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!

Disagree. Why should the op hire a field because sone people cant control their dogs?An on lead dog doesn't know the intention of an uncontrolled dog bounding up to. In these scenarios I pick my little dog up and my 40kg Malamute goes in front of us to protect. Good luck to any uncontrolled dog.

You shouldn't have kicked the dog, it wasn't being aggressive, it wanted to play with your dogs. You kicking the dog could potentially make the situation much worse and make him scared. sorry. People usually just keep walking in this situation they don't assault dogs. No matter what others say kicking a friendly dog is wrong and cruel.

It occurs to me that if OP exercises her dogs on the lead, it would be otiose to hire an entire field for them to run about in.

(I do wonder whether Hawksie has a greyhound that is reliable in its recall off-lead. I very much doubt it, if Hawksie thinks that rushing up to much smaller and older dogs and terrifying them, while ignoring their unwelcoming reaction, is "socialised".)

He was wrong to let his dog come charging up to you. This is why small dogs end up reactive because people let their dogs do what the fuck they want because they don’t want to curb their freedom by keeping them on a lead so they prefer for them to jump up at people, knock kids over, chase other dogs and wildlife and then they say ‘oh he’s friendly’ just FUCK RIGHT OFF. Entitled dog owners and their unruly hounds do my head in.

Spoken with the bias of a big dog owner with little concern for OP's small dogs.

Exactly right

No bias at all, I've had all different sizes of dogs. I've just taken the time to educate myself on how to train dogs. I've also seen many little dog owners scoop up their dogs every time they see a big dog. It tells the dogs to be scared. My advice was actually quite balanced and if the OP truly wants to stop this situation occuring again then she needs to train her dogs to not be dog aggressive and train herself on how to actually help herself and her dogs.

When were the OP’s dogs aggressive??

Let’s concentrate on the real troublemaker - the big dog owner who didn’t have his dog under control. And let the OP alone

I totally agree, idiot people that let their idiot dogs run up to dogs on leads have no place owning a dog IMO. BUT, there is nothing you can do to change that unfortunately, these people are thick as shit and are putting their own pet in danger every time the allow it, the only thing you can do is learn the most effective ways for YOU to protect yourselves and your pets if you come across them, and the no. 1 rule is to stay calm.

You said yourself that the OP panicked. Which is a fair reaction to a dog that big putting their paws on your shoulders.

She panicked before the dog jumped up her, I'm not sure what people are failing to understand with this.. the dog ran up, was pawing at her dog, at that point she could have turned and walked away, or blocked it's access, she could have shouted at it, but she didn't, she panicked, started moving around lifting her dogs off the ground and this dog decided that was a great game and started jumping all over her, then she started kicking out at it. The dog in OPs scenario wasn't aggressive, it was already over excited, and OP creating more excitement made it 10 times worse, I've seen people do this in real life, it looks crazy and just riles all the dogs up even more, it only ever works if the owner is near enough to grab their dog and you need to buy a few seconds.

Honestly, the best thing you can do is not react, walk away, or put a physical barrier in between them, and 9 out of 10 times, the excited dog will quickly lose interest, but it is completely against some people's natural tendencies, and as annoying as loose dogs are, I'd only ever hurt another dog if it was attacking or aggressive, which this dog wasn't.

Your advice wasn't balanced. You told OP her dog wasn't hurt when she says quite clearly he was. You dismissed what happened as 'paw play'.

You were also pompous telling OP 'no ifs no buts'. OP is the one who was there, she was absolutely entitled to protect her small dogs from being attacked by a big dog.

And then you ended with passive aggressive advice to OP to find this man and apologise to him and to be a better dog owner.

OP I would have done the same in your situation. Some are saying “he was just excited!”…but you didn’t know that and if you’re dogs were scared you of course can’t guarantee they wouldn’t respond in defense.

His dog should not have been off a lead. Very irresponsible.

What do people expect? You to stand there and let it repeatedly jump at you and await your dogs to react scared? Then that would have been your fault 🙄

What rubbish … an off lead dog should always be under control and have recall, otherwise it should NOT be off lead and should not be allowed to run up to on lead dogs!!

If a dog kept jumping on me and wouldn't stop, I'd kick it too.

Exactly. And would the man have paid OP's vet bills should her dog have been injured and needed vet care? Would he heckers.

And MNers here would have blamed OP for not picking up her dog and traumatising the poor old man.

What about if your untrained dog ran up to
an on lead dog and got badly bitten?

'they love people but they don’t love when dogs run up to them and get all in their face' and 'Theyve never bitten just growled and I just don’t want to risk anything' - OPs original post.

No she wasn't. The other dog was going for her dogs. It was an out of control dog.

If his dog cannot act appropriately it shouldn’t be off lead. It stomped on another dog and jumped up at op.

Why would I turn my back to a dog don’t can then jump up and possibly knock me over. Nope.

Op picked up her dogs to protect them from the dog than had already stomped one. Then she kicked/shoved it away with her foot. Totally acceptable.

People who can’t control their dogs shouldn’t have them off lead. The man’s dog approached op and her dogs not the other way around.

And if my dog got kicked for being badly behaved and not under my Control that would be my fault.

Fortunately when we had dogs they were well trained, didn’t jump up at people, didn’t run off after other dogs and had great recall.

If you don’t train your dog its behaviour is your fault if the dog gets injured because of that behaviour that’s again your fault as the bad owner.

Y'know, this reminds me of people blaming Ukraine for aggressively being invaded and bombed by a nation many times its size.

Victim blaming much … yes, OP socialise YOUR dogs better so that they don’t react to an out of control dog with an idiotic owner who can be bothered to train his own dog and recall it properly … oh, and while your at it make sure you wear appropriate clothing so you don’t get sexually abused by some man!!

Get a grip 🤣

OP said herself the dog was not being aggressive and just wanted to play. Some of these narratives changing the story to better justify kicking a dog are absurd. The OP was there, the OP gave the facts and asked for advice. Give advice based on the facts given or don't respond.

Wow this is getting hilarious, talk about reaching. OP asked for opinions on whether she was right and what could've been done differently, based on my experience I have responded and given advice on the facts given. Dog aggressive dogs are dangerous regardless of size, yes the owner should've had control over their dog but we only have control over our own actions and choices. She can't ensure every dog is kept on lead or trained appropriately, she can only train hers.

How does one train their dog to not get hurt being jumped and stomped on by a bigger dog.

The art of teleportation maybe. 🤔

I agree with you. My small dog is scared of big dogs as he’s been attacked twice. I hit an xl bully type dog that was growling and jumping up at my dog whilst I was holding him I hit it with my dogs harness that he’s actually slipped out of because he was panicking so much. My dad used to carry a metal chain link lead with him to fend off dogs from our previous dog.

Dogs should not be off lead if they cannot be controlled. Under no circumstances. Anywhere.