NI = The plague? General Chat

We go to a busy doggie park of an evening and at the weekends. We used to have a few people we met on a regular basis but we keep missing each other at the moment.

When we just had Cassie we would often meet at least 2 other dog walkers everynight, the dogs would have a sniff and run about. However since getting Ela everyone seems to avoid us! People put there dogs on leads or change the direction they were walking in . . Now Ela doesn't growl or bark or anything so it has to be based on the way she looks. If they meet her she is daft and submissive to any dog she meets.

Take yesterday afternoon, when we arrived there were about 10 other people about with dogs in 20 mins we were the only ones in the park. Everyone we got near to put the dogs on a lead or stopped playing with them and walked off!

I felt like saying i'm an NI owner i don't have the plague!

Could just be a big-dog-thing?

I get the same walking 2 Boxers.... (admittedly they are usually wet through, covered in sand and drooling....)

Awww! perhaps it may be coincidence? Also the other dog walkers may be like me, I have to put my dogs on their leads if anyone is around as they have no doggie manners. Your dog sounds lovely, dont take it too personally.

Don't have the same with Kismet, so it must be the more 'wolfyness' of the NI, but it does seem odd.

Poor Ela. Don't they understand that if she doesn't get to play with their dogs while she's small they will be creating the very dog they fear... Good job she has Cassie and at least the dogs don't notice what you do

It could be a big dog thing like isochick says as I have had it with the labs. It could also be if a dog that looks similar has caused trouble in the area as I have had that aswell. Just dont worry about it.

She used to have a lab she played with nearly eveynight but they have moved now. Her fav mates are a JRT called Jack (her boyfriend LOL) and two cockers called Anne and Fred.

I had a problem with people walking away when I had one dog. When I got the second one they seemed to all want to talk to us. Now I have 5 all off lead together and we get a mixture to be honest, which is fair enough. If we're in the middle of the field it seems to get very busy around the edge of the field until one brave soul decides to come over. Although if there are people we know over there we can have loads of dogs milling about. It tends to be worse in the summer when there are lots of fair weather walkers, and regular walkers change their walking time or route to avoid the crowds. In the winter we tend to see the same people all the time.

My foster dog is a bit aggressive at times so I sometimes avoid other walkers (depending on the situation).

I wouldn't take it personally, like Grommit said it could be a coincidence.

Maybe you could try putting Ela on her lead and taking her over to other people, introduce her, ten let her off? I know you shouldn't have to as she's a well behaved dog, but it might make other people less wary?

I wish people did that with ours. Unfortunately, they do the opposite and seem to take great satisfaction in letting their off-lead dogs run right into the faces of my (on-lead) Siberians. Multi-dog walkers are the worst at this and it is a real pain. A couple of times our dogs have actually been badly attacked by off-lead dogs, so people putting their dogs on leads and walking the other way is my idea of paradise!!

This is very true

I think its a big dog thing we used to get it when we took my dads rotties out x

My Husky has no interest in other dogs (a part from Labs she LOVES labs!), when we take her to the park she is happy to sit a watch the other dogs play. Then she will walk off and have a mooch about on her own when that gets boring. But people always try and cell her too them ( the opposite to what happens with Ela), they get a bit PO'd when she shows no interest and strolls back to us!

Ela and Cassie love to play though.

I'd swap with you - I wish people would put their dogs on leads when they see us coming!

Personally, if I see any dog I dont know, I put my dogs on their leads and walk the other way. Big, small doesnt matter, Id like to think people would extend the same courtesy to me, as I dont want other peoples dogs leaping on mine, as I assume they dont want mine on theirs.

We do as well on footpaths and walks but this big park is known as a good doggy playground. If a dog is kept on a lead then stay away but otherwise all the dogs play together.

It's nothing to do with NI's....its a big dog thing.
Lots people do this with GSD's (not to mention mastiffs, boxers, dobes, rotties, etc, etc).

I doubt if your average member of the public has heard of a NI.
The most sensible probably think you have a GSD.
The others probably think you have some 'wolfy looking husky dog'...i even get that comment with my white GSD, and when she is out with our Akita X and Terveuran, we get asked if they are sled dogs!

Personally, i dont care if peeps cross the road, as they are quite narrow!
Although i doesnt really happen that often. Most people admire our girls

I put my two on a lead when i see other dogs(thats if i see them first) other wise they would be straight over to them as the have no manners. They are getting better though. We got them at 7 months and don't think they had much in the way of sicialisation as pups. So it could be that the other people have the same problem as i do and are just being polite to you. . . At least you get the park to yourself LOL

I was out walking my 2 the other day and there was a lady walking her too terrier type dogs, she was walking on another path, mine were totally disinterested and carried on on our own path, sure enough one of the terriers came over to say hello!!, within seconds her dog went for Lola's face, BIG mistake, Lola defended herself no biting just noise and facial expressions, and the owner had the cheek to tut at me.

some owners of little dogs let them get away with anything. i've had french bulldogs, staffies and yorkies (and a lab puppy) going for xero. i was walking my daughter to school once when a little dog off lead came running up to her and started barking and growling. if that was my dogs there would be uproar

When people say it's a big dog thing - I'm not so sure - the only dogs bigger than Takoda are things like Leo's and newfies. Labs look titchy next to him so even people with other so called big dogs don't really want to know us but I think it could also be me that they don't like as well as the dogs lol.