Hello, this should really be in the 'controversial' section, but as a new joiner I don't seem to have access.

I don't have a problem with dogs generally but this relates to an incident yesterday in the New Forest, when a number of large dogs, under the charge of one woman, ran towards my wife and me, and jumped on us, almost knocking my wife over.  I called upon the owner to call off her dogs, and the response was a torrent of vile and foul-mouthed abuse which was distressing, but I'll pass over that.

We later described the incident to other walkers we met, and were given a name - and I now discover that the person concerned (who matches the description) has an entry on this site.  Which is why I'm posting here.

I merely ask all dog owners - whether breeders or not - to show some consideration for others enjoying a walk in a public place.  And to keep all dogs, especially large dogs, under control.

That is all.

Whenever I see people coming if mine are off I call them back as I know my girl will run about and bark at them. She wouldn't bite but they don't know that and the law says a person only needs to reasonably fear a dog will bite them to report them. Plus I use to be afraid of dogs (before being cured) so can understand how having an unknown dog running up to someone or barking at them could scare someone.

If that happened it is totally unacceptable and gives responsible dog owners a bad name.  Unfortunately on occasion dogs might clash with people but to not apologise to you is really not on.  The dog owner's response rather than her dogs' behaviour would motivate me to report it.

I'm so sorry this has happened to you. My own breed would never jump on anyone but I know that young bouncy dogs can be harder to control, it's not an excuse, but perhaps the one/ones that jumped up at your wife was/were youngsters? I've been jumped up on several times by young labradors and retrievers, usually with very apologetic owners running after them, young bouncy dogs need to learn this isn't allowed and they also sometimes forget their recall training in the rush to see someone, but they do still need exercised. I'm not excusing what happened one bit, maybe just suggesting a reason.

What is completely unacceptable is the owners attitude, how appalling! If that was my dog I would be mortified and very apologetic.

I suspect the sort of person that lets their dogs run wild, then responds with verbal abuse probably doesn't care one bit about a post on here, I would consider reporting them to the police, verbal abuse is a crime as is having dogs out of control in a public place.

If you have the name of this person i would have reported them , no dog owner should let there dogs just run over to other people no matter how big or small. And for her response to be rude like this i would hate to know what she would do if they attacked a person or another dog. So i would report her as she clearly is not in charge of her dogs which can lead to even worser situations.

I myself never let either of my two of anymore as i was fed up of mothers telling there children we have to go know as theres a aggressive dog here now ( one of my dogs is a German Shepherd) i hate people discriminateing against breeds its not fair to those of us who do train and socialise our dogs. Im under full control of both my dogs but i never go to dog parks anymore due to people walking out when my GSD comes in and i only walk in fields or country paths but even then when i can take them of if a child is there my GSD boy comes running back to me without even calling him as he has learnt this from mothers who sream at him and have scared him so he comes back himself as he knows I'll have to call him. I appreciate those who are scared of dogs so will always put him back on in these cases but i just hate those whos kids want to say hello but tje mom says only say hello to the black dog ( my other dog is a Labrador) but not the other one as there aggressive. Thats what i hate discrimination against breeds.

But like i said id report her.

Why come on the forum accusing an unnamed alleged member, of having their dogs out of control ? Simple correct thing to do is to report the person directly to the appropriate authority.

Fortunately my land has no public right of way on it, so rarely get anyone with or without a dog on it so incidents like this don't happen.

My dogs are 100% under control all the time & are never off lead in public accessible places, don't trust the humans to be 100% under control & those who dislike dogs usually don't know how to avoid unwanted attention from off lead dogs, especially in areas where it is legal to have dogs off lead. Been sworn at a time or two for my dogs just being near people on lead & ignoring the people

>those who dislike dogs usually don't know how to avoid unwanted attention from off lead dogs, especially in areas where it is legal to have dogs off lead

Why should they be in a situation where they need to avoid unwanted attention from off lead dogs in the first place? Just because they are walking in an area where it is ‘legal’ to have dogs off lead, does not mean they should be on the receiving end of unwanted attention. It is possible that the reason they ‘dislike’ dogs in the first place is because of a previous bad experience with a dog. I have lost count of the amount of times I have seen some poor child sent flying by an over exuberate dog while the owners either ignore the situation or try to reassure the parents that the dog just wants to ‘say hello’ and make no attempt to put the dog back on the lead.

I might not be scared of your dogs Tommee but I think I would be terrified of being caught by you on your land.....  

I once got knocked over like a skittle by my own flippin dog, took both my legs from under me.  

