My dog potentially broke a puppy's leg in the park today...

[LostInTheTriangle]

I have a bouncy yellow Lab who is 2 years old and very friendly. She plays with a number of dogs in our local park, both older and younger, without problems.

However, this morning during her walk, we met a 16 week Husky cross puppy who fell awkwardly when they were playing. Both dogs were off-lead. The Husky immediately cried and continued crying (it was awful) as his owner left the park to take him to the vets.

The owner acknowledged in the presence of other walkers that it had been an accident, but was understandably upset and cross with me. She asked for my number and called earlier this afternoon to tell me that the leg is either fractured or broken and that she would be in touch.

I feel sick for the poor puppy and the inconvenience and stress this has caused the owner.

Does anyone have experience of this happening/ what is normal re: paying her vet's bill in this instance? Our third party liability insurance has a £250 excess. What if she is uninsured? Do I pay the total bill? If she's insured should I pay her excess without admitting liability? My insurance company advised me to not admit liability and see what she says moving forward.

I am so stressed about this. Advice or experiences would be appreciated. It was an accident and my dog did not act at all aggressively. What would you do in my place?

Thanks for reading x

Definitely don't offer to pay anything or agree that you are in any way responsible either for the incident or payment towards her vet bills.

It was an unfortunate accident.

How's it going op?

I'm on the fence without more information.

Was your dog and puppy playing along happily for a while before the accident and the owner was not objecting to them playing together. Absolutely not your fault.

Or did your huge dog run up and jump on the tiny puppy who was close to his owner before the owner knew what was happening and the accident happened then. In this instance, I would have recalled my dog and checked with the puppy owner it was ok for them to play first and would feel at least partially responsible for the injury.

I haven't heard anything yet today. Thanks again to those who have responded, it is helpful to canvass opinions.

I feel guilty because as Wings suggested, the puppy was playing with another dog near its owner and my (26kg lean) Lab bounded over to join in (but in no way jumped on the other dog).

Clearly, the Husky was the baby of the two and his injury happened in seconds, before the dogs had even begun proper play. It really was one of those awkward falls and I would have recalled my dog at once, if the play looked like it was getting out of hand.

It's a small park and all the dog owners know each other. It was essentially my dog that caused the injury, hence why I felt it wouldn't be unreasonable for me to pay her excess, but I'll have to wait and see if/when she gets back in contact.

My insurance company seemed to suggest if I pursued a third party claim, it would be down to the underwriters to decide if my insurance would pay up. I think in these dog/dog instances it is up to the person affected to claim on their insurance.

Hope as Chainsaw suggested the puppy heals quickly. And of course, JKramer, if she had been roughing the other dog up, I would have called her back. As for attacking another dog, this has never happened, but I would pay a vet bill if my dog did this.

Same happened with our pom when he 16 weeks on his second ever walk. Got jumped on by a boisterous boxer.

Was just an unfortunate accident and we have never have blamed the other owner despite not being insured at the time. (We were right in the middle of the end of the free insurance from the breeder and "I'll sort that insurance out in a bit" - nice expensive bit of procrastination.)

If your dog attacked the other then you would have an obligation but that's not what happened.
When I had my dog he was playing with another one mine did a bit of a spin round and his cruciate snapped other owner mortified but as I said it was a bit of play just one of those things.