Imagine owning a large dog. If you were taking your dog for a walk and you saw a dog owner with a small dog approaching, would you move far away to keep your dog away from the small dog, or would you keep walking straight ahead?

In this story, one dog owner has been taking the first approach, but they’re thinking about switching things up and taking the second approach. Let’s read all about it.

AITA if I stop giving a wide berth to yappy lap dogs who bark and agress towards my Doberman & Boxer when I am walking them in the neighborhood and instead start walking them straight at the smaller dogs and their owners🤷‍♀️?!

My dogs are both just over a year old and I walk both of them together on a retractable leash.

Whenever we encounter other owners with their dogs walking the opposite direction I always pull the leash leads in closer(they extend up to 9 feet for each dog) and do my best to create as much distance and space between my dogs and the other dogs(which are usually barking excitedly and loudly at my dogs) as we approach and continue on our walk in the other direction.

My dogs never bark back when they get barked at by these smaller dogs.

This is not always convenient or easy, but I feel like it’s the right thing to do because my dogs are bigger and for some may be intimidating or threatening.

OP is thinking about doing things differently.

I’ve begun rethinking this Good Samaritan dog walking practice recently because some of these other dog owners have behaved rather indignantly and disrespectfully towards me and my dogs whenever we encounter one another.

Apparently they are annoyed because their dogs get riled up and bark uncontrollably when they see my dogs.

Well, earlier this morning the dogs and I were nearly finished walking when we encountered one of these owners with his 2 dogs who together probably weigh less than 12 pounds, but bark so loudly and aggressively whenever they run into us you’d think Godzilla was in the neighborhood🤷‍♀️.

OP stayed as far away as possible from the little dogs.

I spotted him and his dogs 40 yards in front of us walking toward us.

I literally walked my dogs through people’s front yards on the other side of the street so he and his dogs could remain on the opposite side of the road as we passed and ensure maximum distance and space between the two of us.

Meanwhile this owner is crouched down on the other side of the road over his 2 teeny, tiny furballs as if I’m escorting a T-Rex 🦖 that wants to eat his dogs for a snack.

His dogs are barking wildly and out of control, while mine remain silent and are straining on their leads as we pass, still giving maximum distance and space as we walk through my neighbors front yards to get back home.

OP had a realization.

At this moment I realized that his 2 tiny, yappy dogs had instigated all of this potential conflict and disturbance, and that I and my dogs were needlessly conceding ground and taking care in order to prevent a potentially worse situation and outcome.

I am annoyed this continues to reoccur.

If there were another alternative route I and the dogs could walk we would, however that’s not really an option.

OP thinks the other dog owner should be the one to react.

I suppose we could try to figure out an alternative time frame to walk when it would be less likely to encounter these other owners and their yappy little dogs, but at what point do I NOT need to take precautions about where and when I walk with my dogs 🐕, especially when my dogs do not provoke or instigate situations that might evolve into greater conflict🤷‍♀️?!

The next time I and my dogs encounter this guy and his yappy little dogs I intend to walk both my dogs straight ahead toward them and he can respond however he wants to, but I’m done trying to be responsible for ensuring my dogs don’t respond to his dogs provocations. 🤨?! AITA🤷‍♀️?!

I can see how a large dog could be intimidating, especially to a small dog. I can also see how it appears that the small dogs are the ones making a fuss.

Is it wrong for a dog owner with a large dog not to move out of the way of a small dog? Let’s see what Reddit thinks.

Here’s a suggestion to stop walking on other people’s yards.

Another person thinks OP’s current approach is the best way to protect the large dogs.

Here’s the perspective of someone who owns small dogs.

The bigger issue is trained dogs versus untrained dogs.

You’ve gotta watch out for those small, yappy dogs!

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