To have kicked an old man’s dog?

I see you’re choosing to ignore the point that the OP may have been preventing her dogs from attacking the greyhound in defence?

OP said her dogs are elderly, have been known to growl at other dogs and she asks owners to keep their dogs at a distance.

the owner of the greyhound either didn’t try to recall his dog or the dog didn’t listen, therefore should not be walking off lead.

she didn’t “give the dog a kicking” she kicked the dog as it jumped up at her to reach her dogs. There’s a huge difference there

Smaller dogs especially can feel threatened.

I don't like humans jumping on me!

But I'm still not sure about the kick. It could have been one of several things ...

But you didn't include that in your OP. You went straight from picking them up to kicking the other dog.

Ultimately op, these things are hard to assess without having been there. How high was he jumping, DID you ask the dog to stay down, DID you call to the owner etc, how hard did you kick him , how aggressive was the dog. Was he just enthusiastic etc.

But the way your OP was written - picking your dogs up and kicking the other dog sounds as though you were rather hasty in kicking - esp if the onlooker commented on you kicking it.

He should have been on the lead if he isn't controlled, but that is an issue to convey to the owner, more than kicking the dog.

It must be only dog owners who say you must never kick a dog a crime against humanity. I think OP did exactly the right thing - the dog was invading her space.

Fine to kick a dog who's attacking you or a person/animal you're in charge of. You did not do too much.

Rubbish. A lot of dogs don't like other dogs running up to them and sticking their face in theirs. My dog is socialised and friendly but he hates dogs doing that. If he is offlead he just runs away but on lead he can't.

Any decent dog trainer/behavourist will say most dogs do not like it

You have every right to protect your dogs, who were on a lead. They're old and vulnerable. He chose to walk his dog off lead and was far away from the incident when it happened so he had no control. This is 100% his fault. Maybe he'll learn to leash his dog in the future.

Ignore the pearl clutches. They'd have done the same thing given the circumstances.

If she picked her dogs up in order to protect them from the physical harm the out-of-control larger dog had already done to one of them, and the large dog was jumping up at her trying to get at them, what was she meant to do? Wait until it had succeeded in knocking her over because she had no free hand with which to support herself even if there had been a convenient tree to support herself against? Or use the limb she did have free to keep it away from her and her dogs until its frankly useless owner managed to get his act together to prevent it from assaulting her?

TheHungryHungryLandsharks, I doubt there is a parent in the land who would remain calm and walk the aggressive dog back towards it's owner if it was attacking their child. Of course they are going to pick the child up.

I suspect this has already been said but in the case of a greyhound, it really shouldn't be off lead unless you have trained an absolutely solid recall (which is rare).

It’s crazy isn’t it? Some people do actually think that, because they of course know their dogs and their oh so friendly intentions and that they just want to play blah blah.

I got bruises all over my forearm once from a dog simply jumping up. Not an aggressive scary dog, just yet another one with a twat for an owner who didn’t give enough of a shit about other people to keep it under control. Same old same old.

But the dog didn't attack. That would be a lot of dogs getting a kicking if I was to kick every dog that I felt a little bit nervous about. There are so many dogs that do this and no it's not right and it used to make my blood boil at times when I took my baby out in a pram to a park and there would be dogs with their heads getting close to my baby sniffing near my pram but at times it was unavoidable and the dogs need to be on leads near people. But It's not ok to claim the dog could have attacked to give a dog a kick. The man was also at fault.

@itsme189 it sounded from your first post that you held your foot out and the dog ran into your foot. That is not kicking it.

You asked for an alternative, and I would recommend keeping a loose lead in your hand. If a strange dog runs up to you, swing the lead from side to side in front of you, so the the end of the lead goes around your left arm, then back and around your right arm. Don't look the oncoming dog directly in the eye, but stand your ground, try to look like you are paying it no attention. 99% of the time this will stop the oncoming dog.

Lastly, I would try hard not to pick up your dogs. That will teach them there is something to worry about and will likely make them react more strongly than they otherwise might. Tricky though if you believe they might be injured by the oncoming dog, so I understand why you did it.

People seem to think that socialising a dog means letting it meet every other dog on the planet when it really doesn't. It is such a shame when owners allow their dogs to rush up to every dog it meets. Any dog will consider a dog that does that to be rude.

This greyhound was not giving a " quick friendly sniff"
It's an unstable energy showing total lack of respect for elderly dogs.
This is actually not typical dog behaviour.
It's dangerous.

And your suggestion that the OP muzzle her dogs is totally unfounded.
OPs dogs were the ones who reacted naturally to unnatural behaviour from the greyhound.

You did what you had to, @OP .

As someone else said upthread, some day the greyhound is going to encounter the wrong animal.

My late husband worked on a well-known country estate many years ago. One of the guests had a lapdog which kept harassing the gun dogs.

The head gamekeeper warned the said guest as politely as he could that the lapdog was problematic and was endangering itself. The response was "Oh, he's just playing."

