I have just got back from the park with Indy and Spy and have had a bit of a run in with this woman and now I feel like I have had a brush with the Twilight zone.

There I am, walking aroung the park when 2 young GSD's come out of the darkness, hackles up, teeth bared, barking at the top of their voices. Spy ran away and Indy contained himself, just about and then could hold it in no longer and barked back. Typical Shepherds turned tail and fled. A minutes later they came back, same thing happened. No one is calling them, I can make out someone stopping to chat to another person but they make no attempt to recall the dogs. On the third assault Indy has really had enough and barks even louder and they run off but in the wrong direction and find themselves backed up (of their own doing) against a bench. My two are now ignoring them, I think they had decided they were no real threat. One of the Shepherds starts to scream, in a way only a GSD can. They were obviously way out of their depth and panicked. The woman now decides her dogs need her attention and comes running across the park screaming at me about what my dogs are doing to her 'puppies', which were bigger than both of mine. I said they were doing nothing and her dogs were scared because they were out of their depth. She then launches into this verbal attack on me and my dogs coming out with the biggest amount of cr*p I have ever heard and saying how they were only 20 weeks and they wanted to play and if I was so clever what would I do. I said if they were mine they wouldn't be off lead if they did that and it against the law to have dogs out of control in a public place. She refused to believe anything I said, and then started to question my ownership abilities. She kept going on about how young they were and asked how old mine were. I said they were 3 yrs and 14 mths and she said I couldn't compare them to puppies. I said I had only had Spy for 6 mths from Battersea and she said I had had someone else do the training for me! :rolleyes: It was like having an arguement with a deranged child who just kept coming up with the weirdest of excuses. Eventually I said I couldn't be bothered to talk to someone who talked such rubbish and she told me to grow up! As I walked away I said, mark my words, you are going to real problems with those two and she just shouted, yeah right, watch this space.

It never fails to amaze me how ppl can watch their dogs do these things and not see any wrong in it. Unbelieveable. I had to tell CD to give myself some sort of reassurance I had arrived safely back from the Planet Thanet pet dog owners warp. :(

Edited to add - I do not, under any circumstances, want to start any sort of breed debate here, the fact that they were GSDs is irrelevant. GSD breeding this area has totally gone to pot and she had two from the same litter so it was not their fault. An unfortunate case of bad breeding combined with ignorant, and yes I will say it, bad ownership.

go ahead <<<<shout>>>> as much as you want were listening ......we all meet these looneys while out walking our dogs its good to let off steam too those of us who understand what you've just experienced.

Its the poor animals I feel most sorry for!

NOW..... TAKE A DEEP BREATH ......AND RELAX ......THERE DO YOU FEEL BETTER NOW....

~RONI

I would keep an eye open for this owner, you may never have to see her again .... but someone has to :(  It might be worth voicing your concerns to the local dog warden, chances are the pups have had more than one 'experience' and with an attitude like that they will have more, and they won't improve with time.  The local dog warden may be able to observe what's happening, and tactfully suggest she takes some responsibility ;)

I have already reported her to our local police, more because I felt they should be aware of the situation and when, and I mean when, something else happens, they have it logged that is isn't the first time. Obviously I don't have her address so they can't do anything but I have seen her around before so I know she lives locally. I have seen the dogs in the park before with a man but he kept them on a lead and they were fine. I could stay away from the park but it is a 2 minute walk away so is very handy for those quick runs when Spy begins his evening 'pony in the paddock' routine trotting restlessly around the room. :rolleyes: I was very impressed with Indy it must be said, a year ago he wouldn't have been quite so forgiving, but then they were young so maybe he gave them a bit of slack, who knows.

It does sound as if her behaviour was possibly worse than the dogs', maybe its happened before and she was on the defensive ;)

OMG,sounds like something that would happen to me!
at 4months flynn was chased & floored by a "puppy" gsd, (it was about 18months old),i went into protective mother overdrive when this GSD was standing over my baby,it was not playing,it wouldnt let him move,it was a bully. "WHATTTTTTA YOU DOING" i shouted in my most authoritive voice & whallopped it with a soft rope lead on its bum,after it jumping 100ft in the air it ran away.
when the eldery owners caught up i told them that id had to hit their dog as it was a bully & had pinned my dog to the floor in a veryy agressive way.
"oh hes only a puppy"they said
poor dog what chance did it have with owners like that,they had to have him put down about a year later because they couldnt control him,this was a high drive huge powerful GSD with two 75yrs pluds owners
he ended up very agrressive & they had to walk him with a stick to keep him under control.

i also have a abusive women who for over a year shouted abuse to me when i was training in the park,training on the concrete bit outside my gate,walking to my caR,i ignored her for a year but it only stopped when she pushed me too far & i had a right go at her, (she has a XB ;) )
& then theres the woman with the rescue greyhounds that lets one of them pee up all my training stuff & thinks its funny.......

