:(
It's not unusual for the occasional person/dog-walker to take one look at Buster and go the other way, but on his last 2 walks I've had this happen and think it may be down to the latest tragedy of the dog that killed the woman.

Several times I have passed a young woman with her toddler, the woman (on several occasions) has allowed her toddler to run up to Buster, once while I was stood locking my door - she let her little son trample my garden & chuk his arms around Busters neck - face-on (Buster enjoys the attention). As much as I think that behaviour is disgustingly naive (IMO one should NEVER allow thier child to approach a dog they don't know without prior consent), the same woman has taken a complete u-turn in her attitude.
Yesterday she saw me & Buster heading her way while we were walking through a field, I put Buster in on his short lead and walked 15ft off the pathway so she had plenty of room to pass us without getting close (Buster is friendly, but this is my usual reaction, so as not to frighten people that don't like him by letting him close to them :( ). Well, that wasn't enough distance for her, she yelled at her child so they could exit the field APAS "because of the dog" (I was the only one there with a dog).

Today I saw an older couple walking thier dog, heading towards us. I put Buster in on his short lead and carried on. As soon as they spotted Buster, they turned around screaming at thier dog to go back, they totted in the oposite direction as fast as thier legs could carry them :( I got Bust to stay still for a while, so they could get more distance between us, as ever time they looked back at us you could see them panick & speed up :(

I know that other people don't know Buster is friednly but flippin eck. It makes me so sad that he is judged on his size, not his behaviour. He has been perfectly behaved on these 2 occasions, showing himself to be obedient and walking on a 100£ slack lead right next to my side. An alet, but happy facial expression and a friendly wagging tail.

:( :( :(
Sorry for the waffling, just had to vet!

Vent away, friends of mine get this when walking their GSD boy daily, they've even been shouted at.. He is such a good natured boy and never has he caused any dog or person a problem, in general he'd run away from trouble.I've been with them and heard it for myself, its heart breaking, knowing your boy is so good :-(

It is hard to comprehend how other people think. I must admit if I see a Rottie, Dobe, GSD or RR that I don't know I always put my boys on leads, possibly walk in the other direction if I feel there maybe a problem. I have nothing against these breeds, far from it as I want a Rottie myself, but they are dominant dogs in general and my boys can be too, so I do it to avert issues, rather than cause them.

But it does seem rather odd by these people's reactions, lets hope that this stigma doesn't last too long for you and Buster.. Hopefully he'll find someone to slobber over in the fields tomorrow :-)

It's total ignorance; that's the result of the recent tragedies. Poor Buster.
We need to educate people not to judge on appearance.

give him something soft to carry if he will, a teddy bear maybe.  that worked for young chap round here who was getting very negative reactions to his young rottie. another thing that can help is a thin dog coat in a girlie colour- again it softens the image of the dog .

And reacting stupidly like this could cause a dog to do something, especially if they are screaming in horror!

Happens to us all the time, used to annoy me at first, but now, it's a case of 'whatever'. If people want to be ignorant, and think 'breed' not 'deed'. Thats up to them. I know my dogs are ok, I'm confident in their behaviour and manners, so I just ignore them now, they're the ones that look stupid, not us.

Silly people letting a child do that to Buster - well done him for putting up with it. 

I have a rescue JRT and with my two other dogs we were out walking last year in a country park. We passed a woman who was on her own and had no dogs with her. My JRT sniffed the lady's foot (and that really was all) who went hysterical and started waving her arms and legs about, screaming and kicked my JRT. She proceeded to tell me that my dog shouldn't never be off the lead and that i should of had her under control! It took a long while to get Penny back to her old self after this incident as she had a pretty rotten life with her previous owners.
It's the same old thing, just pure ignorance.
I have seen collars and leads for sale on a certain auction website that are colour coded with very large letters stating whether or not the dog is friendly etc i.e. a bright green lead with the word 'FRIENDLY' written on. I know that you shouldn't have to resort to this but it may help in your dilemma.

Buster my ansome,you come down to cornwall and have a play with my stanley on the beach.We get this all the time,people and dogs cross the road when they see me coming,Stan is very well behaved on the lead and improving daily,but they avoid us,so i know hw you feel,i do think its also a size thing,
jo

Thanks everyone :)

Too late to edit my fist post, it should have read "100% slack lead", not "100£". *blush*

Thanks Zebedee for the idea of the lead with 'friendly' written on it. I'll do anything to make Buster look more approachable. His poop-bag holder is a little bag with baby-blue piping & baby-blue pawprints all over, it's sooo cute. I thought it would help make him look more approachable as it looks like a dinky 'girlie' back-pack' attached to his harness, but many people don't get close enough to notice it :(

I shouldn't get wound up about these things, but Buster has had several days of no walks (the ice being too dangerous for him as he has bad elbows) and he has been really looking forward to getting out meeting people & dogs :( On the plus side, out of 3 possible greetings, one person (a neighbour) did come over so thier little terrier could say hello to him :)

> I must admit if I see a Rottie, Dobe, GSD or RR that I don't know I always put my boys on leads, possibly walk in the other direction if I feel there maybe a problem.