One day at the end of a shoot, the lapdog growled at the gamekeeper's dog. The latter ignored it. The gamekeeper asked the owner to leash the dog. "He's fine. He's only playing."

The gamekeeper's dog didn't react. The other dog continued to yip and began to jump at the gun dog.

Again, it was ignored. Again the owner was asked to leash the dog and laughed it off.

The dog went right up to the gamekeeper's dog and snarled at it. The gamekeeper's dog shook it by the neck and then dropped it. One dead dog and one upset owner.

The estate owner's sympathies were not with the owner of the yappy dog.

You acted in the heat of the moment, so I wouldn’t beat yourself up. I’m pretty sure you aren’t supposed to pick dogs up, so possibly do some research on what would be a better option.

The other dog shouldn’t be off lead if he can’t call it back though. I hate that.

I would have done the same to be honest. I have one elderly and one younger dog but both hate it when other, usually bigger dogs get all in their grill! The man should have called his dog back when he could see it was upsetting your dogs and put it on a lead. I’ve been a dog owner for at least 30 years and am still sick of the irresponsible owners who say that their dog “is just playing”. Well, read the room (footpath, woods) and if you can see that someone has a dog/dogs on lead then it’s very likely that they don’t want to play with your boisterous pooch. I avoid woods as this is where dogs are most likely off lead. I walked the perimeter of my local golf course this morning before the golfers got started as it was nice and shady.
It was also wrong for that woman to be posting on Facebook about you but it’s a space for miserable people to complain and get some attention in my experience 🙄

How many people are missing the information here that her dogs are ELDERLY.

A greyhound rushing ELDERLY dogs is an unsocialised, unstable animal.

in which case I'm guessing you would pay for a vets bill for the dog who was injured in the first place, if it was you in this situation?

Should the OP have waited until the greyhound bit one of her dogs for growling at it?
have you considered OP was also ensuring her dogs didn’t bite the greyhound?

either way, a dog being walked off lead should have good recall, that’s a basic! It shouldn’t be jumping all over other dogs or up at people!

You have my sympathy OP.

We witnessed a large, unsupervised bully type dog attack our tiny shitzhu who was on his harness and lead held by myself. It just came from nowhere in our local country park. It physically picked him up and shook him like a rag doll.
DS1 in the heat of the moment stupidly kicked the bully so hard it landed several feet away. He was only an early teenager at the time but played rugby and was strong. It could have killed DS but luckily, the bull dog gave up the attack and was uninjured, however his owner took a metal dog lead and started to attack DS with it.
He was stopped by passersby.
Our dog had 30 stitches. DS lost a lot of confidence.

It put us off going to country parks.

If dogs don't have recall they shouldn't be off lead and if they are reactive they should be muzzled.

What do people think the jumping up dog, trying to get to the other two little dogs, was doing? It was aggressive. Our little cavapoo got chased, and thrown by a greyhound. Big dogs shouldn't 'play' with little dogs. Its not safe at all.

In my opinion a dog should not be off a lead if you can't recall it, for the safety of the dog if nothing else. I made that mistake one evening when on an empty beach my dog was sniffing a bloody Seal, I managed to grab her and I know full well she would have come off worse if it had bit her. They can have just as much fun on an extending lead.

Picking up a dog when it's being attacked or has another dog wanting to play (as was the case here), is the most dangerous thing you can do for yourself or another dog. Ditto with picking up a child. It makes the 'target' in your arms a million times more attractive to the animal. I get that in instances where you're uncertain it can happen, but hopefully you can learn from this and not leave yourself so vulnerable, OP. The fact OP and many posters on this thread seems not to understand basic dog behaviour is quite shocking to me - particularly as I recognise so many of the names as dog owners from other threads!

Ultimately, OP escalated the situation. Calm and level-headed is the best way to handle these issues. If it happens you do the following: head toward the owner, keeping their dog away from your own dog(s), and give the dog back to them. Make it easy on them. By walking away, or kicking out, or doing anything 'dramatic' people inadvertently escalate a situation that they should be defusing. In the heat of the moment, it can be hard to think sensibly, but part of being a responsible dog owner is knowing how to react in these situations.

Separately, OP, I would consider muzzling your dogs and/or not allowing interactions with other dogs. If you know they can be reactive in a certain situation, you should consider it for their own safety - because it'll be your (little) dogs that are worse off if they snap one day at the wrong dog just having a 'quick' friendly sniff. I've seen so many times how fast these quick interactions escalate from a growl into an attack - you're better off muzzling your dog and not allowing interactions then allowing any. Because no person can hand on heart say their dog won't bite if they know it's reactive, which your dogs clearly are. Protect your dogs by being proactive.

People tend to be doubly cautious of dogs on leads that are muzzled - and with dogs that aren't 100% friendly, it's always better to be safe than sorry.

YANBU. The old man is for not training his dog. You just did what you had to.

I have needed to kick dogs on a handful of occasions when jumping up against me or DS in the park. The owners do generally disagree with this approach!