My dog jumped up at a woman yesterday and scratched her and she's reported him :(

[Geretrude]

I have an 18 month old Boston terrier. He is very loving and sweet natured normally - no aggression at all. Yesterday when we got home in the dark, we got out of the car and my DS was holding his lead and a woman was walking past the end of the drive as DS came out with the dog. For some reason, he growled at the woman and jumped up at her. I grabbed his lead, pulled him away and apologised profusely.

She's just come round and shown me a scratch on her hand which she said is a bite (it isn't - it's his claw), she's had to have a tetanus shot and that she has reported him.

I've spoken to a friend who is a dog trainer and asked her to recommend a local behaviouralist because obviously this is awful and I need to stop him doing it. I think he was frightened of her but that doesn't make it okay.

But fucking hell :( What's going to happen now?

Yes, if a dog growled at me, jumped at me and broke my skin, I would report. The growling is important, I think- this was not a friendly jump up, was it? The dog probably got scared and reacted because of that, but the woman wasn't to know that it wasn't an everyday occurence.

Sigh

You could have got your point across just as forcefully by saying "I'm a dumpy, middle aged woman". The colour of your skin should be irrelevant

I am firmly on the side of the OP on the dog issue, but I will point out that it is racial profiling to say that you are unlikely to be the perpetrator of an offence simply due to being white. The implication being that it is more likely that someone who is not white would be a criminal. It's not deliberate racism but it is a bit clumsy to imply that being white should affect whether or not you might have committed an offence.

Thank you for explaining so eloquently Fenea

Fenella

I have basset hounds, 1 of which is a rescue and makes an awful lot of grumbling noises but is soft as shit and a completely useless guard dog. The other immediately rolls on his back around new people and demands tummy rubs. Neither is particularly threatening as you can see

However, the rescue's noises sound an awful lot like growling (he sort of mumbles under his breath and "woofs" but doesnt actually really bark) and he was off lead one day and saw another dog. He started these noises and the woman immediately picked her dog up and screamed at me that my dog was vicious and needed to be kept on the lead... at this point, he was walking to heel with his nose on the back of my knee and my other dog had keeled over ready for his belly rub and looked very miffed that she wasnt obliging. I assured her my dogs weren't vicious and explained that the noises are just a basset thing and she decided to put her dog down.

When she did, her dog ran at my hound on his back, grabbed him by the neck and started shaking him. Luckily, he has a lot of extra skin on his ruff so yelped but wasn't hurt and the other dog immediately backed off when he scrabbled to his feet and donned his angry face (funniest thing you've ever seen, it looks like a scrotum frowning )

She then tried to say that my dog had attacked hers and that she would report them

I told her to crack on, when the police contacted me I'd tell them how her dog had attacked mine and caused injuries... funnily enough I never heard anything....

Lady they're gorgeous! 😍

Not nearly as bloody gorgeous as they were as pups!

lady they're so sweet.
'Looks like a scrotum frowning'

They're beautiful.

I am going to kick myself but I had to comeback and say that the reason I mention the way I look is because I thought the woman that reported me might be racist. I was deliberately stereotyping. Having said that, I can totally see why people read it as they did.

Oh arse that wasn't supposed to post.

Anyway. I'm very sorry for my poor phrasing - it was very badly put and I apologise from the bottom of my heart if I offended anyone. I'd rather people thought I was the owner of a vicious dog than a racist :(

Talking of the vicious dog, everyone I've told about this IRL has laughed. Poor pathetic creature