I wasn't condoning the owner's behaviour, but having been screamed at by parents/carers to keep the f away from their free running offspring/charges, when my dogs have been quietly walking within a foot of me & many yards away from them & the children is equally as bad. I've had children running up to myself & my dogs & try to touch my dogs whilst shouting & screaming at the top of their voices, expecting my dogs to put up with being poked & grabbed & "enjoy" it.

When I was working in England, I had to take a couple of dogs with me to visit the vets & there was no parking near the vets. As I walked my dogs between myself & a wall, an elderly man swung his walking stick out trying to hit my dogs. Turned out he simply didn't like dogs & had managed to bash quite a few innocent ones on lead as he waslked near them. When I described him to the vet, the vet told me he had had to treat quite a few for serious injuries. This time he had hit me, when I reported him to the police, the result was he lied & said he was defending himself against my "Alsatians" hm never seen a 20 inch tall black & white GSD !!

You would have no reason to be on my land uninvited, it's not readily accessible & has no field entrances on any lane or road(the reason I moved here)

Been kneecapped by the odd sheep, but never my dogs

I’ve been floored by two of mine when they were running full chat and not paying attention, but they never jump up at strangers, they know they’re not allowed. The ‘funniest’ incident (now, not at the time) was when I was flattened by a very exuberant off duty guide dog who forgot she had brakes!

I do also agree with Tommee in that i dont get why you put this on the forum and joimed just to write this as this member you speak of might not even come on here anymore and might never see this. And clearly the rest of us are in control of our dogs. The best thing in theory is to report it but by that i mean report the woman for verbal abuse as regarding the dogs jumping up they did nothing wrong in the eyes of the law as iv had dogs who are off lead and have knocked my 3yr old nephew off his feet causing injury and the police do not care about loose dogs neitjer do they care about verbal abuse as when i reported the owner for swearing at my nephew and his mom they said you have no evidence so did nothing.

But putting it on this forum will not change anything.

Dogs off lead with an owner who cant control there dogs unfortunately is not new that doesn't make it right that they should be off lead but theres nothing we can do. I have just had to ignore the idiot owners whos dogs are always off leash as theres nothing anyone will do.

It was clearly a very unpleasant experience for u  and made far worse by the owners dreadful reactions.. I am rather confused as to how the op knows it was someone  who is a member here as most don't use their real names and those that do often it's just  a first name.

I think your experience would be better reported to the correct authority particularly as this sounds like something that's happened before by these people

> I am rather confused as to how the op knows it was someone  who is a member here as most don't use their real names and those that do often it's just  a first name.

Someone can easily be a member of Champdogs whether paying or not, where we give our name, affix etc. They may or may not be a member of the forum where we don't always go by our name.

Dear 'Elderly Walker'

I am very sorry that this has been your experience. It is absolutely unacceptable behaviour on the part of the lady with her dogs. I would have been mortified had this happened with my dogs. And I would never be abusive- abjectly apologetic more like !
I spend a lot of time in a local forest where there are  people exercising large numbers of dogs. Negative interactions are very rare . There is an amazing lady with a number of Border Collies. She and her partner arrive in a van and their dogs are swiftly and expertly shepherded into the forest. They are so well behaved and organised.  Both owners are polite and respectful of other people using the forest -riders, mountain bikers, families etcetc. This is how it should be. There is no excuse for permitting dogs to be a threat to others , not indeed for foul mouthed abuse.

The law is very much on your side. Should these dogs , and their owner, be giving you cause for fear, then the police should be notified.

Quite right I was thinking forum not the other parts .of course

> I am rather confused as to how the op knows it was someone  who is a member here as most don't use their real names and those that do often it's just  a first name.

I'm appalled, it wasn't private land but an open public area. 
Of course we can all have problems known again it's rare that any dog has a bullet proof 100% recall, but the way it's handled make's all the difference.
I didn't read the original post thinking it was necessarily a member who posts on 'The information Exchange board', but perhaps amongst Breeders.

Re reading that was my mistake and  I apologize.

Sorry this happened to you, it can be a worry with 1 dog running up but a small pack can feel daunting and im sure if this person had been apologetic and checked you were ok and then popped the dogs on a lead it wouldn't have been maybe something you'd have felt to note on here.
I echo what others have said and the way this owner reacted is not acceptable in any way and that as you have a name and if they breed you will probably have some form of contact details if they have their own page on the site is to report them to the local dog warden.
I guess it all depends on what you wish to happen, if its a one off incident then the dog warden will likely give words of advice but if they have a whole catalogue then they may take it further by putting measures in place that this persons dogs have to remain on lead in a public place.

