Help with walking and other dogs

[sarah]

Hello all.

I have a 14 week old black lab and this is my first puppy. Just recently on our walks around the neighborhood, we have encountered at least three unleashed or loose dogs, two of which have come right up to my pup. It scares the crap out of me every time. The third dog that didn't greet us kind of lurked behind for a few houses and eventually went away.

Luckily, both face to face encounters were friendly, but I am wondering how I should be reacting to an unknown dog running right up to my puppy (especially when the owner is nowhere in sight or too far away to help). I have read that if I act fearful, it can affect the encounter and so I try to not freak out. But I do get scared. I don't want anything to hurt my boy! I carry pepper spray with me on my walks but obviously in the time it takes to get it out, something can happen so that doesn't give me a lot of comfort.

Does anyone have any advice for me so I can calm down a little on my walks? I actually don't like walking him now because I fear the encounters. I'm thinking of driving him somewhere, a park or maybe a different neighborhood to take our walks. But I could run into the same problems elsewhere. My boyfriend walks him in the mornings and he's a lot more relaxed about it (he runs into the same problem) so maybe I'm just being a worry wart.

[voodoo]

when chili was little, I used to pick him up and walk away from off leash dogs that looked mean/barking/etc...

[Labradorks]

What a pain, right? The few times that has happened to me, I would keep on going, pick up the pace, ignore the loose dog, stand tall, be confident, and tell my dog "leave it, let's go!". I am loud when I do it so that the owner of the dog can hear if they are around, and hopefully do something about it. If the owner of the dog is there I do ask them to please get their dog (loudly). I have fibbed and said that my dog is aggressive. That usually gets them moving a little faster. If I run into the issue in the same place, I tend to change my walking route. Same goes for dogs that try to fence fight my dogs.

[charliebbarkin]

What a pain, right? The few times that has happened to me, I would keep on going, pick up the pace, ignore the loose dog, stand tall, be confident, and tell my dog "leave it, let's go!". I am loud when I do it so that the owner of the dog can hear if they are around, and hopefully do something about it. If the owner of the dog is there I do ask them to please get their dog (loudly). I have fibbed and said that my dog is aggressive. That usually gets them moving a little faster. If I run into the issue in the same place, I tend to change my walking route. Same goes for dogs that try to fence fight my dogs.

Same here.

If the other dog absolutely will not leave mine alone, then I will put mine in a sit and wait for the owner to come get their dog, while I stand between the two dogs.

though, at 14 weeks I wasn't doing a whole ton of walking around where we would run into such an issue.

[sarah]

when chili was little, I used to pick him up and walk away from off leash dogs that looked mean/barking/etc...

Unfortunately he's getting a little big for me. I can still pick him up, but I don't know how far I could walk with him.

It is a pain, especially since I have a hard enough time just trying to keep him walking instead of stopping at every piece of paper blowing in the wind and gawking at every person/dog/bird he sees. I take Sam on very short walks and still we pass at least 5 homes with dogs out in the yard that want to bark at us. It's very distracting to my dog. He knows sit and watch me but trying to get him to do that when he's that distracted is pretty difficult for him. We are working on it.

So am I being silly worrying about him getting attacked then?

[Labradorks]

Unfortunately he's getting a little big for me. I can still pick him up, but I don't know how far I could walk with him.

It is a pain, especially since I have a hard enough time just trying to keep him walking instead of stopping at every piece of paper blowing in the wind and gawking at every person/dog/bird he sees. I take Sam on very short walks and still we pass at least 5 homes with dogs out in the yard that want to bark at us. It's very distracting to my dog. He knows sit and watch me but trying to get him to do that when he's that distracted is pretty difficult for him. We are working on it.

So am I being silly worrying about him getting attacked then?

At four months I imagine picking him up could actually be dangerous as the other dog might trip you or your pup's excitement and wiggling around might make you drop him or fall.

If they are consistently running out of their yards, I would talk to the owners. But tell them that you have regularly been walking your dog and their dog has run out into the street and almost gotten hit by a car or something. And when your pup is bigger, I swear, the "he's aggressive!" move really works. Especially if you have your dog in a halti or gentle leader because many people think it's a muzzle. Alternatively, you can change your route.

You're not silly to worry. I worry when a dog rushes at us. Mostly because I'm worried that my dogs are going to take me down out of pure excitement! But that is still dangerous for both myself and my dogs. But, you don't want to freak out too much or your dog will read that and follow your lead. It sounds like realistically your only option is avoidance.

[KenZ71]

Ask your local animal control what the rules are. In some areas dogs are not allowed to leave their own yards.

Or, you can look into self defense i.e. pepper spray, and / or a whistle.

After a while you will get to know the neighborhood dogs and adjust your route.

[sarah]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I agree about getting to know the dogs in the neighborhood. Funny how before we got Sam I didn't realize how many people just in our two block radius have dogs. It's a lot! We don't live in a very nice area so going for walks before this just wasn't something we did. If I wanted to walk, I got on my treadmill. This all feeds into my anxiety about the walks of course so we're learning together. I'll still be carrying my pepper spray and we'll be checking out different routes too. If I feel we need to in the future, I have no problem driving him somewhere else to walk him too.
thanks!

[Tanya]

can you walk elswhere? I wouldn't pick up the dog unless there was real danger to a dog as it sets up a bad precedent for your pup. My biggest concern is that you fear is going down the leash tot he pupy and can cause him to be fearful - which would be very bad.

If you are not comfortable walking there then maybe find alternative places to walk even if you have to drive there. Or get a friend to walk with.

Have you looked at/started puppy classes yet? I would highly recommend them so the puppy gets exposed to other dogs, learns to play and meets new people.

[sarah]

I tried really hard to not be scared when those dogs came right up to us. I checked my breathing and I didn't retreat or move to protect Sam. And my dog doesn't seem like he's afraid. He loves people and goes right up to them and he wanted to play with the dogs that have approached him and other dogs he sees so I don't think he's picking up anything if I'm projecting it. That is one of my big concerns though, Tanya.

We do have him in obedience class. Unfortunately, we are the only ones in our class lol. It's great for the individual training we're getting, but no so much for socializing. I've been looking into puppy play times at our humane society and we plan on doing the next level obedience classes when our current class is over. We also take him to play dates at my sisters (she has 4 dogs) and my parents and other relatives have dogs that he has met and played with. I agree we need more exposure to other dogs.

We did take an alternate route last night on our walk and we didn't run into any other dogs. However, there was trash and broken glass everywhere so we'll have to move to the next street over tonight (like I said, not great neighborhood).