Today at 11.30 my husband was walking our EBT, he decided not to walk him through the golf course where there is a public walk through as lately there are too many numbskulls with dogs off lead who have no recall what so ever. In the winter there are only true dog walkers whos dogs are well trained and respond to there owners, as soon as the sun comes out all the other dog owners come out, so my husband avoided the golf course and walked round our estate where he thought if there were any other dogs they would be on the lead. Chris, my husband was only gone around 15 mins and i had gone to my sons close to where the incident took place when a lady knocked on my sons door and told me my dog and husband had been bitten. A lady in her early sixties was walking her staffie my husband avoided her and her dog by crossing over the road mainly because my dog is nervous of other dogs as he has been attacked and bitten twice before, once quite badly, any way the staff saw my dog and chris said it lunged across the road at our dog, the lady let go of the lead and it just started attacking our dog my husband tried to restrain our dog but as a result he was getting bitten around the face and neck my husband had no choice but to let our dog defend him self, chris tried to get hold of the other dogs lead and pull him back and the dog bit his hand and locked on, my husband could not get the dog off so he pulled his hand free meanwhile our dog had locked on to the staff and the owner of the staff was hitting our dog with her hand bag. My husband is in hospital with a badly bitten hand our dog is grazed and cut around his face and mouth which in the circumstances got off lightly, i have reported it to the police and they are coming to take a statement when he comes out of hospital, i dont know what the answer is but is there know where to walk a dog safetly any more. Not where we live any way.