Dogs off leash in public places

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Neltharion

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I walk my dogs at a local school when school is not in session. This gives them a chance to walk on grass inside a gated area. It also allows me to stay off the streets and sidewalks (it seems like drivers these days are getting worse). I follow the leash laws and carry a few small plastic bags in case they have to relieve themselves. Other people walk their dogs also at this school.

Yesterday, two german shepherds charged at me and my dogs. They appeared to be 'playful', but I wasn't sure. I picked both of my dogs up. Both german shepherds attempted to jump at me. The woman that owned the dogs continued her walking without making any attempt to corral them in. Her daughter ran over to try and get them away. When the daughter screamed loudly enough, her mother finally came over.

Although her dogs may have been friendly, mine are not. They are jack russell mixes and are good with people, but not other dogs. At one point in the past, they were attacked by a dog off leash while I was walking them. Ever since then, they have been extremely aggressive to other dogs while on their leashes.

Now, this woman started heading back to continue walking. She had leashes in her hand. I politely asked her if she was going to put her dogs on their leashes, so I could continue walking. Her response was, "No. I waited my turn for other people to leave so that I could let my dogs run free. You can just wait your turn. I only have a few more laps."

At this point I was shocked at her total lack of courtesy and consideration. I reminded her that it is against the law for her dogs to be in this public area off leash. Her response to that was, "Then call the cops", knowing full well that law enforcement would not respond.

My first thought was to go home, get the mace, and spray those dogs if they charged at me and my dogs again. After a few minutes, I calmed down and thought it would be unfair and cruel to those dogs that they would suffer because they had an irresponsible !&@#$!@ for an owner. I ended up driving to another location, and walking my dogs there.

Sorry for the rant. And just out of curiousity, what would you do?
 

dmarcus

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My next door neighbors don't have there dogs on a leash when they are on there front porch and these dogs will come charging at you barking, my wife is very afraid of them but when they come running at me I just stare them down and they stop. My neighbors always say they won't bite but I know dogs do strange things when they are excited. I carry a gun and I hope that I don't ever have to shoot one of there dogs when they come charging and barking and they don't stop.

It's bad owner's that give good dogs bad names especially if they don't take the time to teach there dogs the basics in good behavior.

Glad you and your dogs are okay..
 

CtTortoiseMom

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I don't know what I would do, that is terrible! She obviously did not wait her turn because you were there!! I don't ever let my dog off of the leash and it is one of my pet peeves because I am alway worried a free dog is going to bite one of my kids.
 

Jacqui

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I would call the cops, they may respond especially if you say this is at a school, that it is two large dogs, and they tried to attack you and your dogs, plus even after the attempted attack the owner will not put their dogs on leash. Or do you have an animal control?

I have a dog I walk who use to love to fight. Well he still would, but knows these days it is a big no no. He and I have worked really hard to get over his need to fight once he came to live with us and I would hate for us to have to start all over.

However, we again just the other day had three dogs come running towards us, while we were walking down our alley (on leash), which is next to a park. The entire group of humans who own these three dogs, failed to notice their dogs charging us until I yelled at them. Now I was impressed with my dog because he ignored the entire thing, but I know if any of those dogs had made it up to being next to him, fireworks could have happened.

This same basic thing happened about a year ago, except the dog made it to mine before he could be stopped. My dog then jumped the other dog. Neither dog got hurt. A few days later something was said about it and I was told that maybe I should muzzle my dog. Ummm excuse me, my dog was the one on the leash and not the one who came running up to the other dog.
 
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Claireabbo

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id sick my torts on her ;) haha just kidding! i think that i would be REALLY mad too. my dog doesnt get along with other dogs either but she is grreeaatt with people! :D everyone loves her :) but yeah i would be really mad and probably say something to like a local pet control thing ;) hehe im sorry and i feel your frustration!
 

Edna

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I'm glad your dogs are OK. There are people here who let their dogs run off leash as a matter of course, and even though we have a leash law the police will absolutely do nothing about it until after there's an incident. My own dogs are incensed when they see other dogs off leash.
 

Tom

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Sadly, poor manners and bad dog etiquette are rampant in this country. Dogs are my profession AND hobby so I see a lot of stuff. I have no problem with off leash dogs IF they are under control and the owners exercise some common sense and common courtesy. However, the vast majority of dogs out there have little to no control and people often do not exercise common courtesy.