I too have avoided meeting a dog before, it was a staffy we had never seen it before, offlead, very excited playing in the snow, ignoring it's owners calls (he was having WAAAAY to much fun to go back!), he was obviously an entire male and I felt that him & Buster (also entire) with such excitement may have been a problem.

I perfectly understand people wanting to be cautious and needing to make judgments based on other dogs behaviour, that is just being responsible, it's the blatant horror for no reason that is very sadening :(

Poor buster , yes I get this type of reaction regularly when walking my gsd and heaven help us when he barks. I have given up and only take him out away from people and dogs it easier and stops me feeling akward. My oh and son just manage the situation

> Buster my ansome,you come down to cornwall and have a play with my stanley on the beach

:)

> Stan is very well behaved on the lead and improving daily,but they avoid us,so i know hw you feel,i do think its also a size thing,
>

:(
It's sad isn't it.

I must admit, since Buster has got reliably well behaved on-lead there are less people that avoid us. I could see why, when Bust would drag me down the road, on his back-legs to greet a stranger, that poeple would be put off! But now he is a pleasure to walk, I'd have thought everyone could see he is friendly :(

Oh well. Very slowly, the network of people that have met Buster and have let thier dogs meet Buster, is growing, so he does occasionally get to say 'hi' to another dog or adult & all the kids around here know he is friednly, so he's never short of meeting kids/teenagers :)

> yes I get this type of reaction regularly when walking my gsd and heaven help us when he barks.

Oh yes, a big dog that barks - that is like something out of a horror film for some people!!
Bust found that out when doing his most apealing play-bark (complete with the cutest, allthough huge, play-bow)- according to the owner of the other dog, Buster had barked to scare his dog away - I gave up trying to argue that is was an invitation to play :(

> I have given up and only take him out away from people and dogs it easier and stops me feeling akward.

It really is sad for it to get like this, I understand why you'd rather avoid meeting people, they can really make you feel awful when they shoot you a look of pure disgust for having such a 'dangerous' dog :( There is no need for people to be so horrified. It's irresponsible owners that are the problem, not the dog, but I don't think it will ever get any better.

What a shame mastiffover, this kind of behaviour just makes things worse. This is why when we get one dog attack on the news, its followed up by others, because people get nevous and then the dogs get nevous.

At least she might keep her kid out of your garden now!

Having had various experiences with children and tiny tots running up to ours and throwing their arms around their necks, hugging tight and having to be pulled off,  I now put them on lead and walk them on the outer side. One mother screamed at me when asked that her children didn't do that again to mine or any other dog " If their bloody dangerous they should be put down", only this afternoon I've had a todler on a push bike ram into one when we passed a family group, the adults just laughed. So wether it allays peoples fears or encourages them to come over, they will not be wearing a collar with 'friendly' on it .

Sorry Buster has been having problems, people can be unbelievably stupid and ignorant.  It scares me how many owners are irresponsible having little knowledge of their own dogs behaviour or body language. Best wishes.

Stupid woman.  I would have been tempted to kick her back if she dared touch either of my JRTs.  You should have threatened to report her for cruelty!  I hope that your little girl is feeling better nowxx

>One mother screamed at me when asked that her children didn't do that again to mine or any other dog " If their bloody dangerous they should be put down"

I can't agree with the mother here. I think it is the parents that should be put down, not the children!

Oh poor Buster, must admit I'd be cautious about an offlead mastiff or any large breed purely because my dogs are toy breed so any rough play could be dangerous, but how silly of these people to run away screaming like that, with him on lead and under control. Give him a hug from me (then wipe the dribble off, haha!) :-D

aaaaaw, poor Buster, the wee luv will get a complex at this rate.  I get regular comments when walking my devil dogs but after the last incident involving a rottie in my local community I had people coming up to me with positive comments highlighting that it wasn't all rotties and that they had all known nice ones.

It is horrible though when your heart sinks when someone comes round the corner and you see the panic on their face before they cross the road or scuttle back the way they came.  Puts me in mind of how the elephant man must have felt.

Poor Buster.. What a good idea with the teddy!!

I get it the other way. People throw their kids at my Dalmatian,it does unnerve him and us.We were sitting at an outside cafe, four dogs in all and I had a toddler of about 18 months walk up behind my dogs holding out her hands for a stroke of, " the spotty dog", encouraged by the stupid Father.It really scares me because if anything happened it will be our fault not theirs. If nothing else his tail is toddler face height.  A  happy dallie tail is more than capable of delivering a black eye!!

