My husband was walking Lily this morning. One of our neighbors stopped their car in the middle of the street, opened the back and their two dogs escaped, ran across the busy street and started to bark and snap at Lily. Lily got out of her harness, but my husband caught her. Fortunately, lily didn't try to bite and was relatively calm, my husband wasn't. The neighbor had no control over her dogs.

The neighbor was completely unapologetic, i guess it was because my husband was furious. He yelled at the woman (in German) to keep better control of her dog, and the woman said, "hasn't this happened to you?" There was a bit of an altercation where the woman implied that no one was perfect, and my husband was unreasonable.

We are so careful with Lily in the car, and around other dogs because we had some altercations with other dogs in the US (mostly beagles), and with another dog when we first moved to Switzerland (before we lived here). We know we don't have perfect recall, we know she has a prey drive.

It's funny in a way, isn't it? Lots of lax dog owners around us, mostly Swiss. Dogs off leash and not in control. Fortunately, my pup is mellowing with age (she's 10 this week). Maybe we're overly cautious, but as the auslaender here, i don't want anything to happen to my dog.

I have found that many of The Swiss can give but cannot take criticism, even when constructive. Goes along side their inability to think outside the box. Therefore when they inadvertently break a rule and someone notices they get very flustered as they have no means of dealing with it because they are then off page! I still love them but it can free frustrating trying to navigate round their reasoning!

I think lots of people can give but not take criticism. That's a good point. And perhaps some of the most critical are the most blind. Is it worse among the Swiss? I don't know, i've seen plenty in the US. I'm just venting this morning....

My Swiss husband is certainly that way...

In 5 1/2 years of marriage, I don't think of I've once witnessed him confess to any kind of error or fault. Yet he loves to deal out the criticism.

But I have no idea if that's a Swiss thing or just another negative side of human nature in general...

It possibly isn't worse with the Swiss, it's just their reactions are so over the top and unnecessarily rude/mean that is is difficult for the more polite and diplomatic upon us to deal with.

Vent away edot! Is good to get it off your chest!

Love it!

Ask him why he is why he is.

I am astounded at the number of people who let dogs spring out of their cars. I know of a good dozen dogs killed because their owners didn't take proper care. Boggles the mind that you would invest in those expensive auto boxes, but fail at the most basic safety measure of ensuring that your dog is secured before opening the door.

There is no excuse.

You train (and train and train) your dog to consistently wait in the car until given the 'out' command.

You take two seconds to look around you to ensure that it is the coast is clear before opening the door. You watch for people, dogs, cats, oncoming cars.

And you don't rely on just that - you leash your dog before opening the door. If your dog is tempted to jump before your command, you have hold of the lead, no harm done.

Any dog whose recall is not 100% should be on lead at all times in public. The ability to instantly recall your dog - in any situation, off any distraction - is the basic requirement for letting a dog off lead.

And for doG's sake - if despite your focused attention and best efforts an incident occurs... apologize. Exercise a little common curtesy. And common sense.

Honestly I despair. We have countless dog laws on the books - but how can you legislate against stupidity?

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Hope this incident doesn't have any lasting effect on Lily.

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Re: Apologies or lack thereof: A (Swiss) friend once told me: 'Switzerland is a country of rule-enforcers, not rule-followers'.

Oh, I've pointed it out to him numerous times. But still, he remains unable to say even a simple "I'm sorry" when he should.

In one case, it was after his refusal to call an ambulance while I was having a C-section induced heart attack! (this occurred five days after the C-section). You'd think he would have learned his lesson then, but no...

Anyways, regarding the original post here, that dog owner should have at least offered the OP an apology. It just dumbfounds me when people are incapable of admitting their mistakes or just uttering a simple apology for the sake of being kind.

Wow, I must say I'm really surprised by this, compared to the uk I've largely noticed how well behaved and trained the dogs are here.

Sorry to hear about your incident, hopefully a rare occurrence!

You can have the best trained, most obedient dog in the world have the occasional off moment when it does something wrong. It is how the person in charge of the animal deals with the situation that distinguishes a responsible dog owner.

Failure to show a little humility in such situations only serves to reflect badly on dog owners who are responsible.

I think that people are overconfident about their ability to control their dogs. And maybe their dogs aren't going to bite. Last week, i saw a woman walking a tiny dog - chihuahua on a leash, and a big dog that looked like a collie-shepherd came up to it and started to sniff. The little dog went nuts, snapping and snarling, but i guess it didn't actually bite the big one, and the big one just sniffed. the owner of the big dog called it back, big dog continued sniffing. Three or four tries, big dog ignored the owner. The owner of the little dog finally picked it up. No one was particularly worried. But why put your little dog through all that stress.

