I am shaking with frustration (and a twist of anger mixed in too)!

Wednesday morning, last week, I took Ozzy for his usual walk. Let him off the lead and off he trot. Ahead were 4 people and their little dogs. Oz hesitated when he saw them, I called "Halt!" (he did) followed by "Leave!".
In the meantime, King Yappy of Small Dog Yappiness decided he was going to give Oz what for! Unfortunatey, Oz wasn't going to listen to King Yap giving him what for and barked back, so I sped up and I continued to command "LEAVE IT!". King Yap kept lunging forward, yapping and growling at Ozzy.
Owner of King Yap said nothing to his dog (no command; nothing!) then he suddenly yanked King Yap up into the air by its lead and collar shouting: "Get away you horrible thing!" By this time I was there, took hold of Ozzy's collar, commanded him to sit (he did) and wait (he did) and made myself a barrier between Oz, King Yap/owner and the other 3 people there. I looked at the 3 women who were waiting to pass and said: "He won't hurt you, he's just responding to being barked at". One of them replied, "We can see that" and yet another said, "No worries" and they passed by without any incident.

Fast forward to now, I'm just stepping out of my gully with Ozzy. He see's two dogs opposite and barks; he's eager for a walk and a play. I pull him back and make him sit (we have no pavement). He sits.
Postie comes down our steps and I (jokingly!) say: "We've taken precautions to save your fingers" (Put up an outside mail box after a news item last week). Postie chuckles.

Then, out of nowhere, a bloke appears opposite and walking towards me. "Your dog bit me last week"
"Excuse me?"
"Up on the field - when he clenched my arm in his jaw!"

"Er, he did not!"
"Yes he did, look .... That was a big bruise last week ... "

"... he should be on a lead: his size"
"What's size got to do with anything? It was your dog in his face he was reacting to!"
"You're lucky I haven't reported him"
"For what!?? I had my eye on him the whole time and at no time did he grip your arm! It was your dog being aggressive."
"He drew blood. Doesn't matter whose fault it was."
"Hang on: do you take your dog to obedience class, because you never gave your dog one command. No 'leave', no 'wait/sit/stay'. nothing!"
"That's got nothing to do with it. Now shut up or I'll report your dog"
"Report him then"!

I turned around and walked back down my gully to home.

I am livid!

Clearly inconceivable to him that it may have been *his* dog - with paws flaying in the air having been picked up by its lead and collar - that caused him any injury.

And why approach me, out of nowhere, to have a go? Bit like his comment "Get away you horrible thing" .. that could only have been for my benefit (seeing as Oz isn't fluent in English). Why so antagonistic?

Yes, I have a big dog. Yes, he does bark - particularly when another dog is showing aggression towards him.

But this whole concept that simply because my dog is large and another person's dog is small ergo the large dog is at fault is really, no really disrupting my equilibrium! And to be threatened with being reported ... is just the proverbial straw!!

Or, maybe, I'm the one at fault here and I'm too far up my own to see it? In which case, feel free to enlighten me.

Crikey I'm worried about taking him out now - how on earth do I defend him against such accusations? I *know* Oz didn't touch him, but, Mr Numpty is showing off a pink spot on his arm stating that Oz did. Oz could be put down through someone's lies like that

 

that is so frustrating M

My mum never lets her labs off the lead now because of dog owners like this. Her one lab Lucy who was fine socially up until 2 years old but now she's fine with some dogs but is scared of others so mum keeps her on a lead because she tends to make a lot of noise and does an impression of a pitbull about to fight but has never ever bit anyone or any dog its just all show until she calms down and feels alright.

Most dog owners are fine with this and they say oh stop being silly to her etc or they just ignore her. Some dog owners kick up a fuss and say she should have a muzzle on and not be allowed out and threaten reporting etc.

So my mum now never lets them off the lead. only walks them when no dogs are around to avoid those owners

whats worst tho is dog owners who have their dogs off the lead and their dog comes running over to Lucy and lucy is getting wound up and my mum is trying to calm her down and they don't do anything.

They don't call their dog back even when my mum is shouting at them to and of course once lucy is kicking off the other Lab Tia tends to get vocal two so my mum is trying to calm them down with what is normally a small yappy dog bouncing around them with the owner on the other side of the grass area doing nothing.

Its really frustrating. So i completely feel for you in this situation

 

Since you say you had your eye on your dog the whole time, it seems evident that this man is lying. Were there any witnesses at the time? The onus is on him to prove what he says! It does feel a bit like you are being bullied. If I were in your predicament I would try (surreptitiously) to find out more about this man....could be useful for future ammunition. It crossed my mind that he might know the others you spoke of (re. king yappy). Is it possible for you to take the dog to another place?

You have my sympathy. A quote comes to mind
"nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission" (Eleanor Roosevelt).

Empower yourself!

 

this is hellish for you @"M". I have this feeling of dread that like so many things we'll go the way of The US. Certainly in Texas you can't have your dog off the lead anywhere other than dog walking parks. Sh1t holes the size of about 1/2 a football pitch (the ones I've been in anyway) with literally 100s of dogs, many far far too young to even be let outside far less being around other dogs. Rosebay is quite correct that the man would need to prove/have a witness but still a horrid thing to happen. I do see more and more people walking their dogs with muzzles on. Perhaps to stop false injury claims? Whether a muzzle would upset a dog greatly I don't know but suppose it might be a fairly grim solution and to my mind better than having to keep your dog on a lead at all times.

