Lovely photos, such a pretty girl. Sounds to me like Jura did a good job in trying to let the other dog know that he was being a pain.
What a lovely looking girl she is. And well within her rights to tell the other dog off for misbehaviour. A lot of bitches do this, one of mine certainly does, it never involves contact and never escalates into a fight.
I think Americans and English have somewhat different expectations of our dogs behavior with other dogs. When in town and on suburban streets most people walk dogs on leash. When we meet another dog we will often ask if the the dogs can meet, and if the answer is yes we let them play. Often we will take one or both dogs off leash to prevent tangles. If we are at one of the smaller enclosed dog parks, people just turn their dogs loose to play, either with their owner, or with other dogs. Occasionally you will see some aggressive behavior between dogs, but it is generally confined to "This is my ball" or "Leave me alone" Play can get pretty rough and tumble some times. Dogs and owners that don't get along aren't welcomed back. When we are in a larger area such as beach, large park, National Forest, etc. folks with well behaved dogs (and decent recall) will let them off leash and let them run. If we are hiking the dogs generally stay fairly close to the group. If we encounter another dog, we let the dogs sort it out. The dogs engage in play, butt sniffing, Mexican standoff or what ever they want. Generally if a dog wants to left alone he/she will make that known and the other dog(s) will respect it. The assumption, which is almost always correct, is that folks won't let their dogs off leash, if they are aggressive or difficult to control. Meeting a leashed dog probably the biggest concern, since the owners either don't have good recall, or the dog is aggressive. Dogs like Labs and other gun dogs, generally are mellow enough to back off from a leashed aggressive dog. (Might not apply to a Chesapeake Bay Retriever).
I think it's very true that things are very different in the US vs the UK. You seem, @Ski-Patroller to have a negative view of the UK. I have to say, I try to supress a bit of a negative view of dogs in the US - because I know my view is based on zero experience, and only online - so completely irrelevant experience, really. What I think (which is probably wrong, as your view of the UK is probably wrong Lots of US dog seem lead (leash) reactive - that's because they spend far too much time on lead. I never let my dog say hello on lead - I don't need to, because my dog gets to say hello when he is off lead (which is most of the time). We don't have dog parks - they sound like my worst nightmare! Lots of dogs in an enclosed space - completely unnatural. Eeek! I can't help thinking barely anyone has a dog in the US that would pass muster in terms of recall in a UK park. Everyone in the US mostly seems scared to death of letting their dogs off lead. And we all work on our recall with our dogs off lead from tiny pups, in parks, in the country, in the city - wherever.
I don't have a negative view of the UK, just want to comment on the differences. Mostly that we aren't upset when dogs meet even if they don't behave exactly as we might wish. In most urban and suburban areas in the US is illegal to have a dog off leash, although many authorities will ignore it if the dog is under close voice control. Dog parks are a mixed blessing. They allow a number of dogs to play together and some of them seem to have a good time. Generally they will have at least reasonably good recall, or the owner will have problems getting them collected when it is time to leave. We generally avoid the smaller fenced dog parks and prefer the large areas where we can have our dogs to ourselves or let them play with other dogs. Our favorite park is quite large, with a large creek and also a river through it. It is probably 50 acres and is not fenced. It is actually referred to as "an off leash area" not a dog park. We spend a lot of time at our cabin in the Mt Hood National Forrest (Oregon is over 50% Federal Land) and there are generally no leash requirements there. Our dogs are almost never on leashes, unless we are near a highway. It used to be common in the US for owners in suburban and rural areas to let their dogs run free. That is very uncommon now, except for herding and livestock guard dogs. I think you might be surprised how many dogs there are here that have excellent recall and are very well behaved. We have far more dogs actually engaged in bird hunting, just because we have a large population with many hunters and lots of space to hunt. I have one contractor i work with that takes his black lab to most all of his construction sites. Jack will sit in the back of an open pickup until his owner tells him he can get out and play. Another contractor has a Yellow Lab that will stay within about 20 feet of the construction site, even when he is working on a job in down town Portland. Personally I won't let my dogs off lead near busy streets, because we have never been able to teach them good car sense. While they will sit before crossing the road, they have no concept of looking both ways.
