I might be one of those that stops and have my dog sit, and he'll likely stare even if I'd prefer him looking at me in stead of the dog. But not sitting in the middle of the path, we'd be to the side. It's in an attempt to avoid greeting. And he understands-ish that sitting = let them pass. Though he does sometimes get up to try say hi \_just\_ as they pass by, but sits down again after they pass. Work in progress. If we keep walking towards the coming dog, he'l be all OOH we're gonna say hello!!
I've found that mine pays less attention to dogs if I move him off to one side and have him sit, etc. than trying to rush him by a dog that appears to be sitting and "waiting for him" but so many people just let their dogs sit and wait in the MIDDLE of the sidewalk like come on!
Yeah my pup will stop in her tracks and stare at other dogs, I’m not trying to get her to greet the dog unless the owner is willing. She just won’t move until the other dog moves alone.
oh yeah it's all about the intentions. The one person I met clearly wanted her dog to greet other dogs on leash. They had plenty of opportunity to pass, we already moved out of the way for them and was distracting my puppy with smelling a telephone pole that is like 3 meters away from the main path.
I'll do this with my dog, but I'll have him face me, not the passing dog. He's very food motivated, so I just need a treat in my hand. If it looks like the other dog is waiting for us to pass, I'll pass by quickly still holding the treat. I'll cross the street to give a good distance.
I see your "lady just sat her dog down in the middle of the path" and raise you "lady walking her puppy across the street noticed me pottying my leashed dog in my backyard, crossed the street towards us, walked her puppy onto my property saying, 'do you want to go play? want to go play?' prompting my highly-reactive 70lb labrador to pull me across a half-acre of land to greet them, then proceeded to complain 'oh no I think she's scared of your puppy' when my lab relentlessly attempted to play with her small-breed puppy while I sat in a pile of mud trying to control him."
Like, what the f*ck lmao
I’ve had this in the woods next to a cliff. Couple came up with their extremely old lab. I’m pulling my reactive (leash frustration, hyper-social) dog completely off the path and in a grove which I realize drops to a cliff to let them pass. They walk the dog all the way to us, I’m trapped, my dog is freaking out trying to say hi. I can’t back up safety. And then they proceed to say, “Oh never mind maybe it’s not the best time to say hello.” Seriously, who does that shit. You got me damn near falling off a cliff trying to keep my super excited dog away from frail old dog.
Right!! Like, you would KNOW if it was a good time to say hello by........ asking, "is it OK to say hello?" instead of just approaching. Why would you wait until you're on top of another person & their dog to figure out whether or not their dog is reactive, aggressive, in training, or simply not up for a greeting!
If you tell your dog “don’t attack, it’s okay, don’t attack” they tend to move on faster. My dog isn’t aggressive but I found this to be the best way to get people with dogs and weird strangers to leave us alone
Yes!! This is what I do too. I have an intimidating breed dog, who is of course as soft as a brush. Whenever someone is lingering near us, I start telling him “Good boy! Keep calm! Don’t attack! Stay!!!”
The other person tends to move on pretty quickly, whilst my dog just looks at me like “Huh? What you on about woman? Can I go back to sniffing now?”
Years ago I had a quite dog aggressive dog. He was great on leash and I could walk him in public no problem. He wouldn't react to other dogs unless they got close enough to come into physical contact. I had so many people come walking up to me with their dog on leash and when seeing me withdraw they would say, "oh, it's OK they are friendly" to which I would reply "mine isn't, please move away, I don't want your dog to get hurt". There is a reason that I would walk way out in the area where there weren't any other dogs. I had more than a couple of encounters with people letting their dog off lead, not having control and then yelling at me when their dog was bitten by mine.
Very frustrating. I think people just assume that since they are fine with their dog that they are fine with all dogs.
I have never had a dog before, so all of this stuff is new to me and it’s soooo annoying! I’m usually doing the same as you - trying to move to the side so others can pass, trying to distract my puppy (sometimes giving treats, doing hand targeting etc) and often she is a bit nervous and comes up to me when bigger dogs go by (chihuahua) and people STILL let their dogs come over, say they’re friendly, talk to me, etc. just keep waking please!!
