RANT about stupid owners who let their dogs run off-leash...

/rant back on

Man, I hear ya loud and clear.  There is nothing more infuriating to me.  I have had a few of these kinds of situations on my semi-rural neighborhood road.  I can't even walk the entire block because of one idiotic family who lets their dogs roam the street.  They are both large breed dogs and when we (me Buddy & Heidi) get 1000 feet away from their neck of the woods, they come running (charging) toward us.  Nary an owner in sighT! 

At one point (after I had enough of the ridiculousness, I paid a visit to the neighbors house to have a word.  Now, I can be quite diplomatic and wanted to resolve the situation and not make it worse, so I was friendly enough...but told her that she needed to contain her dogs because I can't even walk my dogs on my own road (thats the short story).  She was quite apologetic and said she would do a better job of keeping them contained...she had all kinds of excuses about how they dig out, yadda yadda yadda.  I offered possile situations for diggers citing I had that problem myself.  Well, she kept them contained for a whole 2 days.  Then, back to normal.  ARGH!

Recently, this same idiot, was riding her bicycle with her young sons down the road and her dogs were in tow (off leash) and causing havoc with all of the neighborhood dogs who are behind their fences.  She didn't call the dogs to her, just continued riding her bike like she didn't even hear the comotion!

I feel your pain.  IDIOTS!!!!!!! 

I completely agree.

I had Kia in with me at work last week and for my lunch we went out for a nice walk.  On the way back there was a dog running around in a back yard and rushed up to us.  At first I thought it just wanted to play as it's tail was up and wagging but it then started to growl and snarl.  I put myself in front of my pup as she cowered to the ground (she really is a baby) and luckily the owner did come out and take her dog.  But honestly, if your dog reacts that way to people just walking on the road why would you have it off leash?  Granted we were in the back farm land sticks but still, if your dog is that aggressive towards strangers and you want it to roam in the yard get a fence built.
 

I'm so sorry this happened to you and Cole!  Whenever I have (or anticipate) a reaction to an off leash dog, we turn another way and walk off.  Oliver isn't aggressive toward other dogs (in fact, his reaction is "SWEEEEEET! A new playmate!!!), but I want him to be neutral to other dogs.

In one instance, and owner let the dog off-leash and was taking his sweet molasses time to get him.  I could just see the cogs turning in his head, "My dog isn't aggressive, and she'll stay there with my dog until I get there."  Wrongo!  I got Oliver's attention and we crossed a busy road during a break in traffic.  The off-leash dog followed us.  Owner begins to panic and starts yelling - stop!  stop!  I keep going.  Owner breaks into a run to catch up with his dog.  He asks me, "why didn't you stop?"  I told him, "I thought you were talking to your dog.  Since he was off-leash, I assumed he would respond to your verbal commands."  He grabbed his dog and headed back without a word and thankfully didn't seem to blame his dog.

Thank you for the responses.  I get SO irritated with this kind of stupidity!

Normally I watch like a hawk for other dogs but we have never had a problem in this neighborhood or along the busy road.  Plus it was dusk, I was wearing my iPod, and I didn't even see this dog until he t-boned Cole. Even Cole didn't see him! 

People automatically assume that there is no problem if THEIR dog is dog friendly.  Uh, hey genius - MY DOG MAY NOT BE DOG FRIENDLY!! 

I hope this jerk learned a lesson, though him calling me the b-word lends me to believe that he somehow blamed me and my dog for the incident. 

So sorry this happened.  Hopefully it won't be too big of a setback.  I think I'd get some Direct Stop and use it.  I'm sure JanetRose will be along with some links on where to get it.  Be a good idea for everyone to have some.

I"m sorry that happened, the guy's reaction was def uncalled for - he should have been apologizing!

about dog running to the fence & barking - mine do this all freaking day long! it could be anyone going down the street with or without dogs. My dogs 'are' friendly ( but that doesn't mean the person or dog walking down the street is dog friendly) - anywho i've tried to get them to stop - it literally takes me standing at the front fence 'owning' it & not letting them come up & bark ( but obviously i can't stand out there all day long).  I've decided i have to make a run in the back yard - theres no other way to make them stop - it's just what they do in 'their' yard. 

