I took my 2 year old daughter in her pushchair and Earl (RR, now 7 months) on a walk through the woods to the local park this morning, Earl stays on the lead as he's only just learning recall.  As we approached the edge of the woods, an woman (who looked to be in her 60's) was approaching with 2 greyhound type dogs - 1 on a lead and 1 running free.  When she saw us (we were quite close as she hadn't seen us in the dark of the woods), she started calling the loose dog - but he totally ignored her and ran towards us growling and barking.

I turned the pushchair away from the dog and moved Earl over to the side furthest away from him and just as he made it to us and thought about pushing past me to get to Earl the owner caught up and grabbed his collar.  She told me to stand still so she could get the dog past and wait for her to leave, but as the dog was snarling and trying to shove between me and the pushchair I told her not a chance I was going to push a few metres away so the dog had no chance to get at Earl or my daughter who was strapped in and at face height to this dog.

When she'd got the dog on a lead she said "I really should put a muzzle on him" and I in no uncertain terms that yes she better had as I didn't ever want him approaching my child let alone my dog like that again.  She said her dog would never hurt a child.   How could she know this?  What if Mia had stuck her arm out to stroke the dog as it came running towards Earl?  I told her that not only should she muzzle the dog but if she was going to walk it around a park with a childrens play area then she should ensure it remained on the lead as well.  If it ever comes at me again like that and it's not muzzled I'm going to report her.

It's my first experience of having a dog come at us like that and I was genuinely frightened.  Earl was a champ, he moved where I told him to, sat and stayed and didn't try to get to the other dog, bless him.

Poor you That must have been a bit scary. These people never seem to have a sense of urgency about them do they???:rolleyes:

I had something similar happen last year and like Earl, my Sox was so good even though he got a nasty bite out of it! As soon as the dog let go, he fetched his toy and ran up to me to throw it for him. I was sitting on the bench meanwhile, legs like jelly trying to catch my breath The woman and her horrid dog just strolled off like nothing had happened:rolleyes: It just shows you how special they are and makes you thankful that you trained them. Imagine how different it could have been had it been 2 unruly dogs.

Give Earl a big hug from us and lots of treats - he deserves them! What a good boy :)