Stupid woman.  I would have been tempted to kick her back if she dared touch either of my JRTs.  You should have threatened to report her for cruelty!  I hope that your little girl is feeling better nowxx
I was tempted to to give her a thick ear but my other dog a BC is so protective of me, if i had of retaliated things could have got nasty and i'm pretty sure this dozy woman would have come off worse and then i'd be in deep trouble. She is a great dog with everyone unless you cross my path. I gave the woman plenty of choice words though, far to explicit to print here. Haven't seen her since. My JRT is fine now but was cautious for a while walking along that stretch of path.
Masstiflover i have sent you a message with the link to the leads. I can't find them for sale on the auction site but this website might give you an idea.  

> My JRT is fine now but was cautious for a while walking along that stretch of path

Poor thing :(

>Masstiflover i have sent you a message with the link to the leads.

Brill, thanks so much for that :) Unfortunately the collars don't go big enough, but the lead looks great :) I was just thinking today that perhaps Busters long-line isn't very obvious being a dark colour, but if I got one of those bright green 'friendly' leads attached to the end, people could see from a distance that he is not loose and when a little closer can read the 'friendly' wording - perfect :)

I knew a Newfie that wouldn't go outside without his dummy, not scary at all unless you thought he'd swallowed the owner of said dummy.

I've had negative comments shouted at me just when walking my Rottie to the postbox. Totally ignorant.

I don't suppose it's wide spread knowledge, rally obedience being so new, but people there are using a thick bright green lead to show a dog needs his personal space and will snap if dogs come too close. Silly colour to choose really, no idea why they didn't choose red for danger like horses have. I don't suppose the general public would have a clue though, as long as the 'friendly' writing is very big, but another colour might be worth considering.

someone i know with a huge GSD gets the same problem, because of her size some people advoid them, met a man on my road in the field while walking my nabours dogs and was talking and they came in the field, as soon as the man saw them he picked up his yorki and left. ive never had a problem with the GSD and she help me a lot getting my nabours westy over some fear agression and infact my nabours other dog a mini shnouser(sp?) whill chase her around the field if given the chance, i dont see how anyone can be afraid of a GSD that is scaired of a old mini shnouser. same thing happened when my friend was walking with me and saw her in the field as well she took one look at her and said she didnt trust that dog.

Its just sad how people judge a dog soley based on how it looks.

I think the thing is we on here are all dog lovers so it is easy for us to sympathise with dog owners. Not everyone has had good experiences with dogs and often their only "contact" with dogs is via the media who tend to only report on the negative side of things. It's rather like feeling uneasy when you come across a group of teenagers in hoodies - press reports tend to make one think the worst and one's initial reaction is to avoid a situation which could be threatening whereas in fact we know nothing at all about the group of people we see as threatening - who could simply be a group of friends wearing the dress code of their generation going about their business as anyone else might do. It's our perception of them that can make us wary.

My DIL had no experience of dogs at all when she firts joined our family and we have one of the softest GRs going and she is  more than happy to interact with our dogs - yet when Harley gives one of his rare barks she jumps out of her skin and is clearly apprehensive.

As dog owners I believe we have to understand that not all people will share our view on dogs and that many people will be fearful around them - it's sad but we have to respect their views and understand that although we know we are responsible owners a lot of people out there aren't and the non dog owners have no way of knowing which is which.

As other Rottie owners have posted, I know exactly what you mean. Unfortunately my boy is not a good representative of the breed (damage was done before we got him), and we manage him accordingly, (always muzzled and on lead). However I had the opposite from you a week or so ago, my OH can walk all 3 of ours together, but if I'm doing the shift I split them, and take the boy on his own so I have 100% focus and control. Well I was doing my usual circuit of the park and saw a Man and his son with what looked like a small GSD, she was having a whale of a time chasing the seagulls, so I made sure that I was always at the opposite end of the park from them, in case she decided to come and try to make friends. On my 2nd circuit I thought they had left the park, but they were just out of sight, when I spotted them I did an about turn and walked the other way with the beastie, they then made a bee-line for me (the young boy was holding the lead), I kept looking over my shoulder and walking faster, they sped up to try and catch me up, until I had to stop and shout out "Sorry, but he's not friendly", to which the father answered, "it's OK she is!" At this point I just turned and jogged off, trying to retain the Beastie's attention, and to his credit he didn't behave like a complete idiot.

I bumped into the father later on that day and had a good chat, he just wanted to socialise his (very pretty) girl, I explained the boys history, and told him that if he saw a bald headed man walking 3 of them not to approach, if he saw me with 1 likewise, but if I had 2 then he could, but please don't walk straight at me, but approach in a circuitous route of ever decreasing circles - at this stage he looked at me as if I was a complete loon, so maybe he won't come over if he sees me.

