I love that the boy’s dog isn’t even being aggressive. 100% defensive. When the other dog isn’t directly attacking the boy, his dog is basically just checking to make sure he’s safe and only goes for the other dog when he has to. The best, most bravest pup I’ve seen.
The approaching dog didn’t look aggressive to me, I think he saw play-time and wanted to join in. The owners tone was contrary to that though, unless he was just worried about the kid getting knocked down. Anyway, I think that’s why the kids bodyguards were so chill.
I mean it's unacceptable regardless. You shouldn't have to wait and see if a dog sprinting at your child is harmful or harmless. If the dog is prone to that behavior (sprinting at people/other dogs) then it should have never been left off a leash.
The idiot side of that equation is that my, leashed, dog might. So if you can’t keep it away from mine all bets are off.
I have a normally ridiculously sweet Shepard mix but she has a protective streak common in the breed. 9 out of 10 dogs she’s fine meeting on a leash. That tenth though is a problem. No rhyme or reason to it that we’ve been able to figure out yet. But the number of times I have to tell some jackass to keep their off-leash dog away for their dogs safety, not mine is annoying.
Before he passed I was my German Shepherd's reactivity trigger. My vet learned pretty early on as long as I wasn't in the room with him he was a joy to work with, but if I was sitting there next to him he did not want to be on that table. When I wasn't around he was sort of "off duty" and he'd let his guard down. If I sent someone into my house to pick something up he'd hide in a corner and they never even knew I had a dog. If someone opened the door while I was home they shut the door pretty damn quick because he'd be at the door waiting for them with teeth bared unless I specifically opened the door for them and let them in.
Dude took his security role serious. We went hiking a lot, if another dog was off leash and came up to us I unfortunately knew I had to tackle my own dog for the safety of theirs... and that sucks. If your dog doesn't respond to voice commands around other dogs than it can't be off leash. I shouldn't have to muzzle my dog on a low traffic trail if I have him on a 6' leash. Always infuriated me.
Oh every side of that equation is idiot lol. "He doesn't bite" is what you could have said about literally every dog that has ever bitten someone right up until the moment they did...
Seriously. The look and feeling offensive of people when I tell them not to approach my dog because he is head shy. He probably won't bite, but he is adopted and had a history of abuse, so just don't even attempt. They get so offended. Yet if he did but they'd want him out down.
Absolutely yes. I've seen so many dogs, large and small, being aggressive with other dogs and with people. Once saw a small dog go up and growl at a well-behaved leashed dog, and the idiot owner said to "oh, he just growls, he doesn't bite". Owner of the leashed GSD just said "yeah, well, mine does. Hard." The owner of the aggressive chihuahua actually got offended...
My mother told me about something like that she saw…except the big dog growled and barked back at the unleashed small dog, enough to literally scare the small dog to death. Like, as in the small dog died right then and there.
My dog is the sweetest little guy I’ve ever had the pleasure of owning, but he’s also a goon that is not great with other dogs and will accidentally knock little kids over because he isn’t around them often. I don’t know how people have a snarling hellhound and just go “Eh, he’s fine off-leash.”
Like…even if you’re a negligent owner, surely you don’t wanna deal with the dog biting someone? Just from a monetary/legal perspective even if you don’t give a shit about the dog?
I brought my goofball to a park today. Lovely around kids, but the amount of people who just let their kids run full tilt up to my massive pup was insane.
Like aren't you afraid? I'm cautious just because every single dog is an unknown, but you should be terrified and teaching your kids, man.
Mine also does not know dog etiquette, and I don't trust her not to butt heads, but the sheer volume of aggressive dogs that have no leash in on-leash areas, or a 26 foot lead is also wild.
As long as there are humans deciding what's safe and qualified the right number is 0. There are good dogs out there I don't doubt, but just keep them on a leash period. Dogs are unpredictable and humans are fucking stupid.
Dogs shouldn't be off leash in public regardless. Even in the unlikely case a dog has "perfect" recall, other people can't know that is the case while sharing space with an unknown dog and owner. They shouldn't have to be afraid because an owner thinks they know better.
You can see the owner at the end of the video sidle up casually and tell his dog to chill out and cross the street. This is such typical behavior for so many dog owners. They can’t even comprehend that their dog could be a problem for anyone else—even when they know that their dogs act like this. The sense of entitlement is ridiculous.
I always love it when someone has their dog off leash and the dog runs up and starts climbing all over you. The owners invariably come up and say, “oh don’t worry, he’s friendly.” I don’t gaf I don’t want your damn dog anywhere near me.
