Dog 'Attack' Advice Request

Hive

Hive

Hive

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Long time lurker here. I can't remember the last time I ever made a thead! Looking for some unbiased feedback, as I am aware of my own bias.

I was in our local park playing football with my 6 year old daughter and 10 year old son, as best as one can with my dog, Kenji on the lead. Kenji is a 13 year old Shiba Inu (cue all the doge memes). The park was quite busy and there were muliple dogs running around.

A black dog of a breed unknown to me, similar size to Kenji, ran over towards our ball and Kenji pulled on the lead, in 'defence mode'. Owner came and got her dog away. Soon after, the dog ran over again for our ball but my son managed to pick it up in time and the dog ran off again.

Third occasion the dog ran over, I saw it coming and tried to beat it to the ball. Failed. Dog grabbed the ball with its mouth to pick it up and Kenji, still on lead, got in range and snapped at the other dog. Other dog squealed and ran away. It was all but a two second altercation.

As it transpires, the owner of this dog knows my wife and has messaged her complaining her dog is injured, with scratches on its face. She is taking it to the vet and demanding we cover the cost and muzzle Kenji.

The other dog at no point, in my eyes, showed any aggression, I believe it was only after our football. Kenji was the only one being aggressive. I have to concede that. He can be nervously aggressive to other dogs, which is why I have him on the lead. He will not have been happy at this dog interfering with our ball. But on the basis the other owner at no point had control of her dog, my current stance is she can 'do one' in respect to covering their vet bills.

I am also not keen on muzzling dogs. He'd hate it and would make him feel even more vulnerable when unleashed dogs run over. This can't be a rare occurance so I thought I'd ask for opinions, please :)
 
I don't see how it can be reasonably considered your fault if someone else's loose dog is gonna run over like that, how is your dog meant to know if it's friendly or not... someone letting their dog run at other dogs is rolling the dice on something like this happening.

I'd treat her like an ebay scammer and just not reply.
 
This kind of thing happens all the time with dogs off the lead in parks, after the first occasion she should have put hers on the lead to stop it running over trying to get your ball.

Woman sounds like a pure breed Karen, wouldn't give her the time of day.
 
Her dog wasn't on the lead, yours was.

The woman knows she is at fault and is trying to palm the fees off on you. She should take responsibility and pay up.
 
Your dog was on a lead and therefore deemed to be under control. Tell her if she doesn't want an injured dog to respect the space of others. Her dog ruined your kids game never mind it getting snapped at. Ignore her.

A child at my local pub was bitten by a dog which was taken to court. The dog was on a lead and under an outside bench. The child in question was not controlled and not from the party at the bench. The child had crawled under the bench without the party knowing and was warned off by the dog with a fairly innocuous bite. In the end the dog owner and pub were cleared of any wrongdoing. The dog was restrained with its owners and the kid wasn't. Same applies here.

Occasionally one of my dogs decides he has zero recall and runs up to other dogs. I hope he gets seen off like this so he thinks twice about it next time.
 
As it happens, Kenji has his annual check up at the vets today. I really hope I don't bump into that dog owner there too :D
Thanks for the feedback so far. Apart from the first reply, the general trend seems to be as I was hoping.
 
As a dog owner of a nervous and reactive dog, people who let their dogs run riot really annoy me. She should be the one apologising as her dog was out of control!

Hive said:
my current stance is she can 'do one' in respect to covering their vet bills.
Click to expand...

That would very much be my stance as well. :)
 
Surely if it was a quick snap as you say even if she takes her dog to a vet, there would be no injuries to treat?

Before I even considered paying out in any situation I would want to be satisfied that the other dog was injured, and that my dog caused the injury. If you're not, and she can't provide evidence to make you satisfied on those points I'd argue that fault isn't even an issue - I mean even if your dog was at fault any compensation would be restricted to putting right the damage caused surely? No injury caused by my dog then What is there to compensate?

If I was satisfied that the other dog was injured and my dog had done the injuring, I'd only then consider if I was the one who had 'allowed' the incident to happen and was thus was responsible for the damage. As you've described it your dog was under control; he was on a lead, he seems to have acted only to stop the threat (or else the other dog would have been more visibly injured immediately) and appears to have calmed once the threat was removed. Her dog seems to be the one who was out of control.

I'd be inclined to tell her that I'm not satisfied I'm at fault and will not be compensating her. Though I probably would be asking anybody who saw the incident, if you can trace them, to scribble down their recollection of events, just in case
 
Its funny but I once dealt with what was basically the human equivalent of this. Guy kept harassing some lads who were just sat in their garden chatting. They were polite asking him to go away. Did this about half a dozen times. In the end when he didn't they gave him a quick kicking.
Police rocked up, arrested them all, interviewed all the witnesses, de-arrested them and told the other guy to sod off and that if he came back they'd arrest him!
 
phonemonkey said:
Surely if it was a quick snap as you say even if she takes her dog to a vet, there would be no injuries to treat?

Before I even considered paying out in any situation I would want to be satisfied that the other dog was injured, and that my dog caused the injury. If you're not, and she can't provide evidence to make you satisfied on those points I'd argue that fault isn't even an issue - I mean even if your dog was at fault any compensation would be restricted to putting right the damage caused surely? No injury caused by my dog then What is there to compensate?

If I was satisfied that the other dog was injured and my dog had done the injuring, I'd only then consider if I was the one who had 'allowed' the incident to happen and was thus was responsible for the damage. As you've described it your dog was under control; he was on a lead, he seems to have acted only to stop the threat (or else the other dog would have been more visibly injured immediately) and appears to have calmed once the threat was removed. Her dog seems to be the one who was out of control.

I'd be inclined to tell her that I'm not satisfied I'm at fault and will not be compensating her. Though I probably would be asking anybody who saw the incident, if you can trace them, to scribble down their recollection of events, just in case
Click to expand...

I don't doubt that their dog got bit. It happened super fast and I didnt see it clearly enough (need VAR!) but I also heard it. I am pretty sure Kenji made contact. If Kenji did indeed snap at the dog's face, I can imagine it could have left a mark. At the time the dog ran off too promptly for me to see it.
Irrespective, I was hoping that their dog being off the lead would be like a car not having any insurance being involved in a road traffic accident. If that makes sense :)
 
So she lets her dog run around and get into the odd scuffle, which some naturally do from time to time, even though she possibly doesn't have pet insurance, due to her wanting you to pay the vet's bill? Equally she might have pet insurance and is trying to fleece you. Regardless, it's a "do one" and a dog poo through the letterbox scenario.
 
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