i have been that person whos dog loved other dogs was then walking him one day off lead he attacked a dog for the first time i was devastated there was no damage to the other dog but i fully appreciated that my dog was in the wrong. and i passed on my details and payed the vet bills.my dog is now walked on a extendy lead and is not allowed off lead and unfortunately im the one begging people to not let there dog run up to him although he can be good with other dogs i dont take the risk. so i would if you can talk to the other owner it may well have been a shockto them and they would be more than willing to pay any cost you have due to the incident and willing to keep there dog on a lead just like i now do.ps hope alfie recovers well

A responsible owner Kat. You have not dismissed the incident as a 'one off' that could never happen again. It did happen and you take steps to try to ensure it won't happen again.

I hope your poor dog is going to be fine, I think I would take him to the vets though just in case.

However I will say being a owner of a dog that was on the end of a unprovoked attack, we had to pay £170-something to have ours stitched up as it ripped open all her back leg and although we reported it nothing was done, infact even though the Dog warden made all the right noises we were also told that we should take private action.......and thats a costly experience

Yep-our dog warden was absolutely useless when Cherry was attacked. She went round and spoke to the owners about their responsibilities. This dog had already bitten before and was owned by people I was told by other dog walkers were drug addicts.

Strangely enough if I lived 25 miles away in Dereham the outcome may have been different. There was a similar case in the local newspaper of a Rottweiller attacking another dog and the dog warden there took out a dog control order so the dog always had to be leashed and muzzled.

The only "satisfaction" I had was that I created such a scene on the heath when this dog went for Cherry that the owner came to the vets with me and paid a large bill. He was walking away from me leaving me with Cherry bleeding from a large hole in her side and saying that it wasn't his dog (it was his Mother's apparently). I was calling for someone to get the police and he didn't want this as he knew the dog had bitten before.