If they are a breeder on here they may not use this forum, but if they are and see this then lets hope they change their ways

Thanks everyone for the sympathetic replies.

I should clarify that the dogs did not 'attack' us, nor were they 'set on us' in anyway.  They were merely being 'a bit too friendly'.  In 9 cases out of 10, if a dog jumps on me, I won't mind in the least.  On the odd occasion when I do object, the owner usually comes up and apologises at once - as I'm sure all of you would do!  That would be the end of it.

Unfortunately this case was different.

I posted on here because I do not want to take this matter any further than merely drawing attention to it.  I have been careful not to describe the person concerned, or her dogs.  If she is reading this and understands why we were upset, well and good.

That's all I want to say on this matter, and I'll make no further contributions to this site (I'm not a dog owner after all ).  Thanks.

> What is completely unacceptable is the owners attitude, how appalling! If that was my dog I would be mortified and very apologetic.

What really baffles me that even on this forum where majority of members are experienced dog owners it is still considered "understandable" or even "unavoidable" for owners to let their dogs off the lead in the absence of 100% control, oh yes providing they apologise.

Duh.

I care not one bit about your apologies, or whether your dogs are youngsters, or whether they need exercise. I might be walking a young puppy, a nervous dog, a dog in training, etc, where your off-lead out of control bouncing youngster can terrify my puppy, or set my efforts months back, or lead to my dog becoming permanently frightened or reactive due to finding itself in this situation over and over again. And what if I'm walking with my small child???

Hire a field for your youngster, use your garden, put it on flexi lead, or long line, use a bike, use a treadmill, whatever. There are plenty of ways to exercise a dog while keeping it under control. But regardless, there is simply no excuse whatsoever to letting your dog off-lead when you know it can run off and potentially affect other people and dogs.

>I care not one bit about your apologies, or whether your dogs are youngsters, or whether they need exercise. I might be walking a young puppy, a nervous dog, a dog in training, etc, where your off-lead out of control bouncing youngster can terrify my puppy, or set my efforts months back, or lead to my dog becoming permanently frightened or reactive due to finding itself in this situation over and over again.

These are surely the situations when you, as a caring owner, make sure that ou walk said animal where this is unlikely to happen?

Such as "Hire a field for your xxxx, use your garden, put it on flexi lead, or long line, use a bike, use a treadmill, whatever" ?

> These are surely the situations when you, as a caring owner, make sure that ou walk said animal where this is unlikely to happen? Such as "Hire a field for your xxxx, use your garden, put it on flexi lead, or long line, use a bike, use a treadmill, whatever"?

Wow. And how exactly putting my dog on a long line will prevent your out of control dog jumping at it? I take my puppy, my nervous dog, my dog in training, to public places to socialise them, help them get over their worries, familiarise them with environment and so on. According to you, as a caring dog owner I should no longer to do any of those things, to allow your out of control dog jump around unhindered? And what about small children, elderly people, or any one else likely to be affected by your bouncing dog, should they too hire a field or use a treadmill? Are you actually insane?

Wow. And this post is from one of longest members on this forum and one of the most prolific contributors...... Well, people like you are precisely the reason laws have already started tightening around dog walking, currently prohibiting walking large groups of dogs believed to be the most common cause of out of control behaviour. Continue on your present course, and the next development will be prohibition of off-lead in public spaces altogether. That or some less patient walkers will start kicking your dog’s brains out the next time it bounces on them. Well done.

Terms and Conditions of Use:

Since this is interactive, and everyone who participates in the Champdogs Forum is "in it together", please treat others the way you wish to be treated. One way to guard against misunderstandings is to read over your response before you post it. Flaming or personal attacks are not allowed or tolerated. Should anyone use aggressively inappropriate language, start a personal attack, or engage in hate speech, they will be barred from all further discussions.

Always be respectful of other users.

Please avoid being judgemental or condescending in your posts. Many people arrive at this forum looking for advice because they have a problem or have made a mistake. Please be constructive in your replies and address the solution to the problem. Do not simply criticise the poster for having the problem, as this serves no useful purpose.

Do not make assumptions regarding others' knowledge or motives, if in doubt seek clarification before you respond. However please try to avoid "grilling" new members to the forum, you will learn more about people if you allow them time to volunteer information about themselves.

Be tolerant of other people's views and opinions. It is far better to agree to differ, than to continue an argument ad-nauseum, when it is obvious that neither party will change their viewpoint.

We will not tolerate any form of online bullying.

Please keep your language clean and decent. This includes personal inflammatory language as well as obscenities.