Moo dog - the example I gave of my small cavvy being attacked by two dogs (boxers off the lead she was on the lead - if she hadn't been I think she would have been killed) was in South Devon, not in Cyprus.

Any incident involving SBTs or the like couldn't happen here because not only are the locals most dog UNfriendly - the banned dogs on the island include all sorts of BT types and in fact the following are prohibited from flying out here:

American pit bulls
Pit bull terriers
Japanese tosas
Fila Brazileiros
Togo Argentinos
All Bulldogs
Pugs
Pekinese
Snub-nosed dogs

As a dog lover all my life in the UK and now out here for just 5 years I have been on a BIG learning curve. If I want to be a happy and relaxed dog owner, I have to have a MAGNIFICENTLY WELL TRAINED DOG!

Everyone loves Bella the Min Pin around here, everyone except the one GSD (the owner has 3 and only 1 of them wants to kill Bella) and one 'wrinkly' dog Shar Pei? not sure what they are called.

I don't want to be IN THE RIGHT when my dog is dead or permanently lame. I want to make sure it doesn't happen in the first place. She only weighs 4kg and, as you probably know, min pins are not aware they are 'small' dogs!

OP, put it down to an experience to learn from. You can still socialise your dog, just ask first, thats all

This to me, is the important bit ..

I think you probably felt a little guilty that you were not 100% concentrating on the pup at the time. But it all ended well with no permanent damage done.

Could have been worse.

If and how ANOTHER owner wishes or does not wish to socialise their dog is nobody's business except theirs, so there is no need to concern yourself with this.

I will choose WHO, WHERE, WHEN and HOW my dogs socialise with, NOT other owners. There are times when I welcome other dogs, and times when I do not, eg I may be training my dog to IGNORE other dogs or check in with ME for permission.

That is how I train my dogs, in order for them not be a nuisance to others.

Eg this morning I was in Nonsuch Park in Ewell, Surrey. This is a very large park but it is FULL of runners, cyclists, walkers and dog walkers.

I managed to do a 30 minute walk with my dogs not interfering with anyone or anything else except when invited. The vast majority of other dogs behaved in the same manner (apart from one long coated GSD who the owner did not have full control over).

As for your dog, I cannot see how this episode = your dog cannot speak to other dogs.

Of COURSE he can but you ASK the permission of the other owner. It is simple and just common courtesy.

"Is it all right if I/my dog says hello"?

That way you give the owner of the OTHER dog to tell you that it IS or, that their dog is grumpy, old, blind, deaf, antisocial, post operative, undergoing rehabilitiation etc so that ALL parties are kept safe.

The whole mess could have been avoided if you had paid attention to your dog and were aware of your surroundings, after all YOUR dogs did not go over to the other man and dog because he lifted up his dog did they?

So your dogs were ALREADY not under control, no good blaming the other man for picking up his dog which made yours jump up.

Train your dog not to approach others without your permission, or keep your dog on a lead/line.

Train your dog not to jump up whatever the owner does with their dog.

You keep making excuses for your dog, just bite the bullet and accept that had your dog been on a line, lead, tied up, in the car, in the house this would not have occurred and learn from it.

The root cause of this incident is your failure to adequately control your dog.

Just wanted to comment on the above points.

Is isn't up to you to say who he should socialize his dog with or when.

I know as well as anybody that accidents happen but if he had been under control Rocky wouldn't have been in the situation and the whole mess wouldn't have happened.

It sounds just like you are blaming the man for what happened, I don't think he should have hit your dog but your dog is your responsibility.

I am annoyed if people let their dogs run up and bother me, especially if mine are on lead. If I feel they are under threat I will protect them.
If you are busy with something else (in this case your horse) Rocky should be on lead as you haven't got all your attention on him, you don't want him to have anymore bad experiences.

It's a shame this man lashed out but probably did it in anger. To be honest if your little chap had run over and approached me and my GSD walking by I would have had heart failure as Jake is not very dog friendly having been challenged too many times before by small dogs. This happened to me at Coombe Abbey in December, a bouncy cute puppy was offlead and rushing and playing with every dog in sight. When it approached us I told Jake to leave and he did but at the same time I asked the woman to take him away as the puppy continued to whiz about round Jake. In the end I had to raise my voice in order to get her to control the pup. Jake was on the lead all the time and I was in control of him but if the puppy had continued to scoot in between his legs I would have had a job to deal with him and I would have been very tempted to put my shoe around his bottom as gently as possible. No doubt she wouldn't have been impressed with that either.

