I was paying extra attention to this the last 3 days and i noticed that about 8 of 10 people: hold their dogs close preemptively (most of the time nothing happens wiht those) dogs bork and need to be held back people cross to the other side
Is nobody bothering to properly train their dogs anymore? What is happening in the dog scene? is anybody else experiencing this?
One of my dogs has some crazy weird leash aggression. It’s not even aggressive “aggression” - she’s just an 80lb friendly beast that wants to meet other dogs and people, and she has no qualms about pulling you down if you’re not ready.
It’s a hell of a habit that I haven’t been able to get her to break. I am the guy that will cross the street with my dogs if you’re on the sidewalk coming my way - just to keep things stress free.
Same. My dogs have actually had a lot of training, but most people who see us in public certainly wouldn’t think so.
that is a very valid concern and i certainly dont have a problem with that, but i dont think thats the mayority tho
I don’t know why you are being downvoted. I was talking about this with another dog owner.
People haven’t trained their dogs to walk at heel.
You often see owners being almost dragged along pavements with the dogs on the road side.
Dogs on a long leash while near a road or people.
Etc etc
I like to think that people are downvoting for using “noone”. I feel like I’m stroking out when I read that.
whatever may be wrong with this, it isnt intentionally, english is not my native language, apologies
For me it was framing “holding a dog preemptively close when nothing happens” as a bad thing and indicator of an “untrained dog” that made me disagree with your characterization.
My dog is wonderfully trained. A wonderfully well behaved little princess everywhere except when a strange dog approaches her in public and sticks their nose in one of her soft spots.
Since she got attacked by another dog, she retaliates aggressively to dogs who were not under proper control and who were allowed to invade her space without consent.
I am proactive about the potential of unresponsive owners with “trained dogs” failing to properly control their dogs.
That doesn’t reflect my dog being untrained. The reflects the number of untrained dog owners out there.
Lol. Nah, man, it’s all laughs. Plenty of native speakers do it, too. I’m on a one-man crusade. It’s just “no one”, for the record.
alrighty, thanks for the headsup either way my man
Nice
My dad hasn’t disciplined his dog at ally. I periodically take care of the dog when he’s out of town, and any time I do the first couple walks the dog is crazy. Constantly pulling, bolting and yanking my arm (this has given Dad a shoulder injury).
But I don’t put up with it, and after a couple walks the dog respects me and just walks alongside me.
The weird thing is my dad was in the army and is one of the most disciplined people I know. I don’t know why he seems unable (or maybe uninterested?) in training the dog.
He’s a smart dog. He picks things up very quickly. I swear he understands about 50 - 100 words of English.
Just seems so weird that my dad wouldn’t train his dog.
Sounds like the issues you describe are more akin to humans not being trained to use a leash than dogs not being leash trained.
The thing is, as humans we can learn how to care for animals before we take them on.
True.
Lots of dog owners send their dogs to be trained though, but dont get trained themselves, so the dog does GREAT with the trainer. Then good with the owner, until the owner gets negligent, then the dog training short circuited for a few minutes.
You specifically cite dogs on roadsides. That isnt an untrained dog problem. That is an untrained human problem.
Exactly, this whole conversation is about people who don’t train their dogs. Most of them because they can’t be bothered to learn how to.
Yesterday I saw a man with three large husky type dogs. He had them on the traffic side of the pavement and they were pulling him in both directions. At least he had them on a stout lead and not one of those retractable things.
This thread actually answers the OP question of what’s happening with the seeming increase in the number of untrained dogs, because around 80% of the comments are making excuses for antisocial behaviours that their dogs have.
I’ve trained my dog to not bark, to not chew, to not take any object for which he has not been previously permitted (baby toys for us namely), to walk at heel, and so on.
And guess what? he still exhibits behaviours that are antisocial, like imperfect recall and begging behaviours. And I’m damned if I’ll make any kind of excuse for it: I am still training him to deal with these behaviours and I will continue to do so because I owe it to him.
If you do anything short of that then you are failing your dog, yourself and the people around you.
If you couldn’t have guessed I’m also in favour of licensing for pets because, like many, I’ve encountered too many dogs at the extremes of antisocial behaviours to think that the average person can be trusted, through apathy or intent, to prevent their animal from harming children.
dont worry about the silly number next to the post, cause i dont either, anyway:
and yeah, i see those at all, but doesnt that just support my question?
My dog was doing well until a “trained” dog, off the leash, attacked her. Wounded face, badly bruised ribs.
Then, about a year later, a “trained” dog, off the leash, ran up to her and went to sniff her, she took it as a threat, and another fight happened. No blood this time, but still.
Then about a year later… a “trained” dog, off the leash… same fucking story.
10 years later, I am more vigilant and proactive. If another “trained” dog is around (telltale because of the lackadaisical behavior of the owners), I get my dog right up to heel on the other side of my body and get ready.
At least 10 times over those 10 years, I have a dog running at my dog with an owner just standing there yelling “don’t worry, they’re nice!”, me replying “MINE ISNT”, and then them jogging leisurely over while I am hunched over trying to keep the 2 apart.
