Monthly Off-Leash Dog Rant Megathread

[cobondservant]

Have you been approached, charged, or attacked by an off-leash dog in the last month? Let’s hear about it! This is the place to let out that frustration and anger towards owners who feel above the local leash laws. r/reactivedogs no longer allows individual posts about off-leash dog encounters due to the high volume of repetitive posts but that doesn’t mean we don’t want to discuss the issue.

Share your stories here and vent about your frustrations. We’ll do our best to offer advice and support. We all hate hearing, “Don’t worry! He’s friendly!” and no one understands your frustration better than the community here at r/reactivedogs.

 

[one12man]

@cobondservant Mine today was a big "friendly" golden retriever. I was out in a forest trail working off lead with mine.

Our training was making sure she is constantly responding and engaged when off lead, never more than a few meters from me and checking in regularly (no more than 30s between check ins)

This forest does allow off lead dogs but I feel there is an expectation that you should be able to see your dog at all times. The golden retriever starts coming through the woods so I recall and pop my girl back on the lead. We walk in the opposite direction from the retriever but it starts following us. No owner to be seen anywhere. It's only once when my girl starts barking I hear a whistle from somewhere, it ignores the first whistle but goes back immediately on the second.

This is clearly a well trained dog but the owner needs to not let them wander off out of site! I hate it when dogs follow us, it's so stressful.

I then ran into a man later out working on a small industrial digger and the noise scared my girl. He kindly stopped and let us come over so she could investigate and sniff it. We got to talking and he has a GSD too. He asked if I let mine off lead (in the UK there is an obession with having dogs off lead, I constantly get told I need to let me girl off more). He then told me his basically roams the forest while he walks them...but it's ok because he has a tracker on so he can get him back later!!

If you have got great recall and want to let your dog off lead in suitable areas then I'm all for it but for the love of dog keep them in your site at all times.

 

[ronmstark]

@one12man Mine today was also a friendly golden. We were walking in an on-leash area and the owner has his dog off leash, was on his phone, and then had the event tell me that my dog shouldn’t be out because he lunged at the golden. Already having a had day and ended up bleeding from leash burn and crying from feeling overwhelmed and frustrated.

 

[lizfromerma]

@cobondservant Coming up on one year since it happened. I've endured several braces, cortisone injections, and physical therapy. I have not had a single pain-free day. I will likely never regain full use of the injured limb.

Leash your fucking dog.

 

[analogica]

@lizfromerma I’m so sorry to hear this.

I don’t understand why people feel so proud of their dog off leash. Any dog can be unpredictable.

I feel proud of my dog on leash (we actually use 2, because I’ve heard of leashes snapping) and being a responsible owner.

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@cobondservant Happened today. A dog in the neighborhood slipped their collar while being handled by kids. Ran across the street and down our driveway and bit my dog. Two years of working on reactivity training just to have our worst fear come true. My dog did not bite and was very brave at the vet after the fact, despite having an absolute fear of the vet's office.

 

[littleangelic]

@imagebeastmarkbeast I'm so sorry this happened to you and your pup.

 

[lalady59]

@imagebeastmarkbeast I’m so sorry. This happened to me today too, only my dog thankfully did not require veterinary care. It was terrifying (the other dog charged through busy traffic to get across the street to my dog) and I can’t get the image of my poor dog just cowering with her tail between her legs out of my head. She had been doing so well with her training, too, and just went for a walk with a newly acquainted dog less than a week ago. It’s so frustrating to put in so much work everyday for every millimeter of progress, only to see it knocked over by a moment of someone’s carelessness.

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@lalady59 I'm so so sorry

 

[dee365]

@cobondservant There’s a trail I usually take my puppy to while on a long line since it’s got a nice amount of routes, and in nature etc. it’s supposed to be an on leash area only, and of course every time we’ve gone on walks here, there’s no fail one or more dogs just off leash doing what they want. Some owners are really responsible and don’t let their dog near us, however there’s been numerous run ins with this one specific guy that has his pointer? Off leash throwing a ball ahead of him, and the dog goes and gets it, brings it back, and repeats over and over.

