i agree with everyone else, she shouldn't have said what she did, but she at least had the decency to catch up with you again and apoligise and that takes alot of guts.

again with the police stations taking in dogs, it wasn't too long ago that we found a wee staffie x boy and the police were willing to take him in to the station ( mum decided against it and that she would keep a hold of him and gave her details to the police station) his owner had been on the phone about 5 mins later as this wee dog had been reported missing

Whether or not your individual police station were willing to take them in, the law changed last year and there is a nationwide policy not to, and to report any lost dog etc to the dog warden apart from a couple of exceptions.

I realise that police officers are only human, I know many of them ') but they also know the consequences of improper behaviour even out of uniform.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/HomeAndC...Dogs/DG_180091

Something doesnt sit right with me..If this dog as been abused, and was fearful then how comes a complete stranger could get close enough to hold on to the collar, yet when the dogs owner turns up - he acts in an aggressive manner! Hmmm!

at least she apologised and agree i know alot of police officers they are only human and do have off days like most of us

oh and as for losing the tag easily done all my springers have cost me a fortune on dg tags cos of losing them until i found one that slips onto the collar(and 1 even managed to loose that one!)

It sounds like a case of the mouth moving before the brain kicked in to me. It was good she took the trouble to apologise.

I would agree that she didnt need to apologise and as highly trained as police officers are they are only human, if she wasn't on duty then she was obviously just being herself and the shouting back might have been a reaction to her feeling you were telling her what to do (quite rightly she shouldnt be hitting him) but that might be how she reacts to that.
As she didnt actually hit the dog she didnt do anything that you could have reported her for so she could have just left it?
Good job you got hold of him for her and maybe she realised that hence her catching up with you and apologising.
I would personally give her the benefit of the doubt and just watch out for how she is with the dog when you see her out on walks again.
As for the job their are plenty of other jobs she could have made up if she wanted to make you think she knew a lot about dogs? Sounds like she was having a bad day.
x

all true. but the law chaned 2005 but the section re stray dogs being removed from police responsibility came in 2008.

but dog wardens can still pick up dogs held in police stations that have kennels.
my local station has a kennel and does this, i was the out of hours dog warden recently and picked up a few dogs from their to take them to the council kennel.

It does sound odd to me... when i was reading the origional post i doubted very much she was a police woman. I have many friends in the force and i doubt very much that they would react that way and speak to someone in that manor.
Yes we are all human and have our bad days.
May be the appology came from the after thought that because of her behaviour you may of reported her.
Or may be she genuinly felt bad for acting the way she did,( out of stress)and the dog is a rescue and really doesnt like the car, which is why it growled at her.
I suppose all you can do is keep a look out for them in future on walks, and see how they are.

Thank you all for your opinions on this - interesting to read them all.

Just to add, the dog growled at her as she approached it - the car was about 4 or 4 metres away. Whether he growled at her because he thought he was going in the car or whether he did it out of fear of her, I don't know.

The dog allowed me to put a lead on him, stroke him, put my hand on his back to get him sit - not so much of a mutter from him.

I also don't know how he managed to run away. In hindsight, I wish I had asked. Maybe he bolted while she was trying to put him in the car? But I don't think so as he doesn't like the car as she didn't appear to be having to take him anywhere. Or maybe he got past her at the front door? Who knows. We can only guess.

She really did seem genuinely sorry and was slightly upset (stressed?) at the situation, so I will give her the benefit of the doubt this time and will chat to her and let her dog socialise with mine on walks if I meet her (if she chooses to, of course).

Whether she apologised because she felt she was in the wrong, whether she thought I might report her or whether she thought it might put her job at risk if I reported her, I don't know either. But as I said, she seemed genuine in that she was sorry - whether or not she is indeed a PO, I have no idea!

I will keep an eye out as I always do with dogs and owners anyway.