My dog has just been accused of attacking another dog.

[Frequency]

He didn't. I was there. My dog did nothing wrong. It was the other owners.

I have an old, grumpy, rickety cross breed. He's small, he comes up to mid calf. He's never been very tolerant of puppies but in his old age, his tolerance has lowered.

We were walking at a local park when a tiny chihuahua pup charged at us. My dog was on leash. It started play snapping at him and literally jumping all over him. I put my dog in a sit and scanned about for the owners. Eventually, just as I'd decided to pick the pup up and take it home to call the dog warden, a pair of young girls (16-17 ish) came into sight. I yelled at them that my dog wasn't friendly and asked them to bring theirs under control. They spent the next few minutes slowly strolling towards me, half heartedly calling the pup's name. The pup didn't respond at all.

When they reached us, they walked past! Still calling the pup's name. By this point my dog had had enough, I'd had enough. I yelled some choice words at them, pulled my dog's lead tight to my leg and gave him the heel command. We walked off. I don't know if my dog stood on or snapped at the pup as went to walk off or if I clipped it with my foot accidentally but the thing squealed as though it had been dipped in boiling tar and raced back to the girls. There wasn't a mark on it from what I could see.

The girls then started ranting at me that my dog had 'savaged' theirs and was 'out of control' and 'should be muzzled' and 'should not be allowed out in public'. They demanded my pet insurance details, name and address Somehow, I managed to remain calm, gave them my phone number and name and walked off. We've just got back. My dog is fine.

I'm still a bit shaken. I'm not worried about police reprisals, there were witnesses, though I didn't take their names, I'm sure I could find them on Facebook and their dog was not injured from what I could see. There was no blood. I'm just shaken and wanted to get it all out to people who would understand.

I don't have any advice but hopefully this will bump it for those who are knowledgable about this situation.
I have a bit of a grumpy dog and get so pissed off with all the 'oh it's ok theyre friendly' dogs coming up to him. People have no respect at all. I hope you are feeling less shaken .

I lost a bit of sympathy when you said you may have ‘clipped’ it with your foot or your dog trod on it as it’s hardly the dogs fault that it has crappy owners . However for future ref what I would do is keep on walking and if the offending dog follows you then that’s the owners problem not yours . My dog is not keen on puppies getting in his face so I don’t hang around waiting for trouble and if necessary I pick mine up .

I have a one year old dog and I have always been grateful of owners of dogs like yours (grumpy but harmless dogs) as it is Vital part of a dogs puppy hood to be put in his place, and learn that not all dogs want to play.

You'd think my dog was being murdered the way he squeals!!!

If your dog was on its lead and theirs wasn’t I very much doubt you could be held responsible even if it was seriously injured ( which it doesn’t sound like it was )

As an owner of a dog reactive dog your story is so so familiar to me! But, be assured they are the ones at blame for having an off lead out of control animal.

My story from a similar incident is my medium sized rescue mutt is always walked on lead because she hates dogs. Small ones are her particular nemesis.

One walk I was on a man came past with about 4 ugly little fluffy things the size of a guinea pig on those horrible stretchy leads. My dog was surprisingly well behaved if a bit twitchy as we walked past until his things launched at her. My girl naturally got on the offensive so I grabbed her harness and collar and straddled her, gripping her with my knees to get a better hold to prevent her lurching off and causing damage. Meanwhile I'm firmly asking him to recall his tribbles and saying please for the love of fuck walk on as my dog is frozen and won't move. But no he won't do that. He instead smacks my dog on the muzzle and tells her she's a nasty dog who shouldn't be out in public (she's not nasty she's a soppy cow!). I saw red and said "If you don't start fucking well walking I'll let her off the lead and she will have some tasty snacks for her breakfast" funnily enough he soon got walking.

Oh I’m getting the rage reading this post. Why is it that the owners of large dogs seem to have this stigma about them, but it’s always the out of control rat sized fuckers that are treated like a baby, causing issues.

My parents used to have a German Shepherd. One day out walking he was off lead but only walking a few feet in front of me, there was s couple of ladies talking and the dog approached them, sniffed around one side and kept walking. The barrage of abuse I received from one “lady” how the dog was out of control and could have attacked them at any moment. Told her to get a grip and kept waking. Next day, I was leaving parents house to go to work and walked to bus stop, passed a house and some horrible yapping Yorkshire Terrier thing comes bolting out of this garden, grabbed my trousers and was going ape shit. Ripped a hole in my trousers and I couldn’t get it off so I kicked the little fucker off causing it to yelp. Low and behold the stupid woman from the day before comes running out the house crying that I’d hurt her precious baby. I could have punched her. Gave her some very choice words about animal control and went round later with the receipt for a new pair of trousers and told her if she didn’t pay for them I’d be phoning the police. Silly bint.

Your dog was on a lead and under control. Not your fault OP.