To have kicked an old man’s dog?

I don't actually own any pets!!! Through choice having grown up with them as sadly I can't commit to the work of owning one.

Picking your dogs ip will reinforce their own Behaviour issues and anxieties.

yes big dog needs training but so do your dogs/ to reduce growling, nervousness and anxious reactive ness

The dog at ‘fault’ was the greyhound and the shit owner was the rude entitled man. Let’s not victim-blame here.

Dont be so ridiculous. Bloody hell why are you turning it in to violence against women?So dramatic!
Yes big dogs can be overzealous and often do stand on smaller dogs. But most of the time they dont actually cause damage.

By law a dog off the lead which runs up to a dog on the lead is considered to be dangerously out of control. I had a similar experience, but only shouted at the offending dog, and the ignorant owner became very indignant. If you encounter this dog again report it to the local dog warden.

You did the right thing OP. You can’t be responsible for idiots who have dogs with no recall off the lead. If your dogs would have got hurt I bet he wouldn’t have paid your vet bills!

TheHungryHungryLandsharks

Best advice from whom?
I do wonder where the actual evidence behind this advice comes from.
It's one thing not to pick up your dog to avoid getting bitten yourself, but a child?
Who seriously recommends that you try and calmly walk the aggressive dog back to its owner when it has its jaws clamped around your child.

The entitled owners are all over this thread!

Also want to add if OPs dogs react like this and get nervous, they probably should be wearing a muzzle. Along with people keeping their hyperactive dogs on leads.

Literally these all over the place now. But it's fine according to people here? FFS.

Scooping the dogs up was completely and absolutely the WRONG thing to do. Apologies if anyone else has said this, I read the OP's posts and the first two pages.

The dog running at you wasn't showing aggression, from your description. It's a tall clumsy lout, again, from your description. In situations like this the correct thing to do is to shout loudly at the other dog's owner "Control Your Dog" while using your own body as a shield against your own dogs getting injured. Picking up a smaller dog leaves their belly exposed for another dog to bite at. It's happened. Your dogs weren't in danger from being attacked by this louty dog, and kicking out at the louty dog was unnecessary. Use your body. And your BIG voice. Ultimately it's the fault of the other owner in not controlling his dog but you are also in the wrong for choosing violence (and your protests it wasn't a hard kick mean nothing, you chose violence). Your dogs had momentary annoyance, dogs sniff and size each other up. You completely overreacted.

As an aside, the Jif Lemon squeezy bottles fit nicely in a pocket; aggressive dogs (not louty dogs) won't enjoy getting a mouthful (or eyeful). Last resort only.

YANBU!!!! The man was wrong for allowing his offload dog to approach your on lead dogs. Boils my piss it does. Dogs are not human and do not NEED to say ‘hello’.

I don't like dogs but don't approve of kicking them. But it was self defence. Dog was out of control.

I agree, there is not enough detail in the OP for us to say.

Where, for instance, was the kick directed?

Another crap owner! Getting a bad name for all dog owners.

I'm choosing to ignore nothing. Please re-read.. the dog didn't attack. It's not ok to kick a dog hastily like that. That's why the woman that witnessed everything was appalled too. Ok if you want to analyse everything I write.. a strong kick can be worse than kicking. But OP never said it was one kick! So kick / kicking, whatever word you want to use 🙄. If you think it's ok to kick a dog hastily as you're nervous, then that's on you. As per my post, I believe of course the dog should have been on a lead.

You’ve done nothing wrong here and most people would have done the same thing

Calling a dog who jumps at strangers and other dogs ‘playful’ is the hallmark of bad dog owners everywhere. See also, ‘oh he’s just being friendly’.

Don't understand how it would have the chance to be kicked when it was on a lead?

What a strange opinion.

Tells you lots about the attitude/stance of the poster though... especially on a thread about an aggressive animal, referring to it as a "ddog"

I would do exactly the same to protect my dogs. Senior dogs should not have to deal with over exuberant dogs off lead no matter how friendly they are. If you cant get a recall then dont let dogs off lead, simple. It is only courteous to put your dog on a lead when you meet another dog, people and especially children. It wont hurt a dog to be on a lead but it may if he gets into a fight for getting in another dogs space. I think its down to lazy owners not the dog but at the end of the day our dog looks to us to protect them.

Yes, I've said this further up the thread.

90% of dogs do not appreciate being rushed by uncontrolled effusive dogs.
An excitable/ excited dog is not perceived as happy or playful by others.
It's perceived as unstable and therefore threatening.

A very small percentage of dogs will match the energy. Some will tolerate. Others will lightly correct and some will directly react aggressively to protect their space.

They are dogs , not teddy bears.

sigh @Mistymaglets

You really didn't read what I wrote, did you?

I was quoting what OP said about her dogs not liking other dogs beyond a 'quick sniff' and how quickly that toleration can suddenly fray and the real risk OP is putting on her dog every time it happens. I was offering her advice to protect her dogs long term because as long as she keeps allowing interactions (completely separate from this incident) the more she is risking her own dogs.

That advice was separate to my advice about the Greyhound, which I advised on earlier in my comment...

Muzzling her dogs, that are not 100% friendly is the best thing OP can do. It's what responsible owners do all the time, regardless of size or age of the dog. It's also what most trainers would likely recommend.

Separately, the age of OPs dog has nothing to do about this. You're anthropomorphising how dogs interact with each other which does the situation no favours and only highlights your lack of understanding about dogs.

@LancashireButterPie probably not. But it's still the best advice. Whether or not people follow or continue to pick up their children or dogs and thus possibly endanger them more is up to them. 😊

I agree that there’s not much left you could have done!

The man should have had his dog on lead if it didn’t have instant recall or he wasn’t able to keep up with it. His dog was out of control and that was what caused the issue.

Obviously you shouldn’t be kicking a dog unless you’re left with no option but it’s difficult to react perfectly in the heat of the moment. Perhaps it would be better to have got your hands on the greyhound’s collar rather than using them to pick up your dogs, but then I also realise you would still have needed to hold the leads.

I do know of a greyhound that was killed in non dissimilar circumstances where a person kicked the greyhound to make it back off, so it’s important not to use more force that is necessary. I think there’s a distinction between a push with the foot and a kick, and you should have been going for the former if anything, and calling for the man to control his dog.

The safety of his dog was on the man though because he was nowhere near it to manage the situation.

Is it necessary to add a d in front of the word dog? Abbreviations are meant to make words...shorter, yanno? Not longer....