Ugh, feeling so very stressed and angry after our trip to the dog park today! everyday we take Foster and Ferret down to the local dog park, lucky for us it's about 500 yards down the road from our house. We walk them down on the leads to a great big open field that is fenced all the way around. In order to get to the gate we have to walk down a narrow path that has fences on both sides. Well lo and behold when we got down there today there was a horrible looking staffy on the loose. No tags, no owner, just on it's own wandering down the path. He came over to sniff the boys and started growling and getting into the alpha male stance. Foster of course felt very threatened and did the same. There was fur flying and teeth showing. Even Ferret, who is such a wimp and never shows aggression, got into it with this dog. So we (and thank god there are two of us walking these two) managed to put about ten feet between the boys on their leads whilst this awful dog kept going back and forth between the two of them trying to start fights. It would have been so much worse had I been on my own and had all three dogs under my feet. We finally managed to make it to the gate and this dog tried to follow us into the park and then made a lunge for Foster, so I had to give this dog a bit of kick to move him out of the way so I could close the gate. Of course once we got into the park the boys were completely upset and stressed. We were all alone in the park so I let them off the lead (and yes they are very good on recall) and they had a good run around. Then one of the regular dogs arrived. They've all met before, so no real dramas I thought….wrong! Foster actually gave chase and tried to have a bite of this poor dog! He has never done anything like that before ever. As soon as they ran off I ordered Foster to sit, and he did, and he knew he was in the wrong. I apologized to the other owner, and we all had a chat about how the staffy had been winding up all the dogs today. So I thought my adventures for the day were over.....wrong again! On the walk home there was a couple of moms with babies in strollers and a couple of 4 or 5 year olds walking on the path in front of us, so I had the boys sit and stay in order to get a bit more space between us and the kids. Well one of the little brats comes running towards us with hands outstretched. I said 'please don't pet the dogs' and he kept coming, so I said it again and again. Finally he was within inches of the dogs, so I had to yank them away and yelled at this kid 'DO NOT TOUCH' and the moms finally figure out one of their kids are missing and come running over and start screaming at me!! Yelling about 'well if your dogs don't like kids why are you walking them by a F*CKING school'!! I have to admit it, I completely lost my cool. I told this woman that it's not that they don't like kids, they just don't like to be touched by strangers. She started swearing up a storm and carrying on, so I ended up just leaving. I just couldn't believe it! I had done exactly the right thing, as a responsible dog owner, by making the boys sit and putting a lot of space between us and them because I knew that the boys were unpredictable and stressed out, yet she is the one who hasn't taught her little brats not to run up to a strangers dog and I'm somehow the bad guy! I am so angry right now! I never want to leave the house again. I'm angry that someone just let their aggressive dog wander the streets alone, and I'm angry that Foster chased another dog, and I'm angry that parents don't teach their kids about dog safety, and mostly I'm angry because I try very hard to be a responsible dog owner, yet I've been yelled at today for doing nothing wrong.
Right, vent over...
So, having said that, anyone have a better idea on how to deal with stray dogs and kids who run up to you?