I had an unfortunate encounter with a dog off a lead this afternoon, how should I have responded?

The celebrated author James Joyce always carried a walking stick, due to his fear of dogs. To be fair, he was once attacked by one. If I am going on a walk where dogs might be off the lead I feel less anxious if I am equipped with a stick. I react badly to the horrible and unpredictable noise dogs make by barking, so often have ear plugs as well.

yeah to be fair some people are just ridiculous

One of the worst offenders round our way resorts to the internet, local groups etc to try and find the culprits who's dogs threaten hers by being on a lead, most of us are wise to her now, she threatens to call the police quite often. She calls me and a couple of friends the 3 witches who think they own the park.

I don't think with her it's embarrassment, I think it's pure crazziness and a massive sence of entitlement.

It is embarrassment I promise. They know they are doing wrong but their dog can't / won't walk properly on a lead and they can't be bothered to teach them so they take it out on people who point it out. 

As a dog owner myself I would not be happy if anyone shouted at my dog or had a go at me. I understand that it was very anxious for you but if it happens again try to walk away and kindly say to the owner I am afraid of dogs can you try to keep it under control please. My dog walks up to people she not aggressive won’t bark but I would not appreciate anyone screaming at her. I do keep her under control and respect anyone who doesn’t like dogs as long as they are polite to me.  I hope this helps 

I would stand still too, try and relax because dogs will pick up on aggitation and most especially fear. My dog often runs up to people thinking they're someone she knows, most of the time she comes straight back to me, but sometimes she dosen't. I try and put her on a lead if I see someone coming, but sometimes people come round a corner and bump into us.

What annoys me is when people don't put their dogs on leads when they see another dog on a lead, some round here don't even carry leads with them, I've been shouted at several times for asking other dog owners to put the lead on.

It is unwise to offer advice in this place......for fear of breaking a rule......but I can tell you what I WOULDN'T do if I was faced with that situation and what I WOULD do if I was faced with that situation.

I would NOT shout at the dog.  Dogs do not understand what shouting means.....so they are most likely to interpret a human shouting at them as wither a) a form of aggression from that human or b) that the human is happy to play a game with them.

I would stand still and turn so that I was not directly facing the dog......and I would not look at the dog in the face.  Dogs do understand body language......so they are most likely to interpret a human who is stood still, not facing them and not reacting to them as a human that is neither aggressive nor willing to play a game.

I hope that helps ComputerGeek.

Hi ComputerGeek

I'm going to tell you what is theoretically good advice, but I understand in the moment the emotions are running high and it can be very hard to do this.

Usually shouting at an already riled up dog isn't going to do anything but make it more agitated, they are a bit like humans that way. Also, 'down' tends to be an overused and under-obeyed command, I've met an awful lot of dogs who've heard it so many times that at this point it's just white noise. Usually a good move if a dog comes towards you barking is, rather counterintuitively, to ignore it and focus on the owner. A strange dog is really unlikely to listen to you regardless, and what contact you do have is likely to make things worse rather than better if it's frightened. If you have to talk to the dog, a firm but non shouted 'No' is often a good option.

So instead often a good first move is to look at the owner and say 'can you call your dog back please'. Try and be pleasant about this, although again I am aware tensions are running high. 

Many unhelpful owners may at this point say things like 'oh she's friendly', 'she's all bark', 'she won't hurt you'. This is often code for 'I haven't sufficiently trained my dog to come back to me and I'm embarrassed about it'

At this point, again as calmly as possible, a good next statement is 'Then could you please put them on a lead. They're scaring me a bit' 

Walking away is also a good move at this point as some owners will react with anger, but it is almost always embarrassment based, so avoiding the situation usually sufficient. 

Overall, the calmer your tone and body language is, the calmer both the dog and owner will stay. And if you have to fake that you have to fake it. But shouting almost always makes everything worse. 

Hopefully that helps. Let me know if you have any questions.