Yes, that must be true. The US has a population of 319 million people. I'm sure that's true - although I'm not sure if I'd be surprised by how many, or how few. I have visited a few US cities, and never seen a dog off lead. But I haven't been to the US very much - no more than 20 days over the last 10 years. So I haven't seen much first hand at all.
I would not expect to see dogs off lead in many places in a US City, although small towns you might or in parks (not dog parks). None of our National Parks (except one in San Francisco) allow dogs, even on leash. They can't get out of the car. Fortunately we have 100s of times more National Forests, BLM and State Forest lands than we do National Parks. A number of stores (but never grocery stores) in the US allow dogs inside. Home Depot particularly comes to mind. Most all of the clerks carry dog treats. It is getting very common for motels to be pet friendly. We never have a problem finding a place that will allow our labs when we are traveling. Most restaurants and bars with outdoor seating allow dogs, but never indoors. I haven't spent any time in the UK (other than Heathrow) but a lot of time in Italy. We did not see very many dogs, and even fewer off lead. There was one Lab I remember on a trail in Cinque Terra. Other than one or two on the beach and one in a park in Florence I don't think I saw any dogs off lead. I have neighbor who lived in London a few years ago. She commented that most of the people walking dogs weren't interested in meeting other people, at least people without dogs. She saw the same folks on the heath quite often but never was able to get to know the people or the dogs. In our neighborhood it is common to know the names of all the dogs but not necessarily the masters. Most folks walking dogs are more than happy to stop and chat and let the dog meet some new people or dogs. I think we probably don't try to control our dogs behavior quite as much.
The first bit is probably true - who wants to meet a person without a dog? Why would you want to do that? Maybe. I don't know whether that's a good or a bad thing though. My impression is that since all our UK dogs are off lead all the time, we worry much more about how they behave. That might be right, or wrong - dunno.
Since we tend to think of our dogs as furry Kids with 4 legs. We are probably a lot more permissive. Ours are allowed on some of the furniture and Cooper sleeps on our bed most nights.
Jura is beautiful ,I hope you feel reassured by your replies....I think sometimes dog owners you meet just don't understand dogs and mistake dogs communications for aggression...I know I know I was pretty inept before I got a lot better educated.Without sounding rude the lady in the park probably didn't know what was going on between the dogs. We met 3 new dogs the other day,the owner and I had managed the approach and shouted out our requirements and agreed to a play. I was policing Dexter as he can be annoying in his approaches. The owner was lovely and was trying to chat so Dexter didn't have my full attention and one of her dogs gave him a right load of verbal! Best thing you can do to my boy as he pipes down then.The lady was so grateful when I wasn't upset,she said other people have really had a go at her.The volume of it would have really frightened me a couple of years back and I would have thought her dog was aggressive but by watching them I knew it wasn't anything that would escalate.I know this was more controlled than the situation you found yourself in but thought it might show how misunderstandings can happen and can leave you worried about things when your dog hasn't done anything wrong.Hope Jura has met some better mannered companions since x
@Ski-Patroller I think you paint a much better life for you and your dogs than a lot of US visitors that we have had come on the forum since I have been here. A lot more positive. I think the image of an apartment dog with limited off lead opportunities, mostly in small dog parks with mixed age dogs with mixed behaviour had come across. Your dogs sound like they have it pretty good!
Or their dog could be rehabilitating after surgery so on restricted off lead exercise. I know, I've been there and my girl has great recall and is completely non-aggressive.
Thank you all for your replies, @Dexter I do feel reassured by them. I've walked Jura in the same location a couple of times this week, though at a different time of day, and she has been fine with every dog she has met. Speaking to her trainers about it this week, they didn't think it was anything to worry about, just one dog telling another dog off for being too over the top, and an inexperienced owner who didn't recognise that. Plus my own inexperience, and shock at hearing Jura give a verbal warning for the first time!
