XL bully

[Tevion1213]

Popped to the shop last night and there was a girl around 10 sitting on the steps with one on a lead although it was a young dog not fully grown seemed very interested in passers by and as I walked past it jumped towards me playfully.
The young girl seemed to panic and was desperate for me to get past.
The dog wasn't nuzzled or anything aibu to think a young girl handling even a puppy XL is not on with no nuzzle either.

Bump

Are you in England? It’s against the law now for them not to be muzzled in public. It’s also completely batshit for such a small child to be left in charge of one, given that plenty of grown men can’t even control them. A shame you don’t know who the dog’s owner is so that you could report them.

Yes England

Well you've failed to do anything about it. What do you hope to gain from this thread?

No it's illegal. Did you report it to the police?

and you are 100% on the breed of dog ?

and obiv you reported it to the police immediately...

Did you really?

And what do you expect to gain from telling us? Tell the police, tell the kid the dog should be muzzled (its muzzled by the way, not nuzzled), both options would be more constructive than telling Mumsnet.

What are your qualifications in identifying breed again? Dog Legislation Officers would struggle to identify a puppy as a definitely illegal XL type without the aid of a tape measure, written criteria and seeing the dogs parents, but you apparently know for certain this is an illegal dog?

Yeah I bet you did

What did you get from the shop?

Bag of potatoes if it's relevant

Did you actually ask the girl if it was an XL bully?

Could have been a different breed/type of dog, although resembled an XL?!

I own a pocket bully mix (17inch high before I get any comments), and the amount of people who have visibly recoiled away from her out and about, has increased 10 fold since this whole ban issue.

She has passed all her Good Citizen awards up to gold-standard, and is actively competing in agility. Much better behaved than a lot of dogs (and people) that we encounter daily!

Yes but she seemed flummoxed and didn't answer

Probably because she's fed up to the teeth of people querying her dogs breed, and may also be anxious that someone will be horrible to her and her dog.

Please know that if I saw you and your pup out and about, I would be straight over asking to say ‘hello’ and hoping for a snuggle!

How do you know it is an XL bully puppy? Stocky type dog breeds tend to all look the same as puppies.

That's why I didn't push the poor girl

Quoted wrong poster

That's why I didn't push the poor girl

I saw a couple with a classic-looking one last week, unmuzzled. When I got close to them, I realised that it wouldn't be classified as one, because it was a female that I was confident was less than 19 inches at the withers (I have a female non-XL bully dog who we know is 19.5 inches and this one was definitely smaller than mine.

Some LOOK exactly like XL Bullies but as thry are under the height specification, do not have to be registered or muzzled.

@VickyEadieofThigh

That's exactly why I asked the OP if s/he was 100% sure, as I guess the majority of people will not know exactly the specification.

We drove past a dog the other day, DD wondered and I said the dog was too short.

It's not going to be easy, some breeds are far easier to identify i.e. a White West Highland terrier :)

It may not have been an XL and I agree that the girl was probably scared because of the reaction people have about that particular look of breed. (I struggle identifying the difference between Staffies and Pit Bulls)
I'm afraid in the majority of cases, it's not the breed at fault, but the owners, yet the dogs are the ones to suffer.

I took it as a XL pup

But could it have been a Staffie? They look fairly 'bull' like when young before they grow into their faces.

All this speculation about various dogs demonstrates exactly what many people, including large dog charities, said would happen with this poorly-defined legislation. The criteria are exceptionally vague and shorter XL Bullies will be exempt - despite being powerful enough to be dangerous.

I don't know how people can get Staffie and XL bullies mixed up. They look quite different really, especially head and face shape. But I've grown up around Staffies so probably makes it easier for me to differentiate between the two.