When a stranger's dog follows you...

[Sian P]

what do you do? It has happened before but yesterday I had real difficulty shaking off the dog in question.

We were having a lovely walk on the beach, Murphy was off-lead and we were playing fetch with his beloved ball. I always make a point of not throwing the ball if there is another dog close by who might be interested or throwing somewhere else etc and Murphy is fantastic at 'waiting' when I ask him to. Anyway, we came across a lady with 3 miniature poodles. She was walking one way, we were walking the other. 2 of the poodles came up and said hello so I stopped our game. The poodles went along again with the owner but then the 3rd came up and started barking so we carried on as Murphy was only interested in his ball anyway. The lady carried on and tried to call her dog but it ignored her. She got quite far away and the dog had started to follow us. When we stopped and 'waited' it just stood and barked but followed us if we moved. She wasn't even looking and was too far to shout to and for that matter wasn't even watching. The poodle eventually wandered off but I was quite frustrated in the end.

Is there something I should've done? I felt I couldn't carry on with our walk because it would result in the dog becoming seperated from it's owner 

Sorry if I've rambled and also if it's in the wrong section! x

[PennyB]

I tend to walk back the dog if I can and find their owner again (even if their owner is pretty bad like this). Some owners get used to their dogs disappearing off or feel its the dogs fault etc. and just don't bother as they know (or say they do) the dog will come back or feel they're teahcing the dog a lesson. Regardless of what I feel about these people it would worry me if anything happened to the dog.

 

[175brown]

i don't know what the answer is
it happens to me properly once or twice a week.
i do the same as you stop our game and stand still usually for several Min's until the other dog gets bored and wanders off. i often worry that one day they be to far away and the dog will lose them so i watch carefully to make sure it runs back to them.
just yesterday we lost yet another ball to a dog whose owner was miles away
it makes my blood boil these owners are just as bad as ones who don't clean up after their dogs.
now thats it you've started me on a rant now lol

[dylan]

I have been on both sides of this as when Dylan was a pup he found other dogs more interesting than me. He used to follow other dogs/owners on a regular basis and i remember thinking why are these people still walking away when my dog is with them. Now with him being more mature and sensible( ) he no longer does this but on a few occasions we have had a few dogs take a fancy to him(in the wrong way!) and their owners are half way down the beach before they have realised.I will not return their dog as i dont feel it my duty to do so but a will stay put untill they come and collect their doglet or doglet gets bored and goes seekin its owner  

[Sian P]

Thanks for your replies. 

The next time this happens I will stay put for as long as poss but if the owner fails to notice I will try and return the dog and probably have a few words to say too! I just don't understand what she was thinking. She called him twice when already far away (and looking the other way) then just walked off. The poodle didn't even look up at his name and was quite happy to follow us and we were ignoring him. WHen he did finally start to leave I moved on too to put some distance between us but still watched to make sure he rejoined his family. Like Penny said, I would worry what happened otherwise.

[Sarah.H]

I get this quite often. Sometimes I feel like popping a lead on it and taking it away just to teach the owners a lesson  . Obviously I would never do that  . What I find really annoying and happened to me again this morning is when a big dog won't leave me alone because I have food and it tries to shove its head in my coat pocket  .

[supergirl]

I tend to walk back the dog if I can and find their owner again (even if their owner is pretty bad like this). Some owners get used to their dogs disappearing off or feel its the dogs fault etc. and just don't bother as they know (or say they do) the dog will come back or feel they're teahcing the dog a lesson. Regardless of what I feel about these people it would worry me if anything happened to the dog.

I do the same and recently had a situation where another dog came to play with my two.  The owner seemed perfectly aware that the dog wasn't coming back to her, but hardly made any effort to call the dog back.  We stayed in the same place so that we weren't walking away from her. In the end I walked back her way so that she could get her dog back, but was a little annoyed that she made no effort to come and get her dog (it almost seemed as if she didn't want it).

[Sian P]

I do the same and recently had a situation where another dog came to play with my two.  The owner seemed perfectly aware that the dog wasn't coming back to her, but hardly made any effort to call the dog back.  We stayed in the same place so that we weren't walking away from her. In the end I walked back her way so that she could get her dog back, but was a little annoyed that she made no effort to come and get her dog (it almost seemed as if she didn't want it).

That's how I felt. She didn't seem worried. Maybe it was the first time he hadn't returned to her but either way she didn't seem concerned at all and we'd been stood there for ages!

[sassie]

This used to happen to me loads and on a couple of occasions it ruined a walk, as the dog was sexually harrassing my girlie, who was spayed and getting quite upset.  I even had one guy shout at me, it's no good you walking away, he's bound to follow you! as if his dog was my responsibility!! Following up by saying if I didn't want his dog to follow us, then I should consider going elsewhere in future.  It is a pain, I know that (like children) you can't always tell what your dog is going to do but if you own one (dog or child) you are responsible for it's behaviour.  I just can't understand why some people can't see that.

[Beth]

I've been on both sides of this, i've had the annoying dogs tagging along, and i've also had to shout at people to please stop walking so i can get my dog back. (i got a right mouthful about training my dogs from that lady, 'fraid i got rather stroppy with her and explained that i was TRYING to and that she wasn't helping. ) When other dogs follow me i tend to follow the owners lead, if they ignore it so will i, but if they're trying and struggling to get them back then i'll stop and wait.

I've also had ownerless dogs follow me, one followed me all the way (along roads!) to my friends house so we called the dog warden, the other one i followed and it went home to a bloke stood in his garden waiting for it, seems he lets his dog out unattended to go and crap on the field. next time i see it i'm taking it home to call the dog warden, serves the owner right.

[Cob-Web]

I worry most when farm dogs follow us while we are out walking; they are often left loose on the farmland, and some have followed us for ages with no sign of anyone to take control of them.  I always get anxious when they follow us into a lane/road, but they all seem to have excellent traffic sense! 

[black taz]

I can understand both side of this.  I used to have a problem with Taz not returning when playing with other dogs and walking with them.  Fortunately following lots of training he has improved this immensely.  

When it was Taz i found it difficult to know what to do, all the training books, etc., say keep walking away if they don't follow.  Personally i would walk as far as i was comfortable (which wasn't very far) give him about 30 seconds to come then go and fetch him - i was always immesly grateful to those kind dog owners who waiting (and i tried not to keep them too long) but in the case it sounds like she knew that he would come back eventually - but i see your frustration - i have recently been in the same position, and i did like a previous post and followed the owner until the dog went and caught up with them - but its not always possible to do that depending on time.

Perhaps a short comment, like "my dog used to be like that and its taken loads of training" may give her the hint next time!

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