Anonymous
BDG, maybe you haven’t incurred this yet, but it doesn’t necessarily take a *known* aggressive dog to cause a problem in this scenario. Something psychological happens in their little doggie heads when a leashed dog meets up with un-leashed one. And it is often the one on the leash that lashes out first in response to the situation.
When every dog is loose, such as the off leash park, they get along. If every dog is on a leash, they concentrate on their own agenda with their owner, and seem to ignore each other for the most part. There is trouble when you mix one of each. The leashed dog perceives some kind of threat. The off leash owners think to themselves it wasn’t my dog who started the aggression so I’m fine. When actually the mere fact of their dog being loose, is the cause of the threat.
I get it when you’re way off by yourselves or in the little fenced area you’ve personally found. But for those in a busy public area open to all, it is selfish and rude to think you are not part of the problem having your dog run loose.