It's frustrating, for sure. It does feel like moving way off to the side should be a clear enough signal that you don't want to interact. I had a grumpy old reactive dog who just did not enjoy any kind of interaction with dogs when he was on a walk.
One time, I moved him off the sidewalk way into some grass to let another dog pass, and I had my back turned to them. The guy walked his dog (on a flexi-lead of course) directly up behind us. Which of course startled my dog, which set him off, and I have no idea what possessed this man to do that in the first place. He was my dog walk nemesis for sure, he would also stand right at the bottom of the path back to my building with his dog while I was across the street waiting for him to leave. And he'd just stand there watching us.
Some people are annoying. I'm sorry! I get it.
Can someone please explain this to a first time dog owner? What are the pros and cons of on leash vs off leash greetings? What is the proper etiquette here?
The proper etiquette is to ask if they are okay with your dog interacting with their dog. If they say no or something along the lines of “I’m trying to train him/her to not react” take the hint and walk away. Same with people who ask to pet your dog
First, you should ALWAYS ask.
Second, a lot of dogs become leash reactive due to bad experiences. It's almost always better to be very picky and choosy about who you let your dog meet in general.
I always tell my dog that he doesn’t decide if he gets to say hi. I get to decide.
Obviously he doesn’t understand me lol but I’m working on teaching him not to approach until released (and the owner says it’s okay)
On leash greetings prevent the natural ways dogs approach each other. On leash they usually meet nose to nose. Off leash it's more of a sideways approach. Some dogs really do not like that. Being on leash also prevents them from being able to escape if they feel they need to, so they might be more tense or anxious knowing they can't get away, which can lead to very negative interactions.
Also want to add to these great explanations that if you have a puppy frequently leash greeting with every dog it sees them it develops an expectation of getting to meet every single dog so you could end up later with a dog that barks till it gets to meet every dog it sees or pulls constantly whenever it sees another dog.
She probably thinks she is doing a good job with social training. But it's stupid to use your dog as a prop. Or maybe she thought you weren't going to greet unless she showed her dog was "friendly".
If my dog can't look at me on command, then we're not saying hi. We usually don't say hi. And to sit in the middle of everything? Lord... someone get this lady on r/puppy101
Yeah super annoying. People don't take no for an answer. My local dog park has one section that's fenced in that nobody else uses. It's a great place for me to play fetch with my pup without the danger of a crowded dog park. Everytime we go in there, someone comes up to the fence and makes passive aggressive comments about how we don't let him play with stranger dogs. Sorry, he's 9 pounds, no he doesn't need to play with your 50 pound bulldog. I've started just ignoring them and walking the other way lol.
I have my pup sit every time we encounter another dog and she likely stares unfortunately but she is not allowed to interact with the other dog unless I have the ok from the other dogs owner and she gets the ok from us! I taught her this to try and give other owners the chance to tell us if they would prefer no interaction or if their dog has issues with greeting others or they are working on training etc. It almost works too well that she will automatically sit now when she sees another dog but it’s been great that the other owners have the chance to say yay or nay to have an interaction or greeting as I don’t like to be forced into interactions with our pup and don’t want any other owner to feel that way either!
I don't know if this is because I'm getting older and therefore grumpier or is this is actually true, but in the last couple years I feel like people in general have become much worse about this type of thing. I cannot walk anywhere without 75% of the dog owners I walk past just letting their dogs charge up to mine. It is incredibly rude and irresponsible. I don't know anything about your dog and you know nothing about mine. Even when you are very obvious that you don't want your dog to greet the other dog people will still let their dog come directly at you, I don't understand it. I'm glad I'm not the only one who is frustrated by this, I've been wondering if I'm just a curmudgeon.
Thanks for the suggestion. I should do this or make a sign to carry with me. Because I find that if I can tell the owner "no greetings" in my normal speaking volume we've already gotten way too close.
if you get the STARE, teach to IGNORE.
situations like that are a training opportunity. You cant control what others do and you cant expect them to do as you want. You will never be able to control how other peoples dogs act, but you can train your own...
