It is also worth bearing in mind that if you embarrass or wind someone up by having a go at them, even if you are super polite about it, you can make it much worse for the dog as they may well go home and lay into it out of sight.
In the past I have had a go, I once got hit in teh face with a dog lead for my troubles so I do urge caution. These days I wouldn't dare risk my health unfortunately
I too have been astounded by peoples behaviour, though this time they were just blatantly not understanding their dog (or anyone elses)a nd were rude to me.
I braved walking three of mine on a local field with my OH, and we had Ellie, Dilly and Errol running about offlead. I was sat on a little grassy hillock watching them play because having got to the field my heart was telling me i had done FAR too much (I have heart failure.. im not spoooooosed to do stuff like that!)...
So I spy a couple coming along with a labrador, off lead and its trundling about, and they see me and mine and make no move to put it on the lead so I think fine, ok, their dog is fine, mine are fine. Mike caught errol and put him on lead and took him away because he can be odd with people so it isnt worth the risk. Dilly and Ellie trundled over to say hello..
All nice polite doggy greetings, Dilly doing contained bouncing (just on the one spot, a few inches off the ground) at the Labrador, because he wanted it to play, but knows its ROOD to jump on other dogs, Ellie did her finest play bow, bum in the air, elbows on the ground and then let out a 'Grrrrrrrrrrrwoooooooooo' noise, which means 'come play come play, CHASE ME'.. and set off running with the labrador wheezing after her (it was huge)...
And then the couple started squawking and leashed their dog and started shouting at mine to go away, which flummoxed them entirely.. so I recalled them and they came, but as the couple were still walking towards me (still sat down, wasn't in a fit state to get up), they went back, and then came back to me so i grabbed them..
And the sarky madam says 'Ooh your dogs are NASTY, get off your bum and get some dog leads'. I was utterly speechless for a second.. cheeky yes, nasty, no and their dog desperately wanted to play! So I said 'sorry, has your dog got a health problem that means he can't play', and they said 'no, he just doesn't like being ATTACKED...'
Anyway then she said something horrid about me being lazy (still sat on me hillock, still wheezing and tachycardic though I appreciate SHE didn't know that) so I lost me rag a bit and suggested she concentrate on getting her own dog thin enough to actually play rather than wheeze its way round the field!
I really am astounded that people can completely misread blatantly friendly, polite greetings and invitations from other dogs AND misread their own dogs so badly. Their dog was straining backwards on the lead as they left, desperate to get back and attempt to play chasey chasey with mine!
then he went back off on his grand adventure closley followed by two men shouting at it (owners) so off he ran again (cant say as i blame the poor thing) any way about an hour later he must have caught the dog and thats when the shouting started he was holding the dogs face and shaking it from side to side poor dog was just sitting there with a very frightened look about him (allthough i can read buddy fairly well now other dogs i can only see the obvious) any way i so wanted to go out and stop him but OH wouldnt let me he said we cant stop other people from mistreating their dogs just make sure no one ever does it to ours,
but there is a time and a place to tackle people, and we should never put ourselves in danger if we can help it unless for a good result. You would not have got a good result if you had gone over and given this man what for, and he would probably have taken it out on the dog later.