Dog to dog aggression while camping

dodge guy wrote:
My issue comes with dogs that aren't dog friendly! I see this at campgrounds a few times. My kids will ask if they can pet a particular dog and they say "no, he's nit friendly" same with my dog wanting to sniff another dog. Why would anyone bring an "unfriendly" dog to a place with kids?!

Sometimes it's just a way of saying "no I don't want to socialize with you, your kids, or your dogs."

For me, my dogs aren't "unfriendly", but Bat-dog does scare very easily. For this reason, I don't let children pet her. With adults, I will usually forewarn them, and if they show a knowledge of handling dogs, I will let them attempt to approach her. It helps her to get over her fear by letting people pet her, but I am very particular who does so.

As to other dogs, I don't usually let them sniff. Why? Because I have 2 dogs in a small space (I usually have them on a double leash that keeps them pretty close together) and having an unknown third dog popping into that space increases the risk of something going wrong. And yes, I usually say "oh, they're not real good about other dogs" because people don't argue with me about it.

When I try to explain that it's too tight of quarters, etc., people start in with "oh, my dog is really friendly", "my dog won't hurt a flea", etc. And when they let their dog get up close to mine, 7 times out of 10, that dog's hackles go up, it gets jumpy and skittish and nervous, and I end up having to pull my dogs away because it's owner is not seeing the signs.