 

There were witnesses to this - the women who walked passed. They could see that Oz was harmless. What a horrible man. He didn't report Oz because he knows he's lying and there were witnesses too. I'm sorry you've experienced this....I'd be angry too.

 

No @"M" you are not at fault, he is. Agree with Rosebay that the man is a bully and a liar and I think you and Oz handled the situation really well. I'm betting he won't report you, either. I hope it doesn't spoil future walks with your gorgeous boy.

 

Watch out for the No win No fee people,@"M"

Very hard indeed, we know from our hasle's 18/20 years worth, there are people that do things just to have a go to make lots of hasle

 

Ok, so take a deep breath, and look at the "man"s comments again.....

"A big bruise last week" - it takes 2-3 days for a bruise to come up, and then at least 7 days for it to do down again.
"He drew blood" - for a dog bite to be hard enough to break the skin, there would definitely be very pronounced bruising still present. Also, the puncture wound / skin tear would be still very pronounced, probably red and swollen, just a week later. Dog bites do not heal well...

So, not only do you know that your dog did not bite, as you were there taking all the appropriate action, anyone taking an incident report would know that the man is lying too.

The man, like his yappy dog, is a bully.

... And breathe...

ALL dogs can bite. Those whose work takes them into contact with "loose" dogs (posties, GPs, etc) know that a small dog is probably more likely to bite than a large one. Therefore, all dog owners are responsible for keeping their animals under control.
(Wish I could get this through to the guy who I regularly meet with his ShiTsus - though I normally put different emphasis on the syllables - who "controls" his yappers by putting one under each arm. He has 3 dogs, so the third has to be boot-dribbled past mine - and he wonders why they are aggressive!?)

...and breathe ...

You have a king-sized bully threatening you, so use your brains, and good manners, and good will. If you see any of the other three witnesses, don't hold back. Put Ozzy in a sit-stay, and go over to them and ask for contact details, because of this threat. Do the same with your postie (just in case it's your luck to have a substitute postie on the rounds when you need to contact him!)

I'm not up to date with UK law, as I know it has changed since I last lived there. But then again, nor is your bully, from what I can gather.

Meanwhile, if you haven't already done so, get hand signals (as subtle as you can) for all of your basic commands for Ozzy. He will love it, once he gets the idea. Dogs love us talking dog, ie body-language, rather than "shouting" verbal commands at them - think how silent dogs are when going about day-to-day things? They are only vocal when highly excited.... The advantage of hand-signals are that if there is a lot of distraction, shouting, etc, you still have full control of your dog. For your personal confidence, I would also work on a "speak" command. One bark for a single hand-cue, continuous barks for a repeated hand-cue, with again a hand-cue for stop. Normally, I would say use a subtle signal for the cue, but in this instance, the stop cue would have more need to be subtle than the bark cue.

Sorry, slipped into trainer-mode. I'll go get my coat!

 

I can just say that many don't know how to deal with their own dog (I am a good example of that) or some social-dogs-situation they may find themselves in, for a variety of reasons. It is easy to panick and say the wrong thing...

 

It just occurred to me.....why didn't the man approach you at the time about what your dog supposedly did? He would have to have an answer to that....and a convincing one too!

 

We have a name for such idiots down here. Its called pillock.

Try to take no notice the bloke is clearly crackers..

PS. we have other names too but I might get banned...

 

@"M" I sympathise with you and Oz.
I used to do quite a bit of running and was chased more often by smaller dogs ( Yorkshire Terriers in the main) than big ones. Generally the small dogs owner would shout at me to stop running. In my experience larger dogs are better trained than smaller ones, perhaps because you cannot pick them up out of harms way.

 

@M I and I am sure all other sensible dog owners sympathise, I am sure we have all been in similar situations, or been confronted by an irate owner of a yappie/unruly dog who blames you for their inadequacies, I can recall at least 3 occurences in the last year.
You took the trouble to train Ozzie as soon as you had him, if you have the bad luck to see this person again, I would put Ozz in the sitting position and just wait for him to pass.

 

Thank you - very much - for your thoughts, support and kindly advice (I've calmed down a bit now ).

I've taken it all on board

 

...I can fully understand your frustrations and worries.The size of Ozzy ,if he had of bitten the man I'm sure he would have known about it at the time .It's such a shame how the bigger dog always seems to get the blame.My two although nowhere near as big as Oz encountered a similar situation with another dog, a small terrier.It was Archi that had a go back.When the owner of the terrier sounded off at me for having a 'vicious' dog I was petrified at the repercussions .I tried to explain that any dog no matter how 'friendly' they are will only stand another dog with it's jaws wrapped round anothers throat for so long .Luckily it all blew over and neither suffered any physical injury now my two only get let off the lead when I can see there is nothing in sight as far as the eye can see.It has sadly become a torture taking them out at times,it's the owners that are the problem not the dogs.