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I'm fascinated by the idea of offering treats to prod people to leash their dogs. Because of course, it wouldn't work if people could actually control their dogs, which is the claim of *everyone* with an improperly unleashed dog.
If your dog is under your control, you just tell the dog not to approach the person who's offering the treat. If the dog doesn't listen, then the dog also wouldn't listen if it suddenly decided to run up on a person who happened to be giving treats to their own leashed dog.
If you are alarmed by a stranger offering treats to your dog, that's a pretty elegant demonstration of the fact that dogs are dogs, and rarely are they completely predictable. That's why leashes are important. They protect your dog, and other dogs, and other people, and you.
It sometimes surprises people when I tell them that my vet (like, I think, a lot of vets) recommended against dog parks. The risks of unleashed dogs who don't know each other can be reduced, and managed, and addressed. But they can't really be eliminated.
I've taken B to dog parks, and he loves them. But like daycare, it's a calculated risk. And it's not really fair to put that risk on people who haven't signed up for it.
