Not a good morning

A couple of weeks ago my husband was walking our two down at a regular spot we go to. There was a woman with a lurcher and they were all playing, chasing each other. The womans dog must have spooked and it ran off with my two following usually my two come back when called but not this time, they all disappeared off into the distance the woman told my husband her dog had done this before and had been waiting outside her door when she got home.

Anyway i was at home that morning and i got a phone call from someone saying they had my dogs, they had caught them outside their shop and one was bleeding profusely. I called my husband and told him and he picked the dogs up. They had all been running up the high street. How they weren't killed i don't know. I have since heard its happened again with other dogs.

This morning i saw the lady with the lurcher, i immediately put my two on lead but she didn't. Then she more or less implied it was my dogs fault as they had chased her dog and it is nervous. My reply was that perhaps she should keep her dog on a lead if she knows the dog is likely to run off like that. She said why should she I told her i'd been told it had happened previously and since and she said it was lies.

Anyway to cut a long story short, i lost my rag and shouted at her (i know i shouldn't have been her attitude annoyed me) i said the dogs were lucky they weren't killed and she said its not her problem.

So it looks like she still won't put her dog on a lead and unfortunately a day may come when her dog does it again and it ends up dead incidentally both my dogs were ok apart from Bella who ripped all the skin off her pads and had vet treatment. Im so grateful to the people in the shop who caught them, i took some flowers and chocs in to thank them.

I know i was wrong to shout and i saw her talking to other people after it had happened so i am probably public enemy number one now i feel like i can't walk there now

Silly woman. If the dog's nervous and has run off before then he should be on a lead at all times unless somewhere completely secure. My lurcher Danny used to have awful recall and ran off once but only on an area of beach where he couldn't get out. It freaked us so much that we got a long lead and didn't let him off again until recently and that's because he now has much better recall. Also we only let him off when there are no other dogs around. Fortunately our other lurcher and greyhound have good recall. Even with them I'm always aware that chasing is in their nature and we're careful where we let them off.
I'm just glad you got your dogs back. I hope they weren't too badly hurt.xx

I agree she should of had the dog on a lead, its horrible for everyone that could of been three dogs dead, it doesn't bare thinking about, if she cares about her own dogs safety at least (and hopefully if she's a dog lover she would also care about other dogs too ) she would make sure her dog is safe, and let other people know he's nervous?

You were right to tell her and lucky one of your dogs wasn't seriously injured. Her response that it's not her problem shows an irresponsible attitude. Now that you've told her forget about it and move on. just watch out for her and make sure your dogs are on a lead when you see her.

It's sad she doesn't seem bothered about her dog running off like that and potentially dying! Glad yours are ok and at least you're considerate, can't believe she blamed yours, the cheek!

To be honest, I can see this from both sides.

I have a dog who can be spooked by others. She will run in a circle away from them, back towards me, but if this was not possible (e.g. on a narrow path) chances are she would keep running while they were chasing.

Perhaps her dog shouldn't have been off lead (and certainly she should have put him on meeting the two dogs she new had already chased him)

But there's also an argument to say that if your dogs can chase a dog out of sight and ignore all recall, perhaps yours shouldn't be off lead either.

Well they won't be off lead around her dog in future thats for sure, even if she doesn't put hers on like today. I could have the same attitude as her, if shes not willing to put hers on lead then why should i ? -but i will because i don't want that happening again. Shes not willing to take any responsibility at all it seems.

Yes i hear what you are saying about the chasing but they were chasing each other around not just my dogs chasing hers. Apart from that if she knew her dog was liable to run off like that she should have had hers on a lead. Ive never had a problem before with my dogs coming back to me and they go off lead all the time unless i see someone with an on lead dog then they go back on.

Now that reply....to me....shows responsible dog ownership. Well done that woman!

That last sentence where you say that your dogs go on the lead when you see someone walking an on-lead dog says it all. THAT is good sense and tells me that anything else that you do with your dogs will more than likely be the right thing too.