:/

Martyn was out running with Bug today, she was on a short lead and they were just on the path by the fields. A man allowed his spaniel to run up to her (still on short lead) and bis lay down and started to growl - to which his dog started to growl/bark back. Martyn politely 3 times asked him to call his dog back, to which he replied "those ****ing muscle dogs should be banned, if she goes for my dog I'll have it put to sleep and report you." To which Martyn replied that Bis was nervous of other dogs, but under control, however the mans dog was not so he was in the wrong. He went on to further abuse Martyn, who lost his temper and shouted some verbal abuse back.

He shouted after Martyn when he was walking away that he was going to report us and have "it" killed. Just trying to figure out where we stand with the new laws if he does. She was under control, but was showing aggression (growl/bark/lunge). So p***ed off.

no fair is it jack russell should be more under the new law than a staffy... so frustrating!!!!!!

by the sounds of it,his dog was also showing signs of aggression if it was also growling and barking,no attack took place thou i guess martyn would have liked to of attacked the dogs owner,Bis was on lead his was'nt,he was in the wrong

Not on lead Rach wrong full stop! try not worry hun xx

The new dog law legislation is in the link below:

https://www.gov.uk/control-dog-public/overview

"Out of control

Your dog is considered dangerously out of control if it:

injures someone
makes someone worried that it might injure them

A court could also decide that your dog is dangerously out of control if:

it injures someone’s animal
the owner of the animal thinks they could be injured if they tried to stop your dog attacking their animal

wide open to interpatation but just ran it by a couple of plods i work with....no show and wouldnt even consider it at all. hope that sets your mind at rest.

Any copper worth his salt wouldn't consider this. Even if it went as far as court, you would hope the magistrate would see the facts and not the breed. This legislation is so wide open. Without wanting to sound cruel, I hope they use it on other breeds and suffer the out cry this law deserves.

Ian i work with two of them, drive one into work each day. he doesnt even know about the changes, well didnt until i preached his ass off. sadley i suspect the hand wringing dicks at the council do and there new found "powers" i would advise everyone gets third party liabiliy insrance, best route is the dogs trust, £25 a year and your fully coverd with other benifits like 24 hour vet nurse contact

It's gone nuts Nathan. I hope this applies to all breeds

Thanks all - especially Nath! Going to walk the other route for a little while, sick of idiots.

Is Bis muzzle trained, Rachel? If so, maybe think about taking one with you so that you can pop it on in this sort of situation. I used to do it with Bob, and it was helpful in taking the wind out of the sails of these aggressive ranters. If you do need to use it, say you're putting it on as your dog gets scared by other dogs threatening her like that and you'd hate for her to feel she has to defend herself by snapping. That, to me, means you're not saying she's aggressive but are in fact putting the aggression in the other's court.

I too doubt very much if this could go anywhere. It'd be his word against Martyn's, with no proof, and Martyn could with justification counter claim that the lack of control and the initiation of aggression was on the other side.

Hey Liz! Yep she is muzzle trained - I was doing that up until about a year ago when dogs approached but it seemed to cause a negative association with the muzzle. We were putting it on during treat/training time and at the start of walks too but she was showing stress signals whenever the muzzle came out in the end so we resolved to manage it through training (putting her behind me in a stay when dogs approached). However, most of the time these dogs literally come out of nowhere!! Their owners just let them off as soon as they're away from a pavement and they dart at every dog they see without the owners even blinking in their direction.

Thinking about it rationally now I don't think that it could either, there are some lovely owners around here that know Biscuit and always give us space, asking from across the road how she's getting on while she's sat in a focus! Helps when we walk her with Freddie (chihuahua) too as she doesn't look like such a "devil dog". I'm just so tired of hearing "he just wanted to play!"

The most aggressive dog in our park is a Yorkshire terrier Ledger pays very little attention but it starts barking and straining at the lead from 100m away the double standard being that no one would ever report that tiny little fluff ball 

As said above Rach I certainly wouldn't be taking action on what you said above but may have to get both sides of the story the "In fear of being injured" has always been in the legislation but doesn't often get reported. 

I know exactly how you feel though Ledger can be very nervous of some dogs approaching and is quick to escalate from his 'back off' signals thankfully it seems having a staffy most other owners are quite respectful. 

I was massively proud the other day, got home to find a note from the dog walker to say she had had to bring her boy Boo (a 9-12 month spitz/collie cross as she was taking him straight on to training after) and had walked him with Ledger and they trotted along great together. He has only walked alongside girlies before but I'm made up that he is happy to share the limelight with another male.

Oh well, worth a thought! I truly sympathise, been there, done that, and must have collected several t-shirts en route.

The only other thing that I found worked sometimes - but it did vary on the level of tension and how full on the other dog was - was to go into a mini training session which gave Bob something that he could do well fairly easily and so get his attention back on me, which would at least mean that he was vaguely low key and not in spinning on the end of the lead howling mode.

I also learned not to hesitate in politely telling another owner how rude their dog was - no, not friendly, rude - and that they were the ones at fault if there was an incident.

It is immensely hard when you come across the complete idiot who seems to love picking a fight. What gets into these people? I think the main consolation there is that they usually have no idea at all what they are talking about, and are usually completely wrong. They also probably won't follow up because it's a moment of rage rather than a genuine grievance.

Don't dwell on him any further, he's not worth the mental energy.

Bruce is allways getting grief of other dogs
Mostley jack russels and labs.
But he just walks away.
What i do is when a dog comes up to bruce i will start filming it on my phone just in case somet happens.

That's not a bad idea Khye. Knowing my luck it would all be over before I'd even got the phone out though

ian

I get the same problem, other peoples dog coming/running up to Pixee. I always make sure she in on the lead and so under my control. As I havent been on here for a while, when did this new law come into force? I dont agree with the one that says, 'makes someone worried that it might injure them'. As there are people that are nervous or dont like dogs, they could use that as a example for no reason other than to be nasty.