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OK, nothing against dogs or dog owners, but just wanted to know what should I have done??

 

Out placing a cache today, in open countryside on a footpath, I see a dog walker coming towards me. Dog is on a lead and I'm totally not bothered by dog or owner.

 

As we get very close dog goes "crazy", jumping about and barking at me. I stand well out of it's way to let them pass. At the moment they pass dog bites me on the arm!!! Now have rather nasty bite on my arm and have gone to A&E just for to make sure I'm OK. All right the dog didn't die!!!!

 

Is this just one of those things?? Dog owner did say "Well he's never done that before". Has put me off dogs totally and think if I see one I'll run away.

 

Why Lions??? The cache I was placing is related to John Bunyard's, The Pilgrim's Progress. As the Pilgrim get's close to House Beautiful he encounters Lions which many believe would have been fierce guard dogs to scare away unwanted "types". Where did I get bitten, on the hill up to Houghton House, Ampthill which is believed to be the House Beautiful from the very book!!!!

 

Strange?

 

Cheers

 

Nick

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Dog owner did say "Well he's never done that before".

 

Umph!

A dog owner said exactly those words to me last weekend after their dog had rushed up and growled and snarled at my legs when I had paused while walking across an open green .

 

All I had done was pause to read my pedometer!

 

No "sorry " uttered by the arrogant dog owner and her friends .

 

Guess it was supposed to be my fault !

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But that is the whimp wife talking.

 

The 2nd time I got bitten by a dog I kicked the Bl*****dy thing very hard, I knew the dog & it was very wary of me after that. I was only 13 at the time!!

 

If a dog bit me now I would report it, as I would not know how many "bites" it had done before.

Edited by t.a.folk
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REPORT IT

 

For all you know there could be a dozen people out there that it's attacked who the owner told "Well it's never done that before". Problem is that unless you know who it's owner was then Plod wont be able to do anything about it.

 

I think I would probably have kicked the bugger for good measure.

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I am a dog lover but I haven't had a dog for years.

Several years ago (before the kids), me and the wife were walking along a pavement

and a passing alsation on a lead lunged at me and bit me on the wrist. It didn't break the

skin but it did break the strap off my watch and somehow its teeth went into a packet

of cigarettes in my pocket :D . Since then I have been very wary of all dogs that we meet.

 

Our kids are both terrified of dogs even though they don't know this story and have never

experienced a dog get nasty. Everytime we meet a dog I wonder if it's going to lunge and the

kids always hide behind us. This doesn't generally spoil the caching experience for us though.

 

However, dog c**p does :laughing:

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Some dogs, I'm afraid, are agressive, all too often because of their owner's attitude to the world around them. But with many dogs at least part of the problem is psychological. The dog doesn't know whether you're friend or foe and just assumes the worst. If you feel fear they sense that fear, and it makes it worse.

 

On Dartmoor late last year a huge German Shepherd came running furiously at Maz62 and me, teeth bared, snarling and growling. The owners were desperately trying to call it off, which didn't exactly make us think it was harmless! I was fairly sure it was going to go for us in a big way! I just said something like, "Hello, good boy, GOOD boy, you're lovely aren't you. GOOD boy..." etc. The dog screeched to a halt and sat in front of us, tail wagging...

 

Having said that though, most dogs are harmless. They're just curious - they run up to you to investigate, not to attack. If you show them you're pleased to see them then there's no problem, but if you let them sense fear then that instills fear in them.

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Yes, they are mostly harmless and they are just being friendly, but I dont think I should have to put up with at best peoples badly behaved dogs leaping all over me and at worst them biting or attacking me.

 

I have met far more well behaved dogs with friendly owners than I have bad ones when I have been out and about, but I have met (and been attacked by) some dreadful ones with very arrogant owners. You see what reaction you get when you kick somebody's dog... they dont like it you know, even if the dog was just chewing on your arm!

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There are only two kinds of dogs. Those that have bitten someone, and those that haven't bitten anyone yet.

 

If I were the OP, and still thinking straight (unlikely), I'd have demanded ID from the owner. Dog owners should be insured for the harm their dogs might do, and if not, well, that's their lookout if they get sued.

