@christianaspie8701 My first dog is a perfect angel. For the first 4ish years I've had her, I always assumed the worse of owners who had poorly trained dogs that barked or were reactive, etc. I assumed they never took time to train their dog and are lazy owners, because look how well trained mine is! I'll admit I even let mine off leash a lot, but usually tried to stop her from running up to dogs just for safety.
Now I have a second dog who was very reactive. I now understand so much more, that not everything can be controlled and some dogs are more prone to reactiveness than others. It took me a lot of training to get him to the point where he's only pulling a little to see other dogs, compared to barking, lunging, jumping, and overall hyperness whenever a dog is nearby. Doggy daycare helped a LOT.
Point of my story is that everyone can benefit from taking a second to think of other people's perspectives. In your case, OP, I would think to myself that these friendly neighbours have never dealt with a reactive dog, so they don't understand why it's bad to let their own dogs off leash. They don't see failed recall as bad training, because the dog doesn't "do anything else bad." Then you look like the douche because you need to create boundaries. So in this sense, it can help you structure how you inform these neighbours in the future.
That being said its very hard to get a word in when you have a reactive dog with you, but a lot of people need education on off-leash dog walking. If they don't seem receptive I wouldn't waste any more brain cells trying to change the mind of the ignorant. Just let them know if their dog gets bit you're not responsible for anything because they are the ones letting their dog off leash into other dogs faces.
If they say "no your dog is the bad one because it's biting" I would say, "so if I got in your face right now and you defended yourself, who's at fault?"
Now I have a second dog who was very reactive. I now understand so much more, that not everything can be controlled and some dogs are more prone to reactiveness than others. It took me a lot of training to get him to the point where he's only pulling a little to see other dogs, compared to barking, lunging, jumping, and overall hyperness whenever a dog is nearby. Doggy daycare helped a LOT.
Point of my story is that everyone can benefit from taking a second to think of other people's perspectives. In your case, OP, I would think to myself that these friendly neighbours have never dealt with a reactive dog, so they don't understand why it's bad to let their own dogs off leash. They don't see failed recall as bad training, because the dog doesn't "do anything else bad." Then you look like the douche because you need to create boundaries. So in this sense, it can help you structure how you inform these neighbours in the future.
That being said its very hard to get a word in when you have a reactive dog with you, but a lot of people need education on off-leash dog walking. If they don't seem receptive I wouldn't waste any more brain cells trying to change the mind of the ignorant. Just let them know if their dog gets bit you're not responsible for anything because they are the ones letting their dog off leash into other dogs faces.
If they say "no your dog is the bad one because it's biting" I would say, "so if I got in your face right now and you defended yourself, who's at fault?"