To think nothing could be done about this dog (and it's owners!)?

[Famzilla]

I live on an estate. Most of the people are lovely, a lot of young families like us.

There is this "family" opposite (I say "family as I'm not entirely sure who actually lives there, there are lots of adults & children always coming & going.) I don't mean to sound judgemental but they're a bit um... Rough. Parties, drug use & obvious selling, lots of violence and police visits etc. The children seem well looked after though and they always stop & chat when I see them.

Anyways, they have a dog. I have a dog. Tonight whilst walking home with my dog & DD in the sling, theirs was out and it flew at mine. My dog is a big German shepherd so probably looks quite threatening but is actually the most pathetic creature ever! Their dog pinned mine against the wall and was trying to rip her to shreds. The owner was having a fag on her phone outside oblivious. I managed to shout their dog off (no way was I going to attempt to pull it off with DD so close!) and it scampered in.

I shouted at the woman that her dog needed to be kept in, and she just dismissively said "sorry I wasn't looking". I angrily told her that if her dog is aggressive she needs to look, to which she squared up to me and shouted "I said I was fucking sorry so fuck off!!" And er... I did. I wasn't gonna have a screaming match infront of my children or hers.

My dog seems ok, a bit shaken but not injured (somehow!). I want to report this dog, but don't know who to, I can't see anything happening if I did and tbh these people really intimidate me.

You could try the dog warden and police.

If your dog warden is a good one they'll hopefully go round and have words.

Unfortunately I wouldn't expect the police to do much unless the dog looks like it might be of "type". I've attempted to report a loose, human aggressive dog before but as it was a legal breed they weren't interested. It ended up attacking two more people and hospitalising an old bloke before they would actually do anything

Kick it in the face next time.

Well it's a mastiff so certainly the "type". Thing is, it spends all day surrounded by children and adults so I wouldn't think it was human aggressive AFAIK, just dog aggressive. If it went for me I would have no hesitation in reporting it.

Although mastiffs have been given a bit of a bad reputation in recent years they don't actually fall under the legal definition of "type", which is a set of measurements used to determine if a dog is a "pit bull type" and therefore illegal.

Police and dog warden are your only options really but from the sound of it neither are going to be able to do much.

Oh sorry I thought you meant type as in "stereotyped" by the media kind of thing. Like my pathetic wuss of a hound is.

Hmm. I think I'll sit on it for a while longer. It sounds pathetic but I really don't want to get on the wrong side of them.

It's a shame on these dogs that end up with shit owners like that. :(

I still hate this 'types' thing, it's a load of bollocks and changes year after year as different breeds go in and out of fashion with the idiots who don't look after them properly.

I don't think there's much you can do apart from report it. If she squares up to you like that again headbutt her you should report her too.