mean, but if his running off is a regular occurance you're putting him in danger. You never know if he's going to approach a dog aggressive dog! If he runs off & won't come back, then you should keep him on a long line until you are 100% certain that he will come when called.

I think it all depends on the temperment of your own dog as well....As i said Ty is a bit of a nightmare but saying that he wont approach another dog but if he gets approached there WILL be a problem so he goes on a lead as soon as i spot another dog wether its on or off lead all for his own saftey. The OP did say his dog wasnt completley trustworthy around other dogs so i would still stick by what i said in my first post and say he should of put it on lead not in the interest or fairness of anyone else other than his own dog but maybe its just me being over cautious....i tend to steer well clear of even the possibility of a problem lol

My 17 month old staffy is not interested in dogs and has snapped at dogs for coming over in the past, he seems to have a dislike of big dogs, especially if they are black for some reason! Socialisation classes have helped him greatly, but if a dog comes over towards him I put him on the lead.

I agree with Equi & Blaze that you should have really put your dog on the lead, even if it was for a couple of seconds until the other dog was recalled, at least that way if something did happen your dog would have been under control.
But the other owner should of had their dog under control in the first place so that you should not of had to shout over to them - so whilst I personally would have put mine on the lead I feel that the other owner was in the wrong for not watching and monitoring their dog.

Something that annoys me though is this 'Oh he's/she's alright, he/she just wants to say Hello' - This really does bother me, after all no matter how friendly your dog is it may not like the dog it's meeting - Can any of us say that we like everyone we meet? No we can't but some owners 100% believe that their dog will not snap/snarl etc. to any other dog, this I just preposterous.

I understand what you mean by it would be the staffs "fault" anyway, but still if the police were called then the dog on the lead will be the one in the clear, and if it was off lead the police would probably side with the other dog.

Both should put lead on, you never know x

I always put alead on Tilly when we see other dogs , unless I know them and the owners and that its ok (Tilly's playmates) . Lots of people let their dogs run past her and most are probably very well behaved and just walk on , this is fair enough but if the dog comes directly to her then its not on, I've never had a bad incident but as others say then just because the dogs friendly it doesntmean that mine is (though she is absolutely soft as sh**) The main motivation for me is that Tilly can get realy excitable and either play too rough or jump up on peoples clothes if i just let her go , though these days its much more only if she is encouraged so I suppose then you get what you deserve , though amazingly some people still look shocked when they have made a big fuss and end up with dirty clothes .
On the other side of the coin is the bad vibes from people when you are a good responsible Staffy Owner and put your dog on a lead, they will then assume its because your dog is unfriendly. For me I'd rather be safe than sorry and let them think what they like , I am in the right !

Dwavid wrote:Something that annoys me though is this 'Oh he's/she's alright, he/she just wants to say Hello' - This really does bother me, after all no matter how friendly your dog is it may not like the dog it's meeting - Can any of us say that we like everyone we meet? No we can't but some owners 100% believe that their dog will not snap/snarl etc. to any other dog, this I just preposterous.

That's what annoys me as well.