I agree, I feel sorry for the dogs. GSDs can be lovely dogs in the right hands, but if you don't know what you're doing it can be a disaster with a powerful dog like that! We have a couple of rowdy ones in our park too. :-(

I have been awake all night, still fuming over what she was saying. I am annoyed with myself for arguing with her and allowing her to do nothing more than insult me when the problem was her dogs, not mine. At one point she said you don't start training till they are 6 mths! New one on me. :rolleyes: I said rubbish, I started training Indy as soon as I got him at 6 weeks, and she went, 'Hah, you can't get them till 8 weeks so that's wrong isn't it!' She seriously thought I was lying about the age I got Indy because, 'you aren't allowed!' She also said something about me putting mine on lead if she puts her on and I said, but mine aren't out of control, yours are.

The most worrying thing I think has to be that I suspect it wasn't even a case of fear aggression because once she had them on lead they were like different dogs and Spy, bless him, even went and said hello, despite it all. Now surely if it was fear aggression they would have been worse on lead but they were like any happy dog going, no fear, no aggression. I think it is a pack thing and they need to be walked separately and on flexi until it is manageable. That is the saddest thing, watching those dogs it is obvious they are trainable but she won't hear a word against them so why bother.

I am going to phone the dog warden this afternoon, see if I get any joy there. The police were as useless as ever. :rolleyes:

i think you should check with any local mental hospitals as she may well have escaped.
id ignore her at all costs,i like to wind my errr "fans" up by putting my dogs in a instant down or sit ,or do some HW as we pass.(you WILL of course probley get "training is sooo cruel" comments then though)

Why should you even consider staying away from the park, you have every right to be there. She is just a stupid woman who will have real trouble with these dogs eventually. At 20 weeks, they should not be running around too much, we keep our puppy on a lead at all times in the park as she is still learning recall and plus it could do long term damage to her hips.

My friend had a GSD who they didn't train properly as a puppy and it became too much for her and after 9 months had to rehome him, I see these dogs going the same way. They need controlled socialisation and I bet the get away with murder at home.

You did the right thing, but don't lose sleep over this.

Which park were you in Colliesrus?  If it was Jacks I will keep a look out.  Love to see her dogs cross Spud and Jag :-).  Not that Spud can to much these does.  Mind you his mum has a wicked tongue on her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And hey don't worry about it.  There has to be dumb people in the world.  Makes the rest of us look really interlectual!!

Know what you mean, its not easy being perfect but you just have to try and live with it lol

>Mind you his mum has a wicked tongue on her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Noooo! :D

It was the one behind the swimming pool in Newington - 'nuff said really. But it is so close to me it is really convienient. I think I will avoid it after dark, it wouldn't have been so bad if I could have seen them coming but it was like something out of hounds of the wotsits! The thing is, it is not just other ppls dogs that could be in trouble as they are all mouth and no trousers at the moment, although that will more than likely change as they get older, hormones won't have arrived yet! Some of the dogs I know would have torn them apart and seriously done some damage. Indy is all mouth and I knew he wouldn't actually hurt them but thinking of some of the dogs I know or have known... And you watch her complain then. :rolleyes:

Hey Slobdog, maybe we should all (what? 20 odd dogs between us?) meet down there in force, then see how much of an arguement she can put up, although I didn't let it go easily it has to be said.

I wanted to pull you lot out of my pocket so you could all back me up! :D

Michelle, the old heelwork, DC thing, yes I have pulled that one out of my belt on a few occassions, you know, drop them all into a down from flat out at a distance, recalled one into heelwork while doing walk backs and twists with the other, etc. It is great for wiping the smirks off ppls faces, especially when they do their mad noisy outrun, as collies do, and you get comments about being out of control. ;) Norty but smug! :p

Looking back, I should've known it was all going to go wrong. At the beginning of the walk I ended up on my bum as the boys tangled me up and half the road were out and looking at that moment (of course :rolleyes:) and then when I sorted myself out and we were walking around some cars which were blocking the way out Spy took one look at the wall in front of him and, yep you got it, cleared it with one bound and landed in the flower beds of a lady who also happened to be standing outside her house. I made some comment about damned agility dogs jumping anything in front of them and made my escape. I should have turned back then shouldn't I?! :p ;) Mind you, he also cleared the three foot wall around the front garden when I left him to wait while unlocking the car the other day and has taken to leaping over benches too. :p

>At the beginning of the walk I ended up on my bum as the boys tangled me up

I thought all dog walks started that way .................. :P :D

>Looking back, I should've known it was all going to go wrong. At the beginning of the walk I ended up on my bum as the boys tangled me up

Bit like you running Indy at agility then!  Ending up on your bum!!!  :-D

>Bit like you running Indy at agility then!  Ending up on your bum!!! 

