Get a much larger dog, preferably one that is protective of you, and walk as normal.
That’s one way to look at it. Another is you do your dog a disservice by letting it run free, poorly socialized. Maybe it bothers me, maybe it bothers a car bumper, maybe it bothers a bigger less friendly dog.
The dog is not the problem, it’s the neighbor. in situations like this I like thinking about things I can do to get the other couple to fight with each other. This may take planning.
OP could leave underwear in one of the neighbor’s cars. That’d stir things up.
There is absolutely no way for you to win. I recall the saying “Don’t wrestle with pigs. You’ll both get dirty, but the pigs enjoy it.” People like this enjoy the drama and will escalate just for the fun of it. The only winning move is not not play.
For your own safety and well-being, I would recommend you go walking with pepper spray. However, as a dog lover, I feel bad for the dogs if you have to use it. In most cases, the dog is just being happy and goofy when he comes up to you. But if you feel unsafe, then use the pepper spray and he’ll get the message.
“Bullying” is a very strong term. Here’s what it looks like to me–dog owners know that their dog is gentile and playful, thought you were freaking out way out of proportion to anything that happened, and found it hilarious when they saw you receive your (from their POV) well-deserved comeuppance. If you report their their dog without it doing any physical harm to people, pets, or property rest assured that you will be seen as the bad guy and will have made a pair of firm enemies for life. Try to get your mind on something else–for instance, at this very moment your son may be texting naughty words to his friends!
Jumping on someone may be playful, but it is definitely not gentle, and is a problem. And a behavior that should be stopped. Even just in the practical sense, the dog could knock someone down and cause an injury (especially an elderly or physically unstable person).
And some will you see you as the bad guy if you report the dog after it attacks someone.
No one should have to deal with being jumped on by other people’s pets. People need to have better control of their animals. Though I will agree not much will be done about it, even though I think something should.
What about other neighbors? Do they have problems with the Dog Family? Do you have problems with them?
And what exactly “should” be done about a neighbor’s friendly dog wanting to be petted? Do you start with a heavy fine or go straight to killing it?
We don’t know the full facts here, it really depends on the exact circumstances.
If (say) someone has a large dog that’s running loose on the street, does not respond to the owner’s verbal commands, and is jumping on people, that’s a serious problem. It’s one that I faced with a Great Dane owned by a short-term renter on my street last year. I’m 6’2" and hardly frail, but in a quick encounter it can be impossible to know if a loud barking dog that’s suddenly running at you is a playful puppy or aggressive. The dog I encountered would certainly have knocked over any elderly person or child. If I carried mace, I would have maced this dog without a moment’s hesitation, and it would have been completely the fault of the irresponsible owner.
But of course we should not be rushing to mace every dog that happens occasionally to escape from its yard and runs around. The standard must surely be whether it appears to present an objective threat to a reasonable person, it can’t be based on a personal phobia that makes you paranoid about all dogs. Society doesn’t have to accommodate bad dog owners; but likewise, reasonable dog owners don’t have to accommodate unreasonable phobia.
I’m a dog owner and I love dogs. However, I do think that some owners can be extremely irresponsible. Saying “He’s just being friendly” when your dog jumps on someone (especially an obviously frightened person) is just one example of irresponsibility. Dogs can’t train themselves to human expectations. The neighbors in this case have a badly behaved dog who should have been on a leash and should have been taught proper recall and not to jump up. I can’t blame the dog, but I certainly blame the owners.
Once I was walking my well-behaved dog, properly on his leash, when a huge dog came racing out of someone’s yard and attacked my poor pup. The owner had the gall to blame me for the situation. It would have been funny, his logic was so absurd. But it was actually a terrifying experience for me and especially for my dog.
I think the neighbors in the OP sound like spiteful idiots and irresponsible dog owners. I’d give them a wide berth and I would certainly contact the local authorities if your community has a leash law.
Does the neighbour let the dog run loose all the time? Or was this a case of the dog getting out on its own? I know with my dogs, there have been times when they’ve dashed out of the garage or jerked the leash out of my hand. If there were people nearby at the time, my dogs probably would have run up to them wanting to play.
If they have their dogs running around all the time, then I’d probably report them. In most neighbourhoods, dogs need to be kept on a leash or in a fenced yard.
As a country boy, the proper way to respond is “You can either leash your dog today or bury it tomorrow. Fine for shooting a dog is 300 dollars and I got that in change. Now we’ve been neighbors for a piece now and we’ve not had any troubles. I’d hate for something dumb like a dog that can’t stay on his porch be the cause of us having bad blood. Y’all know what the problem is and y’all know how to fix it. I reckon this is the last time we need to talk about this.”
You know those annoying little air horns people take to major sporting events? Dogs happen to really hate them. You can get a dog to run away if you blast it right at them when they are pretty close and it seriously causes temporary pain [think how loud they are … now imagine a dog’s sensitive ears] And you don’t have to worry about pepper spray or hitting the dog, just a little noise.
Leash laws are among the many, many laws that really have teeth only if an enforcing agent witnesses the offense. Contacting local authorities will not likely result in them staking out the neighbors. The OP cannot control the neighbors or their dog. As of this writing, neither the neighbors nor the dog have done anything that is likely to get LE involved in any serious way. Cops aren’t the solution. Unless, that is, you consider the cops stopping by to give the neighbors a stern lecture (which will really piss them off) a solution. The OP needs to work through things that are under hir control. Also, the OP needs to put aside the idea that actions like going an alternate route are “letting them win.” Winning often consists of not engaging.
Yup, this is a common trait with irresponsible dog owners.
Dogs are good pets because they come from a lineage of pack hunters, with strong social bonds to members of their pack. There instincts are very much attuned to differentiating in-group from out-group. The latter includes enemies and prey. Of course, we breed and train dogs to socialize them to a more general human context, but these instincts are always present to some degree.
It’s monumentally ignorant for an owner to be surprised when a dog that is friendly and loyal to his family behaves differently to a stranger. “Oh, he never does that with me, he must be responding to your aggressive attitude.” No, dumbass, he’s a fucking dog. Learn what dogs are. They must be trained to be socialized to strangers (and strange dogs, of course).
Bullies like getting reactions. Avoid them, and do not respond to their taunting. Smile and wave and move on.
As others have recommended, check out leash laws in your area.
The OP was pretty clear that the neighbor’s dog was jumping on him, not just playfully bounding up to him.
What’s your suggestion for how a person should go about getting a dog to stop jumping on them ASAP?
Push him off or knee him in the chest, it’s how you train dogs not to jump on you in the first place.
I know the reaction to that statement will be “well that’s dumb, the dog will just attack then” but if the dog is indeed doing the jumping joyfully/playfully then it won’t attack because it’s not being aggressive at the time. Doing that won’t make it aggressive either.
We have no context to the dog’s size other than it was “not small” and, frankly, that’s a non-objective viewpoint coming from someone who is scared of dogs. To really give advice I’d need to know the breed of dog and what constitutes “not small”. Is it a Great Dane? Then yeah, definitely not small. But is it a Bull Terrier? I hesitate to call that a “not-small” dog.
More or less I’m not trying to defend the neighbor or the dog. What I’m trying to do is prevent needless harm on the dog when it doesn’t deserve it because the neighbor is a dumbass.