How should I apologise to my neighbour after my dog ran towards her barking?

[BroccoliSpears]

Dog is a 2 yr old lab. Very friendly. Well trained (or so I thought). Not anxious. Typical, cheerful, much loved family lab.

I was walking home from shops with free-range toddler and dog on lead. About 100 yds from our gate I let the dog off the lead. She always trots to the gate and waits. Not today.

She barked at something (unusual - she's not a barker and quite a scaredy-wuss). I turned expecting to see a dog or a cat. Was mortified to see her barking at lovely Indian lady from a few houses down. I shouted crossly and she ran further towards lady, still barking, hackles up. She didn't get closer than about 20 yds from lady before I hauled her by scruff of neck into our garden.

I went straight to appologise, and lady was very friendly and fine about it. Said that maybe dog was spooked by her floaty black scarves. Still, I am a dog person and I would have been frightened if a dog I didn't know was off the lead and barking while running towards me.

I am mortified and utterly apalled that my dog has behaved so badly.

So, I have appologised and the lady is fine. But I still feel dreadful. Should I leave it? Should I put a card through her door appologising again and assuring her that the dog will never be off the lead on our street again? I don't know which house she lives in but could lurk behind my nets at school run time tomorrow and try and find out. Wondered about catching her as she passes at school run time tomorrow with a bunch of daffs?

What is the right thing to do?

If I were her I think I'd feel most reassured by never seeing the dog off the lead, especially on our road. I don't think you need to hunt her up, but certainly a friendly gesture owuld be nice next time you see her.

You've apologied. She's fine about it. I think that's enough. But I don't think you should let your dog off the lead in the street TBH.

My dd is terrified of dogs and this would have a horible experience for her. This has happened to us in the past and she nearly jumped into the path of a bus, trying to get away from the dog.

It would be reassuring to her that the dog would not be let off the lead again. Also acknowledging that the dog/you were in the wrong, goes along way in my book. We have had far too many dog incidents where the owners can't see that their precious dog has done anything wrong.

Hope you are ok.

Maybe you could put a small box of chocs throught the door. A bit over the top but its to make new friends in the neighbourhood!

Sometimes dogs can get a bit overprotective of small children and react aggressively to someone/something unexpected.
I'd just keep the dog on the lead in that street.

I would go round without the dog and ask if you could bring the dog round to meet her. GIve her some treats and keep your dog on a lead. Your dog needs to be socialised for the scarfy thing and sounds like he was scared of the unknown.

i'm with the owl - a small box of choccies would be a lovely gesture.

I don't know if i am generalising, but i have a couple of asian friends/aqquantances and they are really scared of dogs. Mind you they were not born here, so maybe why. I have a chinese friend too and she isn't keen either. But it doesn't sound like this lady was overly worried.

I would tend not to let him off though, he was probably protecting his property. But imagine if he had seen a cat or something over the road and a car was coming.

Oh there's nothing worse than a dog owner bleating about how their dog is "just a big old softie really" while said animal (intentionally or otherwise) intimidates people. Makes me furious. This was 100% my fault, and easily fixed by never having her off lead on our street again.

The thing is, she IS well behaved, she is really well socialised, she's a lovely dog, which is why I've been a bit non-plussed and wrong-footed (and, if I'm honest, a bit upset) trying to work out what was going on today.

I've decided that it was probably a misplaced sense of protection because we were so close to home. She does bark at people if they come to the gate while she's in our garden - I class this as acceptable doggy behaviour so don't stop her, plus it alerts me to the fact that someone needs to see me. I think she was close enough to home to be guarding her territory and alerting me to an intruder.

I shall try and catch neighbour lady tomorrow and reassure her that dog won't ever be off lead in the area again. I don't want the poor woman to be nervous walking up her own street.

I am nervous of dogs and would have hated this to happen, but the fact you immediately dealt with it and apologised would have been enough for me - these things do happen sometimes - it is when no, or inadequate, acknowledgement is made that this was a big problem, that I feel aggrieved and carry on feeling anxious about the incident.

This is why dogs should always be on a lead in public IMO. Yes your dog is generally well behaved, but there's always a first time...

DS1 is terrified of dogs and I don't blame him. When he was 3, a boxer puppy (bigger than him) bounded out of the woods near where he was playing with his baby brother and had him on his back pinned to the ground before we could get to him. Ok so he was prob never at risk, but it was very distressing for him.

The owner did appologise, but said "he's only a pup", as if being flattened by an animal larger than you was Ok, provided it was a baby.

You really should have taken the dog up to the woman and introduced her to her, let her know there was nothing to worried about, by acting strange i.e. dragging her away from the ''danger'' she'll only think there was actually something to be worried about! Not criticising, just my 2c.