I know that most dog owners do have their dogs under control. and that most of them know what their dogs would do and what not. but there are also a decent amount of people who fully disregard this. sure, the percentage is rather small, but when im walking around somewhere, id still rather not trust on the judgement of the dog owners, because the percentage actually does exist. unlike you, I do not have experience with dogs. when I see a dog running towards me (which happened multiple times before), im not prepared. im afraid. im afraid as fuck.
one time, while going somewhere by bicycle, ive been...I dunno if attacked is the right word, actually. maybe it was just some form of playful behavior by the dog to run next to me while im biking and then bark decently hard at me. the owner did manage to call their dog back eventually and started apologizing to me, saying their dog was completely harmless and whatnot. I didnt know it was harmless. im still not convinced whether it was harmless. I was panicking at the time, and quite frankly, if that dog had come any closer while I was still on my bike, I would have kicked it away hard, and would have felt no remorse doing so either. in fact, if this would happen today again, id do the exact same thing.
you call my fear unwarranted and ignorant, which is probably more correct than id want it to be. im also afraid of needles. its also unwarranted and ignorant. ive tried facing my fears before to make them go away. it didnt work. I get what youre saying, but if im afraid of dogs, I cant just 'suck it up' and suddenly not be afraid anymore. it just doesnt work that way.
what youre asking me, a person with a fear of dogs, is to put my trust into a person I dont know and a dog I know even less of, because their judgement might be the correct one. forgive me for not sharing your sentiment, but I find it kind of hard to do so.
once again, I want to repeat that I know that you, mael, are -very likely- a responsible dog owner. I respect and recognize that. but I want to stress once more that not everyone is like that. I commend the bond you have with your dog- but that very same bond leads to some people forgetting what their dogs are capable of.
in my opinion, a line needs to be drawn somewhere. you cant say 'that dog is violent, so it needs a leash, but that one isnt, so it doesnt need a leash'. its not like theres a method to measure the violence of this dog or that dog. sure, some species are by nature more or less violent. but it also depends on how it has been raised, personality and whatnot. ive seen goddamn dogs twice the size of a hamster that were more violent than the average shepherd is. and thats why im in favor for having every dog on a leash. because everyone can say 'oh my dog is completely harmless', while it completely isnt.