My dog attacked another dog in our garden

[Thesummeriscoming08]

My dog has never had any issues before regarding dogs or anything really. She is 4 years old.
where we live our front gated garden leads out on to a shared community garden / play ground, daughter often plays out in the communal area ( nearly 11 )
whilst son in the front garden.
its like a private estate - never any behaviour issues and no crime.
as you walk out of the gate of the estate, around a 5 minute walk away their is a little own run local restaurant.
they have a dog that walks around outside the restaurant alone which is next to a busy road. he often walks as far as ours does a poo and walks back- which has caused many complaints with neighbours etc
today DD was in the communal garden area and DS was in front garden with my aunt and our dog.
I was in the kitchen when all of a sudden I heard a commotion I ran outside to find my dog and this dog in a fight and I pulled them apart but the other dogs ear was bleeding by the time I managed to split them up.
my daughter was at this point also in the garden and crying.
my aunt had explained that daughter was running towards our front garden because she was being chased by the dog, crying saying it was trying to get her.
my aunt went to run towards her and daughter managed to swing the gate open and get in to our front garden as she did the dog followed and grabbed her trouser leg which then my dog pounced on the other dog which was when I had entered the garden and they were both fighting
I had never seen my dog like it towards another dog- when I managed to get the other dog off I noticed it’s ear was bleeding and my neighbour had ran to the get the owner who then came full blazing.
my dog was unharmed - I have checked her over a few times now.

I don’t let her off the lead when we are outside but it is a gated front garden and so I do allow her free roam.
He has now taken the dog and is phoning to report the incident of my dog causing injury.
my daughter is in pieces because she thinks our dog will be removed.

If your daughter had been smaller/slower this could have been horrific. Of course you should report it!!

Their dog was roaming free. That in itself is bad enough. All your dog saw was the dog going for your daughter so defended her.
If their dog hadn't been out it wouldn't have happened.

My guess is their dog is a "harmless" breed. If it was a "scary" breed you probably would have reported the incident straight away. Report the incident

Yes my neighbours all know the dog and the owners - apart from the poop issue I have not heard any other reports of things like this.
he will often just stroll up and down - we have always been concerned of how far he walks from the restaurant - for the dogs safety.

Yes you do report it.

your dog was on your land.

your dog was protecting its family.

this may sound silly, but their dog wasn’t on their land, it was five minutes away on your land chasing minors for biscuits

Obviously. The dog was unsupervised and attacked your daughter. Chased her into your garden and bit her leg.

The fact she wasn’t injured is largely because your dog intervened.

There is no ‘oh the dog was just playing’ about this. The owner is irresponsible and the police should intervene before a child IS injured.

Please report. The owners of the other dog are irresponsible and should not own a dog. It is a large dog crossed by the sounds from powerful breads.

The dog is not on a lead or in sight of their owner so is effectively out of control. You need to report that the dog regularly wanders off without owners. The dog has gone for a child (regardless of context), it is not in its owners control as they are absent. It needs to be removed to more responsible owners before it seriously injures a child. Your dog was in its own property in a secure garden. Nothing will happen to your dog.

OP, report it now, don't postpone.

Your poor DD must be so scared. Also well done to your dog!

This will have been a simple situation that escalated really quickly.
Child has biscuits
Dog jumps
Child screams and drops biscuits
Dog gets excited and goes for biscuits
Dog gets defensive over the biscuits.
Child runs and dog chases.

My dog is well behaved but can be excitable. I go out in the morning, he's off the lead no problem. There's only dogwalkers there. If i go back to the park in the afternoon when it's busy he's kept on lead. He's not aggressive but a screaming child in his language means play and therefore he's better off on the lead.

Give your dog a biscuit from me please 🙏🏻

Police will absolutely recognise your dog acted completely reasonably given the circumstances.

thank you - he did say if my daughter had not have run then his dog wouldn’t of seen it as playing and chasing her

but her friends say that went down for the biscuits he instantly snapped towards her.

Yes

It is a legal requirement to have your dog under control in public spaces. He cannot have his dog under control when he is leaving it to roam unsupervised.

It isn't an unreasonable reaction from your dog to defend its pack or its home.

The man is an idiot.

The owner lets a large dog roam around unsupervised and thinks it’s perfectly fine for it to chase and attack children?

Your poor daughter must have been terrified.

Do not take this as victim blaming please. When things have calmed down and she's over the shock. Perhaps tomorrow? Sit down and go over what she could do differently next time. So she could have left the dog with the biscuits and walked briskly but as calmly as possible away from the dog.

No. If he had his dog under control, it wouldn’t be chasing children.

He doesn’t get to blame your daughter for his dog’s behaviour.

Yes because next time it might not end with just clothing damaged! Next time someone could be seriously hurt.

Their dog needs to be under their control and not wandering the streets. What it if causes an accident on the main road?

Your dog absolutely not in the wrong here. And I would probably read from your dogs reaction that your dog understood the other dog to be acting aggressively towards your DD. And then acting in defence of her. It's quite possible too that had your dog not stepped in your DD would have been bitten.

Absolutely, none of this is your DDs fault

A german shepherd/husky cross isn't going to be a small dog so that's going to be scary enough for a child.

He wasn't present and his dog was roaming free and alone. I'd definitely report.

Let him have the conversation with the police. They aren’t going to be impressed with ‘if the child hadn’t been running/eating/whatever, my dog wouldn’t have attacked her’ as an argument. Nor are they going to believe this is ‘only playing’.

The dog must be under control and supervised in public spaces. The owner is totally irresponsible.

So a dog attacked your child in your garden? I would be absolutely livid at the other owner and would be making that clear to both the owner and police. Your dogs actions are irrelevant in this context

I think the issue is in our house there is always food dropped and it’s safe to pick up 🙈 so she didn’t probably even hesitate to pick up the biscuits.

I would buy your dog a juicy steak and give him a massive hug. He’s protecting his family.

He is an idiot . Children are allowed to run around and pick up things they have dropped ,they shouldn’t have to worry about being chased by what sounds like quite a large unrestrained dog .

he did say if my daughter had not have run then his dog wouldn’t of seen it as playing and chasing her

This tells you everything you need to know about the kind of dog owner he is. Report, for the dog's sake as much as anything else.

Oh yes absolutely! And she shouldn't have to think of these things. I just think it's worth a conversation about how in emergencies things can be left just get yourself safe. It can take a while for this to sink in with little ones.