I don't think people are saying it's acceptable, just that it's likely what was happening. This looks more like "over excited dog scares kid" more than "loose pitbull is trying to eat child"
Obviously the solution is still to keep a leash on your dog
For real, I went for a walk last month and my new neighbor's pittie was off leash and charged me from their backyard. Luckily he just wanted to lick my hand and then ran back but like, what would I have done if he hadn't? I didn't have a weapon and running would have just triggered him more
I thought it might have been both: that the other dog has designated the kid as prey and was planning on mauling him, and THAT is play-time to it. No different than how a dog might see play-time with a squirrel.
Yeah it's not a judgement of the dog, they have ancient instincts to join in hunts and if the other dog doesn't recognize the child it may think it's the target. Really fine line instinct to "trust" a dog with, this is why large dogs should always be leashed in suburb or city settings even if 99% of the time they are good, it's for their own good so you don't have your dog put down because the 1% scenario occurred.
Based on this I would say both people should have had their dogs leashed
If you look at the angle of approach it was originally going a bit wide; then afterwards it immediately retreats and looks like it even goes into a play posture (“play bow”) to indicate its intention.
I think it was just a mix up where the incoming dog wanted to play and the protecting dog thought it was a threat. Once the mix up is cleared up the other dog gives wide berth and the protecting dog backs off when it realizes there wasn’t a threat.
My opinion is that both dogs are good boys and the biggest issue is not having them leashed, doubly so for the incoming dog assuming the other two are at their own home. Still not great to have them off leash, but also given that the incoming dog was the one to instigate (even playfully) while to other two didn’t chase after it left then I give more leeway to the homeowner having their dogs off leash on their own property
A good boy would have proper recall and the owner could have called it off from approaching the child/situation. The owner couldn't control their dog after the fact either, as you see them unsuccessfully trying to grab it instead of being able to control it with recall which is the absolute minimum baseline requirement for off leash dogs.
Not the dogs fault obviously, just not trained properly to be off leash safely.
That’s just a training / socializing issue. His intentions were just to play, and backed off when he realized that wasn’t welcome, so good boy status still applies
Both are goodboys with good intentions but the black goodboy just wasn't socialized enough with other dogs to learn dog manners. He was so excited to join in to play with kid and the shepherd however he didn't know in dog world approaching full tilt with a dead on straight angle is perceived as aggression. Properly socialized dogs know that you don't do that. There are videos of dogs approaching other dogs with manners (signaling not a treat until message is visibly delivered to other dog)
That is correct and my point is that's how the shepherd reacted. He was establishing the rules and you see it all the time at dog parks. Playtime needs rules too. No one would be wrong by not trusting an unknown animal so I'm not suggesting that. The shepherds reaction was one to be proud of. It was a well socialized reaction and no damage was done.
Both can be true. I’d shoot a dog running at my kid like that even if I was 80% sure the dog was just playing. I’m not gonna risk the 20% that my kid gets mauled or worse.
I don’t own a gun so actually wouldn’t be able to shoot the dog, but my point remains.
I'm from the south and had a situation like this happen when I was around 6. We had a smaller German Shepard named Soldier. I was playing outside and a neighbor's dog charged at me while the owner sat back and watched it happen. Soldier fought him off, but he kept coming back, and he was much bigger than my boy.
The TLDR is: my HOH dad burst out the house with a shotgun, my neighbor IMMEDIATELY ran into our yard to get his dog, cussing and hollering at ME, a literal kindergartener. My dad proceeded to say nothing and shoot them both. The dog didn't make it, but the owner unfortunately did.
They were running so it wouldn't' be surprising to see another dog also run, it's just faster and excited. I don't think trusting an unknown animal is up for debate though and that seems to be what the shep was communicating in a well socialized way.
No I think shepherd is well socialized and was just communicating the rules of his property. Despite the reaction of the people, this is what dogs look like when they play at the park when they are sorting out who the boss is. In this case it was decided instantly and without violence. That's just my take though, I can't say it's worth more than any other.
As for trusting an unknown animal, that's never really up for debate. If you ever have to yell at your dog, your dog shouldn't be off-leash.
I agree. Dogs aren't homicidal maniacs that attack kids unless they're trained by human homicidal maniacs to do it. I think he saw the dog and kid playing and wanted to join in. Not "See kid, must kill". Dogs ARE very defensive though, as shown by the kids big brothers. I'll bet the two good dogs have put a scare on a few delivery drivers, seeing there's no fence.
I would also like to say that I think this is an Anatolian Shepard not a German shephard due to the colors maybe a mix but definitely not a German Shephard
I see a lot of names at my job every day and I genuinely wouldn’t be surprised if that boy’s legal name is actually “Mr. President”.
People be naming their kids weird shit these days.
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