Thanks Stacia and thanks Kate...don't want to hijack Fiona,I think I'm just thinking a lot at the moment about how our life here differs to where we will be in the UK and how Dexter ( and me ! Mostly me!) will adapt to seeing so many more dogs off lead than he does here ....... How's Jemma and your parents doing Fiona? X
I actually think - for those of you worried and returning to the UK - that the risks are pretty low. In some ways, the rare scary and unfortunate events are the price we pay for an 'all dogs off lead' culture, but I also do think that dogs in the UK tend not to be reactive, on the whole. I could post just about everyday - "today Charlie met 10 strange dogs, and they were all absolutely charming" but it's not a very interesting thing to post! In London, I meet gazillions of dogs, and do meet aggressive ones time to time. I meet fewer dogs in the country, but a higher percentage I view as problematic. This does make sense in that if a dog lives in the middle of hundreds of other dogs, they get used to rubbing along with random strange dogs a lot. Even though Charlie has had a fair few very undesirable encounters, out of thousands and thousands of strange dogs he has met, he has never been hurt. Obviously, it happens (as this thread shows) but my experience is the risk is pretty low. I have developed my own 'risk scale' - two or three male dogs that live together are at the top of my risk scale, and I've got quite good at spotting when an approaching dog isn't giving off the right signals. Plus, Charlie has got better at handling himself, and moving on rapidly with me if either of us aren't happy with a developing situation. Despite the risks, I wouldn't swap what we have in the UK for more on lead restrictions. Not at all.
Just catching up as had a mayhem week. So sorry to hear about your mums dog. How are they now? I hope the dog warden and police are going to do something! Living 10 miles away does say something.........but having said that, I'm going for a walk 9 miles away today as I like the wooded area. I quite often go outside of my local area on weekends for a change of scenery. But, as the owner didn't intervene, I think he is probably known in his area! As Julie says above, most walks would end in meeting lots of dogs and nothing happening. I am always aware of my surroundings and what dogs are around and if I feel at all concerned I just pop Harley back on the lead. Once you get into the habit of this it becomes 2nd nature if that makes sense.
I am so sorry to hear this Fiona and I hope lovely Jemma and your Mum are okay. Here's hoping for a quick recovery xx I think Julie is right, although not sure why dogs that live in the country are more problematic. We all meet lots of dogs and these incidents are thankfully few and far between, they seem worse because we tell each other when it happens to our dogs which is understandable. I always put Hattie on lead when a dog approaches unless we all know each other well and I think this is a good strategy. I know the dogs to give a lot of space to and I respect that. Some owners just don't get it and there lies the problem, I think. I certainly wouldn't swap living in the UK as we have so much more off lead freedom. xx
Sorry for the delay in responding; we've been travelling but now back home, so normal service will be resumed. Jemma is healing very well. She's not allowed out on walks for twelve days, so it's yet to be seen how she'll respond to strange dogs out and about. I'd add my voice to those saying it's very rare. My family has had dogs almost all of my life (many years!) and this is the first incident of its type. Horrible if it happens to a dog you know, but I don't think you should worry unnecessarily.
Sorry to hear about your parents dog being attacked, awful. I'm happy to hear that she is recovering from this. It must have been so scary for your dad and sister to see. X
Hope she's improving and is starting to feel less sore. Such a terrible thing to happen We've had this sort of thing occasionally were I live and a friends pom (freddy) was killed by a Rotty. We report everything like this to the police and Dog Warden and usually the Dog will be well known by them. We have managed to get a few dangerous dogs banned from the local parks doing this or had them made to wear a muzzle and stay on their leads. We also do a bit of shunning and shaming and that works with some people, but obviously the people you are trying influence to have to have a concious, and very often they just haven't understood what they need to do with their dog. So often we end up helping and the dog gets better the owner gets more aware. We also reported a group of youths who were training their dogs to fight and asking other dog owners if they wanted to chain fight with their dogs. This lasted a few weeks but they were encouraged to leave by use all getting the police if we saw them. Their dogs were frightening and total muscle. This person didn't and would have happily done a runner if they could. I do everything to keep my dogs safe but it can be difficult. I've learned to spot danger dogs and keep out of the way. I don't think your sister and dad could have done much in this instance because it sounds like the dog would attack them too. A dog attacking like this is really serious my one bad dog bite came from an attack like this. It was a totally unprovoked attack too. Mostly its fine but I learned to be careful of owners who say oh he's only playing "yeah right!" and generally my dogs are fine. Another lab owning friend travels about 10 miles to use this park because her dogs living in the country would never see other dogs so a big dog population does have its benefits