I dont care how well you think you’ve trained your dog, be a responsible owner. If it isn’t your home (front yard NOT included) or a dog park, leash. Also, don’t approach a dog you don’t know. You don’t know their history. Be aware of your surroundings and pick a route that keeps your dog leash distance from the other dog.
It’s not that hard to not be a douch nozzle.
This “Don’t worry he’s nice” shit is pretty irresponsible imo. Ignoring the fact that animals are still unpredictable regardless of their track record, people can sometimes have real trauma with dogs and letting your dog just trot up to people willy nilly could really upset someone. Also something could happen to the “nice” dog if the person or other animal isn’t nice and frankly the owner of the nice dog would have only themselves to blame.
2 dogs have been injured by my dog for it and I just can’t blame my dog.
Felt bad for a while and then just couldnt justify it anymore.
And let me be clear, we have had friends dogs over to the house, done controlled introductions and it has been fine. Took her to a kennel one time when we went on a trip and no fights reported because it was a professional staff and a controlled environment.
However, when a strange dog runs up and puts a nose in her butt without pause, she starts biting.
That first time she didn’t have her guard up and got seriously injured stayed with her. Simple as that and I can’t blame her.
I hold my dog tight to me when anyone is near, but she is very reactive to other dogs. I like to think I have a clue and put in the effort, but we got her as a four year old rescue who had been abused and spent a year in a kennel. There’s only do much you can do: she got rejected from boot camp, and no one wants to risk their pet near a ferocious looking adult animal of her size. This kind of training really has to be done with a puppy, and is much more difficult when someone doesn’t
My town just built a new rail trail near me and I’m kind of sad that I really can’t walk her on it, with the number of dogs already there
I live with my folks in a gated community. There’s still dog poop on the sidewalks and in the grass even though there are designated dog poop disposal stations with bags and bins all across the community.
we have literally a dog poo bag thingie around every second corner and i find some sometimes next to them
It’s similar to how some people don’t put their cart into a cart corral after loading their groceries even though the corral is nearby. I just boil it down to laziness and apathy at that point.
A coworker got a German shepherd, insisting she grew up with the breed and knew how to train them and exercise them properly.
She went to a training class where she and her dog theoretically learned “heel”, coworker just didn’t listen. I had the dog on a leash, commanded “heel”, it came right over to my left, and coworker was baffled because she didn’t know her dog would do that.
If my coworker is at all representative of the average dog owner, it’s the owners that need the training.
I’ve always had well trained dogs, but I currently have one I just cannot seem to get under control with other dogs on walks. She will pull and bark anytime I get anywhere near another dog. Seems vicious, she just wants to play so bad… I have another dog and they play but he’s more chill than her and she just wants to play so badly with every random dog in the world. Treats, spankings, training collar, bark collar, nothing has worked.
5th dog, only one I wasn’t easily able to train. Probably because she’s an abused rescue dog and I just can’t break her of it. Sometimes it’s just not easy. I have to choke up on her and cross the street to not freak people with dogs out.
I sometimes hike in a town where people are absolutely obsessed with dogs, and they definitely don’t behave themselves most of the time. This isn’t always in an unfriendly way, many dogs just like people, but nobody even has dogs so much on a leash. There is a house near me whose dogs are way uncontrolled, and one day I walked past it only for four dogs to run out of their backyard to try to tell me to get off their lawn. The owner then apologized and scolded his dogs and asked them why they misbehaved. Well, for starters, you got time to train ten dogs?
Which brings up a good point, it’s always the dog enthusiasts with dogs that misbehave.
Hard to say. I trained my last one to walk at heel but he would always start pulling as we started to get home. As soon as he could see it he wanted to pull.
But I did have him trained to stop and sit any time we had to cross a street. The few times he would get out, he wouldnt cross the streets and we’d find him around the block.
He had zero interest in other dogs. Whenever I took him anywhere, he just wanted to be a complete lap dog. He’d whine if he wasn’t on lap sitting. That said, whenever we walked past other people or dogs, I’d keep him on an extra short leash incase the other dog might try to do anything.
The percentage is the same. But a LOT more people own dogs right now. Sure to the pandemic then WFH…
Most people don’t train their dogs but it’s not a new trend. I’d wager that the last time you could rightly say “most people train their dogs” was in the first couple decades of domestication
We train ours to walk at heel, loose leash. But if they are together they will still pull and bark aggressively at other dogs. They are in training, not completely trained.
I’m not sure what you mean by properly, though. I would consider the dog walking close to me & slightly behind a good trained walk, and do if possible cross to avoid giving them temptation if there is a dog. Better to give them a chance to be good, than to have to correct them.
Is there a dog scene?
I saw a ton of well-behaved pups on a hiking trail this morning. Of those that were off-leash, all were respectful of strangers. Not one misbehaved. Some were on leashes. I assume that some of those could be off-leash without incident. Not one dog behaved poorly.
This is not to say that there aren’t a ton of dumbasses who raise their dogs to have no boundaries. Just shining a light on a bunch of responsible dog-people who were doing a great job.