Normally, I can go a diff route to avoid this douche, however just 30 mins ago we meet up with this guy in one of the small sections with no where else to go. My pup obviously starts pulling like crazy, barking, whining, and going ballistic because of this dog doing it’s thing.

Does the guy care? Not one bit, just continues to let his dog do the same thing, while seeing me struggling with trying to get my pup under threshold. Is there some tips on what to do in this scenario besides calling this guy a dick head next time? His dog is obviously super trained, just curious why there’s no etiquette in mind of putting his dog on a leash like it’s supposed to be, or letting us go by.

Just yesterday we were finishing up our walk like today, and a guy had two whippets (one a puppy) just running around in the fields and the puppy one comes straight up to us. Yes, he’s cute but dude your puppy can’t recall, and here I’m pushing it away while my boy was actually doing great and sat down. Then started to bark at the puppy once it got in our face and didn’t get the clue. I was afraid the second dog would come up behind us, and get him while I’m fighting off the other one.

There’s another time with a puppy off leash, and the dude recalls and puppy doesn’t care. Comes straight up to us, and got in my pups face. My pup again was neutral (since been trying to work on him being that way) and then the other puppy just lunges at him. Owner walks up, and doesn’t even say sorry. Just “huh.”

It takes everything in me to not curse these people out, or grab their dogs until the owner decides to want to intervene. It’s gotten so bad, I carry pepper spray on me incase I need to use it. I just now have to sit and expect off leash dogs on this trail, and I hate how if it keeps happening that were the ones that have to go somewhere else, and not the owners that aren’t following the rules.

 

[lenorea]

@cobondservant A house down the street has two dogs normally tied up, today they weren’t. I of course have to slide on the mud and eat it into the sidewalk. One dog go my dog pretty good. My dog got one of them. It’s so easy to be mad at ourselves when things out of our control happen. I’m lucky I didn’t get more hurt and we’re both lucky none of our dogs got any good bites in. But sometimes it can be so tiring. The amount of streets I can’t walk down because of off leash dogs. Which is the reason I have a reactive dog. It can be exhausting.

So to myself and everyone else in the thread, some days are better than others. Be kind to yourself and your dog.

 

[freethinker711]

@cobondservant A neighbor had their two dogs off leash in front of their house. A residental neighborhood where dogs MUST be kept on leash by law.

We passed them without an issue and my dog did so well. When we were already around the corner one of the dogs chased after us, the owner ran after him screaming but of course his dog didn’t care about that.

My dog snapped, his dog snapped and he had to beat his dog on the head to let go of mine.

Ever since my dogs reactivity is worse than ever and we have to start training all over again.
Also she is now afraid of all dogs, including her buddy who‘m she knew since puppyhood.
They always got along so well and had regular playdates, but now my dog gets scared and doesn’t dare to play at all.

Best thing about this:
Fast forward three weeks later, that neighbor walked his two dogs and saw my dog barking uncontrollably at him and the dogs and he had the AUDACITY to say: "That dog‘s really protesting isn’t it?" and laugh.

I told him after the "incident" she‘s been a nervous wrack around other dogs and he didn’t even realize what I was talking about! He seems to have forgotten about it already!

By the way this guys wife had threatened me calling the cops because my dog regularly barks when we walk past their house and she also feels like I‘m abusing my dog, because my dog always seems so distressed - YEAH WELL OF COURSE IT DOES!

 

[john129er]

@cobondservant My neighbors across the street never have their dog on a lead and it went running across the road to where my dog was chained the other day. He’s already terrified of dogs running up on him and that really doesn’t help

 

[shaulhatarsi]

@cobondservant 3 off leash dogs in my residential neighborhood on a walk at 6:30 this morning. Did well with two. Ugh.

