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Ok_Scholar_1987 t1_iss8so3 wrote

This exactly! I had a senior rescue pup with anxiety issues who was my first doggo and have public trails near my house. The trails are supposed to be on leash only but no one ever leashes their dogs. I had my girl on a leash walking her there and within 3 weeks of getting her she got attacked/in a fight with an unleashed dog that came right up to us-owner was far behind and couldn’t get there fast enough. I was shaken and called the rescue because being my first dog I didn’t know if she had started it/if this was normal behavior and was informed that an off leash dog can be threatening to dogs on a leash (which makes complete sense- one dog is free to run away,etc and one is stuck), that no matter how “friendly” a dog is not all dogs like every dog just as we don’t have to like every random person we meet… and thus we were not in the wrong and my dog felt threatened and acted in a natural defensive way. Suffice it to say we had 1 other incident elsewhere with an off leash dog and I could never again walk her there right near my own house or anywhere else where dogs don’t tend to be leashed, which was sad for me and her. Now that she has passed I walk there again but every time have unknown dogs running up or jumping on me. I am a dog lover but it feels unsafe not knowing these animals with owners often not near enough/paying attention. Also used to know someone on the swat team with a highly trained police canine who told me to never trust a dog 100% because even the most well trained dogs can still have unpredictable behaviors at times so yeah… I’m not a fan of off leash.

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