Yeah, that's the big thing I've noticed about other people's off-leash dogs... usually I'm sure that it's not a huge deal if they don't come the first time they're called, but when they're strolling up to my dog and he wants to beat the tar out of them, it's a different matter. IMO, if your dog really has a recall, he recalls no matter how interested he is in some other dog or delicious smell. Trudeau is not at all the kind of dog who always recalls -- he's the kind that recalls if you have a treat and he's not in the middle of smelling anything interesting -- which is just one reason why I never let him off-leash.

I just don't get the total obsession with off-leash dogs in my county. I have several friends who've practically been peer-pressuring me about letting my dog off-leash to run, and one of them was getting on my case about it when I'd only had the dog a few days... he didn't even know his new name yet, much less how to come when called, and I wasn't exactly going to let him run loose on the grounds of the stables like my friend kept insisting I should. (Good call, me: it turns out he wants to chase horses. Turning him loose at the barn would've qualified as Worst Idea Ever.) The assumptions that people make not only about the behavior of their own dogs but about other people's as well just boggles my mind.