Off his lead and our 5 month old puppy did his usual ‘all legs and ears’ gambol up to a dog sat about 10ft from it’s owner by some benches.

Owner says ‘She won’t like it’.

My dog gets within striking distance other dog bites his face.

Owner not interested: ‘I warned you’. Refused to give details. ‘She’s a rescue dog and she always does this’ seemed to be the reason it happened. His dog was on one of those thin wire retractable leads. I couldn’t see it in the grass as we approached or I might have called my one back. He made no attempt to pull his dog away before or after.

Now have a £56 vets bill and now we wait to find out if the cuts get infected, one on the side of his mouth has gone right through to the inside.

I’ve got pictures of the owner and dog, video of him admitting it was his dog and refusing to pass on details.

So, what would stw do?

Shit happens, it could be a child’s face next time, your fault for letting the puppy go near it, nuke the owner from orbit?

I guess above all I don’t want him to get nervous of other dogs – he wants to be friends with all of them and it woudl be a shame for him to lose that so young. He’s used to the littler breeds getting a bit snarly on occasion and knows to back off but never had an unprovoked (in any sense of the word other than proximity) attack before.

Shit happens…

[/thread]

I’m a great believer that if you have a dog with a propensity to bite another dog, you should have it muzzled in public.

Doesn’t help you much, sorry.

Write it off, it’s a pretty unusual occurrence in my experience, almost all dogs I meet are friendly to my hound, but if I ever see one on a lead, and have any concerns I’ll put mine on a lead.

ETA: You may find that he now has a bit more respect for other dogs, and in a miserable way might have taught him a lesson.

Uncontrolled dog off lead – your fault.

My biggest gripe with dog owners “My dog’s all right he won’t bite”. Well my dog just might bite yours, so stick your dog on a lead thanks.

Shit happens. Particularly if the other dog was the ‘non-aggressor’, your pup will have learned a valuable lesson to not go charging up to other dogs. It’s how dogs learn.

Report the incident to the local council dog warden.

Put your tax dollars to work.

You should have had your dug under control though…. but if the other guy knew that his mutt had a propensity to bite and did nothing then he’s been a bit naughty.

Not dangerously out of control though – unlike the other dog (for which a lead is no excuse if it doesn’t help with the control).

How do you work that one out?

Puppy training class.

You’ve endangered your young dog by letting it off the lead at a dog you knew to be potentially dangerous?

Sorry but I don’t believe you should let a dog off the lead before it’s properly trained.

It could be a child’s face next time. But it could be your dogs uncontrollable legs scratching the childs face. It might think it’s playing but it still need training.

Sounds like the other owner was a nobber, but it sounds like your dog started it.

oh the myth of pack heirarchy

Old dog sat minding its own business

young dog gets warned off by alpha (owner two)

in real life this is what happens

whilst id be pissed about it, shit happens I’m afraid. and its the only way they’ll learn that not everyone wants to play. hope he heels well.

andybrad – he waited until my dog was about a metre from his dog to say anything, my dog was bitten about a second later, I’m not sure I ignored his warning so much as had no time to process it and react?

fasthaggis – how would puppy training class help? He comes when he’s called.

think this is one of those 6 vs half a dozen things. Normally I’d say the fault lay with the dog off the lead/out of control, but (assuming I’ve read OP right) if the other dog has a habit of snapping/biting then they should be keeping it in check – it could be a child’s face etc etc

theotherjonv » Particularly if the other dog was the ‘non-aggressor’

How do you work that one out?

I don’t know. No, wait, i do. It was from the words in the OP – the bit where he said the other dog was sat by it’s owner by some benches and the pup went running up to it all legs and ears.

If you were that other dog, what would your assessment of the situation be? Wait and see if it’s going to be attacked or issue a pre-emptive **** off nip?

I’ve had dogs, I’ve got a dog, it’s what dogs do. Pup will have learned a valuable lesson, move on.

how would puppy training class help?

Might be ‘puppy fight club’ training. Teach your puppy to hoof the other dog in the slacks maybe?

Hope it heals..

DrP

It’s your dog off the lease, so your responsibility.

Teach your puppy to hoof the other dog in the slacks maybe?

The other dog was wearing slacks?

I presume it was also wearing Hush Puppies?

cheers DrP, he’s only half his fighting weight at the moment – 15.8kg on the vet’s scales – so we have to go easy on the weight training.

So he was sat with his dog on the lead & you let yours run up to it? Plus he warned you?
Suck it up mate, your fault not his. You should have more control over your dog & if you can’t do that with him off the lead, put him on it.
My dog has been attacked in the past and aince that happened can be quite agressive with others. We keep him on the lead around other dogs, still get people like you letting theirs get in his face & then getting upset with us because he snaps at them.

This is where I’m struggling, because he’s not written anything to suggest his dog was being aggressive, whilst the other dog quite clearly was. A pre-emptive nip is the first aggression shown in this situation.

I’d give the poor pup lots of cuddles and keep an eye on his injuries. Dogs on leads tend to behave like people in cars (ie more aggressive than they mean to be) especially around dogs who are off their leads plus it’s normal for an adult dog to take a swipe at a pup – youngsters need to know their place. You were warned and did have a chance to remove him from the situation but he learned his lesson the hard way. Hope he gets better soon.

