I was paying extra attention to this the last 3 days and i noticed that about 8 of 10 people:
hold their dogs close preemptively (most of the time nothing happens wiht those)
dogs bork and need to be held back
people cross to the other side
Is nobody bothering to properly train their dogs anymore?
What is happening in the dog scene? is anybody else experiencing this?
For me it was framing "holding a dog preemptively close when nothing happens" as a bad thing and indicator of an "untrained dog" that made me disagree with your characterization.
My dog is wonderfully trained. A wonderfully well behaved little princess everywhere except when a strange dog approaches her in public and sticks their nose in one of her soft spots.
Since she got attacked by another dog, she retaliates aggressively to dogs who were not under proper control and who were allowed to invade her space without consent.
I am proactive about the potential of unresponsive owners with "trained dogs" failing to properly control their dogs.
That doesn't reflect my dog being untrained. The reflects the number of untrained dog owners out there.
My dad hasn’t disciplined his dog at ally. I periodically take care of the dog when he’s out of town, and any time I do the first couple walks the dog is crazy. Constantly pulling, bolting and yanking my arm (this has given Dad a shoulder injury).
But I don’t put up with it, and after a couple walks the dog respects me and just walks alongside me.
The weird thing is my dad was in the army and is one of the most disciplined people I know. I don’t know why he seems unable (or maybe uninterested?) in training the dog.
He’s a smart dog. He picks things up very quickly. I swear he understands about 50 - 100 words of English.
Just seems so weird that my dad wouldn’t train his dog.
Lots of dog owners send their dogs to be trained though, but dont get trained themselves, so the dog does GREAT with the trainer. Then good with the owner, until the owner gets negligent, then the dog training short circuited for a few minutes.
You specifically cite dogs on roadsides. That isnt an untrained dog problem. That is an untrained human problem.
Exactly, this whole conversation is about people who don’t train their dogs. Most of them because they can’t be bothered to learn how to.
Yesterday I saw a man with three large husky type dogs. He had them on the traffic side of the pavement and they were pulling him in both directions. At least he had them on a stout lead and not one of those retractable things.
This thread actually answers the OP question of what's happening with the seeming increase in the number of untrained dogs, because around 80% of the comments are making excuses for antisocial behaviours that their dogs have.
I've trained my dog to not bark, to not chew, to not take any object for which he has not been previously permitted (baby toys for us namely), to walk at heel, and so on.
And guess what? he still exhibits behaviours that are antisocial, like imperfect recall and begging behaviours. And I'm damned if I'll make any kind of excuse for it: I am still training him to deal with these behaviours and I will continue to do so because I owe it to him.
If you do anything short of that then you are failing your dog, yourself and the people around you.
If you couldn't have guessed I'm also in favour of licensing for pets because, like many, I've encountered too many dogs at the extremes of antisocial behaviours to think that the average person can be trusted, through apathy or intent, to prevent their animal from harming children.