18/02/2024
We'll just leave this here 💙
Uh oh, Kat's about to ruffle some feathers again. I know this is a really, really boring topic but it's such an important one to discuss.
"𝕀𝕥'𝕤 𝕆𝕂, 𝕙𝕖 𝕚𝕤 𝕗𝕣𝕚𝕖𝕟𝕕𝕝𝕪!"
Oh how these words can frustrate anyone who is putting effort into teaching their dog to respect other people's spaces!
If you've only ever had easy, friendly dogs and are not personally concerned with training for neutrality, it can understandably be hard to appreciate why may other dog owners are not interested in unsolicited play dates or attention from your pet.
Whilst I am not by any means anti allowing dogs to interact when it is appropriate, assuming that everyone wants to be friends with your pet is extremely unfair, not to mention pretty irresponsible.
"𝕎𝕙𝕪 𝕨𝕠𝕟'𝕥 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕝𝕖𝕥 𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕞 𝕡𝕝𝕒𝕪?"
The reasons for this are many and varied but ultimately, the other dogs owner does not owe you an explanation as to why they don't want your dog near theirs.
Here are just a few common reasons why someone doesn't want their dog to "say hello":
• Their dog is in training to be neutral around other dogs and/or is learning that they must not approach other dogs or people w***y nilly. This is a COMPLETELY valid reason for not permitting random greetings.
• Their dog is fearful and the owner doesn't want a strange dog of unknown temperament exacerbating a problem they are actively working to fix.
• Their dog has had too many bad experiences with other dogs for the owner to be prepared to risk another. This is especially important with puppies.
• Their dog is selective about who it makes friends with and the owner wants to avoid completely unnecessary conflict.
• The dog/owner is elderly or in some way poorly and they don't want a strange dog of unknown temperament and play-style potentially causing injury to either of them if it is a bit overzealous. Having personally had a knee severely dislocated by someone else's dog a couple of years ago, I can understand the concern!
• Their dog is aggressive towards other dogs and the owner is being responsible by keeping it away from yours (if the dog is a bite risk, it aught to be muzzled for everyone's safety of course). Aggressive and reactive dogs will NOT improve if they are not being adequately exercised and carefully exposed to triggers. They have every right to be using open spaces provided they're being responsible about it.
In a nut shell, it is completely irrelevant how "friendly" your dog is, unless the other dogs owner has agreed to allow them to meet and it is a mutual decision.
Whilst you might think that not permitting greetings is sad in some way, your dog has no right to be accosting anyone else's. Many dogs actively dislike the pressure of having to socialise with a dog outside of their family and get no enjoyment at all from it.
Whilst we have probably all had an incident at some point in our lives where a dog of ours has unexpectedly blow a recall and shown us up a bit, there really is no excuse in this day and age with all the free training material available at our fingertips to be letting a dog run off lead without a reliable recall knowing it will bother others.
If you can't trust your dog to leave other dogs and people alone, it should be on a lead or a longline until you can.
𝕌𝕝𝕥𝕚𝕞𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕝𝕪, 𝕚𝕥 𝕚𝕤 ℕ𝕆𝕋 𝕠𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣 𝕡𝕖𝕠𝕡𝕝𝕖𝕤 𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕡𝕠𝕟𝕤𝕚𝕓𝕚𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕪 𝕥𝕠 𝕞𝕒𝕟𝕒𝕘𝕖 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕕𝕠𝕘 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕪𝕠𝕦...and getting annoyed at being asked to call your dog away or to keep it on a lead if it won't recall is completely unreasonable on your part. Everyone deserves the opportunity to enjoy public spaces without conflict and we should all be being considerate of each other.
