To have kicked an old man’s dog?

[itsme189]

This morning I was walking my 2 very small elderly dogs on lead in the woods near me where it’s nice and cool for them.

they love people but they don’t love when dogs run up to them and get all in their face, valid I wouldn’t like that either. If a dog on or off lead just walks past or gives them a quick sniff they don’t mind. I always tell people not to let their dogs come right up to them.
Theyve never bitten just growled and I just don’t want to risk anything.

there was an old man walking a large greyhound type dog off lead and he’s miles away from it it runs at us very fast so I stick my leg in front of my dogs and the dog doesn’t stop runs straight into my leg. He then excitedly throws his foot on top of my smallest dog he squeals in pain and my other dog starts growling and showing teeth.

so I picked them up and then the big dogs starts jumping up at me to get to my dogs so I kick it away.

Old man then starts screaming at me for “abusing” his friendly dog and a lady walking passed then said to him “I saw her kick the dog”

and now I don’t know if I did too much but I was so overwhelmed and worried it would become a fight and there’s no way my old boys would do well in that situation. To make it worse the lady made a post about it in our local Facebook group (luckily no pictures) and everyone’s saying awful things but they only know one side!

For the record the dog was not hurt didn’t even squeal!

This is one of the many reasons why dogs should not be off the lead in public places.

Yeah: unbiased? Maybe. Did she try to speak to the op or find out her side of things? Seems not.

I have known interfering old biddies who leapt to conclusions and then compounded their stupidity by telling all and sundry their inaccurate account of events about which they didn't have full information. Facebook is merely a louder gossip-shop for such objectionable persons, and makes them feel even more self-important that the village post-office used to in the old days.

Or .......keep your dog under control.

You’re an idiot. I don’t care if you think your dogs friendly, I don’t want him near me. My dog isn’t reactive and doesn’t need training to deal with dogs coming up to him but every time they do, they cause a problem because off lead dogs with limited recall are always the problem and not the on lead dog going about its day.

OP I am a dog walker and also owner of 2 tiny dogs.

In this kind of situation when I saw the dog coming I would stand between it and my dogs, and try to get the dog’s attention on me rather than my dogs. I always have a bag of treats in my bum bag so an excited “what’s this” and a rustle of the treats bag usually does the trick. And then I speak in a calm and quiet voice, dispensing treats until the owner appears. If necessary grab the dog’s collar when you get a chance and keep hold of it until the owner turns up, although I realise that’s tricky if yours are on the lead.

If someone allows their dog to jump up at others uninvited then they shouldn't complain when people react to it.

When I was about 4, I was pinned to the wall of the hall IN MY OWN HOME by a neighbours sons German Shepherd.

But for me screaming to get either of my parents or any other random adult to notice, I probably wouldn't be alive.

I had deep scratches to my upper body, arms and back of hands. There's some bite marks as well.

I'm mid 50s, you can still see some of them, but I keep them hidden.

BUT it was all OK, because the dog was still a "puppy" and bigger than me and DIDN'T MEAN IT.🙄

Yeah.🤬

@Ablondiebutagoody You absolutely did the right thing. Your poor little dogs. I hope they're having a lovely chilled afternoon 🐶 and you and they don't encounter this shitty owner or his dangerous prey-driven dog again.

Was your kick angrily forceful, which could have seriously hurt the dog, or were you just lifting it out of the way?

Be honest now!

OK,

big dog running at 2 elderly little dogs...

Rugby player taking out two pensioners.

Not hard to understand really - even from a non-dog person (see earlier post)
🤦🏻‍♀️

Also...why wasn't is both muzzled and on a lead?

Which is the bigger dog should have been in a lead. Clearky it hadn’t been socialised properly rigut?

The OP picked her dogs up (rightly) and the dog carried on jumping on her. Was that ok? Was she supposed to just accept it ‘oh because you know he just wanted to make friend/whatever other excuse’?
Sorry, you have a dog, you socialise them agd teach them not to jump on people.

If a dog had done that to me, I’d have been terrified. I wouldn’t have kicked him due to that. My dh would.
But I would not accept any excuse further such poor behaviour on the part of the dog.

