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?

PM me and I'll give you the number of my local nick. I don't have a crime number I'm afraid but I'm sure if you present your evidence, they'd be really pleased to talk to you.

I think that you are spot on there Thecursedone, it probably was doggy hate.
You only have to look at some of the comments on any thread about dogs to know that some people utterly hate them, I think a klaxon goes off.
It's often the same posters.

Humans are the most destructive and cruel species that seem intent on destroying the planet but unfortunately some special snowflakes think it's all about the dogs.

Yes, she was so shaken that she went back to the scene of the crime.

In my area a family were issued with a control order because their off lead dog playfully approached a child with ASD who was afraid of dogs. In running away from the dog, he tripped and grazed his knee. The distress he felt and the injury from his fall was enough in this case.

The family were devastated and felt it was a huge overreaction, which may not have helped their case when they were approached by the police.

dodo now that's a def attack! Your poor dh!
ihappy feel really bad for your you. That mom just sounds vindictive
another yep this will def turn into a bashing

I don't blame her in the slightest - she has done the right thing. How can it be acceptable that someone has been hurt by an animal in your care? You have to make sure that this never ever happens again. If it had been a child we could be looking at something far more serious.

Do not treat this lightly, as others seem to be suggesting - she is not a silly woman. She has been attacked and it is your fault.

All dogs are capable of aggression given the right circumstances. If the dog does it again you could be looking at having it put down. Better than having an injured child on your conscience. Imagine a wee child with a face scarred for life - how would you feel?

You must take this very seriously.

Dear me! What IS going on now? This is bonkers

FFS she wasn't attacked.

Do you really think the police would have just called me and had a 2 minute chat if they thought my dog was aggressive and a danger to children?

Christ.

You do not have the right to allow your dog to hurt anyone. You have an absolute duty not to allow this to happen. As I said - if the scratch had been on a child's face it could have caused a permanent scar. That is not dramatic; it is fact. I ask again - how would you feel if your dog were to do that? You must take this seriously - it is a wake-up call and you need to take the right steps to prevent such a thing happening again.

Blossom - you might want to take a nice, soothing breath and RTFT before getting your knickers in such a twist.

The OP has already taken steps including a dog behaviourist and nobody is permanently scarred from a small scratch measuring less than a centimetre.

I like dogs, we used to have a couple on the farm when I was growing up but in the circumstances you described I don't think the actions of the woman in question are unreasonable including letting you know so you wouldn't be receive a call out of the blue. I presume she was a stranger so didn't have your number to call you? I think that was quite a considerate thing to do. I'm not afraid if dogs but if I was walking a dark road and a growling dog jumped up at me and managed to puncture my skin I'd be considering doing the same.

I'm surprised at the responses saying that she is being ridiculous and brushing it off because the dog was startled (not you, OP), I don't know anyone who has dogs who would be as dismissive as that. I think getting gates fitted if you can could be a good option.

OK Geretrude whatever you say. I am just bemused that you would accuse a random stranger of lying because you cannot accept that your dog was aggressive. Probably in much the same way that you would accuse another stranger on the internet of being 'unhinged' because I don't agree with you .

If a dog had jumped up at me and bit me, causing me to need a tetanus shot, when I was just walking down the street minding my own business, and then the owner took to the internet accusing me of lying about being bitten because her cute little doggy just would never do such a thing, I would know which one of us was 'unhinged'.

He didn't docking bite her you loon spud

My phone is stupidly prudish about swearing.

Let's try that again. He didn't fucking bite her you loon spud

Dogs and dog haters are just never going to hit it off.

Geretrude. Love love love your squeaky clean autocorrect...

I don't know any dog haters. I know a few who are scared of dogs, generally due to being jumped on overzealously or chased at an impressionable age, sometimes hurt. I really don't understand the posts that are dismissive and discounting what happened as the woman's fault for startling the dog when she did nothing but walk along a pavement.

Oh there are Eddie, lots on MN. I AS them when I am bored and see them post repeatedly on dog threads, some do cats too, just to balance out the species hate.

I loved dogs when I was little - in the 70s. We were at the fruit stall in the market one Saturday morning and I think I went to stroke a dog - probably - I always did. I must have been tiny as don't remember the dog being that big but it bit me on the face. Parents made me walk about a blimmin mile to nana's where it was bathed in Dettol. Don't remember looking in mirror but think there was blood.
Didn't put me off dogs. Still love them. NOTHING at all was done. Don't even remember them talking to owner. Don't either remember them teaching me not to talk to strange dogs. Didn't learn my lesson either. Remember getting bitten by a misleadingly lovely-looking blimmin Andrex puppy tied up outside the card shop when I was in my teens when I tried to be-friend it.

Im crying at the comedy boobs

After reading some of the completely frigging batshit comments on the latter part of this thread, I think it's time they had another airing.

Sometimes a massive pair of golden tits can speak a thousand words.

Mn is full of dog haters.
There's a thread either bashing dogs or cats every month.

How did this go from the dog scratching her to the dog attacking her?
Pretty sure the police would have been round if that had been the case
( and the woman would have had more than the tiny little less than 1cm mark )