Dogs on private footpaths

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wilzj

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I do not have a dog but i like to walk on a local public footpath. Just recently this rustic pleasure has lost some of it's appeal for me due to two things. The first is not so bad but, i cannot for the life of me understand why there are big yellow "smile you're on CCTV" signs mailed onto the footpath gate entrance. It seems that nowhere is sacred from modern day snoops. My main bugbear though are people and their dogs. For the most part people are responsible when it comes to keeping their dogs under control, but recently there is a couple ( that walk the same dog at seperate times) who let it off the lead and it flies at me aggressively, continually barking and showing its teeth. I am quite good with dogs and i try to make friends with it, (as usually they then know i am not a threat), but this dog has none of it. It spoils my walk as i get a huge shot of adreniline evry time i see it. Is'nt there some law whereby people are supposed to respect others in respect of Dog control? W.J.
 
Yes, you should never feel threatened by someone elses dog. You need to find out where they live and report it to the dog warden. Dogs do not have to be on leads, but they do have to be under control
 
Thank goodness for those cameras ;) they will make identifying the culprits easier for you. Report it to your local police station and dog warden, they will be able to contact whoever owns the land the footpath is on and probably the cameras and hopefully identify and speak to the culprit for you.
Until then have you tried telling them you're frightened/intimidated - maybe they dont realise quite how bad it is?
 
That is not good at all and if they do not do anything about it then yes, i would contact someone about it as stated above. Footpaths are for everyone, not just dog walkers and people should have their dogs under control. However, I have also been 'that' dog walker when i got my rescue dog in December. I knew she was reactive with dogs when she was on the lead and can be wary of strangers. My first walk where i let her off the lead she was great BUT she did bark at two people who were coming towards us. Now, she is not at ALL aggressive, she is very nervous but to the untrained eye she could look aggressive (she is not a big dog by the way) as she tries her hardest to look scary.

Now I am aware of this behaviour I make sure if I see other people coming I get her back to me (she is ok with other people if they have dogs). She is worse with men as she's very nervy but what makes her worse is when the person she is scared of tries to pet her/talk to her/looks at her. If she is ignored she is fine and when we have ended up chatting to people on a walk I tell them to ignore her and she will stop barking. However, people tend to ignore me!!! They see a dog and they think talking to it and trying to stroke it will help but with her she finds this intimidating and it makes her worse.

I am working on this issue with mine and she's definitely better and has more confidence and better recall, but what i would say to you is to ignore this dog, do not give it eye contact, do not talk to it or try and pet it. It could be it is similar to mine but in your case the owners don't seem to be doing anything to stop it!!!
 
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