Yeah, I don't stop my dogs from barking at the fenceline.  They are protecting their property.  They get used to the daily walkers and don't make too much of a fuss.  Its the loose dogs with or without their owners that infuriates me.  I've been known to chase off an unaccompanied loose dog that antagonizes my dogs.  Grrr.

 my dogs bark at the same people OVER & OVER, especially the neighbors across the street.  I don't get mad when the neighbors dog is loose & coming onto my property - i'll go out there & chase it off.  but the dogs go nuts whenever the neighbors are leaving or coming home - but then again they're always peeling out & over revving their motorcycles just to antagonize the crap outta my dogs.

Ugh, Gina, I am thoroughly annoyed on your behalf!  What an idiot.  I agree, it's such a shame when dealing with reactive dogs.  You HAVE to take them out and work on it, but then you get incidents like that.  One step forward, two steps back...

Where I walk my dogs, there's this family that got a tiny little Dachshund.  They always have him in their front yard.  I don't know what his problem is, but anytime a person or dog walks by, he charges and actually attacks the ankles.  It doesn't really hurt b/c this dog is like the size of a guinea pig, but still!  Once I walked by on their side of the street and the dog was circling and snapping both Kenya and Coke.  Luckily, Kenya just rolls her eyes and ignores him and Coke would like to play.  Just then, my neighbor came jogging by on the other side of the street.  The dog blindly ran across the street and attacked her ankles!  She was very surprised and sort of kicked him off.  The whole time, the owner is just screaming his name and the dog is not paying one wit of attention.  The annoying thing is, one of these times, I expect Kenya will show some teeth or give him a snap.  Then *I* will be blamed for having an "aggressive" German Shepherd even though I can walk two large dogs alone and keep them under control even when being bitten my another dog.
 

I've tried Direct Stop before and it wasn't even remotely effective.  The big dog just looked at me and *blink, blink* and kept coming.  The only dogs it worked on were little yappy weener dogs that charged me when I was taking my female Lab out for a rehabilitation walk when she was a week post TPLO surgery - and I could NOT afford any kind of stress on that knee joint.  And the weenies were just startled by the noise of it, the spray never got to them.

Liesje - LOL, as I commented above we also had a house with weener dogs in my old rednecky neighborhood.  They ran out to attack dog AND human ankles every time I walked by.  It was ridiculous.  They would run right out into the road on a blind turn, I'm surprised none of them were ever flattened.  Stupid, stupid, stupid (owners, not the dogs). 

I beyond understand I agree with everything you said 100000000xs!!!  Arrrrrgh I am so frustrated when I see a loose dog and moronic owner . Some dog Shows we run into the idiot with the "He's a Perfect dog" off lead that is nose to nose challenging my RRS You know who is going to get benched first not the fluffy wuppy cutie idiot dog that wants to challenge a nearly 90 pound hunting dog.   My old lady is allowed off lead  AT my side non stop, never more than 4-10 feet away, she is old and ill and sometimes I walk too fast to allow her to potty at her ease so I will take her to the side where she can relax...then the Jack **s who has an atheletic untrained , poorly socialized younger dog will pick the same spot to let them off lead to  "play"  If I wanted the dang dog to jump on me or my old girl I would hold up a sign !!!  

And I'm sorry but as rough as I have felt of late I would have used some bad language , no excuse just honest enough to know rage would have gottent the worst of me.

Bonita of Bwana

Oh yeah, I feel your pain. I HATE off leash dogs.  However, I have enough "presence" that I can make most dogs leave just by using my voice to call them off. The owners of said dogs always amaze me--they give ME dirty looks!

In the defence of dog-friendly dogs, my dog will approach any dog, but if that dog is not friendly and perhaps wants to attack her, she veers away before coming in range and walks away. I don't call her off if she's approaching a dog that doesn't like her because she'll satisfy her own curiosity without putting herself at risk. Sometimes she knows better than the owner just how friendly or unfriendly a dog is, and if she pursues contact with a dog, it's usually because the dog wants to talk to her, although sometimes the owner doesn't realise this and just hauls their dog away, which makes their dog even more over the top.

All in controlled situations, though. I call my dog away if the OWNER seems nervous regardless of what me or my dog think of the situation. It's annoying and irresponsible when people let their dogs annoy other dogs and owners.
 

agilebasenji

I think I'd get some Direct Stop and use it. 

SprayShield Animal Deterrent Spray (formerly Direct Stop)

• http://www.dog.com/item/sprayshield-animal-deterrent-spray/
• http://www.petguys.com/-759023037580.html

PetSmart.com carries it, too, but I am having trouble accessing that site.

It is true that not all animals will be deterred by SprayShield.  However, some dogs are just enraged by mace or pepper spray rather than being driven off.