In most cases, I find the best course of action is to leave the area and avoid cretans like the imbecile you described. Any other course of action is likely to escalate and result in a person or dog being injured and the resulting possible legal consequences. Just think it through a bit... Say you pepper spray those dogs. You would be legally justified, but then what? The dogs would be screaming and writhing in pain, the owner would be seriously pissed and hostile, and then what? Would you just turn around and walk away? It is likely the owner would be bitten by her own dogs while trying to come to their aid, and then she would have at least some legal justification for suing you for damages. Also, if you pepper spray or shoot someone's dog, you better be ready to pepper spray or shoot them too. In my experience, the stupider and more inconsiderate a dog owner is, the more hostile they will be when you defend yourself against their ill mannered pet. I have seen some truly ugly situations. The man I apprenticed under back in the 90's is now and ACO. He tells some really twisted tails about the things he has seen now. Its a messed up system, but we have all allowed things to get to this point.
 

ascott

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That is a tuff one....in an excited state an animal can do just about anything, especially a dog lopping towards you and your dog is automatically tense as well as feed off of your tension...dogs don't naturally charge each other unless there is ill intent, so if a dog does not know how to communicate with other dogs then that is when a fight is almost certain...it is too bad folks own powerful dogs when they have no true control over the dogs....

Super glad you and and your pooches are good :D

p.s., rant away...we all need to from time to time :p
 

cherylim

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I do agree that dogs should be on the leash at all times in public places. I don't have a fear of dogs but like all animals they're unpredictable. The friendly family dog that's grown up lovingly alongside a toddler all too often can turn one day and end that youngster's life, and there have been too many occasions in the past when I've had dogs charge at me when I've been in the park and look like they're about to bound up at me.

Knowing what can happen, I usually try to block the dog with my hands and get into a position where, should I need to, I could give it quite a solid kick. I know that won't do a lot to defend me if a dog does choose to attack, but it's the best I can do. Of course, if an owner sees you looking so defensive when they walk over to collect their dog from your feet, you don't get nice looks. You stand there like that, and they assure you that their dog wouldn't bite. My fiance also thinks it's ridiculous how I get defensive around any dog that runs over to me, rather than reaching down to pet them considering I'm usually such an animal person.

There was a story in our local newspaper the other day along these lines, actually. The nicest park in the city I used to live in has a new rule. It has a nature reserve as part of it - a wide open field that's usually where dog-owners take their pets to let them run free. I'm a lot more happy about this kind of thing happening away from the main park than in front of everyone, but they're now putting a ban on dogs being off their leash there. An elderly lady had written to the paper devastated as she had a dog and could no longer walk properly, so she took this dog to that area and let it off it's leash so it had some freedom. I'd far rather that than it be in the main park, but a local councillor had retaliated saying he wasn't stopping her walking her dog off the leash in the park, he was just banning that behaviour from the nature reserve. Dogs still didn't need to be on their leash around the rest of the park, which included football fields and children's play areas.
 

Neltharion

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Jacqui said:
I would call the cops, they may respond especially if you say this is at a school, that it is two large dogs, and they tried to attack you and your dogs, plus even after the attempted attack the owner will not put their dogs on leash. Or do you have an animal control?

We do have animal control, so the police will not respond. Because of budget cuts though, animal control will not come out unless someone has actually been bitten and has been injured. There was an article in our local paper about the inability (I call it refusal) of Animal Control to respond to calls where dogs are running lose, or even situations where they are locked up in hot cars in the middle of the day.

Tom said:
Just think it through a bit... Say you pepper spray those dogs. You would be legally justified, but then what? The dogs would be screaming and writhing in pain, the owner would be seriously pissed and hostile, and then what? Would you just turn around and walk away? It is likely the owner would be bitten by her own dogs while trying to come to their aid, and then she would have at least some legal justification for suing you for damages. Also, if you pepper spray or shoot someone's dog, you better be ready to pepper spray or shoot them too. In my experience, the stupider and more inconsiderate a dog owner is, the more hostile they will be when you defend yourself against their ill mannered pet. I have seen some truly ugly situations.

I had thought about those kind of things. More than anything, what made me decide against going back with mace was the welfare of all the dogs involved, and a young girl was witnessing all of it. I was just thinking, "Wow, this woman is really setting an example for her daughter that its ok to show no regard for other people or the law." I just hate to see people get away with bad behavior.
 

