AIBU or did this guy overreact to our dog approaching him?

Vicious not viscous.
But it was, many people gave told you how horr8ble it is to even think of claws touching them. He'll be having flashbacks for days and feel unsafe with his child because you don't care enough to control your dog. His toddler will likely now be scared for life.
I've certainly never had a dog jump on me but it's a horror show idea and something that is a major major concern. Plus illegal as dogs are meant to be under control not run up to strangers. You just don't understand, willfully I think.

I think part of the problem is that you have allowed the dog to jump up at friends and family. If it had been trained not to then this wouldn't have happened.

It’s irresponsible because you’re ignoring the fact that despite your dog being your family, it is still an animal. It doesn’t matter that it had a perfect track record up until this point. Too many owners always say this and then their dog does something unpredictable. It’s a public place and as you should be able to enjoy a walk with your dog, others should be able to enjoy a walk without a dog running up to them regardless of their demeanour. It doesn’t matter that you don’t think it was that serious. For others it is when they don’t want to deal or be touched by someone’s pet.

I don’t mind dogs but it irks me when dog owners think it’s not a big deal when their dogs run up to me, jump on me, or surround my feet. I’ve had clothes ruined due to dogs jumping on me and such dog owners aren’t rushing to pay the bill to replace or have such things cleaned. I don’t want to greet or pet someone’s dog, I just want to go about my day. I’m at the point where I will cross the street and give dogs and their owners a wide berth if I see that their dog is all over the place or they are not paying attention to it because they’re too busy on their phone.

It’s a very unpleasant experience involving physical contact, which wasn’t invited by the man on the beach but forced upon him. It doesn’t need to be vicious and involve injury blood and grieving to be upsetting and traumatic.

And this happened with a dog who “has never behaved like that before”.

Which just reinforces my opinion that no dog can be trusted, and therefore all dogs should only be off lead on private land.

I wouldn't want a dog putting it's paws on my knee either. Train it properly before you allow it off the lead

To add to my last post, when my D's was 5 and riding his bike around the field in the park a dog chased him. They swore the dog had never done this before. That didn't stop my poor ds being terrified of dogs for the next 5 years. Keep you dog under control next time because you obviously didn't

Sadly nobody will get through to this OP. Not sure why she posted tbh unless it was just to stir up arguments.

I walk a tiny doodle, no bigger than a cat, I call her a handbag dog she's so tiny.

While no one wants a dog with possibly wet/muddy paws jumping up at them she's only reached his knees and clearly was not a threat. The dog wasn't growling and snarling, he over reacted ridiculously and if the child is now terrified of perfectly friendly dogs then it will all be due to his complete over reaction. If he'd said 'your dog has jumped at me and got me muddy I want you to pay to have my very expensive trousers dry cleaned' then I'd have completely agreed that was your fault and you should do so.

But this was clearly a violent arsehole of a man and I'm amazed that people are so defensive of him. I'd be very concerned about his child living with such an aggressive father - but not because of your little dog.

So many precious pathetic people terrified of a tiny puppy. How do you all cope in every day life? Such an over the top response.

I say the same every time a woman complains about my manspreading*.

I say “why are you so terrified of my thighs, they’re just legs love” I mean most people have two of them, and we encounter them every day, it’s not like I’m kicking them.

Weirdly the women don’t react kindly to that and look at me with disgust and sometimes say hurtful things. So over the top.

*Of course I don’t do this, I keep my legs close to myself and under control at all times because I’m not a twat.

All the excusing the actions of an aggressive arsehole because he was ever so slightly inconvenienced.

🤣🤣🤣 I think I sat next to you on a train earlier this week

What cross is a doodle out of interest? Poodle i assume but, with what. Just generally interested as i love dogs.

It's not a 'dog beach' though. It is part of the beach which allows dogs.

Have your dog on the lead if he runs off at the sight of a red coat.

It does sound like the guy over reacted but having a dog not responding to recall in public is breaking the law. Doesn't matter if they're on the dog beach. Fortunately as your dog is so little they did not run up to a dog on lead that doesn't like incoming dogs. Just take it as a learning curve.

If you've taken measures to prevent this happening in future such as using a long lead then there's no issues going forward. You've learnt from it. It is the people who see this happen once and then allow it to continue happening, that are a problem. Mistakes happen but if they happen continously then they aren't mistakes.

Your dog is an adolescent and you are likely to have occasional recall wobbles until they are two years old, even with plenty of training and reinforcement. Once they're an adult their behaviour can become slightly more predictable on a day to day basis.

At 11 months old I don't think your dog was old enough to establish that they had perfect recall, therefore should have been on a leash for their safety as well as the public.

The man's reaction was extreme and if that reaction had been towards your child that had run up to him, I would say he was in the wrong and a violent, dangerous individual. However, it was towards your dog and that does put a different perspective on things. As extreme as his reaction was there is a possibility it was motivated by fear, and his flight, fight, freeze response was in full swing. Off this isolated incident it would be unfair to demonise the man.

You may be confident in your dogs behaviour, but this is a perfect example of how we don't know how others will react or respond. We can only control what's in our power, and on that occasion you hadn't taken all measures that you could have, regardless of the reasoning behind that.

Your daxie is too heavy to be a miniature! The breed standard is 11lbs max, and yours is over 13lbs.

I used to know a dachshund breeder who used to show her dogs, and I'm sure she told me that they are weighed at shows and disqualified if they're over 11lbs.

Your dog was in the wrong, but the guy's reaction was totally disproportionate, especially with such a tiny dog.

Trying to kick a dog is an excellent way to get bitten.

go to the no dog beach... A beach is a beach no idea where you are but I have never seen beaches sectioned off as dogs and no dogs. Every beach I have ever been on have signs saying dogs must be kept on a lead. Yes most people ignore them but it is my expectation as a non dog owner that people should keep their dogs on a lead on beaches so no idea why this guy and his child should be expected to go to a different section of the beach because dog owners are not sticking to the rules.

I agree that the guys reaction was over the top, so much so, I wonder has it been exaggerated?

Again we have her on lead now but I don't know how we could have predicted this event from a perfect track record unless you think no dog should ever be off lead which may be a fair argument - not to say it was ok but I do think it was a disproportionate reaction for a minor wrong.

I think posters are saying this as you've said your dog will run up to people that they know, and this person resembled your dad.
My dog would take extra interest in people that he thought he knew when he was young, so he either stayed on lead (short or long) unless I had eyes everywhere and if I spotted somebody I thought he might approach, he was straight back on.

You have no idea what this guy's experiences of off lead dogs are either, in fairness. This might be a one off for you but maybe not for him, it could happen a lot.

Once upon a time I'd love a friendly dog running up to me and saying hi. Nowadays, when I have a child, and a dog that doesn't like other dogs running over (he's been bitten by so many), it annoys me. It happens so, so often. I don't engage with the dog but I do quietly judge the owner if they aren't apologetic (which it sounds as though you are!). Not so quietly if they're making no efforts to recall their off lead dog from my on lead one. If the dog is medium sized or above I will usually block it from getting to my DC because I don't like her being approached by dogs that we don't know.

He should not have reacted like that, but you say your dog put its paws on him and had no recall. Why wasn’t your dog on a lead?

He shouldnt of threatened you or your husband but your dogs size is irrelevant. Smaller dogs can be aggressive too

There is a small dog near ours that is always loose, barking at people, chasing and nipping them. Its smaller than a spaniel but it's still scary.

Keep your dog on a lead, you can buy all sorts of long leads

@2024815pm why so condescending? And what’s with all the personal attacks? It really doesn’t help your case at all.