What to do: report untrained dog?

[ERest]

Hello, thought I would seek some help with the below. I live a few doors away from a family with one of those small cutey dogs, not sure what breed. It is however very fierce and frequently gets away from its owners to harass people. It has stopped me from getting down from my car before, after appearing from no where and running round my car while barking continously till the lady eventually emerged 5 minutes later to get it. That was not the first time either. This week however, it has chased my sibling twice on their way to work (she lives with me at the moment). We were all standing by the door as she left, 3 adults and my little one, so saw the entire scene unfold. The lady was walking the dog with her two kids. The older child, probably 6 or 7 was holding the dog. As soon as my sister got to street level and the dog sighted her, it tore after her and dragged the child down till she tripped. My sister had to take refuge on a car further down the street to get away from the dog! There was no other place to take refuge as there are no shops around here she could run into, just houses, cars and a park and she had already walked past my front door. The owner just said: "the dog is just a baby, it won't bite" in a dismissive manner after walking sedately to pick up the lead while the dog remained by the car barking. This was really annoying to hear as this is a repetitive issue! To make things worse, the car owner has just come round to check if my sister was alright, but also to say her car has a scratch and it is due to be collected on Monday as it has been sold. She is planning to come back later with her husband as she is worried the buyer would not want it now. So for my qiestions:

1. What can be done about neighbours dog, especially if the same happens again? Can we report a dog for terrorising neighbours?
2. If the car owner presents a bill for car scratches, who should pay it, my sister or would she be unreasonable to pass it on to the dog owner?

Any advice gratefully received.

Well the dog owner should pay but she won't and legally probably won't have to.

You can report the dog as dangerous to 101 and the dog warden. Although they most likely won't do anything until it has actually bitten a person and even then its unlikely they will do anything other than send a letter. Speaking from experience of two mastiff dogs who constantly terrorize our family and who have bitten a person and almost killed another

That sounds really horrible for your family @Goldenfan! Pets should only be kept by people who have the time and energy to train them, or who are will to send them to training school. Thanks for the advice and it is really helpful.

How does one take refuge on a car? Did she clamber on to the bonnet? How do the neighbours know that scratch wasn't already there? Did your sister have anything "scratchy" on her? I think the neighbours are on the take

Most small dogs bark and get in the way, but it's a long way to them ending up biting. It's annoying and yes, the owner should try to prevent it, but there is a bit difference between a small dog running at full speed, showing teeth, ears back, tail low, and a young, excited dog, just barking, but with the tail wagging.

If the latter and your sister had a bit of an over reaction, the dog warden is definitely not going to do anything. If the dog has never bitten or shown overt signs that it is about to, I very doubt the owner will agree to pay for your sister's action.

Your sister was silly and immature. She’s probably 15x the size of a small yappy dog.
Does she run and jump onto cars when approached by a toddler who bites? Or bees and wasps?
You posted another thread yesterday and obviously didn’t like the answers.
Yes she’s responsible for causing damage.
When the dog runs at you grab the collar.

Oh God sorry but this is ridiculous! Grown adults running away from a small fluffy puppy??! I’m guessing nine of you have much experience of dogs?

Calm down and stop over reacting around this pup, making a scene and leaping around will actually excite the dog.

Hi, thank you all for your responses.
@fallfallfall yes, I did but someone on there said to post it in legal for better advice, although I eventually got better advice on there. The context is that this dog has form for it as I said on the OP, so not an isolated incident and we do not normally run away from dogs. In fact, we do love them.
We have decided what to do now, so have a resolution in place and I will not likely post any further updates.

Has form for what though?

Running up to people and excitedly barking or actually being aggressive and attacking?

You do know that if you run away from a dog as you all seem to keep doing you are teaching the dog to chase you, it thinks it's a bloody game 🙄

and it's not illegal to have an untrained dog, it's only illegal to have a dangerous out of control dog.

Nothing from your posts confirms or otherwise whether the dog is actually dangerous?