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I have two dogs and like to think that I am a responsible dog owner. Both have been put through the Good Citizen Dog scheme and and mess they leave is always cleaned up and binned responsibly. However, we know that both of our dogs have problems. The smaller dog, a Pomeranian, does not like children. That is probably because they are noisy and can move quickly and that obviously disturbs her. As she is cute, kiddies always head for her and we have to ask the parents to call their kiddies away as she might have a snap at them. About 90% of parents comply but the other 10% get a bit funny about it with an attitude of "don't tell me what to do". If the kiddies keep on coming towards the Pom we just pick her up.

 

Our Border Collie does not like other dogs running up to her even though they usually just want to play. We ask the owners of other dogs to call their dogs back. Most do but some just say "its alright, our dog just wants to play". If a dog gets within a couple of metres of our Collie she becomes aggressive. We are aware of the problem and can control her without any damage being done. Having said that, she loves people and especially those that will throw her ball. The reason for her aggression has been put down to her being attacked by other dogs when she was in rescue. That resulted in her having 28 stitches in her head. The dog trainer we use likens it to a human having been attacked being wary of someone running straight at them - do they fight or take flight?

 

I never take my dogs out cahing if I go by myself. I will take them if my wife comes with me as it does need someone to pay 100% attention to any dog.

 

Any dog that bites a human should be reported to the police and dog warden regardless of the injuries resulting from the attack. Owners that say "its never done that before" probably know that the dog HAS done that before. The words in sTeanTraens post above are true "there are dogs that have bitten someone and those that have not - yet".

 

All dog owners should know their dogs and, like us (humans), they have flaws in their characters. We know the flaws in our dogs and act to prevent damage being caused to others.

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I had a dog when I was younger, and I can honestly say I can't think of any occassion when he has even come close to biting or even any act of aggression. I used to shove my hand in his mouth, pull on his tail, and on the rare times when I accidently stood on his tail, all he would do is yelp! :) He loved it all! Having said that, and without getting into a "this breed is better than that breed" argument, he was a Labrador, who are generally known for their soft-hearted nature. He also went to many obedience classes and local shows.

 

Because i grew up with a dog, I have no fear of them, and will always pat dogs I see when out caching (just ask my wife :) ) Having said that, the only time one has snapped at me was my cousin's dog, a Jack Russell - so I'm wary of this, and similar, breeds now, as being less tolerant of strangers and children.

 

Having said all that, I would also have reported the bite. As has been said, one doesn't know how many times it's happened before...

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Yes I also seem to attract mad dogs and have been bitten in the past while out caching, while the owner is trying to call them off. In New Zealand we have a thing called a dog lead for dogs like these :)

 

But seriously as a relative new person in England, who do you report these incidents too? Is it the police? And what evidence would you need, I don't fancy having to read the dogs id tag?

 

Thanks

 

Gary

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Report it.

 

I was bitten last year and scared the living daylights out of the owner as a result by taking his details. Afterwards, I checked and although it had hurt, the bite hadn't broken the skin so I didn't report it, predicting a reaction of "a big fella like you...and it's not even broken your skin?..."

 

Now I wish I had - I didn't think of the 'next time it could be a child' argument.

 

I am in NZ at the moment and there is a big fuss over microchipping dogs becuase 1 mauled a 7 year old girl. Microchipping won't stop dogs biting people unless it's a blooming great big chip stuck in their mouths, but it shows that a govt can react to a situation and in a manner that to the detriment of all dog owners.

 

Since the NZ govt is the same as ours (doesn't listen to common sense and public opinion), we should report dogs before they do serious harm to someone and the govt tries to think up some knee jerk dog legislation.

 

So, report it, it's for the common good.

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As someone who did the cache yesterday (and spotted the "Guard Dogs" sign not a million miles away) I would like to add my 2 pence worth.

 

We're currently on our second dog. Our first was a rescue Boxer. Charming dog, absolutely lovely with kids and babies alike. Obviously we were careful that the kids weren't left with her alone (I've always believed that ANY dog can turn).

