Owner of mean, muzzled dog threatened to let her dog loose on my puppy/me. Do I report her to the police?

[ItsMeAndMyPuppyNow]

About an hour ago. The situation went like this:

Puppy runs up to 3 dogs. The owner of a large leashed, muzzled dog shouts out for me to attach my puppy. I call my puppy but she keeps running (she usually has very good recall, but this time the excitement of seeing other dogs wins). Puppy rolls on her back in greeting (always very submissive). Muzzled dog sniffs, then lunges. Big friendly boxer dog intervenes to shepherd puppy away from mean dog. Puppy hurtles back to me. No harm, not even a huge fright.

Owner of muzzled dog, acting cross with me, says: "I can't always hold her. You've got to keep your dog attached."

Owner of friendly boxer dog says: "It's true, she's very mean and [owner] has a lot of trouble with her. She can be dangerous; [owner] is forced to keep her muzzled and leashed at all times."

I say: "If your dog is mean and you can't hold her, then go somewhere else where there are no dogs and no people."

Owner of muzzled dog says: "Next time I'll set her loose, just wait and see."

She grumbles some more and leaves with her 2 dogs. Me and the owner of the boxer remain; boxer's owner makes excuses for muzzled dog's owner: "Well, she has to be able to walk her somewhere."

I realise about 2 minutes too late that my puppy (or me? not clear) have just been threatened with physical aggression.

I am very angry at having been threatened with physical harm.

I am also pretty concerned that a mean dog has an (aggressive) owner who by her own admission does not consider herself capable of controlling her dog. It's not the dog's fault, but with her character, and the owner she has, this sounds like an accident waiting to happen.

Do I tell the police? I suspect she may be known to them, since it is likely that the dog is kept muzzled by some kind of official decree rather than by the owner's choice. But I have some trepidations: muzzled dog's owner does not seem terribly reasonable and might up the ante on her aggressiveness towards me and/or my puppy. On the other hand, since leaving an abusive marriage I am developing a zero tolerance approach to threats from bullies.

I am not in the UK, btw, so there is no such thing as dog wardens or the like here.

Anyway, thanks all. I feel better informed and this issue is more settled in my mind now.

No reporting, but if the dog or her owner give me cause for concern again I will.

Puppy will have her recall reinforced. I may have been resting on her laurels.

And if ever I have cause to interact with this woman again, I will tell her that her threat of mauling was unacceptable.

good for you, think thats a good idea that you tell the woman that.

and dont worry, dogs have a habit of proving you to be a liar one of my dogs is scared of men, cue a complete stranger wanting to stroke him, me saying o he is scared of men, and my dog laps up all the attention from stranger (male), who looks at me like [sceptical]

Thank you chick, for the kind words.

I have a dog who still has issues with figuring out small dogs are dogs... and she wears a muzzle (and I did rip the idiot who started shouting about the "that doggy's nasty"'s head off today over it). She's on lead, she's muzzled - I do not under any circumstances want a small dog running around her ankles because that will wind her up and she may be likely to lean forward to try to "bite" it (she's got no front teeth and it's only ever likely to actually be a lick - but hey let's judge her since she must be muzzled for aggression).

And I get repeated walks ruined by people letting their puppies charge around her and get her all excited - all the time and money of dog classes so she can learn to meet other dogs calmly (and figure out they're actually dogs) goes to waste when this happens - because she responds so heavily to small things moving quickly like she's been bred to do.

Catch me on a bad day and I'm very likely to snap and threaten to turn her loose - particularly if I've had an hour of people being hysterical judgemental morons because she happens to wear a cage on her face. It gets a collossal pain in the arse when people constantly do it - like I say - I'm spending a tonne on dog classes and training and what not to get her properly socialised - and when you've spent 7 years of your life only seeing the same breed of dog as you - it's quite a big leap to figure out that the other things with legs and tails are dogs as well... and then the puppy chasey chasey brigade... drive me nuts.

Good general rule - dog on lead = doesn't want to be bothered for whatever reason.

It's me I am not a dog expert but I just want to say that I really admire your clarity in recognising bullying language. That sounds like very hard won experience!
I would choose a different park and just go in the opposite direction from this dog/owner if ever I saw them. I have learned that dogs on leads can get very edgey if greeted by a non leashed dog.

Agreeing with Deja - sounds like the kind of thing I'd say when narked to death with off lead, out of control dogs approaching my on-lead, in-training dogs while the owner is flapping about trying to get them back and winding my dogs up in the process.

The dog was on a lead and muzzled, yours was loose and not under close control. Avoid them in the future by all means but I think you were the one in the wrong.

It's really bad dog walking ettiquette to ever let your dog approach any on lead dog, although this is something many dog owners seem to either now know or ignore. Dogs may be on lead for all sorts of reasons, but those reasons may be that it is aggressive with other people or dogs.

I own a dog aggressive dog. He's not that big, but he is powerful and he could do damage easily if he felt the need to. I've been working on his problems for a long time and have just seen a (second, first was useless) behaviourist so I can progress further with him. We have agreed on him wearing a muzzle in public, partly because it may encourage other dog owners to keep their dogs away from him, partly because it may help me relax a little more and partly because it's a 'failsafe' in that if he ever does get away from me (which is extremely unlikely, but you just never know) then it makes him biting another dog much, much less likely.

If another owner let their dog come up to mine whilst I was walking him, it would really set our training back, it would put my dog under stress and the other dog in danger. I would be absolutely furious and my response to the dog's owner is likely to be extremely heated, although I would never, ever threaten that I would deliberately allow my dog to harm any other dog.

Also, my dog isn't 'mean', he is frightened, although it may well not look like that. It is not his fault and it can be worked on and he needs to be walked, obviously in a safe way, which we are doing. For all you know, this dog's owner could be a similar position and it does seem like she's behaving responsibly by keeping on lead and muzzled. I don't think you need to report her.

i have been where yu are, and understand you are annoyed.

however, you and your pup were in the wrong here.

ralph is now 17months old, and still not got 100% recall when other dogs are about. so he doesnt go off-lead in public spaces. if he got free and wound up a muzzled dog i would expect an eare bashing from the other dogs owner.

with regards to what other walkers say about the woman not having control, dont listen to gossip. if she was walking the muzzled dog with another dog, she very likely does have control.

people ask why ralph is muzzled (he isnt, he wears a halti), and ask if he is dangerous or not friendly. the only issue ralph has he is over friendly and likely to paw too heavily (he paws everything like a cat does), especially where small dogs are concerned.

Op you learn by experience and many of us new puppy owners learn by coming across owners like this .

She was wrong to threaten you but also you were wrong to let puppy go up to dog on lead - easier said than done I know but both you and your puppy will learn through incidents like this.

I must say that having been in your shoes about a year ago - I have recetnly been on the 'other side' and have had to keep our lab on lead - she had an op and had the big lampshade on - perhaps a hint to other dogs walkers there to keep their dogs away ? But no - but hey ho - the joys of dog walking .