OK Gnasher - heres a true story for you

Last year in an area I walk some people were laughing about a really friendly young boxer they had met on their walk

I started my walk with a smile on my face thinking about meeting a boxer - a breed I love

Sure enough along the path I came across this dog and the owner - who is in a wheelchair

Ben and Mia say hello nicely and we are walking on when he charges over to say hello to me again

and bounces up on his hind legs - he is the same height as me and about the same weight
my upper arms are bleeding from his claws
he owner is calling 'dont jump, oh he is just really friendly'
thankfully Mia stayed out of it but Ben, who with the exception of Mia has NEVER been in a fight in his life - he is really good at dealing with dogs, Ben was crying and trying desperatly to get between me and the boxer and push the dog away
the boxer then turns on Ben (can only assume he was 'defending' himself as of course the owner said he has never attacked another dog)
Now Ben is pinned to the floor (all 10kg of him) and crying, this guy can do nothing so I have to lift his dog off of Ben and hand him over to the owner
who was full of sorrys - but kept saying 'he is just over friendly'

so as a dog lover should I have just had a better sense of humor about the whole thing, the dog only wanted to say hello to me

They're public places for a reason.
They should only avoid if they're scared of dogs - more for their sanity though.

So true. And Gnasher, dogs make a beeline for my mum and she doesn't like dogs just goes to show what a load of tosh you are spouting.

Just had a corker of a screecher and hysteric tonight... after I moved the dog to one side, sat him down facing me we still get all the theatrics going past.

I actually turned around and said "doesn't take anything to say thank you ya know." FFS I move the dog away, keep him under control, move MYSELF off the path to let them past and still just get idiot morons with a problem with the idea of anyone else using anywhere they want to be giving me aggro.

I appreciate your were clawed Ben, but was anyone - dog or human - actually bitten, badly or otherwise?

Sounds to me like a typically exuberant boxer who needs a bit of training - I too have been scratched by large dogs' claws - mine as well as others - I have been knocked over, covered in muddy paw prints, licked half to death and generally battered hundreds of times in my life. I seem to bring out the "worst" in other people's dogs ... my OH says they know I am a soft touch, and he is probably right. I think it is like being a grandmother, you can spoil your grandchildren and then hand them back!!

I would have put you down as a similar person ... I don't mean a soft touch, but someone who would not be easily phased by a rough exuberant young boxer. I am a little surprised by your post, and tbh I cannot see exactly what real harm was done here ... unless somebody, dog or human, actually got injured.

It's the ones who suck their breath in and scoop their children up in horror, despite the fact we have dismounted from our bikes and are standing as far into the hedge as we can go holding on to the dogs' collars that get my goat. I am sorry, I have said it before and I will say it again, don't walk along a narrow canal towpath where there is no escape if you are scared of dogs.

What!! I dislike cats intensely and they still make a beeline for me! What's your point?? I am not trying to make myself out to be some sort of dog whisperer, just merely that I cannot be that bad a person if I attract dogs like bees to the honeypot - doubtless your mum is a lovely person too. As I have said before, you cannot lie to or fool dogs.

Not a load of tosh at all.

you find that acceptable?? someone who was totaly unable to control his dog, who left my arms brused and bloody and who then pinned my dog to the floor so I had to physically lift the dog off of my dog?

Wow I can see how you have no problems with your own dogs rudness if you have such low standards for acceptable dog behaviour

Trouble is the next time this dog practices this behaviour it could be a child it jumps up, or a person frightened of strange dogs like my elderly Mum.
My work colleague has a sister with an exuberant, friendly, Old English Sheepdog. It was being walked on the common one morning when it decided to go and bounce at some children. It knocked one small child over and the child hit its head on a stone and had to be taken to hospital
They were very scared and were waiting a knock on the door from the police last I heard. Not the sort of incident anyone of us would want our dogs to be involved in yet could so easily happen if dogs are not kept "under control".
How I understand it the owner could be open to coming under the "dangerous dogs act" and yet her dog is friendly and has not bitten anyone.

yeah cos dogs have a magical sense that means they can spot a serial killer at 100 paces - the courts should use dogs to pick out the innocent roflmfao