Pipi The Long Stocking

Liz, That's a good point...it's a mutual decision between dog owners and in a public place, it's best to ask and/or warn. My only reaction is that there are certain places that I know the other owners are not dog lovers, they are dog snobs. I tend to stay away because I don't want to put up with their yappy little dogs or poorly trained big dogs and I don't expect them to understand my dog either. I go to places where I know I can interact with my dog in a way that I want and that I know the other dog owners feel the same. Yeah, yeah, public places...public behaviour...equal access for everyone... It kind of falls on deaf ears to me. The first and last time I heard someone say to me "you'd better put that dog on a leash" at Carmel Beach after our dog (aged 6 months at the time) approached a smaller dog (without incident), I turned around and said "Listen, if my dog goes on a leash, your dog goes on a leash. We're both violating the law by not having them on." I don't go back there with our dog, as much as I love that beach. I think I have to end my particular part of this thread by simply saying that I love the little quirks of my dog. I'm not going to teach her not to bark at the mailman. I think that it adds to her "watchdog-ness", a task that is appropriate for our dog. I like that she sometimes plays rough with us, the owners. It makes those Saturday mornings fun. Yes, I understand that my dog may transfer some of those behaviours to play time with other dogs, but I have accepted the risks. Basically, my dog isn't perfect, and I don't want her to be.

J, you seemed to have missed my point here. That point is that if you know your dog's behavioral quirks, you take the steps to minimize risk - ie. you find the park that nobody goes to, the beach where your pooch can run free without having to worry about other people/dogs. You go to places where you can minimize the impact of running into OTHER people's dogs who you think may cause problems. For example, at one of our local beaches, there seems to be a high proportion of small dogs/unsocialized dogs (their owners believe them to be too precious to associate with any other dogs)/and various badly behaved dogs. We stopped going there because we know that our dog can be overprotective and doesn't like when OTHER dogs come sprinting toward us or when they are overly sniffy. Frankly, we have other options and people on that beach can have their little encounters. We go to places where other dog owners are smart about how to control their dogs and expect the same from us. BUT, they also seem to realize that sometimes dogs just don't get along...yes, we ask if we can let them both off the leash, or if it's okay to play...but sometimes, dogs just don't click. It's not the owner's fault, or the dog's fault, it just bloody happens. How many other dogs have been apparently friendly when they met your dog and it just went downhill? I can't tell you why it happens, even with dogs our BC has played with before. Regarding playing with other dogs, if you are doing your own little training thing, that's cool. I'll keep my dog away from it. But some dogs are social, they like to interact with their environment, just like humans. Have you ever just started talking to someone in the check-out line at the grocery store? Feeling a little social? What's the difference? The only difference as I see it is that dogs have a different language to say "bug off." In my experience, people who don't understand dogs think that a little rough play is going to send their precious to the vet. Our dog is an alpha (as are most BCs) and likes to make that clear right away. But we've also seen that a quicker, faster, smarter dog and a few quick barks can make her behave in a submissive manner. From then on, it's happy-happy-joy-joy playing with no further problems. But they have got to have the opportunity to make that relationship clear. Dogs who bark and bark on the leash already feel insecure about being on the leash. Once we got Alka off the leash, she's a whole other dog. You also seem to have missed the point about playing with children. Our dog doesn't have a problem with children, she just sees them as little humans or possibly two-footed sheep. She has never hurt a kid, and she's spent a lot of time around them. She doesn't nip, herd, etc. But it has taken some time to overcome the desire to just rush over and say hi. We have some tricks that we use to control it. For example, she loves to play ball...when we're on the beach, she's easily distracted with that. I use that to keep her concentrated on me and not the things around us. But I'm not opposed to playing ball with random other dogs. I love dogs, as I'm sure everyone who reads this does. But the difference seems to be that I love all dogs, not just my own. I'm an extrovert, my dog is the same. We like to talk to other dog owners, we like our dog to interact with as many dogs as possible so we can learn about how she will react and what we can do to help her. When kids come up to pet our dog, we use it as an opportunity to see how she'll behave, but we issue fair warnings beforehand...she likes to jump up, so we'll keep her on the leash. If they want to play with her, we try to let them know that she doesn't like when people stand over her. Every interaction is an opportunity to teach our dog, to learn from her behaviour, and to educate other people about how to interact with our dog.

In reading the above posts, two things come to mind. First, are you serious when you say you carry rocks and a stick to "beat off" aggressive dogs? You have got to be kidding! When facing a strange dog, you would actually provoke it further by attacking it? You don't know that dog, you don't know its intentions, you don't know how it will react to a threat. Rather than "protecting" yourself you may only be provoking further attack against yourself. If I would see someone attack my dog for running up to say hi, I'm hauling your butt to jail personally, and I'll maybe beat YOU with a stick for good measure. C'mon, folks, we all love our dogs, but seriously... Our own dog, up until about 6 months ago would have been seen by most non-doggers as aggressive. She loves to run up to people to greet them, but we've started to get this under control. We have a dog-friendly field right behind our house and we know most of the other owners who bring their dogs there...we've learned who we can play with and who we can't. We've also been all over Monterey County finding places where our dog can run free - leash laws or not. We know several secluded beaches, a mostly-empty forest, a nearby stream, all of which we know the environment and how our dog reacts to it. All of this is to say that we feel like we know our dog's little quirks. We know how she reacts to pairs/packs. We know how she reacts (by ignoring) to small dogs. We know she'll ignore most children, unless they are loud (sounds like playing). We also accept a certain amount of risk in new situations. Sometimes dogs just don't play well with other dogs...it's just like people...and you just don't know why. I've learned to "suitcase" my dog out of unfriendly situations by grabbing the scruff of her neck and pulling her out of a tussle and into my arms. (She's about 50 pounds and some adreneline helps.) I don't actually worry about other dogs continuing the attack at that point because I'm the alpha in the area and I'm willing to risk a bite because I knew there was a risk going in. The final point is this: dogs need to be used to being around other dogs, unless that's really not what you want your dog to be. If you are content to risk a bad confrontation every single time you take your dog out for a walk, so be it. But then don't blame other dogs for reacting the way they do to your dog. Other dog owners in our neighborhood know our dog, we know their dogs (in fact, we only know them by their dog's name), and TOGETHER we worked out the issues without raising the ugly spectre of a lawsuit or fines. There are still some owners who either don't like our dog or also know how their dog will react to ours. There are still bad owners out there, but they are less numerous than the ones who just want their dogs to have some fun.