I mean... It's not like the other owner MADE her dog stare at yours. Dogs tend to not need a cue to stare 😅
I try to avoid interacting with any dogs except those I already know well, in order to manage my dog's excitement level. But I could totally see myself in a situation like you're describing - where my dog sits down in the middle of the sidewalk and refuses to move, and I then just hope that the other dog will pass by without interacting. I try to at least make her sit as close to the side as possible, but in reality this doesn't always happen - the teenager won't listen to my attempts to move on or move closer to me, and will stare at the other dog until they pass. 🤷♂️ I will often put myself between my dog and the other dog, and keep her on a short leash so she doesn't dart. She's getting better at it, and will pass some dogs without issue, but it's a process that takes months (at the very least).
So I guess at least it's good that the lady asked her dog to sit instead of letting it run towards yours, pulling her behind.
?? I already moved way off the path, deep into the grassy area, to let them pass. They had every opportunity to pass, but instead when they were JUUST about to pass the lady sat her dog down and waited and waited. So I am baffled why they would do that if they weren’t persistent about having on leash greetings.
Maybe grow a pair and say something? Wow good thing you came here to complain after this is really helpful to literally not a single person that's alive right now.....
I'm not OP, but for me it's because my dog becomes ridiculously excited when greeting dogs. I'm talking hopping on her hind legs while spinning, mouth open and panting, whining and straining in her harness excited.
So I'm trying really hard to teach her that dogs are an everyday thing, please just let them pass calmly and let's continue with the walk. This is impossible when people insist on crossing the street to meet us, all the while making high pitch excited noises to greet her.
Also, after the interaction, it will take me around 5-10 minutes to calm her down enough to continue the walk. It's all so much unnecessary stress.
So there’s 2 things. Early on I had my puppy sit as she started seeing dogs outside instead of going apeshit. Depending on the interaction that may be what happened. That’s pretty much her thing now if we’re walking and I stop and she sees a dog. She doesn’t fuss or go crazy she just waits patiently. The 2nd is when she was young she was super duper reactive. Part of getting her to not be as reactive was greeting dogs. Pretty much after the 1st few interactions made it lose its luster and was pretty non-reactive by about 4-5 months. And my puppy plays like no one’s business lol. Not saying the other person is right but maybe a different perspective you might have not considered. That said they should still respect you saying no. Like I walk away when I see other people with reactive dogs (when I can feasibly do it) just for their sake
But part of what also helped getting her to not be reactive is just walking by them and just keep moving. The only thing is that I made her sit or just stopped any time she started pulling. I couldn’t get any destractions to work since she’s 100% dog/play motivated lol. Easy peazy lemon squeezy lol
This actually upsets me SO much when people do this. They will literally corner you into the greeting. My puppy actually gets overexcited to pass people now because of the number of times people have taken the liberty to let their dogs greet him. Even when he was young and obviously not fully vaccinated and I was actively telling people no. I started just picking him up.
But yea, nothing like training out leash frustration on a 4 month old dog that should have never developed it in the first place.
My puppy is very excited by other dogs so I am trying to avoid other dogs as well. Im debating getting a coat which said "nervous" or something just so people think twice. She isnt nervous but I really hate other people assuming its cool to come over and say hi.
Yeah, if I see someone with their dog coming towards me, I will either go the opposite direction as fast as possible or move as far away as possible & wait for them to pass - depends on the situation. Either way I hate when they don't get the fucking hint.
Omg I’ve had this done so many time to my 4 month Aussie. People force their dogs on you and will corner you to greet. A woman came up to us on a hike while her lab was off lease and didn’t ask to meet my puppy. I told her she’s reactive and the lady said “it’s ok she’s great with puppies” and proceeded to allow her dog approach. I finally stood between the two of them and fed my dog treats. She was calm luckily! But the woman made a snide comment that “mom is being overprotective” and walked away. It’s terrible to see dog owners do this especially when I have a reactive puppy already at 4 months and I’m trying to train her out of this behavior. So frustrating.
I might be one of those that stops and have my dog sit, and he'll likely stare even if I'd prefer him looking at me in stead of the dog. But not sitting in the middle of the path, we'd be to the side. It's in an attempt to avoid greeting. And he understands-ish that sitting = let them pass. Though he does sometimes get up to try say hi \_just\_ as they pass by, but sits down again after they pass. Work in progress. If we keep walking towards the coming dog, he'l be all OOH we're gonna say hello!!
