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.

What a good dog you have protecting your dd.

Well he's all kinds of a Fool isn't he.

I said we will let them decide who was at fault. he then told my daughter just shouldn’t have run.

HE is at fault. He lets his large dog roam around unsupervised, shitting all over the place and harassing the local children.

There’s no deciding to be done here. Objectively, he is at fault. The police won’t be impressed that he’s trying to scare you into paying a vet bill.

The man should not be responsible for a dog. He clearly isn’t capable of being a decent dog owner.

Frankly, I’d be tempted to email the local paper at this point. Stories about local
restaurant owners who let their dogs roam
unsupervised to attack children and then try to extort money from the families affected are exactly the sort of thing local papers want to write stories about.

It's irrelevant whether your daughter ran or not, the dog grabbed at her and thankfully only tore trousers rather than skin.

Who did you report to? I'm assuming the police?

If so I would also consider reporting it to the dog warden as well who may be inclined to come pick up a dog roaming alone.

and get CCTV....and report to the dog warden (with video) of every incident of the dog pooing and it not being picked up.

you, your daughter and your dog are in no way at fault here.

I know now we are at no fault :) I also know that unless the dog was aggressive my daughter wouldn’t have been scared
she has had sparkly since she was 6 and a our Great Dane titch ( don’t ask ) since she was 4.
she is not afraid of dogs and wouldn’t of ran if she thought he was playing

He is 100% at fault here, there's no 'should' or 'shouldn't' in terms of your DDs behaviour. You don't know how ANY kid will react around a dog, that's why you keep them on lead and under control.

Sounds like Sparkly (I can tell your daughter
named the dog 🤣❤️) was protecting her, and wouldn’t have gone for the dog if it hadn’t been chasing her / snapped at her

You did the right thing reporting. Hopefully the police will remove the dog from its stupid owners who allow it to roam free. A new home with owners who aren’t shit is what the dog ( and your neighbourhood) needs.

Haha she did because we were never meant to have sparkly 😂
we happened to be visiting my friend after her dog had a little and sparkly day on my daughter lap and didn’t move for the entire day 🙄 so she was not leaving her behind 😂
we already had titch who is an old soul who thought we ruined his life by bringing in s golden retriever 🤣

Agree the 'she shouldn't have run' line is complete bollocks. Your DD is used to dogs, many DCs aren't and would have been terrified.

In my experience the police are quite good at dealing with dog incidents and I hope they let this man know how lucky he is that more damage wasn't done. It's an offence to have a dog dangerously out of control, and he has strayed quite close to that here.

You have a very clever and loyal doggo! He can pay his own vets bills.

Aww 🥰🥰 sounds like sparkly was meant to be!

You should absolutely report it. What if next time, this dog latches on to a childs leg or arm if they're wearing shorts or t-shirt? It's a dangerous dog which isn't under control. It's a crime.

Edited to say I see you have reported. Well done. I'm glad your daughter (abd sparkly!) are OK.

Well done for reporting it, and take no notice of the few apologists who will claim that if only your daughter had done something differently, there wouldn’t have been a problem.
Summer is indeed coming, and that dog will be roaming around younger children playing outside who have a lot less experience with dogs than your daughter. Hopefully your report will prevent a child with a snack being injured as the dog decides that it wants the treat and takes it. Or children running and then being pursued because they ran.
You probably took the wind from his sails by saying you’d already reported his dog. He was expecting to intimidate you into compliance.

Her dog got what an unattended dog gets - itself into trouble. Why anyone would think a dog that grabbed clothes with its mouth was safe to roam on its own I don't know. A lot of dogs would attack another dog that arrived on its property tearing at the clothes of a family member, causing an adult and child to scream. You should report it.

@Thesummeriscoming08 your dog, your garden no offence committed by you! the other dog owner, on the other hand, has permitted his dog to roam and it is a big dog!! their dog chased your child!

With that attitude he will end up with his dog put down , all down to him being irresponsible . Even if your daughter run his dog bite your child .

Your dog did the right thing! Good boy.

No, your daughter can run and do what ever she likes. Dogs should be under control!!! I have a dog and if left unattended she would run after kids (thinking it was a game etc) therefore I never put her in the situation where she could chase a child. The dog owner needs talking to and to pay his own bills for his own mistake.

@Thesummeriscoming08 what was the restaurant owner's reaction to hearing that you have reported his neglected and dangerous dog? And did you tell the police of the dog's regular habit of fouling the area whilst roaming unattended? It might be worth getting a video of it happening next time if the idiot still lets it out. Maybe your neighbours/friends have cctv of it too?

Resteraunt owner knows that he will get absolutely nowhere with his "report" which is why he is now trying to scam you for vets bills. He's hoping you won't have clocked on that he's in the wrong. He's a fucking idiot frankly.
I hope he has gone off shitting himself. There's no way you will be made to pay his vets bills. He can't even prove that your dog did the damage as he let's his dog loose to wander the neighbourhood. Could have happened anywhere. He's lucky his loose dog hasn't caused a car accident yet.

I can't decide if this guy is just that stupid or a massive chancer. Either way the audacity is really quite impressive.

A massive stupid chancer maybe? 😄