Dog licences? Stop the idiots ?

Right so now that iv stopped shaking and calmed poor nico down, here goes... Out for his last walk, he's on his lead bothering no one, no other dogs around when out of the corner of my eye I see a * massive bull mastiff off lead running towards us, no owner in sight!! I'm having a mini heart attack, nico is behind my legs shaking and I'm. Slowly backing towards the house shouting ' please get a hold of your dog' to no one in particular when a young guy, about 20 appears and starts calling the mastiff back. At this point it's just standing staring at us backing away, ignoring him, he comes running down and grabs the dog by the collar saying ' I didn't know anybody was out there, sorry hen! ' SORRY HEN???? I'm totally raging, my wee fella was so scared, stuck to me now, think I need his cuddles as much as he needs mine. Honestly don't understand how such idiots are allowed to own such powerful big dogs.

I do sympathise with you Kellie (and Nico) about how scared you were.

But, and I have to say this at the risk of enraging you further, I'd just like to balance this a bit if I may.

The mastiff's owner should not have allowed his dog out of his sight, granted. But the mastiff didn't attack you or your dog, but just stood looking at the bedlam going on in front of him and allowed himself to be caught by his owner, who apologised for frightening you.

Many, many of us Staffie owners have experienced similar reactions from other dog owners who are frightened by our dogs' breed type. Would you have panicked if the approaching dog had been a Labrador or Newfoundlandland, for example?

And do please remember that fear runs down a dog's lead, especially if you start shrieking and yelling, and your dog will pick up on this.

I'm sorry if I sound harsh, I don't mean to be as I do understand that you were scared. Just trying to reassure you  

Lynda I understand what you mean, my last staffy was never on the lead but she was trained well enough that she didn't run at people, I certainly never let her out my sight so I don't take issue with the dog being off the lead as such my problem is that the guy was nowhere in sight, he wasn't aware his dog had run towards us until I shouted. I know I probably overreacted in hindsight but I honestly feel that the owner not being aware of his dog or near it was irresponsible.
When my last staffy was off the lead I was responsible for her and her actions and I made sure I could take control of her if needed, if that had been the case with the mastiff that owner wouldn't have been in a position to take control, he was too far away.

Thank you for taking my comment in good spirit Kellie!

You are of course quite correct that no dog, whatever its breed, should just charge up to a strange dog - even more so when the owner is not in sight (so the dog is basically "out of control" at that point).

I'm glad that you and Nico are feeling more settled now, and IF you and Nico happen to meet up with this dog again (hopefully with the owner at least in sight of his dog!) you can all manage to make friends with each other - and then you can explain kindly to the mastiff's young owner just why you (and others like you who they might happen across) were frightened and gently "lead him into the path of righteousness"  

I sympathies that he should have kept a much better eye on his dog, but as Lynda said the bull mastiff did not attack you or your dog thankfully.

Also sorry but dog licences will never work, all it will do is penalize us responsible owners as we are the only ones who will pay for them

Totally missed the topic title!

I'm afraid Ella's right - dog licences wouldn't do a thing to stop irresponsible dog ownership. For example, we all have to have a licence to drive a car, not easily or cheaply obtained. But unfortunately the possession of a driving licence does not guarantee a careful, considerate, non-idiotic car driver.

Yes, the owner should have been aware of where his dog was. "I didn't think there was anybody around" is no excuse at all! 

But, as Lynda says, the dog never came too close & was happy to wait while his owner caught up, so you probably did over react a little. For all you know, he may have been quite friendly, although nobody should allow their dog to run up to another without the other owner's permission!

ella wrote:
Also sorry but dog licences will never work, all it will do is penalize us responsible owners as we are the only ones who will pay for them

  

Lynda wrote:
I'm afraid Ella's right - dog licences wouldn't do a thing to stop irresponsible dog ownership.  For example, we all have to have a licence to drive a car, not easily or cheaply obtained.  But unfortunately the possession of a driving licence does not guarantee a careful, considerate, non-idiotic car driver.

No, they didn't work before, they won't work now. The good, responsible owners will buy the licences, but the poor, irresponsible owners won't bother & will never get caught!

You know what your all right, I was just so angry last night. Hopefully we will soon have a new house ( if we can find one we can afford) with a nice big secure back garden where nico can run freely with no worries of other dog owners daftness, only his mums!

Good luck with the house hunting, what area are you looking in?

Glasgow and surrounding areas, hopefully around stirling, fingers crossed, I might have always lived in the city but I can't wait to get out of it

Kelsbels wrote:You know what your all right, I was just so angry last night. Hopefully we will soon have a new house ( if we can find one we can afford) with a nice big secure back garden where nico can run freely with no worries of other dog owners daftness, only his mums!

We all have a rant from time to time when we're still very angry, no worries I'm glad you and your boy are ok, good Luck with the house hunting

This kind of thing is a daily occurance for me and Rocky, it all going OK but what if your dog reacts to being stared at by the other dog, it could have ended quite differently if the mastiff had decided to charge over to you  

My worries exactly at the time Kathy.

Can only agree with all that has been said. My Pixee goes off chasing rabbits in the woods sometimes, so that means shes out of my sight and out of control too, but at least she always comes back to me on the whistie and if I happen to see anyone walking around. I tend not to let her chase anything when theres others around. I have had a bull mastiff run up to Pixee, Pixee ran off, lucky we were in the fields, the owner did say sorry, and we got our dogs back ok. It happened again a few days later when it got dark, and I nearly got knocked over too, but it was a friendly one, so no harm done there, except I did say to the owner, not everyone is going to take kindly to nearly being knocked over. So no harm done to you or Nico and thats the main thing.