DO YOU ALLOW . . . your dog to interact with other dogs while you are out on a walk?

[Laurie, Wally & Charlotte]

More specifically, when you are taking a walk and your dog is leashed, do you allow him or her to connect with other dogs that you come in contact with and do not know along the way?  I am asking this question, because of two recent scary experiences.  

The first one happened a few months ago, when I was walking Wally and my daughter's dog around our neighborhood.  Someone who lives a couple of streets away, approached us and asked if her Great Dane could say, hello, to Wally and Monty.  That greeting ended up with me in the hospital.  (I am now fine.)  The Great Dane was friendly at first and then lunged at us.  I reacted by shouting, "No," and immediately yanked my two dogs away.  The force of the pull caused me to fall backwards and hit my head on the pavement.  

The second incident took place about a week ago, when I was walking Wally in a friend's neighborhood -- far away from my home.  She took me over to her friend's yard, so that Wally could be introduced to a "very friendly" dog."  Well . . . that dog behaved very aggressively and I had to tug Wally away before he was bitten.  I understand that this situation was a different, in that the dogs were not meeting on the street, and that only Wally was leashed.

Wally loves all people and all animals, and doesn't have an aggressive bone in his body. He always acts appropriately around other dogs.  However, he is not submissive, and will stand up for himself if provoked.  For safety's sake, should I just stick to a rule whereby walks are meant for walking and nothing more?  

Thanks for your input!

[Moe]

My dog is still a puppy and she is so cute, brown and fluffy that people always want to meet her and let her meet their dogs. I used to allow it but I don't any more. Once a woman approached and asked if the dogs could meet then her dog bit Charlie.

My trainer suggested saying, 'Sorry we are training her right now and she's not allowed to meet other dogs' people usually understand and walk away happy enough.

My problem is that we walk on hiking trails a lot and there are dogs off leash. The dogs just come over, the owners are usually a bit behind and yell out don't worry he/she is friendly. I find this really annoying and so far I'm not good at handling it. I want to yell - my dog is viscous or she has some type of contagious disease. I think it is easier when there tons of people around, you can just kind of move on. When you meet someone in the middle of the woods it is a bit weird. Does anyone else have this problem? How do you handle off leash dogs?

[Camilla and Darwin]

Darwin gets along with most every dog we meet, but I still don't stop and have him meet other dogs very much. Usually if an owner approaches me and asks if he's friendly I will say yes and allow the dogs to greet each other. But I don't ever seek other dogs out on a walk. When Darwin gets to meet a dog on leash he immediately thinks it's playtime and then won't focus for the rest of the walk so it's something I avoid. 

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

We don't purposely go out of our way to meet other dogs, but we also don't go out of our way to avoid them.

Our rule is Luna is not allowed to greet a dog she doesn't know if she is pulling at her leash.  In general I get her to sit when I see another dog and she is not allowed to move until I give the "okay".  They are allowed a little 2-5 second sniff and that's it.  If the other dog is pulling to get to her, I usually just quickly walk by instead of allowing them the little sniff.  Unfortunately Luna is EXTREMELY submissive and sometimes just flops down onto her back before the other dog arrives... kind of hard to walk by with a dog when she's on her back!

[Pat and Traveler]

So sorry to hear about your scary incidents!  A friend of mine had a GD that was dog reactive and always tried to walk her dog at off hours, when there was less chance of meeting other dogs.  Duke had a particular hatred for little dogs, and it was amazing to me how many people with little dogs tried to have them meet Duke, even though my friend warned them to stay away.  I let Trav meet other leashed dogs occasionally, but I'm less and less comfortable with it.  He has never initiated an attack or aggressive action, but will respond instantly if the other dog lunges or snaps.  He appears to take this in stride, and would be just as willing to meet the same dog again, presumably with the same result.  Silly dood!   

[Laurie, Wally & Charlotte]

Hi Pat,

Like Traveler, Wally will never ever instigate a negative interaction, but he will also not back away if provoked.  We've been away for the winter, and he does miss his dog friends from home, so he's been interested in meeting new ones around here (as am I).  I don't want to seem unfriendly to our seasonal neighbors, but I really want to avoid another frightening experience.  

There's a neighborhood off-leash gathering planned for tomorrow.  It's called, Yappy Hour!  We're going to give it a try and see how it goes.  

[Pat and Traveler]

Laurie, do hope you find some new friends for both you and Wally.  Trav has two or three friends we meet at the park (not a dog park) occasionally, but he's not particularly interested in playing with other dogs, unless one of them wants to chase him while he has a stick or ball.  Actually, he'd rather have a human throw a ball for him, and I'm fine with that.  He does want to sniff new dogs, but 'playing' doesn't seem to be on the agenda.  My expectations have really changed since I got him as a puppy.  As a puppy owner, I assumed all dogs wanted to play happily together at dog parks, and pretty much any dog on a leash was anxious to meet all the other dogs.  Such a pink cloud, Disney-land vision!   

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Traveler is just like JD. He has absolutely no interest in other dogs when he's not on leash. He just wants someone to throw a ball for him.

[Linda, Charlie Brown and Beau]

I choose to over-protect Charlie because we have had several incidents happen that like yours are just too scary!  Charlie does not like barking and/or over-enthusiastic dogs and I agree with him so we no longer have the issue.  I just politely say we are training now and cannot stop to meet.  Good day.

We only greet the neighbors' dogs we know (except the 90 Rhodesian Ridgeback next door who takes her owner for a walk everyday at 8:30 a.m. whether she wants to go or not!!)

[BG and Gavin]

i always did, but now I regret it.  Gavin believes it is his right and duty to greet every dog and it has become a problem because he tries to pull me to them.  It has been very tough to break.  Next dog, greetings will only take place in controlled settings.

[Leslie, Dexter & Kirby]

Most of the dogs we meet are in our neighborhood (and we know the dogs/owners) so yes,they meet as long as the other owner is ok with it, I always let D&K meet them.  My only hesitation is that sometimes Kirby will start trying to play with the other dog which gets tricky since I have Dex on my other arm.

When we're at the park or beach, I'll always ask if it's ok first.  D&K have never had a problem meeting another dog on leash.  If the other dog gives off a bad vibe, both our dogs will walk away. 

[Barbara B., Sasha & Oliver]

Laurie,  I walk Sasha and Oliver seperately, Sasha is a awesome walker and jogger :)  She is focused on me and does not pay any mind to dogs, people, small critters :)  She knows we are out to get exercise and we always speed walk so when we pass people we just say hello and keep moving.  Sasha is so funny where she keeps her nose up in the air and just ignores the passerbys.  Oliver on the other hand is Mr. Social and wants to give everyone a friendly hello and kiss... he does not have a mean bone in his body and just extremely friendly.   I am working on keeping Ollie focused on me like Sasha is but he is just so fully of life and such a happy-go-lucky kind of guy.  Ollie is learning now that our walks around the neighbohood are for walking only.  If someone stops me to say hi and wants to pet Ollie I will stop because I like him meeting people and this is good socializaiton for him which he really does not need but he is a jumper so I take this opportunity to work on his sit and stay.   But my general rule is no stopping to socialize, it keeps everyone safe :)