Euthanize an "aggressive" dog?!
 

What is wrong with people?! Today while I was walking Leo, he started the whimpering and pulling he does when he sees strangers. The ladies said "how cute, can we pet?" I politely replied "I don't think that's a good idea" did they listen? Nope! As soon as they went to pet him he barked at them. They said "you should put him down!" I know Leo has some issues. He'll bark and pull at other dogs, and sometimes people, or he'll whimper a I can tell he's on the verge of barking . I think it's mostly anxiety. I wanted to punch those women, cry, and tell them how dare they say that! Leo went through obedience classes, and he was socialized with strangers. I don't understand where this behavior is coming from. With Leo, he likes to make the first move. I told everyone at the dog park this but not everyone listens, so I have rude people saying "people who don't have well socialized dogs shouldn't be here" Leo's great at the dog park but I stopped going. Plus people started incorporating large dogs in the small dog side, and I'm not going to risk it. It doesn't help that I can't find the right "energy" when Leo acts this way. I get extremely anxious, and stressed. I've considered a muzzle, and private training. Private training because Leo gets distracted by everything. I swear he has doggy ADHD

MY response to them would have been: "I have found he is an excellent judge of character! I appreciate he can see issues in people that I do not see! Why in the world would I have such a valuable friend put down?"

Excellent response! :thumbup::thumbup:


I just flat out tell people not to pet Anna because she is afraid of strangers. So far, so good. Barney is always with us and he is more than willing to have all the attention on him. I also have a t-shirt that I put on Anna that says, "I bite".

Put a yellow ribbon on his leash....


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Copied from the website...........

About the Yellow Dog Project:

The Yellow Dog Project is a global movement for owners of dogs that need space. It hopes to educate the public and dog owners to identify dogs needing space, promote appropriate contact of dogs and assist dog parents to identify their dog as needing space.

Yellow Dogs are dogs who need space - they are not necessarily aggressive dogs but more often are dogs who have issues of fear; pain from recent surgery; are a rescue or shelter dog who has not yet had sufficient training or mastered obedience; are in training for work or service; are in service; or other reasons specific to the dog. Here’s a list of what a yellow dog is NOT.

The Yellow Dog Project seeks to educate appropriate ways to approach or make contact with a dog with permission of a dog owner only, whether or not a dog is a “yellow dog”. They also seek to promote the use of yellow ribbons to identify yellow dogs needing extra space.

As a not for profit organization, all of the monies raised/donated are used to buy more material for ribbons, t-shirts for representatives, and posters for display.

The Yellow Dog Project encourages people to find their local positive reinforcement trainer and look for programs to help their pets. From Grisha Stewarts “Behaviour Adjustment Training” to fearfuldogs.com; Victoria Stillwell to Karen Pryor; Ian Dunbar to Dr. Sophia Yin; and beyond - The Yellow Dog Project encourages all forms of positive training to help yellow dogs.

Tying a yellow ribbon to the leash....reminds me of tying a red ribbon on the tail of horses that hunt with hounds, horses that need space too!

Its terrible to think there are people out there that think that way. Mine arent really social with strangers either they would rather them not pet them. We dont really have company over to our house often so they havent gotten used to strangers. I wouldnt worry about it and I wouldnt muzzle him he has never bitten anyone right so you shouldnt have to go that extreme. Just keep telling people he doesnt like to be petted by strangers theres nothing wrong with that and people should be understanding of that. Its not your job as the owner to make sure he likes everyone he just has to be tolerable to be around and I dont think barking when someone envades his space is intolerable behavior

OMG Judy I love that, lol, just to funny, but soooo true

The muzzle would be a precautionary thing. He's still very mouthy with me, and I don't want to risk it with strangers. Good news, he met my uncle, aunt and cousin for the first time today. He barked and growled for a few minutes, and afterwards he was okay and let them pet him, and rub his belly.

Love that reply!

This is one of my pet peeves, if your dog was a huge dog, they wouldn't insist on petting him after you said no, why do they not respect the smaller dog? Smaller dogs are likely to act out of fear. Joey just hates strangers patting him on the head, and I've had to get quite aggressive to tell them no.

What a GREAT post, I have been a dog / dogs owner 40 + years and I never heard of this yellow ribbon, see, ya learn something new every day on YT. Thank you.

