I enjoy walking at our local beauty spot which is a very large forest and heath area, it’s very popular with dog walkers. The problem is I really don’t like large dogs running up to me and jumping up at me which seems to happen most times I go, usually the dog owner is some distance behind so they can’t see their dog jumping up at me.
This happened again today, and a large dog and two smaller ones ran up to me and jumped up, the big ones paws reached my armpits. For context I was attacked by an Alsatian at the age of 9 in our local park, I don’t assume all dogs are aggressive but I am nervous around large dogs.
Today I plucked up the courage to say something to the owner, I asked him to stop his dog jumping up at me because I am scared of large dogs. He was very arrogant and laughed at me and said then I’d ‘come to the wrong place.’ As if the countryside exists for dog owners and nobody else and I was being ridiculous expecting him to control his pets.
The area is managed through grazing by the local forestry commission (usually hardy breeds of ponies, sheep and cows), there are frequent incidents of animals being worried and often mauled by dogs, I’ve seen this happen and there are signs saying that animals that don’t have a string recall should be kept on leads.
AIBU?