Deffo not angry and forceful I’m 5ft and was holding 2 dogs in both arms. If it was a big forceful kick dog would have gotten hurt or cried I was simply trying to get it off me and my dogs when the owner could not as he was still far away and his shouting wasn’t working

The 'dogs right to roam' crew really hack me off. It is totally unfair to the smaller dogs tethered by leads for a large and in this case out of control dog to be getting in their faces. Maybe they should stop being so outraged at not everyone loving their 'friendly' dog and get some proper recall measures in place. If that's not possible, then keep the dog on a lead.

Are they ok now?

I mean, as a completely non-dog person --who has a big ginger cat attached to her most of the time, I really hope they are. <dog chew emoji>

😿😽

And if you have no dog with you, no treat agd the dog still runs towards you and jumps on you, what do you do??

And what do you when it’s someone like me with mobility issues?

Apart from training your own digs to nit run towards people/other digs, have a good recall or put them on a lead.

I have enough of the ‘but he is friendly/just wanted to play p/it’s your reaction. The dog is reacting like a dog’.
Just keep your dogs under control

Read again, plenty of dog owners, me included, saying what other reasonable action did she have available to her?

Hands full, dog has already shown not to respect natural boundaries, or doggy communications to piss off, has already splatted a dog with his paws (who here would be happy with the human equivalent, a 24 stone bloke shoving/thumping/stamping on an 8 stone woman/kid? That would NOT be deemed acceptable even if it had been intended in a non-aggressive, friendly manner!)...

Should she have left her dogs on the ground and waited for them to be injured? And again, for the hard of thinking in the back here, a greyhound type could be anywhere from 20 to 30kg. A little elderly dog could be 5 to 10kg. Even a friendly play bow that results in a paw to the older, smaller dogs back, head or neck could do serious or even fatal damage.

I remember being 11 walking my nans little yorkie and this big dog running up to me barking, I picked up that little dog and ran for my life. Luckily his owner got him back in control, but in that moment you’re terrified, you don’t know if the dogs going to go for you, or rip your dog apart. Anyone that says they wouldn’t have kicked the dog has obviously not been in that situation

Good tips on here though to prevent in future I’ll start taking some treats in my pockets and the spare lead idea makes sense even just in case I find a lost dog that’s a good plan!

@Moonface318 do you allow your dog to approach others on your walks all the time?

Try moving your walk to earlier/later or a different route.

The "owner" hah might do the same walk at the same time each day.

And if the other dogs don’t like it they should be euthanised 🙄

I was specifically talking about the OP’s situation of having 2 small dogs with her. In the situation you describe I would shout a very firm ‘NO’ and the dog, followed by “get down” and then I’d turn partially away from the dog with my arms folded.

I completely agree that the dog’s owner was in the wrong, sadly there are many, many dogs out there with little to no training and trust me, as a dog walker and being responsible for keeping dogs safe, they are the bane of my life. That’s why I choose routes where I am very unlikely to encounter other dogs.

So anyone who doesn’t like out of control dogs should adjust their behaviour to avoid them ?

As the owner of multiple dogs, I do not think you were in the wrong op. Off lead dogs should be under control and able to be recalled, at any time.
Off lead dogs should not be running up to on lead dogs, they should be recalled and under control. The vast, vast majority of dog owners understand this and act accordingly. Anyone who doesn’t, runs the risk of their dog getting a boot. Such is life.

Greyhounds are lovely creatures but also do go full on for anything fluffy and small.
In essence this is a tale of leads and muzzles. Too many dogs off lead and not with muzzles. And of dogs which in the wrong setting are too much for a person to handle. Too fast, not enough recall.
I would not have kicked the dog, no. He jumped up at you. He did not try to bite you. Your dogs were in your arms. Kicking the dog was not necessary. Not a greyhound.

A lesson is for dogs to have muzzles and owners very good recall and preferably dogs on a lead.

My nan would have killed me too. She’d have preferred me to lose a limb than her dog lol. She loved that dog, bless her