I dont think hes being aggressive, he is being a puppy. Some dogs are overly friendly most yorkies I've come across requests some kind of space, they are little rotties in 4# bodies. My honey does not like to be touched by strangers so I sternly tell ppl no to touching her. Plus i dont want my dog to go to just anybody because it makes it easier for ppl to take them. Don't muzzle the baby he doesn't seem has if he is trying to harm anyone maybe he's just being protective of you and himself
Just a thought

:thumbup::thumbup:

I live in Pa. I'll punch them for you, crazy ppl. I had a lil girl who was not all that friendly. I also had 2 others when I had her, they were overly friendly, funny thing was, out on leash walks anyone could pet her, in my house or while out camping, she was the opposite with strangers, she would bite, I would tell new friends or repair man "ignore her, you don't see her, let her come to you, then you'll be her best bud" that's how she was. In HER house or at HER camper, it was on HER time and choice. I wouldn't muzzle my dog, but that's me, you know your dog's capability just as I knew mine. Proof with your newly family visit, his terms, his choice. And remember yorkiemom1 comment and USE it. The yellow ribbon is a GREAT idea, why don't you give that a try first instead of the muzzle.

I don't know why suddenly everyone thinks ALL dogs need to just LOVE EVERYBODY.

Do all people love everybody? If someone, about 5 ft taller than you, came up to you and began shaking your hand with no warning, I think you would be weirded out too. And people, just like dogs, may interpret it very differently and act very differently. Some people may immediately shout out 'WTF ARE YOU DOING?' while some may politely smile and say hi back.

But yeah people annoy me. Jackson's not the biggest on strangers petting him. He doesn't bark, etc, but sometimes he shy's away. And honestly it's not something that bothers me.

I think the Yellow Dog project is a great idea and have seen it used before. It's starting to get more attention.

wow aren't some people just rude and obnoxious.

no one pet's my dogs without knowing me first, random people walking by us on the street always try to ask, even children and onion has little dog complex, I'm not risking one accident especially when he's anxious, that will lead to him being taken away or put down.

I'm mean when i have to in order to protect my dogs, pickle acts more aggressive when we go on walks with little onion as a protection mechanism.

Just the other day I told some kids my dogs got rabies so stay away.

I think our reply to these people should be
"My dog's been to dog training classes, but you need to go to people training classes." Some people just aren't nice.

Lol, actually that's true, Joey has been to training classes and can do dozens of tricks before he bites your hand off. :D

Years ago, I had a biter (have a couple now, too...lol) .. anyway, I used to walk Maxwell with his sister, Sassy every morning around 6AM. We always met the same people during our walks. One elderly man was so nice and would always stop to chat with me. I told him from the get go to only pet Sassy because Maxwell would bite. One day it happened...he went ahead and tried to pet Maxwell and omg he bit the man so hard and he was bleeding all over. I told him where I lived and offered to help clean it up...and advised him to go to his doctor or an emergency room and I would pay for it. He told me no worries and said it was his fault (yes, it was) and went on to his home. I am laughing now as I write this....terrible of me. LOL Anyway...I NEVER saw him again. Don't know what happened...if he died or was just afraid to come out again. :eek::D;):p

Oh wow, that is funny though telling them your dog has rabies. I guess I'll have to be more assertive, and strictly tell people "No"

My fear is "what IF he bites someone" because they didn't listen to me. I don't want that to happen, and the possibility of having to put him down or something scares me..I don't want to have to risk it.

Leo will start barking once the stranger talks to him. At the dog park, those who listened to me about "no touch, or eye contact" he did great with them..it might've taken him like 30 minutes but after that he would go up to those people and want them to throw a ball.

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

I have always told strangers "No" when they want to pet any of my dogs, why would you want to risk litigation? All my dogs were trained to accept strangers on command, but I only allowed that with people that I wanted to socialize with. Remember you are responsible for your dogs action even if a idiot causes the bite if you allowed the petting!

That is the safest bet!

It can happen in the blink of an eye. That man just reached down before I could open my mouth to stop him!

Omg, that would scare the heck out of me. I've always thought that Yorkies were all bark and no bite, boy was I wrong about that.

Oh no they are not! I have one right now that is a mess....I have been bitten quite a few times by him. He is better...just going to take time; and honestly, if they are like that, sometimes they always have some element of it in them. The biters I have had were fear biters .. that is fixable but you have to have a lot of patience. And, you definitely restrict them in public places.

So, my question is, if I see another dog coming towards us, or a stranger coming towards us outside, should I turn around and walk the other way? Like I said, I really think it's an anxiety/anxious /excitement type of bark. I'm honestly going to look into private trainers in my area. I kind of want to nip this in the butt while he's still young. ANOTHER thing that doesn't make sense, is when he was a puppy he absolutely loved strangers. He was one of those dogs that EVERYONE had to pet, and he wanted EVERYONE to pet him. I think his behavior started changing when he was around 9 months old. That's when he would start the barking at random dogs outside, or at strangers. I thought it was just a phase he would "grow out of" but I guess not.

I would ust tell people not to pet him just say hes not friendly I dont think you should have to avoid people