Off his lead and our 5 month old puppy 15.8kg on the vet’s scales dog did his usual ‘all legs and ears’ gambol up to a dog sat about 10ft from it’s owner by some benches

Doesn’t sound quite as fluffy and harmless now, eh?

So he was sat with his dog on the lead & you let yours run up to it

his dog was some distance away from him and on an essentially invisible lead. If I’d seen the lead then as I’ve said, i would have called mine back.

Learning experience for both of us it seems.

I’m still shocked that someone will sit in a park with about 20 dogs running round, all off the lead, and just expect everyone to know his dog will bite theirs if it gets the chance. He even said ‘she did the same to that one over there but it got away in time’. Hey, ho life goes on.

you’re surprised that some people are a bit stupid?

A pre-emptive nip is the first aggression shown in this situation.

unwanted attention tho innit, a dog or a person for that matter, has no idea whether the OPs dog is gonna just jump about or start nipping/biting.

Quite a few dog owners let their dogs come charging up to you full pelt then sniffing, jumping up and around you etc and pretty much anything that doesn’t include puncturing your skin with their teeth is fine and “He’s only playing the soppy old thing”.

No idea if OP/his puppy is one of those type of scenario but it is annoying when it happens.

FWIW my mate used to have a huuuge mutt, always on a lead and always warned other dog walkers who had theirs off the lead, still had little yappy dogs running up to it, where upon the mutt would pick them up in his jaws and give them a friendly shake. Cue unhappy yappy dog owners.

Dogs being dogs. Move on.

1/ I didn’t say his dog was being aggressive, I said that the other dog was being non-aggressive.

2/ When a 16kg pup comes bounding up to you all legs and ears then I can very easily see that the dog’s assessment might be that it was being approached in a way that it ddin’t like, and so took pre-emptive action and exerted its superiority / dominance over the pup.

The OP wanted to know what to do, why the owner wouldn’t give him details, etc. If it had been the other dog that had run over to the pup and bitten it, I’d be of a different mind. But the pup instigated the contact, whether in play or with bad intent; the other dog didn’t want the contact and told it to get **** in the way that dogs do.

Pup learns lesson, end of.

Well one dog got bitten, so quite clearly one of them was being aggressive, and if you agree that the OP’s dog wasn’t…

exerted its superiority / dominance over the pup.

ah, that’s OK then

The answer to the Q in the title is obviously “tell you you’re wrong”.

I reckon report it, but don’t expect anything much to happen.

his dog was some distance away from him and on an essentially invisible lead. If I’d seen the lead then as I’ve said, i would have called mine back.

I think the lead or no lead is a red herring in respect of the fact that you don’t want your pup running up to other dogs in this way full stop. But, being a pup, it will, and because they aren’t the smartest it will probably do it again and get snarled / nipped at a few more times before it does sink in.

Learning experience for both of us it seems.

Yep. Don’t beat yourself up, it’s dogs learning dog manners.

Tough one. I let my dog run up to other dogs if they’re not on leads because he always swerves about three metres in front of them to see if they’re going to be friendly. He knows not to run up to dogs on leads.

The OP has said he didn’t see the lead, made an assumption and the other guy’s frankly crap warning came too late.

Anyway, mine learnt by being bitten (once!) and has got wise. Hope yours does too. And he still loves most other dogs.

I’m still shocked that someone will sit in a park with about 20 dogs running round, all off the lead, and just expect everyone to know his dog will bite theirs if it gets the chance.

If the other 20 dogs were on leads there wouldn’t be a problem.

See, I was going to say something like that, but then I remembered I didn’t pack my flame retardant underpants today.

Sadly the OP’s dog was not under close control. Grumpy dog feels threatened and bites young dog.
If the OP’s dog was on a lead in the first place this wouldn’t have happened.

Don’t let your dog go near other dog(s) coz you do not know how other dog(s) will react. You have more control over your own dog than others. There is always a possibility that other dog(s) will strike as dogs being dogs sometime have short fuse. For now let it be …

If the attacking dog was sitting obediently near to the owners legs showing no interest when yours went bounding up to it I think both are to blame really. No the dog shouldn’t have bitten and I’m not condoning that, but your dog also needs to learn not to go hoofing it up to strange dogs who especially arent interested, the other dogs body language was clearly not interested and he needs to get the idea of this. However, I think the other owner was clearly an idiot by not at least fake apologising or discussing it with you.

On another note in true STW fashion and commentating on the content of the photo and not the question asked….. those nails need trimming!

If a dog has a history of attacking other dogs with its mouth, why would you take said dog to a public area without fitting a muzzle to the dog?

Also, the warning from the owner of the dog that has a history of biting was very late, when puppy was ~1 metre from it, hardly gives puppy owner much chance to react.

…clearly one of them was being aggressive, and if you agree that the OP’s dog wasn’t…

Nope, stop twisting it. I didn’t say anything about whether the OP’s dog was or was not BEING aggressive, I didn’t even say he APPEARED aggressive to the other dog. I said he approached the other dog in a manner that the other dog didn’t like. We might interpret how that appeared to the other dog, but it’s immaterial, he didn’t want the contact and didn’t wait to find out whether it was aggression or play.

If a man runs up to you in a street looking to all the world like he might be going to attack you, and you bop him on the nose before he gets a chance. I’d understand that absolutely.