 

The problem was that she just did not like little dogs. She would attack any dog that was smaller than her (this is quite common with boxers I believe). For this reason, we had to really keep an eye on her.

 

The one time she managed to get away (slipped her lead) she attacked a small dog (s***zu or something). She didn't do any damage (she was old and hardly had any teeth left) HOWEVER, the woman owner reported us to the Police. They came round, read us the riot act and then went away to decide whether or not they would charge us. We then received a letter telling us that she was going to prosecute anyway (as well as other solicitors letters).

 

Let me point out at this stage that there was NO physical damage to the dog. This lady was suing us for her dog's STRESS! This may seem a bit odd, but it was a matter of hundreds of pounds at this stage (fortunately for us we had insurance)

 

Anyway, upshot of this is unfortunately our dog died (one of the reasons we later found out that she was aggressive to other dogs was because she had Cancer which wasn't showing up) so the case was dropped. If it had gone ahead as a minimum my wife would have received a caution.

 

Now I'm not sure if anyone understands that being a registered childminder means basically no criminal record, but even worse we would have a registered dog in the house which has a black mark against it (a real no-no).

 

She never went out without a Muzzle ever again (I bought one of ebay for about 6 pounds - less than a months insurance)

 

I know this has gone OT a bit (sorry) BUT what it does point out is that if a dog is dangerous (or aggressive) then the Police WILL get involved and DO take it seriously.

 

REPORT THEM! IF THIS DOG ATTACKS A CHILD, IT COULD BE FAR WORSE!

 

Muzzles are cheap, effective and don't hurt the animal. If the fella had this dog on a lead in this area then he obviously knew it was aggressive.

 

Unfortunately it's owners like this that give dogs a bad name.

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Because i grew up with a dog, I have no fear of them, and will always pat dogs I see when out caching

 

Bill always used pat and stroke dogs that came bounding up in a friendly way ...until last year when he made a friendly fuss of a puppy that came jumping up at him while we were caching ..and promptly got a gentle telling off from the puppy's owner .

Owner said Bill ,in stroking the puppy, was rewarding the puppy for jumping up at strangers .

Point was taken on board .

 

The puppy was going to classes and owner was in the process of teaching the puppy not to jump up at strangers .

Since then Bill tries to remember( :) ) to only make a friendly fuss of dogs if we are already chatting with the owners .

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If the fella had this dog on a lead in this area then he obviously knew it was aggressive.

 

 

While I have agreed with most points in this discussion I do not agree with this quote. Our Bull Terrier is always on a lead when out and in open areas she has a 30ft lead rein. This gives her room for a run around but she can reeled in when necessary. (Any pictures I have posted in my logs have the lead airbrushed out.)

 

We keep her on a lead not because she is known to be aggressive (far from it) but because we know any dog has the potential to be aggressive and if she did decide to "have a go" the damage she could do would be terrible. Irrespective of whose fault it was she could have an order to be destroyed so we don't take the risk of this happening.

 

While the vast majority of untethered dogs we meet just come up and say hello to her we have had a couple who start snarling at her and I usually give them a whack with my stick if the owners cannot call them away.

 

I agree that the dog and owner should be reported to the Police but I wonder how many owners would give you their details after their dog has just bitten you. You would need to either follow them to their car or to their house to get that information. I would suggest turning the tables and giving the offending dog a good kick in the throat and then give your details to the owner and let them do the reporting. I know it sounds harsh and I do consider myself to be a dog lover but I have no time for irresponsible owners or their animals.

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I'm not sure kicking an already agressive dog is that smart. All you seem to be doing is offering another fleshy bit for him to sink his teeth into! I think reporting would be a much safer option.

 

The number one way of avoiding any problems with dogs is to avoid direct eye contact. Direct eye contact is extremly agressive behaviour in dogs (and people in pubs!), many situations can be avoided by looking away or even turning your back on them.

 

If the fella had this dog on a lead in this area then he obviously knew it was aggressive.

No relationship bretween leads and agresive dogs. Our dogs are often seen on leads because one has a tendency to chase anything that moves (rabbits/deer/squirels/kites etc.) the other has been so abused by humans that we are not sure that if we let her off the lead she would come back to us yet.