So i don't know - my dog's a rescue, she's had issues when younger, so I'm really careful with her. I know she's fine at the tierheim, so she is ok with other dogs. And she has pretty good recall outside, but between me and something to chase....not so much. So maybe i'm overly cautious.

You aren't overly cautious - you are responsible.

My OH is just the same.

Don't think it's a particularly Swiss thing but more of a man thing.

Maybe, but my husband will apologize, confess to a fault, and i know lots of American women who won't. This morning it was a woman.....

True. I've also known a lot of very self-righteous women, and I've always found it difficult to be friends with them.

It can happen anywhere, really, which does not make it any nicer. Sorry you had this bad experience. We went to sit at a café in Italy 2 days ago, and our elderly dachshund was on the lead and sat quietly at my feet. next thing we knew, another dog that was with an italian couple sitting on the other side of the terrasse, off the lead, came to attack him and bit him on the rump. They never apologised or made any attempt to get him- but said he does that all the time. Idiots- wo why no lead and no warning- and no apolology.
It was a Shit...su (no idea of correct spelling, but this one suits him best).
Zilch to do with nationality- just bad owners.

Careless indeed. I am no longer surprised at the sheer stupidity of dog owners.

The other day I was just leaving Volg in the village and a little dog came running across the road, tail wagging, walking up to me. No owner in sight. So I asked my neighbour who was still inside the shop if she knew the dog. Oh yes, she does, it belongs to so and so, very nearby. She picked the dog up and said she would take it back. But since she wasn't done her shopping, and I was, I said I would do it.

She said that the dog has been getting out of the garden for the past 2 weeks and there must be a hole in the fence. So I asked if she thought to leave a note in their letterbox? She shrugged.

So carrying this very cute and friendly dog back home I was going to ring the bell but that would have meant opening the gate and then I saw 4 other dogs. They didn't look as friendly. So I let the dog down inside the gate.

I walked around the garden and didn't see any obvious holes in the fence.

So maybe someone else has already told the owners there is a problem and they haven't fixed it. Or like my neighbour, who is also a dog owner, cannot be bothered to leave a note.

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On a country walk with my 6 yr old 2 weeks ago, we were walking on a popular path where there is a house set back in fields about 200 m from the path. A dog was barking in the garden and we could see a lady in the garden in her swimming costume () watering the plants. Suddenly Dog jumped over the hedge and came at full run through the field right up to us, barking loudly. 6 yr old started to scream when it carried on at full run right towards us barking loudly then just at the very last minute, swerved away looped around us and repeated this manoeuvre again and again,barking very loudly. Luckily another couple rounded the corner of the path and it swerved away to annoy them after having run at us perhaps 6 times.

All the while, the bathing costume clad woman was standing at the hedge of her garden, calling lamely to the dog to come - which clearly it wasn't doing. My 6 yr old was pretty nigh on hysterical so I had to deal with him .. Otherwise I would have gone and spoken to the woman. As we quickly rounded the corner of the path away from them, I glimpsed back to see dog still running at the couple behind and the owner finally walking into the field to get the dog back- only 5 mins too late.

I have never had dogs so I have no idea if this is friendly behaviour (didn't seem so to me) or a prelude to him sinking his teeth into one of us. It ruined the day and caused quite a bit of difficulty with the 6 yr old. What made me cross was there was no way I could speak to the owner about it.

Is there somewhere you can report this sort of incident? I'm not one for blabbing on people but I just felt the owner's standards as to what it is ok to let a dog do were not right - and Melconcollie and Edot's comments in this thread have confirmed as much to me.

Thank goodness no one was hurt. It is a great thing to teach kids not to scream or over react in such cases- but I am fully aware in your son's case this could be very difficult due to his autism. Again, thank goodness he was not hurt. I would discuss this experience with his teachers and see if they can help with this- by arranging him meeting very friendly and sociable dog or dogs.

You can of course report this to your local police station or Commune- but as no-one was hurt, it won't go very far- but maybe she could be given a warning. My neighbour complained about a farmer's doe lightly biting her older teeenager daughter- in front of her he shouted 'is this what you want?' grabbed it by the collar and shot it- out of sight but well within earshot. It was truly sichkening.

Ecb, the best approach - and by best I mean most effective in bringing about changed behavior - is to speak with the owner directly. Often situations are best dealt with face to face.

(Were it me I would do this - but as a fellow dog owner I'd likely feel comfortable in my assessment of not only what had happened but also of what should or should not happen, and thus could speak to an errant dog owner with confidence.)

However if you feel that is something you cannot do, the proper authority to register a complaint is the cantonal Veterinäramt. Are you in Kt Jura? If so, the address is here:
http://www.jura.ch/DSA/Service-de-la...erinaires.html

You could also speak to the Gemeinde - but be aware that whether or not a complaint is taken seriously depends on local attitudes.

I hope your boy is OK. I know how difficult this must have been for you.