Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
The doghouse

If you're worried about your pet's health, please speak to a vet or qualified professional.

Original poster

Idiot dog owner caused accident

26 replies

ClapperHam · 16/08/2025 14:27

Why oh why do people have giant breed dogs when they can’t control them?
This isn’t a giant breed criticism thread, my lab has a couple of huge friends that are beautifully behaved.
There is a lady in our village who has a huge shaggy thing that has become a bit of a standing joke, people comment and look in askance when they see her. She’s a tiny dot of a thing wrestling an out of control monster, it has to be seen to be believed and anyone who tries to help or offer advice gets given short shift.
Today it slipped its collar, ran into the road, and caused a driver to mount the kerb and hit a bin. The poor young girl was heartbroken, she’s a relatively new driver but her reaction saved a very nasty accident. She of course is blaming herself and was dreading telling her mum whose car she was driving.
The dog owner was full of excuses as to how she was struggling to train the dog as if she was the one who deserved sympathy!!
I really don’t understand people who have dogs that they are incapable of controlling.
A few passers by have given their contact details to the driver, but I have no idea what the outcome will be.
Has anyone been in a similar situation? The car was quite badly damaged.

OP posts:
JohnofWessex · 17/08/2025 13:56

Exhaustedonallfronts · 17/08/2025 10:03

I think that perhaps previous issues with this dog being badly trained, exacerbated by the fact it’s very large, probably coloured the language the first post.

The slipping of the collar can happen to any size, and there but for the grace of god etc…

But you do have my sympathies. There is a dog locally that I feel similarly about. Some sort of v large mastiff cross. Dog aggressive, poorly trained and handled by a slight woman who struggles to contain it. I was nearly involved in an accident caused by them a few months ago.

I was walking along the pavement with my dog (30kg show bred lab- so not a small dog, but she looked tiny in comparison, it is several inches taller than her and very stocky). We walked past their house, on a loose lead completely under control, minding our own business, with my 8 year old son with us. We didn’t initially see them until the owner gave a startled scream as her dog lunged at us. The other dog saw us and started barking aggressively and was dragging its female owner towards us. It shot forward so quickly that her female friend also grabbed its lead to try and stop it/slow it down, and it continued to drag them down the short path and onto the pavement. My dog, child and I had to lurch sideways into the middle of the road to get out of its path, the two women still attached and ‘skiing’ behind it until they managed to stop it on the public pavement.

It was really pretty scary and if there had been a car coming there would have been a nasty accident. Yes, the issue with the dog was it was not under control/poorly trained, But if it had been a cocker spaniel it wouldn’t have been able to get so close as the petite adult woman would not have been dragged over.

I was really quite shaken up after and would have probably called it a monster too. So sorry @ClapperHam , I can understand why you might have sounded anti large dog, because you were shaken up.

There are a family of dashunds that also live in the village and equally go bonkers at the sight of other dogs, aggressively barking and straining at their leads to get to any other dogs. Evidently they have the same issues as the mastiff type dog, but they are less of a public menace as even the four of them all going for it are not enough to pull their male owner over, their smaller size means that he is not at risk of being pulled over.

I hope the young driver is ok and the police sort the matter.

Have you reported the incident to The Police & the Dog Warden as the animal is clearly not under proper control in a public place?

But yes size is a real issue with badly behaved dogs, it should also of course be very obvious to the owner in a way it might not be with a small dog

New posts on this thread. Refresh page