 

chris

Edited by Chris n Maria
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If the fella had this dog on a lead in this area then he obviously knew it was aggressive.

 

You are SO wrong with this statement.

 

People should be careful in this thread that they don't start offending responsible dog owners. We are not all bad, and with the huge volume in numbers of dogs as pets, it should be recognised that problem dogs are in the minority.

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People should be careful in this thread that they don't start offending responsible dog owners. We are not all bad, and with the huge volume in numbers of dogs as pets, it should be recognised that problem dogs are in the minority.

 

Well said Stuey.

 

Tar and brush spring to mind

 

But you should report the incident to the police.

Edited by Deego
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Because i grew up with a dog, I have no fear of them, and will always pat dogs I see when out caching

 

Bill always used pat and stroke dogs that came bounding up in a friendly way ...until last year when he made a friendly fuss of a puppy that came jumping up at him while we were caching ..and promptly got a gentle telling off from the puppy's owner .

Owner said Bill ,in stroking the puppy, was rewarding the puppy for jumping up at strangers .

Point was taken on board .

 

The puppy was going to classes and owner was in the process of teaching the puppy not to jump up at strangers .

Since then Bill tries to remember( :) ) to only make a friendly fuss of dogs if we are already chatting with the owners .

 

A very good point there, taken on board!

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People should be careful in this thread that they don't start offending responsible dog owners. We are not all bad, and with the huge volume in numbers of dogs as pets, it should be recognised that problem dogs are in the minority.

 

If I were to become American for five seconds and substitute the word "gun" for "dog" throughout those two sentences, I suspect that many people - certainly including the suddenly- no-longer-American version of me! - would not find it to be convincing justification why anyone should be allowed to carry a gun. After all, 50 million Americans own a gun, and the ones who commit random school shootings are only a tiny minority (that's more or less the main argument of many pro-gun people).

 

Hmmm, maybe this means the pro-gun Americans are right after all? :(

 

I appreciate that the analogy doesn't hold up totally, but all of us who own or operate something potentially unsafe - whether it's a gun, a dog, a quad bike a 4x4, or (hands up here) a sports car with a power-to-weight ratio a bit bigger than it needs to be - ought to be sure that we're not allowing our love of the object in question to blind us to other peoples' legitimate concerns.

 

PS: My sports car with etc etc is currently in the garage so I'm feeling a bit sensitive about it :(

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Report it.

 

1. The dog is on a lead, the owner should not let the dog near you (especially if it's barking), never mind close enough to bite you.

 

2. How many other people have been told "Never done that before" -Thats a good one to try to stop the dog from being reported again!

 

Hope the arm gets better soon.

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If the fella had this dog on a lead in this area then he obviously knew it was aggressive.

 

You are SO wrong with this statement.

 

People should be careful in this thread that they don't start offending responsible dog owners. We are not all bad, and with the huge volume in numbers of dogs as pets, it should be recognised that problem dogs are in the minority.

 

Point taken and accepted. I'll humbly admit I was wrong with that statement so please accept my apologies. Please don't flame me, I'm just putting my tuppence worth in.

 

I probably didn't mean it in this way. I know that many owners don't allow their dogs off leads for many, many reasons (and that's a good thing - there's nothing worse than an out of control dog and you can't be blamed for something your dog did either)

 

I also totally agree with the points raised above and after further thought it's almost certain that this dog has done this before.

 

Also, dog owners may (or may not) back me up here, but in the past I've found that dogs ON leads can often be more aggressive. My current pooch (Dalmatian) isn't aggressive on the lead but often has completely odd behaviour. I've also found that other dogs on leads are much less friendly on the lead too. I'm wondering if this is why the dogs in question (it appears there are more than just this one) have been biting?

 

This is always going to be an emotive subject (I've seen these in doggy forums before too) because what one owner thinks is responsible is different to another.

 

As before though, report it. Next time it could be your child (or one of mine).

 

Regards

 

"Flamed of Bedfordshire"

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it's almost certain that this dog has done this before.

