Abuse in the park..

and soo it starts,,, the judgmental creaping out now the weather is getting better.
set the scene, been on a long walk with the dogs, claire and riley today so the park walk was just a habit rather than a necesity. all dogs were just happy to sniff about and it was slow affair, my two leaded and riley walking about two foot behind claire off lead dragging his heals and sniffing away at the ground.
Then all of a sudden approx 150 mtrs away, so far in fact I struggled to hear what he was shouting, a guy with his kids shouted over "get that dog on a lead it look dangerouse". mindfull of the kids I bit my tongue hard! and claire bless her leaded riley when for the past year he has walked around there with no issue at all.
We got a little way up and i was overcome and turned and headed towards the guy, I didnt get close in case his kids where genuinly scared of dogs and shouted over execuse me. he turned and looked. I said why do you have to be so judgmental on the way a dog looks? he turned and started walking over and I let rip im sorry to say, when he started coming towards us he looked like he was spoiling for a fight but when Claire also butted in with judge the owners and not the dogs he started to make his excuses. he even tried to make out he never said that riley looked dangerouse but his story slipped a couple of times.
In the end I just told him that if he wanted to protect his kids he should educate them about dogs and not isolate them from them and make them fear dogs. to my absolute suprise he agreed and said he would, i was so taken aback I held out my hand and he shook it.
It was a very charged affair and obv alot more was said than I have written here but it seems we have educated someone today, and TBH his kids didnt look like they gave a damn about dogs anyway as they came over cooing and chatting about them while he was making excuses for his comments, i suspect he was the one with the problem and not his kids. although i understand and respect his need to protect his children he should also use some common scense when a sleepy looking dog dragging its * behind its owner some distance away before shouting across the park your dog looks dangerouse, we felt humiliated especially as he is the softest lump ever and there was no need at all for it.

Does sound quite rude and would be embarrassing.

You handled it very well fella. Don't think I could have myself.

Well done for sticking up for yourself Nathan, there is absolutely no need for people to do that so why do they bother especially as your dogs were doing nothing wrong. At least you have managed to educate him and hopefully he will think twice before yelling across a park about something he doesn't understand.

Nicely held together. There is a husky new to our area, its huge and I must say I was rather taken aback as it is kept on lead, but the guy is lovely and said it waas friendly so I let Moo approach, at the same time a couple walked past and commented that it didn't look friendly, now if that was aimed at Moo or the husky I was so cross cause Moo had been plodding around the river off lead and it was up to me and the owner to decide. Sorry rambling there lol Xx

Rude of him and definitely judgmental, but you handled it well and hopefully he's been educated about what was wrong with what he said

Good for you, we'll handled

janey wrote:

Nicely held together. There is a husky new to our area, its huge and I must say I was rather taken aback as it is kept on lead, but the guy is lovely and said it waas friendly so I let Moo approach, at the same time a couple walked past and commented that it didn't look friendly, now if that was aimed at Moo or the husky I was so cross cause Moo had been plodding around the river off lead and it was up to me and the owner to decide. Sorry rambling there lol Xx

no need for appologie hun, Im biggest rambler ever lol. he prob keeps on lead for same reason i do, they run like the wind and recal is only good to a point, but can never be trusted off lead all the time. ive had a gutfull of chasing him down roads and flagging cars down or loosing him in the woods for hours. I was so hoping the staffy side would shine through on recall but alas not. the effect I have is that I get pulled along on lead (which is what the dad was breed to do) and I can see how that looks to people but tonight they were sedate after a long long walk and riley was nearly falling asleep on his feet so no need to shout that. just because he is a big dog was the reason Im sure of it.

It just shows that we all do pass judgement even if it isn't warranted. You handled it well.

If I meet the guy again I will get a pic its the first husky I have seen and is attached to lead round this guys waste, as I said I was a little wary but such a cool dog

janey wrote:

It just shows that we all do pass judgement even if it isn't warranted. You handled it well.

If I meet the guy again I will get a pic its the first husky I have seen and is attached to lead round this guys waste, as I said I was a little wary but such a cool dog

Ohhh hes prob into Canicross in that case, its a popular attachment for cross country competition running with your dog.
In my experiance Huskies have the same play ethos as GSD, staffies and rotties...loud noisey and fun lol. they might look intimidating but they share alot of the traits as a staff and match up well for playing. they may seem a little aloof at first but are a trusting breed and when they make friends its for life, moo may have a lil bf there lol I'm saving for a scooter and some cross back harnesses, wish i could keep up with them for canicross lol.

Well handled! Another educated soul!

Well handled! Such a pity that our lovely walks are tainted by uneducated, um, fellow walkers. I try really hard not to become anxious when we're out purely because of other walkers. The best is when they expect the staffy to be put on lead but their "in your face" dogs are free to roam up and inspect while the staffy's strain at the lead purely because they want to play. If that makes sense!?

You handled yourself very well there, sounds like he wasn't ready for you to respond in the way you did and caught him off guard a bit. He didn't have the education to back up his accusations because he was totally wrong anyway. Well done to him for apologizing though, that takes a lot to do.

Good for you Nathan! Nicely done!

You did well Nathan

Well done for being so restrained. I'm afraid I'm a feisty one - people need fear me much more than my dog or ANY of my snakes! lol I have a worse bark and pretty sure a worse bite