 

[natalya1]

@cobondservant All the dog owners at cheesman

 

[jitheth]

@cobondservant Welp, it happened. We were going on a sniff walk in a nearby meadow today. Its pretty secluded amd we can keep our distance easily if another dog comes along. Usually, my husband comes with, but he's been working nights (I work days) and I've been trying to build confidence doing it on my own. All was going well, we were able to work on some recall skills and focus while another dog was a good 30+ or so feet away. That dog and their owner eventually leave, so we have the place to ourselves, which is awesome. There's a river bank at the edge of the meadow but dips down, so you can't see a ton of the field. Usually, when there's two of us, we have someone play lookout while the other lets doggo lead sniffs along the river. I kept him in the field this time and honestly glad I did, even though I initially I felt bad depriving him. This pair of ladies had two off leash dogs with them, one older one younger (maybe 6 months) that are WAY ahead of them. I start leading us off further away from them as calmly as possible. Their puppy spots us and books it towards us. I shout at it to stop, twice. It does for like 5 seconds before rushing up. I'm waving and trying to create distance without overstimulating either dog. Owners are literally meandering over while this is happening. I shout at them. "Can you come get him?" One of them says yup and continues to walk slowly. Meanwhile, the puppy is getting in my dog's face and their sniffing each other. Puppy very much wants to play, and mine keeps backing away. I toss her dog's leash towards her and tell her that my dog doesn't like dogs. She takes up the leash, and then the older dog comes barreling at us, unleashed too. She yells at him to stop, which he listens to. They walk off, and we head in the opposite direction.

I am so proud of my boy, though. He's had some not so great moments the last couple weeks, so today's lack of growling/snapping was huge!

We usually do sniff walks for about 40 minutes, but we to cut it to like 20. I thought about sticking around as it seemed like the ladies and their dogs were leaving, but didn't want to risk it. I felt like saying something about keeping your dog near you but I don't know. I think I was really trying to stay as calm as possible. I'm hoping I handled it alright.

 

[danielletee]

@cobondservant Enjoying a morning walk with my pup in the cemetery, and a dog runs up and jumps in the water near us. I thought we were alone, so I was confused. I also realized I had seen this dog once before. To which I said. "put a leash on your dog." My pitty starts barking and lunging. Owner walking up with another dog (on leash) at the same time. Says "sorry, she just wanted to play in the water. I didn't know anyone was over here." Uh, yeah don't you think you should check before letting your dog off-leash, asshole? I wish I had said that. I did get upset and let out some "fuck yous" as I walked away. I wish I didn't react that way, but it made me so angry that it was the same people I ran into before. She was reactive the rest of the walk and I couldn't get her to relax We have been doing so well, too. It sucks. I hope I don't run into them again.

 

[young86]

@cobondservant I was walking my dog today and 3 huge dogs (2 white large something, 1 pitbull) came out of nowhere to the park with kids and surrounded me and my dog. I had to pick my dog up and carry her across the park as they continue to circle me while my dog was trembling in fear. I don't own any guns, mace, pepper spray etc, but if any of those dogs would have charged at my dog those dogs would not see the next daylight

 

[paraskeve]

@cobondservant My neighbor’s dogs got loose recently, one an aggressive pit bull and the other a non-aggressive shepherd mix. The pit bull approached us growling and barking, looking me dead in the eyes with its shackles raised. It tried to attack my dog a couple of times, but I yelled and moved my dog around, and somehow no one got bitten. My dog is 80+ pounds and was doing protective growling. I kept him under control (leash and martingale collar).

I called 911, and it took 8 long minutes for animal control to arrive. The 911 operator kept telling me to stop yelling at the dog, to which I responded that we were being attacked and I had to do something!

Since then I’ve bought mace, and I won’t hesitate to use it if I have to protect myself or my dog!

 

[ilkhanapit]

@cobondservant Neighbor at the end of our alley has a GSD. The thing has hopped the fence twice at seeing us (luckily no physical damage) but now I am highly anxious at any dog in a yard, my poor pitty has become reactive, and my anxious terrior who was making strides forward has completely backtracked.

We have completely changed our route to avoid this house and am putting the work in to help my dogs forward and me as well. Just frustrating as anyone knows.