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!

But she acknowledges the dog was not being aggressive. If you think it’s absolutely fine to kick a ‘frail old mans’ dog then you do you. But I don’t think it was ok, and neither does the woman who wasn’t involved but witnessed it.

What a load of absolute shite. People like you are the problem.

This dog wasn’t socialised it was a fucking nuisance

I have a dog and you are totally in the right. His dog was not under his control and should not have been pestering you and your dogs.

If it was a greyhound it should always be on a lead as they can just bolt after anything.
I have 2 hip replacements and get quite concerned if a dog starts running around me and my dog in case I get pulled over.

From the position of having both of your dogs in your arms, your only defense then became your feet/legs.
I would recommend seeking out some online advice from a reputable trainer about how to handle that scenario if it happens again, to make it safe for you and your dogs.
The safety of the off leash dog is the responsibility of the owner/walker.
If you choose to walk your dog off lead and without solid recall (unusual in sighthounds) then you risk situations like this or worse, where your dog ends up in a fight.
Not your dogs fault. Yours.

Indeed, some people can’t help themselves and cry “abuse” at everything that’s in any way not passive… it debases the word.

I'm godsmacked every day you were wrong! I'm normally defending any animal hurt but in that case it sounds like it was justified. Unless you kicked it hard and I hired it.

What is their side of the sort that fit everyone on FB on their side?

Not being happy with a much larger, strange dog jumping on them absolutely does not mean 'not socialised'.

Once the OP had picked up both dogs - necessary for safety given the incoming dog was larger and was splatting them and not heeding their clear 'go away' communications, she had no hands free, what was she supposed to do, stand there like a lemon whilst this large dog jumps and snaps at her/her dogs?

The other dogs owner should have had their dog on a long line and harness and muzzled if he's likely to grab/snap, or should train a solid recall.

Letting an off lead dog hurtle up into other dogs spaces is NOT acceptable and is a very quick route to creating fearful, reactive, aggressive dogs, particularly if those dogs are on lead and unable to run away/get more space for themselves.

He had an out of control dog so tough shit really. Don't want your dog kicked keep it under control!

Of course kicking a dog to the point that a random person clicked to it very clearly and saw it seemed off is bad.
And yes he should have better control of his dog.
But it does sound like you overreacting made it all worse.
Did your dog actually get hurt? Or did it shout as a natural response to having another dog playfully push its face down? As that happens all the time with my dog and my sisters much bigger dog. It doesnt actually hurt her.
Also in future just turn your back to the dog jumping up. Even with your dogs in your hands. Dont kick it. It wasn't attacking you.

Unfortunately, there are too many dog owning absolute morons around who have zero control of their dogs so YANBU in the slightest. The man shouldn’t have allowed it to stray so far away from him.

I walk my large dog off lead in the woods and he’s generally calm and well behaved but if he got too close to someone and was jumping up at them and they kicked out at him, I wouldn’t get annoyed with them. It would be my fault for not having him under control.

For the record, I doubt he’d ever do that as he’s 9 and pretty chilled, but you can never say never!

One of her dogs had already been hurt she picked them up to protect them. What do you do if a big dog jumps on your elderly small dog causing it to cry in pain? I would have kicked it then if the owner couldn't call it off, do you have to wait till it really injures your dog?

I didn’t kick it hard I just kicked it to get it off me like I said he was not hurt and did not squeal or whimper unlike my dog who was hurt when he had his head smacked into the ground. Dogs should be trained not to jump all over someone and run up and hurt other dogs, that’s not just a dog being a dog imo. Like others said maybe a stick or corrective spray would be good in future!

Tbh, this is the sort of thing that people only 'tolerate' when it is either a small dog, or something considered fairly harmless like a greyhound. If the dog housing over and ignoring all social cues was 40 kg and black like our dog, the reaction tends to be quite different. But the root of the behaviour is the same

YABVU the man was also BU, but you shouldn't have kicked the dog in that situation. There's kicks and then there's kicks and as it wasn't mentioned it sounds like it wasn't a gentle kick. You'd be getting a vets bill from me for a check to see the dog is ok.

Don’t kick the bloody dog,it’s not it’s fault it isn’t on a lead.have a go at the man.

This is such a tricky situation.

My first thought was no no no never kick the dog.

But if my dog was being attacked by another dog, I would do whatever necessary to save my own dog.

It’s hard when you don’t know the people or the dogs so you literally don’t know what to expect when a dog comes bounding towards you.

How? Like throwing a stone at it or something?

First post, unusually for Mumsnet, completely and utterly FAILS to nail it.

On no planet should the off-lead, out of control, zero-recall, RUDE dog be allowed to do whatever the hell it likes to any dog it happens to encounter. Including treading on it! While the small, elderly, on-lead and thus entirely under the owners' control dogs get banished to a secure field. You are so, so wrong on this and suggests that you are an irresponsible dog owner.

Let me guess, your dog rushes up to other dogs in public - including ones on leads - and you just shout, 'Don't worry, he's friendly!' and hope that nothing bad happens. Because you know you can't actually call your dog back to you reliably.

The law says that your dog must be under control in ALL public places.

Which means that, if you cannot stop your dog from rudely crashing into unknown on-lead dogs on the other side of the field with a verbal command, you need to USE A FUCKING LEAD AT ALL TIMES.

Greyhounds are attracted by small furry things, I would have reacted the same way. I have a calm cockerpoo who would have been reactive if the same dog did that to him.

No dog should be off the lead in a public place.

I would have kicked it too.

The dog was jumping up at the OP.
That's an out of control dog.

As far as the " frail old man" he'd be doing himself a favour to educate himself and the greyhound to avoid further incidents.

Your dogs were controlled
His dog wasn't (no recall = no control)
He was in the wrong
I'm so fed up of people that let badly trained dogs off the lead. I don't care if you think it's cruel, train your bloody dogs!

@Starlight7080
…Or did it shout as a natural response to having another dog playfully push its face down?

Presumably you wouldn’t minimise such behaviour if it was a man shoving a woman?

“It’s ok he pushed you in the face, he just wanted to have his bit of fun.”

Just because it’s only dogs getting harmed, it doesn’t give you any right to assume your dog can treat other dogs as their personal play thing.

Some people are absolute morons!

Also OP, I think woodland is best avoided unless it's a strict on-lead site. The reason being that you can't get a good look around to see who's there and dogs can just suddenly appear with no owner in sight. Also best to avoid urban parks.