To have kicked an old man’s dog?

Aye, are you a parrot?
socialised dogs even on leads aren’t nervous of other dogs coming over to them,

Her dogs were not the aggressors.
Her dogs reacted to the greyhound.

" Abuse" is an ridiculously emotional term for a knee jerk ( literally) reaction that saved all dogs from a possible escalation.

Her dogs? That were on lead?

I agree, but that doesn’t mean it’s ok to kick the dog. It had not turned aggressive.

Why ask when you’re defending yourself when everyone says you were unreasonable? Socialise your dogs better. And keep your feet to yourself.

My partner had to do this with a greyhound too. We have a small dog who will sniff other dogs but doesn’t have much interest in playing, so he was walking right next to us when a greyhound came sprinting over and starting chasing him (our dog was trying to get away). The owner made no effort to recall or quicken her pace and our dog was getting quite distressed, so my partner kicked the dog in the hope he would back off. No regrets, control your dog.

No you weren't in the wrong. Correct etiquette is for the owner to put their dog on a lead when they see that your dogs are on a lead.

It's so difficult to know how to react in that kind of situation, especially with two dogs. My response is usually to scream very loudly....which isn't ideal but it generally puts the dog off. It's an automatic reaction for me and I end up very embarrassed and beat myself up when of course it was the other person's fault!

You could try a K9 defence spray just as a deterrent. The problem is that after a few weeks of no incidents, it ends up in the bottom of my bag so I'm back to screaming!!

No, but OPs dogs reacted with fear and began to show teeth and growl.
It's impossible to say what would have happened if she had not intervened the greyhound may have got the message and retreated or the conflict could have escalated and ended in a bite.
The greyhound needed to be removed from the situation as it showed no respect for the other dogs. It's not it's fault the owner has no idea how to train it, and if it continues in this way it's probable that one day it will annoy the wrong dog.
It's owner is doing it a great disservice.

I think I’m in the same Facebook group based on what you have said. There are photos from someone else that was there. Can you see them? Or maybe the person posting them has blocked you?

Her dogs were on leads, his dogs shouldn't have been allowed to approach

So only your ddogs were acting aggressive but his ddog was abused?
Many years ago my ddog was punched in a misunderstanding..her behaviour changed forever that day. And I was left to deal with her -for over a decade.

But OP is not a dog.

In the scenario the OP describes, I'd feel incredibly guilty that I put my dog in a position to be kicked because I didn't have it under control and hadn't trained it not to jump all over other dogs and people.

OP, I don't think you were in the wrong. I walk my dog off lead (where safe) but I always call him back to me when we pass dogs on leads. If he acted like the greyhound in your story, I'd rent a field for him to run around. It's well known that not all dogs appreciate other dogs bounding up to them and you acted to protect your dogs in the moment 🤷‍♀️

This is a complete lack of understanding of canine behaviour.

Dogs that rush at other dogs are not perceived as " playful" by other dogs.

Yes kicking a dog is wrong, if it was attacking then it’d be different but it wasn’t, it was jumping up. What is the relevance of the man being ‘old’?

Oh for goodness sake. It is not ok for a dog to be "playful". They need to be under control when out in public.

They can play in their garden with their own humans.

Great victim blaming there, nothing more fucking annoying that an owner spouting "he's friendly" or "just playing" to excuse their shit behaviour

Do you know why we race greyhounds? Because they're really fast and have a high prey drive. Therefore they are absolutely not a suitable dog to have off lead no matter how well trained they are. If a dog is walking off lead it should be trained to the point of being completely disinterested in other dogs or people.

The owner of the greyhound was totally irresponsible.

You couldn't be more wrong.
The only dogs my ddog was afraid of were greyhounds. They can be aggressive, I've seen it first hand.

@itsme189 you did the right thing and the fault was the dog owner.
I think you would have got different opinions if it was a baby you were holding when the 'friendly dog jumped up.'

I don't think it's relevant what his age was. But all owners need to make sure their dogs are under close control at all times.

And if they don't make sure of that, and someone feels threatened and therefore hurts the dog in defending themselves and/or their own dogs, there's no use crying about it.

If your dog can't be trusted to leave people and other dogs alone, you keep them on a short lead. It's not hard.

Another dog owner here, and heat of the moment aside, I'd like to think I'd reflect on what part I had played in causing a situation like this if my DDog was kicked and modify MY behaviour.

Like the OP, I don't allow my dog off lead unless I have a clear line of sight many metres ahead and am near her so can quickly slip a lead back on.

Nowhere in the opening post does it say she spoke to owner and asked him to call his dog before kicking it.

The other dog wasn't attacking your dogs. It was being playful. Your fear was that your dogs would react aggressively.

You say you picked your dogs up and then kicked the other dog - that's awful behaviour. Picking your dogs up solved the problem and there was no need for the kick, given that the other dog was only a playful greyhound and not an aggressive XL bully.