I was out with my 12 week old Lab over the weekend and as we were walking we caught up with a lady with two little dogs (couldnt tell what breed).

Darcy has always been very playful with other dogs but because I didnt know them I stopped her running up and asked the owner if they were friendly. She said they'd be fine so I let Darcy approach and they both grabbed one of her ears and tugged really hard.

She was screaming and crying as I was trying to get the two dogs off her while their owner was just saying "oh you naughty girls I didnt think you'd do that because she was a baby"

I was so annoyed. darcy was visibly shaking and is now very nervous around dogs she doesnt know.

If you cant trust the owners to know their own dogs should I keep her away from all dogs I dont know.

Im sorry to hear you've had a bad experience there!
In general I dont think anybody can ever fully predict their dogs reactions.
My BC has always been as good as gold, until he suddenly decided to go for this male boxer.
There must have been something about the dog that prompted him to attack.
Needless to say we put him on the lead now until we are sure he's going to behave.
But I will never say my dog will be "fine" if asked.

The annoying thing is I'm pretty sure from what she said afterwards "oh I didnt think they'd do that to a puppy"
that they had done that in the past.
I know you can never be sure but I think she was completely out of order experimenting with what her dogs would be like with a puppy without giving me some warning first.
I shall be very cautious from now on

oh Racheal thats awful, I think I shall start being a bit more cautious - although we haven't had any problems so far (touch wood)
Why do people let puppies or any dog for that matter near theres is if they are not 100% sure their dog won't attack?
I would be so ashamed if I was that woman - altough sounds like she didn't care!

Thats exactly what it was like - she didnt care in the slightest. she didnt even apologise, and like you said if it had been my dogs I would have been devastated.
She didnt even tll her dogs off and then she saw another women she knew and was laughing about it with her in my earshot.
I was fuming. If my boyfriend hadnt of been there to calm me down i would cetainly have had more to say to her.
Darcy wasnt hurt but she really has had all of her confidence knocked out of her.
I'm taking her to her playpals tonight to try and remind her that other dogs can be fun.

i have the same concerns, my 2 labs are very playfull with each other and the old boy, but saying that i will always put them back on there lead when other dogs are about, more to the fact that with 2, they could be very over powering for another dog and just because i don't think they would do anything, another dog may get scared at these 2 veloseraptors flying around at a rate of knots, and the end result could be one of them getting hurt, (i don't just mean my dogs). so i never assume anything... especially what others will say about there own pet...after all ours are perfect,( the same with our kids, it's others who are at fault >> being sarcastic <<).

Well done for planning to remind Darcy that other dogs are fun - that is so important. MOst dogs do give pups a puppy licence, and don't seriiously hurt them, but some may well scare them which is what seems to have happened to yours. Silly woman for laughing about it with her friend - showing her ignorance really!

In my view it is best to try to "read" both dogs and owners from afar - it sounds impossible but believe me you get amazingly good at it after a while. I once had a big bullmastiff stand and stare at me and my elderly Terv, and for a split second i was nervous for my girl. But I then called out cheerfully to the dog's owner and she called back to me andthe dog relaxed. However it started tobark furiously at a little old lady keeping nervously to the hedge with her small dog. After a while the right reaction becomes instinctive for the situation and you can relax more :)

Also, if a puppy has lots and lots of positive experiences, one or two scraps or bad experiences won't make much difference to it, so don't worry, build on the good experiences your pup has had and remember to keep calm and relaxed at all times :D :) ;)

Lindsay

Hi Rachael, sorry about your bad experience,poor little Darcy! At least she will have learnt that not all dogs are friendly and she shouldn't always go bounding up to all other four legged friends! As someone said, as long as most of her experiences are good she'll be fine. I'm intersted in knowing what "playpals" is? Is this a puppy socialising class? Sharon

No nothing as organised as that (although we do go to puppy classes)
Where I might add she got a prize for best puppy pole weaving (not bad for a 12 week old) (proud mum smile)
we just have some firends with young dogs and Darcy loves nothing more than playing chase with them in the garden for hours on end.
Thought it would cheer her up.

We had the same sort of thing yesterday. We took our 4mth old b/c to our local country park but with him being so young we kept him on a lead. Our puppy trainer told us to try and get him more socialised with other dogs and to ask the other owners if their dogs are ok with other dogs just like you did. This man was walking with his two dogs off the lead and his lab came up to my dog Jake. I asked the owner if it was ok and he said yes then his dog started snapping and growling at my Jake. I admit that Jake was a bit excited but only with loads of sniffing. It put me off trying it with any other dogs after that.

Hi Rachael, a similar thing happened to me not so long ago, but my experience was the other way round.
My mini smooth dachsie thinks she's bigger than she is and will attempt to nip any dog that she doesn't know. Needless to say i ALWAYS put her on a lead when other dogs are approaching. Any way i was out in the woods walking my three when a woman came the other way. I put all of mine on leads. She didn't. Her dog started coming towards mine, so i shouted "my dog bites". She shouted back " oh, she won't bite him he's a puppy", i replied with "actually she bites anything". I walked away after she said "well it'll teach him a lesson then".
I was really cross.

I see your point, however I think that that may be a one-off. I think that you have to live a little: if owners say that their dogs are friendly, then I see no reason why yours cannot approach them. I know that they bit her (or is it his? sorry!) ears and that of course is terrible, but you can't now assume that every dog owner you meet is going to lie about theit dogs' temprement.

Daniel.

Luckily because she's such a bouncy little thing she got over her fright very easily.
So we are now approaching other dogs again.

I know that most people are trustworthy I'll just steer clear of that woman from now on.