Well maybe - but there does have to be a first time for everything.

 

Also, dog owners may (or may not) back me up here, but in the past I've found that dogs ON leads can often be more aggressive.

Oh yes, I call it the "let me at em" syndrome. The other day I met a chap with this snarling very obviously aggresive dog and to my horror as I approached he let the dog off the lead. Before I could say "what the blinkey flip do you think your doing" the dog had transformed into an extremly passive submisive dog who rolled on his back in front of me.

Aparently the reason was he gets scared when he is on a lead because he can't run away from other dogs, so acts agresivly as a deffence!.

Edited by Chris n Maria
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Also, dog owners may (or may not) back me up here, but in the past I've found that dogs ON leads can often be more aggressive.

Oh yes, I call it the "let me at em" syndrome. The other day I met a chap with this snarling very obviously aggressive dog and to my horror as I approached he let the dog off the lead. Before I could say "what the blinkey flip do you think your doing" the dog had transformed into an extremely passive submissive dog who rolled on his back in front of me.

Apparently the reason was he gets scared when he is on a lead because he can't run away from other dogs, so acts aggresivly as a defence!.

When we first got Chester we had huge problems with him showing aggressive behaviour to other dogs. He was always on his lead as he was a rescue dog and we did not trust him to come back or behave, so we had no experience of him off his lead. We took him for classes for his good citizen award and was told that his problem was ME :( . I was told that I was sending signals that he could feel down his lead that was telling him that other dogs were a threat and therefor I needed protecting from them. Now I have been trained to be a good citizen :( we rarely have any problems with Chester, and then the only problem is him being over friendly; sorry Jess :( .

 

I would agree with most that has been said above, but the eye contact as far as Chester is concerned means "come over and see me because I want to make a fuss and play with you", but avoiding eye contact does have the same result of him ignoring you.

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I'm probably going to get flamed for this but after yet another encounter with dogs and their inconsiderate owners yesterday I'm really at the end my tether.

 

responsible dog owners

This is an oxymoron. Anyone who keeps a wild animal and, even worse, takes it out among the general public cannot be responsible.

 

problem dogs are in the minority.

Not in my experience. There are very few dogs we meet while out caching (just to keep this on topic) who do not come rushing up to us causing us distress and spoiling our day.

 

It's about time that the keeping of all wild animals for amusement was banned.

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I'm probably going to get flamed for this but after yet another encounter with dogs and their inconsiderate owners yesterday I'm really at the end my tether.

 

responsible dog owners

This is an oxymoron. Anyone who keeps a wild animal and, even worse, takes it out among the general public cannot be responsible.

 

problem dogs are in the minority.

Not in my experience. There are very few dogs we meet while out caching (just to keep this on topic) who do not come rushing up to us causing us distress and spoiling our day.

 

It's about time that the keeping of all wild animals for amusement was banned.

 

OK, I'll go first, and I'll try and stick to reasoned arguments :( (Probably not very well reasoned though :( )

 

Firstly, I don't think dogs could be classified as wild animals. Surely this requires a certain ability to be able to fend for itself in the wild? Mine certainly wouldn't have been able to, and I suspect that would be the case with many dogs kept as pets. As I said above, I would stake a very large amount of money on mine not ever turning on someone without immense provocation, and then it would probably cower rather than retaliate. I do believe this is strongly based on breed of dog, and labradors are probably one of the softest breeds!

 

Secondly, and you are of course entitled to an opinion (as lacto said) but I must say that fortunately I doubt the keeping of 'wild' animals will ever be banned. I use the quotes to differentiate from true wild animals, namely big cats and the like, which I believe is banned. And can I assume that this would apply to all animals kept as pets, from goldfish and hamsters to cats and dogs? If so, then fair enough, but if it only applies to dogs, then why are dog owners singled out as being irresponsible? the only bite I've ever had from a pet was from my sisters hamster! quite painful it was too....

 

Ok, thats all for now! I look forward to seeing some other replies! :(

 

Dave

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I'm probably going to get flamed for this but after yet another encounter with dogs and their inconsiderate owners yesterday I'm really at the end my tether.