FranklinTturtle

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You did the right thing getting you dogs out of there. I had a little dog that was killed by a German Sheppard, that she had been around her whole life. Also, I had 3 rabbits killed by my next door neighbor German Sheppard. It was better that you leave the situation then go home heart broken like I was. I find that when you involve the police it really does not help the situation. The next day she will be out there doing the same thing. So, just find your self another safe place to walk your dogs.
 

Mao Senpai

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I would totally call the cops too and get her license plate number down. It could have been other children or your own dogs lives at hand. Its just not fair for anyone else for their own lack of curtesy.
 

Angi

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Man oh man what a B!%@#. I can not believe she was that rude, I too like to walk my dogs (now just dog) off a leash, but I go to the proper place when I want to do this. We have dog parks and hiking trails. I dont go to dog parks, that just doesn't excite me.
I think you should have called the police and said that the dogs charged you and the owner called them off but refused to put them on a leash. A school is not a safe place for her bad behavior.
 

dmarcus

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Tom said:
In most cases, I find the best course of action is to leave the area and avoid cretans like the imbecile you described. Any other course of action is likely to escalate and result in a person or dog being injured and the resulting possible legal consequences. Just think it through a bit... Say you pepper spray those dogs. You would be legally justified, but then what? The dogs would be screaming and writhing in pain, the owner would be seriously pissed and hostile, and then what? Would you just turn around and walk away? It is likely the owner would be bitten by her own dogs while trying to come to their aid, and then she would have at least some legal justification for suing you for damages. Also, if you pepper spray or shoot someone's dog, you better be ready to pepper spray or shoot them too. In my experience, the stupider and more inconsiderate a dog owner is, the more hostile they will be when you defend yourself against their ill mannered pet. I have seen some truly ugly situations. The man I apprenticed under back in the 90's is now and ACO. He tells some really twisted tails about the things he has seen now. Its a messed up system, but we have all allowed things to get to this point.

Tom that's why I love living in Texas, the laws here protect us if we are defending our self and our family against someone who is trying to cause us harm. That's why I got my concealed carry license, there are so many stupid people around who resort to violence first instead of talking thing out.
 

blafiriravt

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Wow, what an idiot. She is an exact example of why we have breed bans in the world. To be honest, I would have reacted the same way: shocked and insanely mad. I cannot believe people have the audacity to act the way they do these days. It's unfortunate people like her leave such a horrible imprint on some of the dog breeds though. And it's a darn shame to act like she owned the dang place. You did well by walking off and finding somewhere else though. One reason I love Vermont is there are a ton of "nowhere" places in the state. I love being able to find a sweet trail going out in the middle of nowhere, getting lost with my dogs. And this time of year, the foliage is sweet too. And best of all, no snotty dumb head who thinks they own the world :D
 

Laura

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Ive pepper sprayed dogs before, they barely react.. but it does stop them usually.. you can also carry a air horn.. blowing that in their face might stop them, it will also get the owners attention. Check your local laws. Do you have leash laws? get their lic plate and be willing to sign a complaint for the violation.
Im surprised any dogs are allowed on school grounds. leashed or not, so check that as well.
If it is a public area and not a designated dog park, dogs should be on leashes. A person who is afraid of dogs should be allowed to walk there just as much as anyone.
 

Neltharion

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Laura said:
Ive pepper sprayed dogs before, they barely react.. but it does stop them usually.. you can also carry a air horn.. blowing that in their face might stop them, it will also get the owners attention. Check your local laws. Do you have leash laws? get their lic plate and be willing to sign a complaint for the violation.
Im surprised any dogs are allowed on school grounds. leashed or not, so check that as well.
If it is a public area and not a designated dog park, dogs should be on leashes. A person who is afraid of dogs should be allowed to walk there just as much as anyone.

We do have leash laws, but they seem to be rarely enforced. I didn't think to get a plate number, but thinking back on it. That might have been a good idea.

Most of the local schools actually double as recreational areas. Its ok to walk dogs, as long as school is not in session. I had noticed that there is actually one of those signs, indicating that dogs must be on leash and to pick up after them. In some of the newer areas around here, there are fields of weeds that were never developed into parks because of funding issues. The only places that people can actually get out onto a field of grass is a school yard.
 
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