Firstly Hi, would of done an introduce myself post but this kinda speed up my first reason to post.

I have no idea if i did anything wrong to provoke such a reaction and i hope to find the answer here after explaining what happened.

While walking my beagle Bert this afternoon we came across another walker with a Border Terrier. Bert was on a long training lead to enable us to more easy capture him should he fail to come when called (we are recall training him) and the terrier was running free within a reasonable distance to its owner. As our paths crossed the dogs did there doggie hello thing and started to play with each other, this lasted for a few minutes of joyful puppie type behaviour. I recalled Bert but he never responded, I gave up after a few tries and walked slowly to the pair of them playing and crouched down to there level at Bert's side and grasped the top of his harness and eased him back saying "come on Bert off to the woods" (just highlighting here that i didn't go up aggressively because he didn't respond to recall). Before i'd even stood back up again to pull Bert away the Terrier went NUTS!

The terrier went for Bert's throat first causing Bert to cringe back into my legs. My reaction was "WOAH!!" and put my arm between them at which point the Terrier decided i was fair game apparently and attempted to bite me 3 times. One caused a puncture on my palm a 2nd fortunatley glanced off my wrist joint just leaving a scrap and 3rd leaving a puncture on the upper side of my wrist. The punctures are probably large enough to maybe warrant a stitch in each so this wasn't play biting and it wasn't biting me by mistake. By the third bite i lifted Bert up and the terrier was still going for my dogs throat until a boot from me got it off. I think by that point the terriers owner who had been standing frozen (a young guy in his 20's at least) grabbed his dog and the situation was back in control.

The terriers owner accused me of doing something wrong and causing the reaction from his dog by trying to remove my dog from his! i'm not even going to get into that, i didn't even take his name number etc as he probably would of lied anyway. What i want to know is "what" other that putting my dogs saftey first and introducing my arm as a barrier, did i do wrong?

I've been giving serious consideration to walking dogs to earn extra cash while i do an open university course and this is making me wonder if i maybe should look into pet sitting hampsters instead.

Sorry for the long post but i figure the more info the better.

What a horrific walk! Personally I would never use part of a human (Arm etc) to protect your dog - I know its so tempting / I would of prol done the same spur of the moment! My girl has been attacked in the past and I froze, My OH had to go in and pull the dogs apart, he was in his work boots (Steel toed) and im afraid to say the lab which attacked her got a boot! There is no way any hands could have got near this dog - It was petrifying - my Mills never reacted just squealed and was thrown around like a rag doll.

Most importantly I hope you are ok and if you need stiches I hope you got this sorted - ouch!

I think you need to contact the police.

An attack on a human is a serious offence, this could be a toddler next time.

I appreciate you dont know the guy but even a description of the dog / owner / time etc can help. (Afterall us dog owners do often have walkie sin similar palces at similar times each day).

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It was certainly not your fault. Sounds like the owner is just looking for somewhere to put the blame and they definitely need reporting! I hope you and your dog are ok

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Yea using myself as a barrier wasn't the wisest of idea's i admit but i've done it whenever there has been issues before. Call it a fathers instinct if you will. Only time Bert's ever been growled at before i've just put myself between them and been lucky i guess.

Going by this incident i'm not sure if i should consider myself lucky or unlucky that is was a small terrier that turned on me. The lesson has kinda been learnt in that i know what i could potentially expect intervening, unfortunetly my dog's such a woosie and combined with my protective nature over him I could see this happening again. So all advise is welcome.

I regret kicking the terrier tbh and it wasn't a toe punt or anything alike, just used the flat of my foot (not easy to use your foot on something thats at your knees boucing around while holding a dog). But in my defence i was a little overwhelmed at the time considering the other owner may as well of been a fish. My wife was with me too but i think she was more scared than I was with a dog attached to my arm .

I've never seen the guy before and were at the same park near every day of the week at the same time and I doubt theres much the police will do or care since both dogs were roaming free off lead technicly.

I did say to him "what if i was a child? your dog could seriously hurt one" to which he replied "what you'd let a child near 2 dogs playing?"
But i'd rather stay away from that side of the story as i'm really trying to find out how to deal with the situation should it ever occur again.

On a side note, Bert was initialy very skittish when he came apon another dog a few minutes later that he had already played with that afternoon but soon got over it and i hope there will be no lasting side effects for him.

If you report the incident, describe the dog and the man, the police will log it and if it happens to anyone else and they report it, there will be more chance of them doing something about it.

If your dog was on a longline then technically he was under control.

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Good point i never considered he may come back but there is always a chance i guess. I'll make a report after all just incase.

I don't think you did anything wrong, however, I have found through experience that in certain situations it is best to walk away and call your dog rather than stoop down to separate especially if you don't know the other dog involved. Your dog will surely follow, may take a few minutes more but he will follow and sometimes this can avert any nastiness.

However, having said that I suspect though that this dog may have some issues and possibly has a history of this type of behaviour.

When my on lead dog was attacked by an off lead dog my reaction was to pick him up and luckily I wasn't bitten. I don't think you did anything wrong. I couldn't imagine my dog ever doing that and I should imagine you may not be the first. Personally I would report him to the police/dog warden just in case as his attitude is worrying.

if a dog was attacking Roz i would go straight in there and try to get her away, not the right thing to do i know but shes my baby!
If my dog bit somebody who was trying to move their dog away i would be mortified. By rights you should report this as this owner needs to take responsibility for whats happened and take steps to prevent it happening again. make sure you take photos of the wounds for evidence. That dog could go and bite a child so you need to report this.
Hope you and your doggie are both ok though!

I do not think that you did anything wrong and I hope your injuries are not too bad. I have been in a situation where I had to lift up my dog, Sonny and so has my Dad. In Dad's case it was because he was being attacked by another dog and he just acting by instict and picked him up. The time I picked him up was actually when two jack russell's were running around him annoying him - Sonny had given one a few warnings and I was concerned he was going to go for it so I picked Sonny up (I had been holding him by the harness as he was on a long line but needed to get control of him quick but the jack russell kept coming up to him) to protect the other dog - the owners were sorry and said if they saw me coming they would have put him on lead as he is a bit in your face. I was more concerned about the jack russell than Sonny though - I would be mortified if he went to bite another dog never mind a person.