WOAH!!! Off leash dog..

At the lake yesterday, a chocolate Lab was off leash playing in the water with the kids.. well it gets out of the water, goes up to a woman, and snatches up all of her sandwhich and chips, right from her!!!

My mouth gaped open.

0.0

The owners just made the dog lie down and it got right back up and went to play off leash again.

We met an off leash dog on our walk last night. The dog ran 20 feet ahead of the owners heading towards me and my puppy (who I was OBVIOUSLY training). Before it got to us I said "Can you call your dog back, please?"
They literally said and did nothing. Their dog coincidentally stopped about 10 feet in front of us when it found something to sniff. I said "Are you able to CALL YOUR DOG BACK?"
They went "Pancake...here Pancake...Pancake....Pancake..." The dog obviously ignored them. Then ran up to me and my dog. I picked up my dog, walked passed them and snarled "THANKS A LOT". They both just looked at me.
What is WITH people? Having your dog off leash is not a RIGHT, it is a PRIVILEGE your dog earns with its reliability.
GRRRRR.

Hehe, thats funny. I mean, yeah it's bad of the owners to let him get that far, but some things you just can't stop. It was probably totally by accident.

Anywhoo, what would you do if your dog did that? Would you have left? Let the dog keep playing and exercising but keep a more watchful eye on him?

Lizmo, I would have leashed my dog at a busy lake, so he wouldn't have a CHANCE to take somebody's food.

Not all dogs need a leash, though. Some dogs are trained to be offleash (as I'm sure you know). If I were at a lake, I would let my dog offleash to play with him. I've done it before.

I think alot of people (not anyone in general) are too quick to judge if one dog makes a little mistake.

IMHO as always.

First of all I'd be looking for things he might find distracting, like someone else eating food right down at his level. Then I'd watch him very closely whenever he seemed interested in this person, and call him away so that he wouldn't even get close to their food. If he did manage to take the food, I'd at LEAST apologize to the poor hungry person, if not offer them $10 to go buy lunch. Then yeah, I'd probably leash my dog on a long line (depending on the situation) so that he could continue to have a little freedom, but I'd be able to pay better attention to him.

Every single time we go to our local rec area, there is a dog off leash playing in the lake. This lake is right next to an EXTREMELY busy 4 lane city road, and is a heavily traveled walking trail/picnic area/beach. This park is also patrolled with the city police, and there are signs directly in front of the lake that says that dogs must be leashed at all times.

Common sense would dictate that if you want your dog to play in the lake, get a long line or a flexi and do it. There's a leash law in our city that is enforced.

More often than not, unfortunately, especially around here, the dog is not reliable off leash but people do it anyway without thinking about the consequences. I think in terms of being considerate, even if your dog is off leash proof, you would still keep a long line or flexi on.