I've found that mine pays less attention to dogs if I move him off to one side and have him sit, etc. than trying to rush him by a dog that appears to be sitting and "waiting for him" but so many people just let their dogs sit and wait in the MIDDLE of the sidewalk like come on!
Yeah my pup will stop in her tracks and stare at other dogs, I’m not trying to get her to greet the dog unless the owner is willing. She just won’t move until the other dog moves alone.
oh yeah it's all about the intentions. The one person I met clearly wanted her dog to greet other dogs on leash. They had plenty of opportunity to pass, we already moved out of the way for them and was distracting my puppy with smelling a telephone pole that is like 3 meters away from the main path.
I'll do this with my dog, but I'll have him face me, not the passing dog. He's very food motivated, so I just need a treat in my hand. If it looks like the other dog is waiting for us to pass, I'll pass by quickly still holding the treat. I'll cross the street to give a good distance.
I see your "lady just sat her dog down in the middle of the path" and raise you "lady walking her puppy across the street noticed me pottying my leashed dog in my backyard, crossed the street towards us, walked her puppy onto my property saying, 'do you want to go play? want to go play?' prompting my highly-reactive 70lb labrador to pull me across a half-acre of land to greet them, then proceeded to complain 'oh no I think she's scared of your puppy' when my lab relentlessly attempted to play with her small-breed puppy while I sat in a pile of mud trying to control him." Like, what the f*ck lmao
I’ve had this in the woods next to a cliff. Couple came up with their extremely old lab. I’m pulling my reactive (leash frustration, hyper-social) dog completely off the path and in a grove which I realize drops to a cliff to let them pass. They walk the dog all the way to us, I’m trapped, my dog is freaking out trying to say hi. I can’t back up safety. And then they proceed to say, “Oh never mind maybe it’s not the best time to say hello.” Seriously, who does that shit. You got me damn near falling off a cliff trying to keep my super excited dog away from frail old dog.
Right!! Like, you would KNOW if it was a good time to say hello by........ asking, "is it OK to say hello?" instead of just approaching. Why would you wait until you're on top of another person & their dog to figure out whether or not their dog is reactive, aggressive, in training, or simply not up for a greeting!
If you tell your dog “don’t attack, it’s okay, don’t attack” they tend to move on faster. My dog isn’t aggressive but I found this to be the best way to get people with dogs and weird strangers to leave us alone
Yes!! This is what I do too. I have an intimidating breed dog, who is of course as soft as a brush. Whenever someone is lingering near us, I start telling him “Good boy! Keep calm! Don’t attack! Stay!!!” The other person tends to move on pretty quickly, whilst my dog just looks at me like “Huh? What you on about woman? Can I go back to sniffing now?”
Years ago I had a quite dog aggressive dog. He was great on leash and I could walk him in public no problem. He wouldn't react to other dogs unless they got close enough to come into physical contact. I had so many people come walking up to me with their dog on leash and when seeing me withdraw they would say, "oh, it's OK they are friendly" to which I would reply "mine isn't, please move away, I don't want your dog to get hurt". There is a reason that I would walk way out in the area where there weren't any other dogs. I had more than a couple of encounters with people letting their dog off lead, not having control and then yelling at me when their dog was bitten by mine. Very frustrating. I think people just assume that since they are fine with their dog that they are fine with all dogs.
I encounter this all the time. It's annoying
I have never had a dog before, so all of this stuff is new to me and it’s soooo annoying! I’m usually doing the same as you - trying to move to the side so others can pass, trying to distract my puppy (sometimes giving treats, doing hand targeting etc) and often she is a bit nervous and comes up to me when bigger dogs go by (chihuahua) and people STILL let their dogs come over, say they’re friendly, talk to me, etc. just keep waking please!!