 

responsible dog owners

This is an oxymoron. Anyone who keeps a wild animal and, even worse, takes it out among the general public cannot be responsible.

 

problem dogs are in the minority.

Not in my experience. There are very few dogs we meet while out caching (just to keep this on topic) who do not come rushing up to us causing us distress and spoiling our day.

 

It's about time that the keeping of all wild animals for amusement was banned.

 

Fortunately, dogs fall into two categories, wild and domesticated. As the vast majority of dogs fall into the "domesticated" category only those people keeping wolves, or similar, are affected by Alan's remarks. People owning other dogs are OK.

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I'm probably going to get flamed for this but after yet another encounter with dogs and their inconsiderate owners yesterday I'm really at the end my tether.

 

responsible dog owners

This is an oxymoron. Anyone who keeps a wild animal and, even worse, takes it out among the general public cannot be responsible.

 

problem dogs are in the minority.

Not in my experience. There are very few dogs we meet while out caching (just to keep this on topic) who do not come rushing up to us causing us distress and spoiling our day.

 

It's about time that the keeping of all wild animals for amusement was banned.

 

Right.... I am taking this VERY personally! I AM a responsible dog owner, and for you to suggest that there is no such thing is plainly rude, ill-considered and offensive. Your disregard of the fact that dogs have been domesticated over time surprises me. I'm also surprised that Lactodorum allowed your post to stay as it was. I suggest that this thread be closed before WW-3 erupts!!!!

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I've no problem with Alan's post as he is expressing a sincerely held opinion. I would however warn anyone replying to refrain from making personal comments. Remember the guidelines before hitting the reply button.

 

You might not have a problem with it, but I have! It is not an opinion, in my opinion, it is insulting to ALL dog owners.

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I've no problem with Alan's post as he is expressing a sincerely held opinion. I would however warn anyone replying to refrain from making personal comments. Remember the guidelines before hitting the reply button.

 

You might not have a problem with it, but I have! It is not an opinion, in my opinion, it is insulting to ALL dog owners.

 

As a dog owner myself I have my own opinion on what has been said in this thread, by Alan and by others.

 

It is immaterial to me as forum moderator whether or not I agree with what is being posted. I try and ensure that forum guidelines are adhered to. Particular I am thinking of this one "Personal Attacks and Flames will not be tolerated. If you want to praise or criticize, give examples as to why it is good or bad, general attacks on a person or idea will not be tolerated."

 

Alan did give examples of why he holds his opinion and in my view he did not launch a personal attack. You may disagree (strongly!) with what he said but I don't see this as reason to kill further discussion.

 

At least not at the moment!

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Not in my experience. There are very few dogs we meet while out caching (just to keep this on topic) who do not come rushing up to us causing us distress and spoiling our day.

 

 

Well I can honestly say I've never had a bad experience with a dog while out & about doing anything and FWIW I've never owned a dog and don't particularly like them.

 

If I see a dog approaching either at a walk or at a run I just carry on my course, don't stop or deviate, I keep my hands and arms in - just in case - and usually talk to it in a friendly voice "what's your name then?" sort of stuff. Mostly the dog's gonna either give you a quick sniff then leg it back to the pack leader to report, or else it decides you're no fun and runs straight past looking for something more interesting. The worst I've ever had is being splashed with either mud or slobber.

 

The only time I would attempt to pat or stroke a dog is if I've struck up a conversation with it's owner and it's obviously friendly, and then I'll offer it the back of my hand first for it to have a sniff and then stroke it somewhere away from it's armaments.

 

If I did get a dog running at me aggresively it would either find itself chewing on my size 9 walking boot, or else trying to swallow 4 foot of walking pole, pointy end first.

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Most dogs we meet are well behaved and do as thier owners ask / command i applaud the people who take time out to train their dogs.

 

My son is petrified of dogs and phrases like hes only being friendly do not help him a well trained dog however does and indeed these have helped him to overcome his fears.

 

They are certainly not wild animals now our cat at home could be called a wild animal but she is more likely to run away.

 

Dog mess in bags in hedges is another matter entirely though :(

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