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?

If you are walking along a pavement after dark and you are about to pass a driveway, why on earth should you have to randomly cough on the offchance that someone is getting a dog out of a car? The OP doesn't say anything about the dog making a noise before then and if the dog couldn't see the woman in advance (so was startled), how could the woman see the dog? In any case, she might have been wearing headphones - would this be a reason for a dog to jump at her on the pavement growling? If this happened to me and the owner tried to tell me it was my fault for startling the dog I'd think they were completely irresponsible (and yes, batshit). The OP doesn't seem to be any of those things and only mentioned the part about the dog getting a fright as an explanation not a justification so I don't see why she is getting a hard time over something she didn't say.

Dogs need to be under control in public places at all times.

Sometimes that doesn't happen because everyone is human and makes mistakes. But it is not up to random members if the public to take evasive action such as coughing randomly in the dark (as if that would help!) when they're walking along minding their own business in a public place

Nothing constructive to add but op you have a beautiful dog.

This thread has certainly gone the way i said it would.
cursed why are you calling people names? You can get your opinion across with out calling people twats

This thread is completely nuts. Laughed my arse off at some of the posts though. Terrifying? Seriously?! I think living in Syria must be terrifying. If she's that scared of a Boston terrier she shouldn't walk on her own in the dark.

As for reporting a tiny scratch to the police, she must be incredibly precious and overly dramatic but more likely i reckon she's one of these sue everyone at the drop of a hat, compensation seeking types. Glad you're taking your dog to a behaviourist though.

Is there any evidence she's looking for compensation?

I know people who would have been really upset by this encounter. They are not precious or dramatic. They are scared of dogs.

If the woman had lashed out in shock (it being dark and a growling dog having jumped up at her) and the dog had been hurt would that have been ok? She was startled after all.

If she had been walking down the street in the dark and a human had sworn at her and hit her hard enough to bruise, then would it have been ok for her to have been frightened? If it had been an urban fox instead of a dog? How about a cat hissing, jumping and scratching? If she'd been walking along the pavement and a cyclist didn't see her and banged into her leaving a small scratch? A six year old speeding on a scooter?

People should be able to walk down the street without being leapt on and injured, and I think it's perfectly reasonable of them to feel frightened and angry if this does happen.

Let's remind ourselves that this is a Boston terrier we are talking about.
They are about as scary as ice cream.

Let's remind ourselves that this is a Boston terrier we are talking about.
They are about as scary as ice cream

That's not the point. It was sudden and she wasn't expecting it.

DP used to be a policeman.

I asked his opinion about this thread and how he would have felt about having to deal with a complaint about a dog scratch.

Let's just say he wouldn't have been mightily impressed

Oh really? No confirmation bias there, I'm sure

The dog was out of control in a public place. The woman was quite entitled to call the police, if she chose. I was listening to Bernard Hogan-Howell recently and he was labouring the point that the police have to have a total mindset shift so there is zero victim blaming, whatever the crime. It's accepted by the OP that her dog did jump up on the pedestrian and did leave a mark on her hand - although it's disputed how that happened (i.e. was it a bite or a scratch).

All this projection on to the victim minimising what happened/ridiculing her/blaming her for not coughing loudly, it's appalling actually and if that is the general attitude of the police then you can quite see how the whole mess regarding sexual assaults/rape occurs when that's extrapolated up. The subtext here is that, really this woman shouldn't even be out at night. She should stay at home to minimise her risk of coming into contact with the OP'/ dog. Bit like all those silly German women who wouldn't have been mass sexually assaulted if they'd only had the decency to stay at home. How dare they be out wandering the streets.

The role of the police is to objectively investigate whether a crime has happened. Whatever that is.

Just put your dog on a bloody lead OP and hold it yourself when you're out in public.

I think the growling is fairly important. Wouldn't most of you be scared of a growling dog, regardless of size jumping on you? I carry a bag of chicken on me when I'm out with my dog so I get jumped on multiple times a day. However, there's a big difference between a sniffy, excited, "Oooh, you have chicken!" jumping, and a growling dog jumping on you.

I think she's overreacting if she reports a small scratch, but I'd find a growling jumping dog frightening and I'm not scared of dogs.

Yeah, he would have dealt with it professionally. He knew his role, thanks. I asked how he would have felt about it.

And no, no confirmation bias. I asked neutrally, to get an idea of whether I was being unreasonable because I like dogs. And he answered honestly, because he's an intelligent adult who treats me like an intelligent adult.

I find the fact that you are extrapolating my ex-police officer partner's reaction to hypothetically having to respond to a complaint of a dog scratch up into the abhorrent rape-apologist culture we live in absolutely ridiculous and very offensive, Gobbolino.

This is getting silly now- the police are chronically under-resourced. The number of assaults and robberies going uninvestigated and unprosecuted because there simply isn't the time, funding or manpower is very high. Police time has been wasted on a smaller than 1cm scratch and the people who think that is daft are in the wrong?!

I find your post and the fact that you seem to suggest that the police only take "serious" crimes as self-defined randomly by them very offensive and worrying too. It's that culture that they and the CPS are working hard to try and change.

The point is that police time is only being wasted because the OP didn't keep her dog under control. Look at the root cause.

"The subtext is that the woman shouldn't have been out at night?"

What the fuckity fuck? It was 4.45 in the afternoon! Christ, the level of batshittery on this thread has reached dizzying heights overnight.

FYI the dog was on a lead. A very short (1.2m) fixed lead.

I reported someone a few months ago. Part of our school run involves us walking through the woods. This dog came out of nowhere and jumped up, scratched and nipped my DS. Thankfully he was wrapped up to the nines and it didn't break his skin. When I eventually found the owner, I told him what had happened, he looked down his nose at me and replied "My dog doesn't bite" and walked off. No apology or nothing

It's a major school run route used by two schools and pkaygroups and my reason for reporting it was my concern if the dog jumped up a pram the baby wouldn't have got off so lightly as my DS managed to.

It sounds like you're doing the right thing about the behaviourist OP. I don't think the woman was in the wrong to be honest. (but I definitely wouldn't have gone round to a house where a dog had hurt me after the event!). Your dog just sounds like he wwe being protective / something startled him but nevertheless you're doing the right thing.

Gobbolino - where did I say he wouldn't have treated it seriously?

He would have gone through correct procedure while not being mightily impressed that he was having to do so.

And the dog was on a lead.

AwaywiththePixies - I would have reported that too. It's an unprovoked attack on a child.

This was a warning - the woman was suddenly too close as far as my dog was concerned and he was spooked. It's a bit like a horse rearing.

It's really not the same thing at all.