Keep your dog under control, even in off leash areas

Half of my clients first messages to me go a little something like this: “we were out on a walk, when we got jumped on by an out of control dog. It gave my dog a real fright and now they lose their mind whenever we see another dog. Can you help?”

The majority of the time, this isn’t even the result of outright aggressive dogs. It’s irresponsible owners, letting dogs off without control and being completely oblivious to the carnage they’re leaving for trainers and owners to sort out. They’re “friendly” so are left to harass others, with no thought to the consequences.

Prime example. This morning I was working with a client at a HUGE reserve which is also an off lead area so we could work on some recalls legally as well as general listening skills in a more exciting area. Common sense dictates that if using a dog exercise area you do need to expect some level of interaction from curious dogs, and need to be prepared to advocate for your dog if needed. However being a very large area hundreds of metres wide and a very quiet day there was more than enough space for everyone to be able to spread out and enjoy without issue.

However, what we experienced this morning was next level. One super friendly dog consistently running up, being pushy and inappropriate in their interactions, while I consistently moved the dog away and returned them back to the owner - who had no control but kept the dog off lead and allowed the dog to approach again and again. After this happened multiple times, I approached both owners and said that we were working on training and could they please give us a little bit of space (a small corner of an enormous field).

The reply from these grown ass ladies was a prime example of why we have so many dog related issues in this country. “We don’t want to, this is a social park.” Zero attempt to control the dogs, continued to allow them to approach and be pushy even after multiple requests and the dog being returned to them again and again, and continued to give zero fucks about anyone besides themselves. The lack of respect for other people or the dogs safety genuinely blew my mind.

Thankfully my client did incredibly well with their training being a lovely social dog herself, and her owner was able to keep her on track despite the other dogs interruptions - nailing it in the real world distractions. However had the training dog been any more or less confident than her super stable self, and had I not been there to control the situation by wrangling the other owners dog, one or both dogs could have had a very negative and potentially dangerous experience.

We have very very few areas in the Waikato that actually allow off leash dogs, meaning we have to share spaces with others in the journey to a fully trained dog. Everyone /should/ feel that they can go exercise and train their dog in a public off lead area, without risking their dog being jumped on and harassed - especially when it comes to enormous spaces at quiet times where there’s no need to be right on top of each other.

I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but you are using a public space please don’t be that owner who is the reason another owner has to call me for help with their dog. Do better.

🌟Pay attention. Catch up with friends, have a good chat but keep half an eye on your dog so you know they’re safe and not getting into mischief. If you can’t watch them, put them on a lead.

🌟 If you don’t have perfect control of your dog yet, that’s okay - we all start somewhere and every dog has their off days. Use a long line to give them a bit of freedom to run while remaining in control per dog control legislation. This also means your dog isn’t practicing unwanted behaviours, and you can enforce your recall as needed to keep improving it.

🌟 Before you allow them to run up to another dog, quickly check in with the other owner. Do they look like they’d be happy for the dogs to interact? Is the dog looking pretty happy and relaxed? Would they be a good fit? Everyone deserves to be able to go into a public space and enjoy time with their dog without being harassed, and not every dog loves other dogs all up in their space.

🌟 If your dog does run up to another, it’s not the end of the world. We expect some interactions in a public off lead area because dogs aren’t robots. However if it’s not a good fit and the other party would like a bit of space, please respect that and move on. Rule number 1 - don’t be a dick.

Fortunately this interaction didn’t end in disaster for either party. But one day that approaching dog is going to end up with a big vet bill from jumping on the wrong dog, and those owners are going to be solely responsible for that. Do your dogs and other dogs a favour and take a little responsibility. Until that happens though, dog trainers everywhere will continue to be flat out fixing the issues created by this shit.