Off leash dogs part one: A dog runs up to you.

Here are some tips for what to do when an off-leash dog approaches you and your dog: (Originally posted on our facebook and instagram pages):

When you see an off-leash dog approaching:

First call out to the owner of the dog to call their dog back. You don’t need to be polite.

“Recall your dog now.” “Get your dog.”

If you get the often-inevitable reply of “He’s friendly” or a half-hearted recall which the owner clearly knows won’t work, you can step it up to, “My dog is contagious.” It is amazing how much faster someone will move when they are worried for their dog instead of you being worried about yours.

You can ask someone to recall their dog even in an off-leash area. In an off-leash area dogs must be under effective voice control and within sight of their owner. There is no requirement for you to allow that dog to approach yours even if they are friendly. In a perfect world, owners would have the courtesy to keep their dogs away from other dogs until they had permission to approach – just like we teach kids when wanting to pat a dog on the street!

If the other owner gets angry with you for saying your dog is sick when they aren’t – remember you are in the right and walk away. The important thing is keeping you and your dog safe!

If asking them to call their dog isn’t working, you will need to move onto stage two.

A playful, happy dog to us. A nightmare for a reactive dog or owner.