Dog 'Attack' Advice Request

[Hive]

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

 

[Hive]

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
Thanks for the feedback so far. Apart from the first reply, the general trend seems to be as I was hoping.

 

[Hive]

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

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

 

[Hive]

I disagree. Based on the evidence presented the OP was in control of their dog and the other owner was not therefore it would be reasoned that the other dog was the aggressor and Kenji was merely defending against a threat. I'd tell the woman to report it to the police if she wants to make something of it.

Just to clarify, I wouldn't say the other dog was ever aggressive. It just wanted to steal our ball.

 

[Hive]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. The memes made me chuckle too. We have replied to the other dog owner's demand by stating it was impossible for me to try to recover the football and keep the two dogs separate at the same time, due to them not having control of their dog.