Off Lead Play - Crouching and Pouncing

[Elf]

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Hello, I’m new here and a novice dog owner. I have a male Labradoodle, nearly 2, not intact, medium sized. We live near fields and woodland, and walk the dog there along with many others. My dog is very playful, and often crouches and pounces on approaching dogs. He loves to chase and be chased, and engage in “mouthy” play. My question relates to etiquette. When approaching dogs are on lead, I will put my dog on lead. Simply to ensure my dog doesn’t engage. However, when an approaching dog is off-lead, and my dog runs up to play, some owners don’t like this (even though the dogs seem to have a great time playing). I don’t know what the problem is as the dogs seem to love it, BUT I am new to this so would really appreciate some help and advice on how to deal with this. Thank you

 

[JudyN]

Welcome to the forum - that's a good question, and it's great that you want to follow etiquette.

Plenty of people do let their dogs approach other off-lead dogs, but it really is best if you can prevent your dog from doing this. Some dogs can find being approached by a dog they don't know scary, and your dog crouching and pouncing on them could upset them even more. Also, some dogs could be older and fragile, and a labradoodle paw on the back could injure them - or they may wheel away and tweak something. Dogs who would prefer your dog didn't go up to them, for whatever reason, of course should be entitled to be off-lead (as long as they don't endanger other dogs of course).

Also, letting your dog go up to and play with any other off-lead dog can make playing with them more interesting than you, and it is far better for you to be able to keep his focus on you, and listen to you. So maybe give him some enriching things to do on his walk, e.g. playing with a ball, or throwing some small treats into long grass for him to sniff out. If you meet someone with a dog you think yours would like to play with, by all means ask the other owner and if they're OK with it, you can let the dogs play. Keep an eye in their body language though - Some dogs can enjoy bullying & intimidating others - not aggression as such, more 'I can get you to roll over and stop you getting up again!' And even the owners of the dogs being bullied often don't realise that this is not harmless playing.

You do tend to find that different unwritten rules apply in different places - in a small park, it might be that everyone accepts that dogs will go up to each other, and assumes that owners of reactive dogs will keep away. People with reactive dogs are more likely to walk their dogs in out-of-the-way quiet places - they may be the only places they can give them some off-lead time, so it's definitely better to make sure your dog keeps his distance there. As well as learning dog body language (is that a friendly tail-wag or a challenging one?), you'll learn to read owners' body language in time too!

 

[Flobo]

Hi and welcome from me too Can't really add anything to the above other than with one of my really playful dogs, that I do walk off lead, I've taught a 'wait' command and a 'slowly', which gives me time to shout over to owner if it's ok for her to come and play... I don't think there's ever too many words to teach a dog! I also applaud your question, many seasoned dog owners don't always consider this!

 

[Elf]

Thank you both so much for your answers, and for taking the time to reply in so much detail. I massively appreciate it. Wish me luck!

 

[JudyN]

Good luck! Dogs who like to play will be a work in progress for some time, but he'll soon be a model citizen!

 

[Flobo]

Indeed, good luck!
One of the first dogs I started working with was a goldendoodle and she picked up new commands in a heartbeat. Just be consistent and you'll probably(hopefully!) find he's as bright as a button and eager to learn...fingers crossed!

 

[JudyN]

My old dog ended up looking to me for a treat whenever we passed any dog, even though he had no interest in going up to them at all - which is fine, because it did mean the training was working and frequently reinforced. Then he started trying it on whenever we passed a person....