Out for walk....other loose dogs. What do you do?

[Mojave's Mom]

I got to thinking about this question after reading a thread in the Training Forum.

I can't count the number of times I've ran into un-leashed dogs at local parks or even while walking through my neighborhood. I know each of my dog's personalities; know what they will and will not tolerate from other dogs. One of my dogs won't put up with another dog sniffing her up no matter what. She will turn on them, everytime unless under a command from me. My other female is pretty happy with just about any dog out there but I'm not so naive as to believe that there just might be some dog out there someday she will NOT like and decide to get a hair up her butt about. I also take into account the fact that I don't know the dogs that are approaching me....I don't care if their owners scream up at me that their dogs are "friendly"...how do they know mine are not? (that COULD be the case...as with one of my males)

So when I run into these off-leash dogs I automatically stop and place whichever dogs I am walking in a sit/stay and then call out to the owners of the loose dogs to please leash their dog(s) up so that I may continue by. I will correct my dogs for disobeying my "sit/stay" and/or "leave it" commands if they break them...everytime. I've tried in the past to just continue walking, ignoring the loose dogs. I've found that the majority of the time the loose dogs will just keep following us and my dogs have a hard time ignoring the "nose up the butt" deal. So stopping and placing them in a sit/stay has worked out better, every time. No dog fights (thank God).

What is the right thing to do? Some say that correcting your dog in this sort of situation is incorrect and unfair to your dog. Why? Because we're asking them to fight off natural urges? In my opinion, I ask them to fight off natural urges in their every day lives ....such as... my boys are not allowed to go around marking my flower garden; my intact male is not to mount my intact female- ever; my boys will not even TRY to look at each other if I decide they have to sit/laydown/ride in the car together (they would kill each other otherwise)...etc etc.

Personally, I see it as correcting my dogs (in the presence of other unleashed dogs) only because they are disobeying whatever command I have given them at the time...not because they naturally want to tell the other dog where to go. This has not affected the way any of them work....Our male Belgian is so charged up all of the time I think nothing short of a bomb exploding next to him would kill his drive! So I guess I don't buy into that theory either....

What do you do in this situation? Just curious. :)

[lblax]

i think your right on the money!! i usually just keep walking with mine its kinda comical seeing us slowly walking while some dog is yapping at our heels

[Judi W]

Actually darlin, that bomb would have to explode UNDER him.......

[flyballmom]

Ohh boy...this is just such a touchy subject with me. Several times lately, while walking/running with my 2 leashed in a CITY (read leash law) park, off leash dogs have come flying up to us, most friendly, a couple very questionable. My Rott and Pit are FINE with other dogs while THEY'RE off leash, but when dogs get in their faces when they're on leash, they get pretty uppity. As long as the other dog stays friendly, they're fine. Last week I almost had a 3 way dog-fight on my hands...I let the Rott off leash, who immediately calmed down, I picked the Pit up (he's a squirt), all the while with a snapping German Shepherd trying to bite his butt. I was SCREAMING at these people to come get their dog. They gave me the "oh he's friendly" line. Like hell...I now carry pepper spray in my pocket. If I don't get to use it on the dog, I'll be happy to use it on the owner.............

[Bruce Lanthier]

I live at the end of a dead end. Then it's woods. I can cut through the woods and get to another neighborhood about a 150 yards away. It is an old neighborhood and goes in a big circle for a mile. Me and my two go over there for power walks although we will stop on occasion to say hello to the dog's friends (Humans). We were on a power walk this night. It was very cool Rottweiler weather and my 2 were cruising and feelin' good. Betti out front and Buster at about 10 oclock, rollin'. I could see a couple up ahead, talking by an SUV. As we got nearer, 20 yards out, I could hear the Cocker Spaniel barking and moving from his place up by the house. We get closer and I can tell we'll be passed his exit from the driveway before he gets there. I remind mine to "lets go" and we keep rollin'. We pass the CS but he has a head of steam now. He says arf arf arf and starts approaching Betti's butt. I give Miss Manners about 3 feet of the 6 foot leash and watch. His nose gets about 1 inch away from her butt and she leaps straight up into the air! Does a 90 degree turn and comes down with her mouth on his neck . While I'm watching this that Mr. Buster is coming in on an arc and aiming right at this CS's leg. He was going to put a whammy on that hammy (I crack myself up). I gave a very firm OFF! and they both stopped what they were doing and we marched on. Mister CS went whine whine whine all the way home. The man says to me "Oh, I didn't know you had dogs (dark out, I guess he didn't see them) with you". Ok for his rude little CS to come out and threaten people though . I don't like a rude dog. Keep in mind ALL of this happened in about 15-20 seconds.

Betti corrected rude MR. CS and I expected that but that Buster snuck around on me and that is something new for him. He normally won't be in such an offensive minded mode. I thought the whole thing turned out great though! They did what I wanted when I wanted and did what I expected, well Betti at least .

If stray dogs will mind their manners we will mind ours. We've met our share.

[MrsBoats]

MM, I do exactly what you do and place Sam into a sit/stay long before I even get close to the off lead dog. Usually the people see us park it and not budge and sometimes they get the clue and leash their dogs. Sometimes they're dense and they keep their dog off lead and I keep Sam in a sit/stay with a leave it command. We haven't had a problem in a very long time with loose dogs. I walk in a large park where there's a leash law and most people obey it.

Every once in a while, I'll have to ask someone to leash their dog because I just get a bad feeling their dog is going to be a jerk from watching from a far. Or, I'll change my direction of my walk and avoid them before they see us.

[SABELLESMOM]

I must say, thankfully, it doesn't happen often. Most often at he lake where there's lots of wooded and open areas, and trails.

I utilize the down stay, or a sit stay. Although once I wasn't quite fast enough and she took off to play, ripping the long lead thru my hands. OUCH!

We'll be practicing down and sit stays with larger and larger distances between us, I think. The occasion I speak of wasn't a break of a command. I never "got" the command. Probably because she was already on the way and there was too great a distance between us.

How would you practice an "OFF!" command, Bruce? I'd love to have it in her repitoire, but I guess I'm not sure how to set it up unless there's a charging other dog?