Recently while walking the dogs, I met a large breed mongrel, it's owner was waiting for the lift in front of us. They were pretty far away, about 100 meters from where I was standing so I couldn't see very clearly, then suddenly the dog came running towards us, I then found out that it was not leashed!
I was in time to access the mongrel's situation to know that it was not aggressive, his owner was shouting his dog's name from the lift, apparently the dog didn't listen at all. Now, one of our boarding dog growled at the mongrel, in which the mongrel growled back at him, not wanting to risk any accidents (though the mongrel didn't show any symptoms of aggression), I shouted "No" and leaned my body forward at the dog and it backed off. The owner then started to apologize to me, not wanting to argue nor encourage his actions, I did not say anything but simply walked away.
Even though the dog is probably adopted, I knew that the owner was very inexperienced. First of all the dog is not trained on leash nor off leash, secondly it does not recognize commands and lastly the dog was wearing a harness! For a large dog, the damage done towards other living things can be extremely severe, as I walked away I noticed the owner had trouble controlling his dog even with leash on, I could have explained to him in detail but I was in a rush at that point of time.
Hopefully this incident can help you understand about the importance of training your dog, and also to pick up some dog reading skills in case you might need to use it. If I hadn't read the situation properly, if the dog was actually lunging aggressively at us, then either me or the dogs I am in charged with would've gotten injured, with aggressive dogs you should never try scaring it or even attempt to run away, in this case backing off slowly would've been a better choice.
I was in time to access the mongrel's situation to know that it was not aggressive, his owner was shouting his dog's name from the lift, apparently the dog didn't listen at all. Now, one of our boarding dog growled at the mongrel, in which the mongrel growled back at him, not wanting to risk any accidents (though the mongrel didn't show any symptoms of aggression), I shouted "No" and leaned my body forward at the dog and it backed off. The owner then started to apologize to me, not wanting to argue nor encourage his actions, I did not say anything but simply walked away.
Even though the dog is probably adopted, I knew that the owner was very inexperienced. First of all the dog is not trained on leash nor off leash, secondly it does not recognize commands and lastly the dog was wearing a harness! For a large dog, the damage done towards other living things can be extremely severe, as I walked away I noticed the owner had trouble controlling his dog even with leash on, I could have explained to him in detail but I was in a rush at that point of time.
Hopefully this incident can help you understand about the importance of training your dog, and also to pick up some dog reading skills in case you might need to use it. If I hadn't read the situation properly, if the dog was actually lunging aggressively at us, then either me or the dogs I am in charged with would've gotten injured, with aggressive dogs you should never try scaring it or even attempt to run away, in this case backing off slowly would've been a better choice.
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