I love dogs too and have one, but what some owners don't get is that not every person wants to say hello to the dog. In fact, one of my past trainers said that the person should be greeted before the dog.. you know, human to human. I agree with this because as an owner, we should greet the person before our dog greets the person (or person greets dog).. that way we can have a mini conversation "Hello, nice to meet you" "hello, you too", "my dog is friendly, would you like to pet him/her?" or "hello, you have a nice dog, can I pet him/her" All while the dog sits and waits to be paid attention to. Of course, this is ideal, and requires much training.. but this is how it should be.
I get pissed off when I walk my dog, and people go straight for him and never say hello to me. I can also totally see your point, that if a dog is to be around other people, namely strangers, he/she should be fit and under control by the owner so that all interactions are pleasant and not confusing for the dog- and so they are not uncomfortable for the other person. Mixed signals, as you mentioned, do confuse dogs and often reinforce the bad behavior.
There is a local trainer here and he is VERY good. I went to one of his seminars (the rescue organization I am involved with,all went) and this is EXACTLY what he says. The people should greet first and have the dogs sit before meeting each other.
ugh that reminded me of a time when I went over to an ex friend's house, and she had a young but large dog (i'm not going to specify breed because there is a huge stigma against them) who was very sweet except she had no training whatso ever.. and me being 5'2 and 100 lbs, this dog was quite large for me.. Anyway, my ex friend (ex friend for a reason) just let her dog jump up on me to say hi, which turned into the entire time me trying to get the dog off me .. she scratched me, used teeth a little bit, and just basically figured out that she could really get in my face and on top of me with no consequences.. it was like a game for her because the harder i pushed her off of me, the harder she tried to get in my space.. of course my "friend" kept saying "oh she's just saying hello! she's just being friendly!" but i was seriously being what I considered "mauled" by this dog.. So finally i used my tools from dog training and yelled "OFF! OFF!" but to no avail, and then I got yelled at my friend for yelling at her dog. this is probably a good example of the kind of dog/owner relationship that is doing more harm than good.
You can mention breeds here,most people are not against certain breeds. I for one love "bully breeds" and mastiffs,rotties,dobes and such. However they do need to be trained properly. That is another thing that annoys me though,owners who think that everyone should be "mauled" by their friendly dogs.
I love dogs a lot,but I find it incredibly rude if a dog comes into my space uninvited like that and even ruder if the owner encourages it.
It kind of sounds like he is trying really hard to train it, maybe talked to a trainer and they suggested the head harness and to greet more people... He isn't doing it correctly but it sounds like he is trying.
I hate it when kids come running at my dog. He's good with kids but he barks and growls at them when they come running at him. Not that i blame him i want him to growl when something comes running at me. People need to control their kids and their dogs.
No,not a HALTER...he had a HEAD HALTER on the dog,which does not do a whole lot of control. An actual halter would of probably been better to control this dog with. Also the man was older,like later 50's,early 60's...so from what I seen,he either cannot control the dog or he just lets the dog do what he wants.
Though it is VERY possible he was training it,but I have trained dogs and have witnessed people training dogs and he was not even "trying".
Yep,I dislike when kids run towards me too. Kids,dogs,strange people...if I don't know you,I don't want you running in my space without proper introduction!
i agree completely, it's a 2 way street- people should have their dogs under control, but also, a person should be under control when they approach a dog. it's just common sense and no one wants to be accused of their dog being to aggressive when they are just behaving according to instinct when they feel threatened. Ok im done haha
Oh I totally agree.
I am a sucker for greyhounds and big doggies and I love them and meeting with them. I always ask the owner FIRST though. I like taking pictures of dogs a lot too,especially at expos and stuff and even then I almost always ask the owners before taking a picture. And I won't approach a dog without talking to the owner first. Otherwise that is just asking for trouble.
At these expos and such though,sometimes after I have "met" the owner and people already,if they are still around I might go up and give the dog a pat,but never if I didn't talk to the owner first.
When out walking foster dogs,I hate when kids run up to dogs or reach out to pet the dog without saying anything to me. I remember one time I was walking 3 greyhounds (now you and me know these are some of the most docile,tolerant dogs generally) and this kid runs right up spooking the dogs. I knew these dogs like the back of my hand though and knew they wouldn't bite,but I scolded the kid and the parent who was several feet away,I told him he should teach his kid about running up to strange dogs,as that can end in disaster! Also it annoyed me to NO END.
My daughter is almost 7 and I have told her never to touch someone's dog or a strange dog. And if there is a person,then do not touch the dog without asking.
That is annoying, especially if the dog is acting aggressively. My dog LOVES greeting people during our walks, he's very friendly, but I never let him approach people until they either approach us first or they ask me if they can pet him.
I think it's worse sometimes when I'm walking my dog and other people let their dogs just walk up to us without asking or saying anything. My dog loves other dogs, but not all of them are friendly towards him. I can't understand for the life of me why, if you have a dog who isn't friendly, you'd let him or her approach strange people and/or dogs especially without asking the person first.
Maybe the guy was trying to train his dog though and just not going about it the right way. Either way he should have asked you before letting the dog approach, but hopefully he is trying to train it and will eventually get the dogs issues worked out.
Like I said,it is possible he was training or trying...but it sure didn't look like he was trying to train the dog very hard. Unless he JUST got the dog or something.
When I get a new foster dog,almost always they are not trained. Beagles are super friendly dogs though and often wanna see EVERYONE. However I do not allow them to get into people's spaces and rather the person come to the dog (ASK me first though).
Anyway this was just an annoying part of my day today...
. It's difficult because I've been trying to work with her but a dog running up to us and barking pretty much sets us back to square one.
