Dog Walks Are Getting Risky?!

The biggest risk involved in going for a walk with my dogs right now is irresponsible owners allowing their dogs to roam free. It’s really not that hard to control dogs, but people just don’t care.

One word: train. Preferably as puppies. This article is sexist. My 5 year old niece walks my 95lb dog with ease. Lily never pulls her and even stops at crosswalks and doesn’t cross if it’s not safe

I walk nearly every night with my 60 pound ESA. He is well trained. However, a neighbor has a small male poodle that she allows to run around her yard if she is just doing things, seems harmless, right, no! Her poodle, 15 pounds at best, came running full steam at my dog, barking, we were in the road, closes to her house as would be following the rules but that also put us closer to her free roaming dog. My dog tried to protect me from the poodle, the poodle wanted after my dog....I ended up falling on the road in the scuffle. So, even a well trained dog, a 5'10", 179 pound woman, a 60 pound dog versus a nasty 15 pound poodle can cause a problem. The point of the story, every owner needs to be responsible for their pet and never overestimate what you think your pet can or cannot do in a situation. My dog did his job, I still fell.

To everyone who says it's just a training issue: Does it make you feel good to tell people it's their fault as if you know every individual situation? Sure, it can be a training issue, but not all dogs are trainable to the level where instinctive behavior is erased, and some dogs are large enough already to be a problem before it can be trained out of them.

I rescued a big dog when I was 58. He knew most commands, I thought this was a good sign. A couple of walks later I was pulled to the ground and thrown around like a rag doll while he tried to round up a mid size dog. Finally after lots of hard knocks and some training he is great. My trainer hooked me up with a climbing belt that goes around my waist. That has turned out to be a winner for me. Lots of love, training and treats. He is my forever dog!

The biggest risk for seniors is other dogs running the streets. Just use a laser and neutralize the aggressive encounter with other unleashed dogs. What a hassle but dogs need to walk.

My daughter was walking next to me. I had our young dog on a leash on the other side of me. He weighed about 75 pounds at the time, not quite full grown. She tossed a stick in front of us within his reach thinking he would just grab it, but instead he circled around behind us to get the stick which took her heels out from under her with the leash like a drag line. This precipitated a trip to the ER for my daughter with a mild concussion.

If uou get education then train consistently, should be non issue Educated operative word uhhhh

Untrained dogs.

I have a well trained dog. Bull Mastiff 125 lbs. I wouldn’t let my 13 year old walk him. With all his training it not my dog i worry about it’s the other people.