Sorry - I've waffled on and gone off on a tangent. I do know exactly what you're going through, there was a series of Rottie attacks in the weeks following me getting our first girl (remember that poor baby in the pub with the guard dogs). I've just read today that a shar-pei has been destroyed after attacking a young boy. These stories will always result in some form of reaction/backlash, it's just unfortunate that Buster has seen the brunt of this one.

> I think the thing is we on here are all dog lovers so it is easy for us to sympathise with dog owners. Not everyone has had good experiences with dogs and often their only "contact" with dogs is via the media who tend to only report on the negative side of things.

Very ture, but it doesn't explain the dog owners that are horrified :(

> I had to stop and shout out "Sorry, but he's not friendly", to which the father answered, "it's OK she is!"

It is nice that the man actually wanted to socialise his dog with your rottie, but when an owner says "he's not friendly" - that should not be ignored! How frustrating for you :(

> as long as the 'friendly' writing is very big, but another colour might be worth considering.

The place that does the leads is opposite, they have red for danger, orange for 'no dogs' and green for friednly.

>I don't suppose the general public would have a clue though, as long as the 'friendly' writing is very big

Yep, that's what I'm hoping :)

> Very ture, but it doesn't explain the dog owners that are horrified :-(

Ah but there are dog owners and dog owners :-) :-)

> Ah but there are dog owners and dog owners :-) :-)

Good point :)

:-) :-)

your right there Harley, my mother is terrifyed of dogs due to being attacked when a kid, i use to be as well (i once ran infrount of a buss to advoid a dog behind a gate!) but after starting a college course where i had to go to a great dane breeding kennel every week (i use to shake the whole time there for the first month) and my new friend who had a pack of 8 dogs i was forced to face my fear and have been fully converted and even managed to convince mum to let me get my own dog! A few months back we went to stay the weekend at my brothers house and they were pup sitting a rotti/lab but we told mum it was a lab pup and she was fine with, but i know if she had of known it had rotti in it she would or run for the hills, still cant believe i convinced her to let me have a dog allthough i may have been directly related to the fact i was driving her car at the time :)

Our boy usually carries a dog bag/ sack with poop bags and other things attached, I have found people love to see him in it, I suppose they associate him with a working with the disabled dogs in their work jackets, and he gets better comments when wearing it. Also just jackets in general seem to make them more friendly looking (weird). 

> Also just jackets in general seem to make them more friendly looking (weird).

My lad sometimes wears a bandana (he has about 12 of them, all different!). While I think he looks sweet in them, friends & relatives thought he looked silly, but I knew I was right when finally, a trainer explained that he looks more approachable & friendly when wearing one.

You have baby blue and pink paw prints on his poo bag holder!!!!  Poor Buster. hahaha

We get these type of reactions with our Newf even though she is still a puppy some people are scared of her.  One young lad aged 8 or 9 saw her and ran back towards his mum shouting "Big dog alert, big dog alert", and they both ran in the opposite direction.

However, I also find it annoying when I'm trying to keep my dog next to me whilst there are distractions near by, then a family with children just run up to her and attack her like a giant teddy bear.

A friend's dog has a selection of dribble bibs all with different slogans on and we find it makes him more approachable to the GP, he's got his own fanclub in town.

I used to walk daily with my Friend and her four dobes,a dn the negative reactions from General Public and owners of yappy little dogs was just par for the course, you just avoid going in their direction.

Needless to say her dogs were always well behaved while the ankle biters raced around their legs, and the owners desperately tried to get them back.

Having had GSDs for many years I know what you mean, the last two however are jet black and hairy...people say how lovely they are, what are they? then back off when I tell them! very strange.

I do understand from the other side though - although the behaviour you all describe is totally ridiculous - as I now have shelties.  I was at training when a border collie came off the course and went for my sheltie.  Broke the skin and shook her up - dogs owner (lovely chap) was distraught and it took about a week for her physical injuries to heal and both of us it took a while for the shock to wear off.  Now I'm a lot more careful because I know that they're vulnerable and not every dog loves them.  I tend not to let them run in exercise areas (at agility shows) when they're full but wait until they're quiet or run them with some of my bigger dogs for support.  I don't blame people with friendly big dogs though. Lots of people with big/small dogs have met mine and been happy.  Sophie (big GSD) loved to meet a chihuaha - she views herself as that size and the chihuahua knows that she's Sophie's size so they were both happy! 

Fortunately at home I don't have to bump into too many people - I've had enough of people saying to their kids if they don't do something that dog will attack them, dragging their kids away from the nasty vicious alsatian, etc etc