Correcting other people's dogs

This topic came about when I was reading something similar on another forum. Question, if you were out in public and someone's dog was showing bad manners, would you correct their dog? If there are certain situations where you would or wouldn't, please explain.

Off the top of my head, no, I wouldn't. I might make a suggestion to the owner, but anything I said or did towards the dog might be confusing to it and cause more harm than good.

without giving it a lot of thought no I probably wouldn't unless it put my kids or my dog at risk

I've never corrected anyones dog but will ask an owner to please control their dog.
Recently at work, a tenants daughter came to stay a couple days with her pomaranian. Everytime I came in to pass meds her dog would run around me barking and biting at my shoes. I did get down to let her dog check me out but everytime I stood back up he would do the same thing. Even though the owner had a crate for him, she just ignored him. I did politely ask the owner to please either hold her dog or have him in the crate when I had to come in the room.

I am not around other peoples dogs as most of you are. Only time is when I am visiting the neighbors and their farm dogs. Never had to correct them before. Because most of them are really well mannered.

So honestly in this situation I don't know what I would do.


I am not an expert trainner. I don't expect or train like most of you do. I have my own expectations. So to tell or to correct an owner when I do not follow the same protocal. It would be like calling the kettle black. Hope that makes sense

If I know the person has good control of their dog, but there dog is having one of those goofy days. I mention something politely to the owner.

Normally, I would never correct anyone's dog, but have on two occasions where someone's dog was displaying inappropriate behaviour that could end up escalate into hurting another person or their owner. You have to understand, I don't use a hands on approach with dogs. So if the owner looks clueless on how to handle an issue, and I know of something that may help, I will politely suggest and with their permission show them with their dog. They don't appear to mind at all, maybe because it's in the way I approach them and the fact that I'm not leash correcting or alpha rolling their dog. I rarely ever put my hands on my dog when training her , I and can count on both hands the number of times I've had to give her a leash correction. Normally I don't, but depending on the person will if it's something that could develop into dangerous behaviour and a dog being pts due to a bite incident.

Thats just it, Its the owner that needs correcting, not the dog. One of the times I went into the room at work, the lady went digging in her bag for a spray bottle. By the time she found it I was sitting on the floor petting the dog, the dog just sitting nicely. She ran over and sprayed him few times! I wanted to tell her she "corrected" her dog for behaving nice but I was at my job and I knew she would get offended.

rotncorso, if only you could have sprayed the lady in the face with the spray bottle. lol In that situation, I wouldn't if it was during my work hours and I knew the person would get offended.