Used the “he’s not friendly!” line for the first time

[levicoleman]

@coltproulx Nice job! I have fond memories of the first time I used that phrase too. We were on a walk late at night so it was dark and we weren't running into many people/dogs. We were cutting through the park and I could see that a guy was playing with his dog off leash a fairly long distance away. His dog had a glowing collar on so we could see it running around. All of a sudden it started towards us and my dog tensed up and started staring hard. I tried to get him going but he knew the dog was headed towards us, so he was totally fixated. The owner was calling the dog really casually "come on Stella! Come here!" and it was completely ignoring him, which he didn't seem at all concerned about. It was too dark for the guy to know my dog had a muzzle on, so likely nothing too serious would occur, but I could tell his dog was not going to change direction. So I just yelled "my dog's not friendly!" and the sheer panic in his voice after I said that is still hysterical to me to this day. He was shrieking "STELLA!! STELLA OH MY GOD STELLA!!" in such a panic and running as fast as he could after her. I was able to put enough distance between us that he caught her before she got to us, but I sure hope that guy thinks twice before letting his dog with no recall off leash again.

 

[bebe75]

@levicoleman No recall, off leash - IN THE DARK. Great combo. Sigh.

 

[lorisangel123]

@levicoleman This. This right here. I honestly feel those with reactive dogs are way more responsible then those who have a “well behaved” dog. I see these scenarios quite a bit and just the absolute ignorance and disregard just drives me bananas.

 

[runatem]

@lorisangel123 Honestly as this point, I’m quite convinced that little to no “perfect/well behaved” dogs exist, just ignorant owners that don’t know their triggers and missteps. All dogs have problems, just like humans. I feel like only the top maybe 5% of trained dogs actually hit the “extremely well trained” mark. People who know their dogs aren’t perfect are the ones doing the right thing and being responsible at all times.

 

[jakeesonjon45]

@runatem My first dog was the most calm, easy to train, well behaved, who would listen to every word, had great recall, and his only bad habit that I couldn’t train out of him was when he’d “jump” (more like put his front paws on them while he reached for their hands) on people who greeted him, because he had short legs, and wanted to be pet. But he didn’t do that to people who didn’t greet him. He gave people space until they approached him. He didn’t approach dogs that he didn’t know. He was damn near perfect. From the day I adopted him I said “I couldn’t have hand crafted a better dog!”

Then I adopted my current dog.. He’s not aggressive but good god he’s reactive. It’s almost impossible to get his attention after he sees another dog. If he hears my neighbors dog outside, all hell breaks loose, and he’ll be barking to go see them for an hour straight, long after they’ve gone in. I can’t easily control him, and he can’t control himself. I’ve got a LONG road ahead of me in terms of training this one..

 

[freeofhsv1]

@levicoleman This reminds me of a time I was that bad owner! My dog was a puppy at the time (first ever dog) and we had him off the lead for some unknown reason.

He spotted a big German Shepard who we had already met once on the lead. He was a recently retired police dog, and the owner was new to having him, elderly, and had said how he's a bit unpredictable and also seems stronger than the owner.

My dog got zoomies and ran straight towards the ex police dog from across the field. I panicked, I thought he was gunna die. It was also very muddy and my dog is a whippet. So I started 'running' after him in wellies, screaming 'FREDDIE NO OH MY GOD NO'.

My dog reached the other dog by the time I'd moved a few metres. The dog knew mine was a puppy and didn't see him as a threat at all, he just said hello politely then they stared at me whilst I was waddling over and shouting in panic.

My partner was also there and was on the floor laughing at the scene.