I assume you are able to speak? Just ask the other dogs owner whether it's okay for them to meet That's what I do. I am not a fan of dogs simply charging over to say hello to other dogs regardless of whether they're friendly or not.

A smack would have been the least of your dogs worries had he approached Rupert. In fact a smack would probably have been preferable to the damage Rupert would have done.

I have to say that although I can see why you're upset, my hubby has been on the other side of this kind of thing.
A couple of weeks ago, a GSD was off-lead on the prom in our village. Graham was with Danny (lurcher), Guinness (greyhound) and Jenny (lurcher). The GSD ran full pelt up to our dogs. Graham stood still and asked the owner to put his dog on a lead.Within a few seconds the GSD began to bear it's teeth and growled at Guinness. Then it lunged for him and tried to bite him on the belly. Graham was by this point screaming to the owner. In a second Danny and Jenny went for the GSD and Graham had to yank them back. The GSD went for Guinness again, this time more ferociously so Graham HAD to kick him to get him away! He had 3 dogs on a lead going nuts and a GSD attacking them!
Now Graham is a major dog lover and would never out of choice kick a dog but he had to otherwise it would have been a blood bath.
Luckily in this instance, all the dogs including the GSD were ok and the owner was very apologetic (and so he should be!)
What i'm trying to say is that although it's not nice to see your dog getting smacked, this guy didn't know anything about him. I wouldn't like an unknown dog legging it up to my dogs either.
And if one of mine legged it up to someone elses dog and mine got a smack, I wouldn't like it, but I'd accept that I should have total control of my dogs and not let it happen.
This is in no way a criticism of you at all...I'm just pointing out the other side of the argument.
If your dogs came running up to my dogs for instance, mine would go beserk and the situation could change for the worse very very quickly.
I hope you and yours aer none the worse anyway...and I really wish mine friendly like yours!!!

Oh and I DO KNOW that if I pick my tiny dog up when I feel she is in danger, I most probably WILL get jumped at by the dog I am taking her away from.

That's because I SUMMED THE SITUATION UP CORRECTLY. The dog was not going to just stop short of my dog and wait to be invited, it was determined, usually ignored all shouting by its owner. In fact usually doesn't stop doing what it is doing until the hapless owner physically removes it. (Even if they are repeating over and over 'he just wants to play') yeah right - they all say that when they can't stop their dogs jumping on you or their dogs won't come back to them when called!

when the man was approaching he was happily allowing his dog to walk, he saw us from a fair distance away, and saw that rocky and tara were both playing about, he was walking without showing signs of anxiety or caution and didnt stop or pause while approaching, when i seen rocky going towards the dog i went at the back of him by about 2 steps behind him, i dont think i would class his as " an out of control dog " i dont particularly like dogs jumping on me personally which is why rocky is/has been taught not to do it! but growing up being 25 now and having worked with dogs in a variety of environments including my local cat and dog home, i have been taught that to lift a dog away from approaching dogs is an unnatural position for them to be put in and being curious dog will try to investigate...is that correct????

also if i see other dogs approaching on lead both my dogs are called back and placed on leads, as i feel it generaly is very disrespectful for dogs to come barging in and causing other people chaos.. having handled a very very high prey drive foster grey hound i know how difficult it can make other owners lifes, and am fully aware of the problems it can cause...

again in NO WAY am i saying i wasn't at fault, i WAS 100% to blame for what happened. i just don't feel that HIM hitting MY dog for sheer curiosity when its owner was literally 2 seconds behind it, apologising none the less, to resolve the issue was acceptable????????

from now on i will be careful bout rocky being of lead, and about him socialising as clearly im living in a bubble all of my own where people have respect for other people and their pets.... and yes that may seem like the pot calling the kettle black, but as far as i am concerned i am pretty responsible with my dogs, i deal with them in a reward based training not aggression, i make sure they are trained to fairly high level and yes rocky did a naughty thing, but he is a puppy, and he is learning. it wasnt like i was ignoring him allowing him to run riot, i was right behind him....


i gather from replys here i have over reacted.... but what owner wouldn't react in an upset manner if a complete stranger whacked their dog?????