borofergie said:
copepod said:
I must admit that my walks, whether for pleasure on when patrolling 1 of 3 country park areas for work, are generally more pleasant when any dogs I meet are well behaved and on leads. While having muddy paw marks down my uniform work trousers is OK, getting muddy paw marks and claw scratches down bare legs when running in shorts or wearing other trousers in definitely not OK!
+1
I know it's only a minority of dog owners, but I run in parks and have to constantly deal with the dual threats of so-called "friendly" unleashed dogs assailing me and dog poo.
Well considering the size of our two dogs we have no option but to always walk them on leads when there are people about and we ALWAYS clear up after them.
When you own large dogs you very quickly find two things. First your dogs are always in the wrong even if it's some other unleashed and uncontrolled dog that has run over and is now hanging off your dogs face. Both our dogs react the same way to other dogs aggression which is to simply push the aggressor away and then sit on them until the other dog behaves itself.
Secondly you get two responses from people. Firstly you get the ones who love them so if we walk them into town we generally get stopped every 100 yards or so and patiently end up answering the same set of questions as the last person asked just a couple of minutes earlier. Secondly you get the ones who cross the road when they see them coming. Oh and the number of times we hear "you could put a saddle on that" is now beyond measure!
One of our closest friends in one of the UK top dog behaviourists. She says dogs get their most
mental stimulation from just being allowed to walk and sniff things. It is a very stimulating activity for a dog and you will find that dogs who are allowed to do this natural doggie behaviour can arrive home just as tired out from all the mental processing as those dogs who are running around beserkly but of course they won't end up as super fit!
Dogs do like to run and chase balls and things but you need to be careful not to do it too much, especially if you have a large or powerful dog as the act of chasing is mentally putting the dog into "hunting" mode. Dogs can get psychologically addicted to the adrenalin rush they get from chasing things. It's when dogs are in this excited state from chasing or the similar state they get into if you wrestle with them that the hunting instinct can turn into something far more dangerous if its a powerful dog. Do you really want to be sharing your home with a super fit adrenalin addict?
Of course the majority of dogs are fine but the next time you hear on the news about a dog attacking a child or similar and having to be put down you'd be surprised how many of those dogs were just friendly everyday dogs who got out hand when they were being wrestled with or were in a very excited state from chasing things. The breed of dog also does not make as much difference as many people think.
The instinct a dog has to roll in things is to take an interesting smell back home with them so that they can savour it later and share it with other pack members. I positively encourage one of my dogs to have a good roll (obviously not in mud or poo!) as it relaxes her and keeps her calm both on her walks and back at home while she "processes" what she did on her walk.
If you go into someone's house or meet someones dog in the street and it starts to jump up and hassle you just turn your back on them and don't say a word. If you're in someones house and are sitting down if the dog is hassling you firmly push it away, don't say a word and don't make eye contact. Depending on the size of the dog you may need to stand up and firmly push it away. When and only when the dog has gone away and laid down call it over to you and calmly say hello, not too much and for only a very short time then send it away again. If you do that the dog will view you with respect. All the dog is doing when it hassles you is saying "Look at me I'm very important much more important than you so you'd better make a fuss of me now mere human"