Advice, PLEASE, re: dog "incident"

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keeperscottage

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My friend and I were out walking my five dogs across farmland today. We'd been out for well over an hour and a half and were on our way home. We were walking down a private road which joined a single track road to the left and another path (which we intended taking) to the right (it is a very rural area). All the dogs were walking together several yards ahead of us and had just reached the junction when a boy (12-ish??) came round the corner on his bike at break-neck speed, straight into the dogs and sort of "half fell" off his bike. My springer, Molly, started barking frantically at him - she has a thing about bicycles - and so I ran up to her whereupon, as I chased her, I saw there was a younger lad, standing in the road, bike on the ground, and a little girl behind him, also on a bike. Molly ran round and round the little boy, barking furiously, I grabbed her, and my friend and I walked off and continued our walk (think I said to the kids something like "She always barks at bikes" and my friend heard one of the lads say "Sorry" - I assume for crashing into the dogs).

We thought nothing more about the incident until my daughter rang me, in a state, asking "What's this about Molly biting a little boy?"!!!! I couldn't believe what I was hearing but apparently she had received a text from a local woman saying that Molly had bitten a little boy and his mother was on the warpath!!!! I tried to ring the woman who had sent the text, but without success, and I ended up texting her to the effect that Molly hadn't bitten anyone, she had only barked at them. I'm now in such a state that I've been sitting here chain-smoking!! Now (a) my friend and I saw the whole incident and there was no contact between Molly and any child (b) as the kids were young, surely they would have cried or made some sort of comment to the effect that they'd been bitten and (c) why would one of them have said "Sorry" to us? The dog warden can't be contacted outside office hours, so I rang the police just to put the matter on record. As I live in a tiny village, they seemed to be of the impression that it was a case of "Chinese whispers" and not to worry - but I am worried - very worried! Lots of the mothers around here are over-protective of their kids in the extreme (one mother kicked our totally harmless Golden Retriever when she went to say "hello" to the woman's daughter) and I can see that there's going to be a lot of nasty gossip flying about!

How would you cope with this? I love my dogs and I'm going to buy Molly a muzzle tomorrow just to be on the extra-safe side! *wanders off to light another tab*
 
I have no idea what to advise, but just wanted to post to say how sorry I feel for you, what a horrid situation.

Small places are awful for gossip and things, I'm sure it will blow over and the fact that the police are not interested, I would take as a good sign.

Hugs for you sweet.
 
What a horrible situation to be in even though you KNOW Molly didnt do anything
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I think you have done exactly the right thing by reporting it to the police to pre-empt any more stirring by the boys mother - not sure what else you can do TBH?

I was wondering if you could contact the person who sent the text again, to find out who the mother is so you could speak to her, but that might cause more problems than it solves.

I would be inclined to just wait and see, it will probably all come to nothing once the mother has calmed down and has realised there is nothing to worry about.

One thought - if you promptly now muzzle Molly every time you walk her, that might offer fuel to any allegations the mother might be thinking of making???? "see, she knew it was nasty, now it has bitten my child she is muzzling it" kind of thing...

Hopefully someone will reply with more coherant and sensible suggestions, but you have my absolute sympathy here...
 
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One thought - if you promptly now muzzle Molly every time you walk her, that might offer fuel to any allegations the mother might be thinking of making???? "see, she knew it was nasty, now it has bitten my child she is muzzling it" kind of thing...

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My thoughts also
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I really hope it all blows over and comes to nothing. Sorry not to be of any help, but I do think reporting it to the Police was the right thing.
 
I have to agree with the others about the muzzle - it makes your dog appear guilty.

They will have to prove that your dog bit the child which you know it didn't so nothing can come of it.

Don't worry.
 
I would do nothing and wait to be approached........(then lamp them one)
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messing! (sort of)
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, the kids clearly exaggerated the story, u stick to the same story, the kid came tear arsing around the bend and the dog had the sh!t frightened out of her and as dogs do she was scared and overwhelmed and began to bark SIMPLE AS!
Dogs like kids are unpredictable
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there is bugger all anyone can do, esp with no bite marks or reporting it immediately, even with bite marks it's still very hard to prove.
I would certainly not muzzle her either
 
For the mother to actually take action against you/your dog, she will have to have photographic evidence or doctor's letter to show that the child had been bitten.

As you are totally sure that Molly didn't bite the child - they can't fabricate the truth and take it further.

I am sure you are the same as me, all mothers get terribly over protective of their children and things flare up in the heat of the moment.

It will be old news tomorrow in the village!

I agree with the above though - don't muzzle Molly unecessarily.
 
Agree with Ravenwood, it is very hard to fake a bite or even a nip.
My dog's teeth clashed into my thigh a few weeks ago when he misjudged where his ball was going to be, his mouth didn't even close and it left quite a bruise.
 
It may also be that the kids thought that they might be in trouble for piling into your dogs, so made up the biting incident so they didn't get the blame?
 
Please dont worry yourself too much.... and dont muzzle Molly!!!

A dog did this to our daughter last year and we could take no action whatsoever!!!

We tried every course of action possible and took it to the House of Commons...... Nothing
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All we wanted was some justice for poor Zoe
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You may love your dogs but you need to accept that not everyone else does, which is probably why your dog got kicked. If a dog came running up to me I would feel very threatened and very angry with its owner. The answer is to be a responsible dog owner and keep the dogs on leads when out in public. It is very selfish to let your dogs get close to other people. By doing this you are intimidating people. You must have seen all the bad press dogs are getting recently and you are adding to it. FIVE LOOSE DOGS IS TOTALLY IRESPONSIBLE, THERE IS NO WAY YOU CAN BE IN CONTROL.
I am very sorry for Zoe. Has her mum tried contacting her MP as review of dog laws is very topical at the moment.
 
How on earth do you think huntsmen control whole packs of hounds? I can assure you, they come in packs of more than 5 at a time!

In this case, the kid came round the corner, crashed into the dog and the dog barked - isn't it lucky they didn't hit a small child instead? Give me dogs any day of the week! Perhaps someone should have a word with the kids about being responsible on their bikes!

Also, if you read MQs post you will see that it went to the House of Commons so clearly she did, in fact, contact her MP.

Kicking a dog that runs up to you is extremely stupid and only increases the risk of being bitten - which is a greatly exaggerated risk anyway. Anyone who kicked my dog for no good reason would be bitten for sure - by me though, not him!
 
You are obviuosly a dog lover. Alot of people are afraid of dogs and the bad press dogs are getting at the moment exacerbates this. If a dog gets kicked by a member of the public the dogs owner is to blame for letting it get too close. My legs are covered in bruises at the moment from a recent incident. I did not kick the dog but can understand if someone does, its called self preservation! But what an iresponsible owner to let their dog do such a thing. They are asking to be sued. In the case of the five dogs, by the owners own admission they were several yards ahead therfore were not under close control, as the law states they should be.
And as the owner is considering a muzzle there must be some uncertainty as to the nature of this dog.
Hunt hounds- stray all the time round here!!
 
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