To be honest i would prefer the kid to think mine was nasty than approach, do something daft and get knocked over or worse for it.

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I no how u feel!! Bentley my blue staffy is always judged when we r out .. if i walk onto the local park with him and theres someone on with there dog they always put there dog on a lead n walk to the other side of the park! it really winds me up that hes judged simply becos of his breed!!! hes the softest lad u wud ever meet and loves to play with the other dogs if given the chance!! on one occasion a woman put her poodle type thing on a lead and bentley trotted over to her tail waggin no sign of agresion at all and she picked her dog up and started screaming hysterically at me to get my 'f'ing dog on a lead and then starts telin a gent with a german shepherd who asked if she was ok while i got bentley on his harness that my dogs tried atakin her and i did nothin to stop it ! i was fuming lets just say she got a piece of my mind...bimbo! LOL but really upsets me???!!!

Some people say "oh jack russells are the little ankle biters aren't they?" well no, they are not, lucky loves everyone and everything
Some breeds have a sort of stigma attached to them which really isn't fair. I have met some lovely staffs over the years, they have the biggest smiles .... any breed can be aggressive, my dads little chihuahua x's are nasty little things, even jumped up from the sofa and snapped in my face

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Raw fed since 2010

I no its so unfair! i even debated gettin bentley because i was worried at how ppl would react to him and didnt want ppl looking down there nose at me 4 havin a staff.. ihave a staff because i love the breed not because i feel i look how they say 'hard' with a staff at my heels!! then i thought bugger lot of them i love staffys and like u said ur more likely to be bitten by a chihuhua type nippy dog as my dad calls them lol!

Yes - my Bertie is Chi / JRT and I'm getting really fed up of others putting us into stressful situations and then standing back laughing , because he's so teeny. Last Fri he broke one of his claws down to the quick from jumping on cobbles when an off-lead lab approached. Took ages to stop bleeding...
Am going to be pro-active from not on - bordering on rude....

It's quite intimidating when that happens, I mean most of the dogs that do bound over are friendly but they still scare my sisters dog, I don't allow my JRT to bound over to other peoples dogs, I would never force her bounciness onto others, I dont know whether their dogs are frightened easily etc so I make sure she stays close to me

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Raw fed since 2010

To be honest, I didn't name her.. it was the name she came with....and because I knew her as Katy from walking her at the dog's home when I adopted her I couldn't get my head around a different name for her . So she has stayed Katy, and even though I don't think I would pick it as a name it absolutely suits her for some reason!

I see what you are saying, but there are nicer ways of teaching a child that not all dogs enjoy small children/other dogs approaching them. I've told my grandchildren that they must never touch any dog unless the owner is there and has said it's ok because some dogs are frightened of people or other dogs and their only way to show they are frightened is to bark/bite. Hopefully my grandchildren will not think that dogs are "nasty" but that sometimes they get frightened and will react to that fright.

You cannot win sometimes. Seems to me the bloke was a bit over the top calling your dogs nasty but perhaps it was as others have suggested a quick way of telling the child not to touch etc.

I had a similar but lesser experience last Sunday when I was walking with dogsy in the snow. (He is a 9 month old MT). We were returning from a walk and he was on the lead walking nicely when a family passed us on the other side of the road with a child on sledge. Monty had a very small grumble while looking across the street at them - he had not seen a sledge before! He did not bark or snarl or show his teeth or lunge towards them but I got the most FILTHY look from the father! Chose to ignore it this time but next time may have something to say. Talk about over the top parenting. Get a life I thought. And I had him in control on the lead!!!!!

Also, I always catch dogsy when someone else approaches as he is very bouncy and playful - too much for some dogs particularly when they are older. I have had about 3 other dog walkers in the last week tell me I should let him off the lead! Only trying to be polite and not let him be a nuisance - also I am not sure if the approaching dog is friendly.

Well, as I said - you cannot win! Sorry rambled on a bit.

My dog is very reactive to other dogs, so when I meet anyone with a dog I will put him on lead and walk away. ( no matter the breed) When I can't walk away I move as far off the path as I can and then put him into a sit and distract him with food or a toy. Now this behaviour on my part should be a bit of a give away to other dog owners. Yet still they don't get their dog under close control, if another dog owner tells me that I'm causing it because dogs are more aggressive on lead I will scream! They feel the need to give basic advice. A reactive dog can be hell, you are always on edge about getting face to face with another dog without an exit route, you end up going on walks at times when their is less chance of others being around, he is a highly stressed gundog and the off lead is only thing that keeps us sane. So of course we read the books, the threads, and pay the trainers, and some of us have a long history of previous succesful dog ownership. My dog has now been damaged twice when he has been on lead, however he kicks off first (but never goes past mouthing). So if your dog runs up to mine while mine is siting off the path. Getting fed lots of food. And you let your dog run up to mine, and you are chanting "he/she is friendly" don't looked shocked when I scream at you to get your dog under control. Because I'm sick of trying to explain!! ps small dog owners tend to be worst.
Sorry for the rant!