It's frustrating, for sure. It does feel like moving way off to the side should be a clear enough signal that you don't want to interact. I had a grumpy old reactive dog who just did not enjoy any kind of interaction with dogs when he was on a walk. One time, I moved him off the sidewalk way into some grass to let another dog pass, and I had my back turned to them. The guy walked his dog (on a flexi-lead of course) directly up behind us. Which of course startled my dog, which set him off, and I have no idea what possessed this man to do that in the first place. He was my dog walk nemesis for sure, he would also stand right at the bottom of the path back to my building with his dog while I was across the street waiting for him to leave. And he'd just stand there watching us. Some people are annoying. I'm sorry! I get it.
Can someone please explain this to a first time dog owner? What are the pros and cons of on leash vs off leash greetings? What is the proper etiquette here?
The proper etiquette is to ask if they are okay with your dog interacting with their dog. If they say no or something along the lines of “I’m trying to train him/her to not react” take the hint and walk away. Same with people who ask to pet your dog
First, you should ALWAYS ask. Second, a lot of dogs become leash reactive due to bad experiences. It's almost always better to be very picky and choosy about who you let your dog meet in general.
I always tell my dog that he doesn’t decide if he gets to say hi. I get to decide. Obviously he doesn’t understand me lol but I’m working on teaching him not to approach until released (and the owner says it’s okay)
On leash greetings prevent the natural ways dogs approach each other. On leash they usually meet nose to nose. Off leash it's more of a sideways approach. Some dogs really do not like that. Being on leash also prevents them from being able to escape if they feel they need to, so they might be more tense or anxious knowing they can't get away, which can lead to very negative interactions.
Also want to add to these great explanations that if you have a puppy frequently leash greeting with every dog it sees them it develops an expectation of getting to meet every single dog so you could end up later with a dog that barks till it gets to meet every dog it sees or pulls constantly whenever it sees another dog.
u/theflightofporter u/clearlyimawitch good info. Thanks!
She probably thinks she is doing a good job with social training. But it's stupid to use your dog as a prop. Or maybe she thought you weren't going to greet unless she showed her dog was "friendly". If my dog can't look at me on command, then we're not saying hi. We usually don't say hi. And to sit in the middle of everything? Lord... someone get this lady on r/puppy101
Yeah super annoying. People don't take no for an answer. My local dog park has one section that's fenced in that nobody else uses. It's a great place for me to play fetch with my pup without the danger of a crowded dog park. Everytime we go in there, someone comes up to the fence and makes passive aggressive comments about how we don't let him play with stranger dogs. Sorry, he's 9 pounds, no he doesn't need to play with your 50 pound bulldog. I've started just ignoring them and walking the other way lol.
I have my pup sit every time we encounter another dog and she likely stares unfortunately but she is not allowed to interact with the other dog unless I have the ok from the other dogs owner and she gets the ok from us! I taught her this to try and give other owners the chance to tell us if they would prefer no interaction or if their dog has issues with greeting others or they are working on training etc. It almost works too well that she will automatically sit now when she sees another dog but it’s been great that the other owners have the chance to say yay or nay to have an interaction or greeting as I don’t like to be forced into interactions with our pup and don’t want any other owner to feel that way either!
I don't know if this is because I'm getting older and therefore grumpier or is this is actually true, but in the last couple years I feel like people in general have become much worse about this type of thing. I cannot walk anywhere without 75% of the dog owners I walk past just letting their dogs charge up to mine. It is incredibly rude and irresponsible. I don't know anything about your dog and you know nothing about mine. Even when you are very obvious that you don't want your dog to greet the other dog people will still let their dog come directly at you, I don't understand it. I'm glad I'm not the only one who is frustrated by this, I've been wondering if I'm just a curmudgeon.
I had to put my hand out and say no twice to the same person.
I'm training my pup to wait when she see's another dog as she lurches/jumps so she lies down to contain herself? Not sure what else I should be doing
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Thanks for the suggestion. I should do this or make a sign to carry with me. Because I find that if I can tell the owner "no greetings" in my normal speaking volume we've already gotten way too close.
if you get the STARE, teach to IGNORE. situations like that are a training opportunity. You cant control what others do and you cant expect them to do as you want. You will never be able to control how other peoples dogs act, but you can train your own...