When have I ever ended up on my bum in training? You must be confusing me with yourself, Miss work snakes from the floor then flash my ar*e for all to see...... :p

I'm sure you've fallen over at training before!  And if you haven't you obviously aren't running quickly enough!!  Tee hee!!

Don't worry though, I'm not there this week so you can have a nice quiet evening :-D.

Mand

Slobdog when have you ever "run" in the ring? I've seen you walking quickly, falling over in the mud and thankfully only heard about you pulling a mooney at the judge but running? NEVER :-D

Ooooh slobdog there are so many answeres to that comment that I am actually dumbstruck which is quite an achievement really!!! :-D 

I have to say though that if I had met these two Kelly would have sent them packing with a bloody nose just cos they charged at him. He was bred for cattle so the nose is the usual place he aims at and although he lurves puppies he would think they were adults cos they would be bigger than your average pup. I had a similar incident with someone at an agility show who really should have known better and gave her such a gobful that she now avoids me in the exercise area. She allowed her dog to charge up to mine barking, (they were on the lead!!!) Kelly spun round and snapped at it but I managed to pull him back just in time and heard his teeth click shut on air. I called to her to say that he may bite her dog if she allowed it to do that again and she just laughed saying that it would teach it not to do it. I then pointed out that it was not up to me to teach her dog  manners and that if it came back at mine again and it was REALLY lucky it might get bitten... then again it might get my foot in it's face. She mumbled something about how mine should be muzzled even though they were on the lead. I explained to her that I was the one that she should worry about as I was far more dangerous than my dogs and she just got flustered and went very red and went away quickly. ;-)  I wouldn't have minded if she was even sorry about her dogs behaviour but she thought it was funny and couldn't see why it shouldn't be able to do what it liked :rolleyes:

This sounds as bad as the stupid woman at the beach last week who allowed a child of about 6 to walk with a retriever who was definately not trustworthy and attacked poor Molly.  She was terrified and Ian had to kick the dog as the woman was too busy shouting at the child for letting the dog go rather than getting hold of the flaming dog.  I am afraid I was ranting and raving all night in my mind as we have had a lot of problems with Mollys confidence and this stupid dog totally ruined it.  What was even more alarming is the fact it was a male dog attacking a female one.  Even Thomas always loves females as he thinks they are all going to fall for his fatal charms bless him :)

Thomas...tell me about it!!! Kelly has been attacked on more than one occasion and I have worked really hard with him to build his confidence back up and then stupid people like this come along and I have to start over again!!!

On a much nicer note, I met a chap this evening that has only lived in the village for a couple of months. He has a lovely chocolate lab that is very friendly but when he saw me put Kel on a lead as he approached he called his dog back and put him on a lead too. We stood for about 20 minutes having a chat and I explained that Kelly could be a little sharp :rolleyes: and by the time we had finished they had introduced themselves to each other and were playing nicely.  He was so understanding and apologised because his dog is just so overfriendly and sometimes gets into trouble for it. He had a lovely game with Sol and Kel so that is one more friend that he has :-) If only more people were this good and allowed dogs to be introduced properly my boy would be fine. Instead I keep meeting the morons that have no idea, thankfully there are not too many of those in my village :-D

I took the boys for a quick run before training last night and had the complete opposite experience. A really nice elderly lady and her old collie came over and said what lovely dogs etc. Restores your faith a bit when you meet someone 'normal', ie not ranting insane things at you. Mind you, it was bit embarrassing when I asked how old her ploddy, half asleep collie was and she said 12. She asked how old mine were. 15 mths, 3 and, looking round at Laddie who was racing with the other two up and down the green, shouting at them and chasing sea gulls, nearly 11. Maybe nobody's told him, she said. :) ;)

Maybe nobody should tell him as he is obviously so happy? :-D ;-)

Well at least in the first post your dogs didn't get hurt, RE my post "rottie attack" I know how you feel and i wanted to rip the owners head off Oki didn't deseerve what happened to him earlier, all she could she was " I AM SORRY" Sorry just did't work. I just hope it doesn't have lasting effects on Oki, he is the most calm, well behaved dog and ever so laid back, even when i was cleaning him up afterwards, bless him. He even just ate his antibiotics like it was one of his treats, I can't belive how good he was, i love him to bits. He does have his large scatty moments thou, although not since this happened. i think he is in shock, and hurting
Danielle