LittleLondoner

This seems very unkind. Showing aggression to another person's dog who has shown no aggressive behavior whatsoever seems completely unwarranted. And if your dog attacks a submissive dog when on the lead, I suggest looking into some behavioural advice or not taking your dog out in places where other dogs may well come and want to say hi in a perfectly friendly way. I'm fairly new to this forum and have found some of the feedback and advice so helpful, but honestly find a "senior member" here admitting that they would kick someone else's dog while it's lying on the ground fairly appalling and will not be participating in this forum any further.

Thank you for your response, I completely understand the point you're making, and I do agree with it! I just have an issue with the way you have phrased your opinion and would encourage some reflection on that, Thanks!

My pup is 11 months old and eats a perfectly healthy amount but is very lean. He doesn't seem hungry - he never begs or searches for food in the park, so I've put it down to skinny adolescence.

Thanks again for all your helpful advice - so far he's not responding well to the long lead, but we'll persevere! On another note I completely disagree with this statement and find it offensive. My dog is not out of control or obnoxious. He doesn't jump up, or bark, or anything else that could be construed as aggressive. He just places a stick or a ball at people's feet and usually lies down next to it, wagging his tail, albeit making rather intense eye contact. If anyone chose to kick a dog while it's lying on the ground, it is absolutely an undeserved attack, and I would call the police immediately. Please be kinder with your words when talking about other people's dogs, and ensure your comments are based on the information provided rather than assumptions you have made and have some respect.

That;s a really good point - I hadn't even considered someone else punishing my dog. So far I've just had a few stern looks and a couple of people telling me off, but the thought that someone might hurt my pup just for being friendly hadn't occurred to me! Although pepper spray is illegal here, so if anyone did use it I'd call the police straight away. But a kick or a stamp on my poor dog isn't too hard to imagine. Alright - I'm persuaded to give the long line a go!

Thank you all for your helpful advice - we'll start thinking about long-line training him, but I've always been apprehensive about this as it doesn't seem to give him a good enough opportunity to actually run around and get some exercise or get the positive reinforcement of playing with other dogs and people that we do know. An under-exercised dog must be worse than an over-friendly one! His recall is excellent in every other situation, even when there's food on the ground! We'll give it a go and see how we get on! Thanks again for the support!

Hi everyone! This is my first time posting although I've read and valued a lot of the posts I've seen on here! Really hoping someone can help with our weird collie! We have a very sweet collie pup who is nearly a year old. He's developed this strange behaviour, which on the surface seems quite sweet, but is actually causing some trouble! Basically, whenever he is out in the park, he takes his ball (or a stick if we don't bring the ball out) and puts it at strangers' feet for them to throw it for him. I dont know which outcome is worse: either they think it's adorable and throw the stick and then he won't leave them alone and I have to put him back on his leash to get him away; or they are scared of him and either run away (which he thinks is great fun) and/or shout at me. He's never ever aggressive, he just wants to play. And his recall is excellent in every other situation except this one! We've tried everything we can think of to stop him approaching strangers but don't want to accidentally cause him to be afraid of strangers. We've tried rewarding and praising him for coming back to us, but the potential reward of playing is always more exciting. We've tried asking the strangers to not pick up the stick, but often he targets people quite far away and we can't get there in time. Has anyone else ever experienced this or have any tips for how we could avoid this behaviour without damaging his innate friendliness? Thanks in advance!