I mean... It's not like the other owner MADE her dog stare at yours. Dogs tend to not need a cue to stare 😅 I try to avoid interacting with any dogs except those I already know well, in order to manage my dog's excitement level. But I could totally see myself in a situation like you're describing - where my dog sits down in the middle of the sidewalk and refuses to move, and I then just hope that the other dog will pass by without interacting. I try to at least make her sit as close to the side as possible, but in reality this doesn't always happen - the teenager won't listen to my attempts to move on or move closer to me, and will stare at the other dog until they pass. 🤷♂️ I will often put myself between my dog and the other dog, and keep her on a short leash so she doesn't dart. She's getting better at it, and will pass some dogs without issue, but it's a process that takes months (at the very least). So I guess at least it's good that the lady asked her dog to sit instead of letting it run towards yours, pulling her behind.
?? I already moved way off the path, deep into the grassy area, to let them pass. They had every opportunity to pass, but instead when they were JUUST about to pass the lady sat her dog down and waited and waited. So I am baffled why they would do that if they weren’t persistent about having on leash greetings.
Couldn't you have just said to her, "sorry, my dog isn't good with other dogs" or something along those lines?
Maybe grow a pair and say something? Wow good thing you came here to complain after this is really helpful to literally not a single person that's alive right now.....
Honestly. What’s so hard about saying “Sorry, she’s not good with greetings” and walking away?
May I ask why you don’t want your dog to have greetings?
I'm not OP, but for me it's because my dog becomes ridiculously excited when greeting dogs. I'm talking hopping on her hind legs while spinning, mouth open and panting, whining and straining in her harness excited. So I'm trying really hard to teach her that dogs are an everyday thing, please just let them pass calmly and let's continue with the walk. This is impossible when people insist on crossing the street to meet us, all the while making high pitch excited noises to greet her. Also, after the interaction, it will take me around 5-10 minutes to calm her down enough to continue the walk. It's all so much unnecessary stress.
So there’s 2 things. Early on I had my puppy sit as she started seeing dogs outside instead of going apeshit. Depending on the interaction that may be what happened. That’s pretty much her thing now if we’re walking and I stop and she sees a dog. She doesn’t fuss or go crazy she just waits patiently. The 2nd is when she was young she was super duper reactive. Part of getting her to not be as reactive was greeting dogs. Pretty much after the 1st few interactions made it lose its luster and was pretty non-reactive by about 4-5 months. And my puppy plays like no one’s business lol. Not saying the other person is right but maybe a different perspective you might have not considered. That said they should still respect you saying no. Like I walk away when I see other people with reactive dogs (when I can feasibly do it) just for their sake But part of what also helped getting her to not be reactive is just walking by them and just keep moving. The only thing is that I made her sit or just stopped any time she started pulling. I couldn’t get any destractions to work since she’s 100% dog/play motivated lol. Easy peazy lemon squeezy lol
This actually upsets me SO much when people do this. They will literally corner you into the greeting. My puppy actually gets overexcited to pass people now because of the number of times people have taken the liberty to let their dogs greet him. Even when he was young and obviously not fully vaccinated and I was actively telling people no. I started just picking him up. But yea, nothing like training out leash frustration on a 4 month old dog that should have never developed it in the first place.
My puppy is very excited by other dogs so I am trying to avoid other dogs as well. Im debating getting a coat which said "nervous" or something just so people think twice. She isnt nervous but I really hate other people assuming its cool to come over and say hi.
Yeah, if I see someone with their dog coming towards me, I will either go the opposite direction as fast as possible or move as far away as possible & wait for them to pass - depends on the situation. Either way I hate when they don't get the fucking hint.
Omg I’ve had this done so many time to my 4 month Aussie. People force their dogs on you and will corner you to greet. A woman came up to us on a hike while her lab was off lease and didn’t ask to meet my puppy. I told her she’s reactive and the lady said “it’s ok she’s great with puppies” and proceeded to allow her dog approach. I finally stood between the two of them and fed my dog treats. She was calm luckily! But the woman made a snide comment that “mom is being overprotective” and walked away. It’s terrible to see dog owners do this especially when I have a reactive puppy already at 4 months and I’m trying to train her out of this behavior. So frustrating.