AIBU to scream and panic when knocked over in the dark suddenly?

Walk a different route.

Surely if your partner is with you (as they were when the unfortunate incident occurred) then you should feel more confident?

I see someone is being sued for thousand of pounds because their dog was off lead and knocked someone over or off their bike (can’t remember which) causing extensive damage. Unless the dog owner has insurance cover it could cost him dear.

Dogs are being stolen at the moment. If that was the problem dog should be on lead. No excuse. Not only should the thug with a dog have apologised he should have made sure you were alright.

Does your area have a dog warden? You could speak to them. They will be on local council website.

Can I ask: if you have little confidence in leaving the house, why did you go for a night time walk?

Just to point out, at no time did Lavazza1st say that the dog "jumped" at her. She said she was knocked over by the dog running out of the church gateway.

A very irresponsible dog owner Lavazza1st what an uncaring person. You are not at all unreasonable, anyone would have been scared.
Don't worry about the dog it will be home safely now. Sorry you are feeling nervous, could you and your partner just do a few shorter trips until you have your confidence back.
I know how you feel as one of my own dogs pulled me over and I fractured my pelvis. It took me a while after I recovered to feel confident enough to walk him on the lead. Hope you feel better soon.

I am not exactly sure what happened because it all happened so fast. The dog ran at me and knocked me over. I don't think it jumped, but rather charged at me.
It crossed a road to get to me, but it was very dark so I couldn't see well.

Good point about confidence. I had just started to feel more confident again after getting over a previous bad experience. I mainly left the house because I wanted exercise as my other exercises habits have been curtailed due to covid. I have been feeling frustrated because I wanted to lose weight and can't use the pool or do the classes I'd usually do.

I know dog theft is a problem, yes. I can't believe he was (a) on his phone or inattentive for another reason and (b) I also can't believe he a massively delayed reaction to his dog moving away from him. I can only think he might have been under the influence of something? (c) he wasted vital time by not noticing what his dog was doing and then went in the opposite direction to his dog because he was not "with it".

He's lucky there were not dog thieves there because he would have been an easy target. I hope he learns a lesson because he was really horrible.

What a horrible experience for you Lavazza1st. Hopefully your partner can persuade you to go for short daytime walks once you feel a bit more confident. Any fall leaves us very shaken. Hope you quickly mend and feel stronger soon. ?

Damned predictive text!!!! My post should have read ^ I guess you like COFFEE!!!!! ?

I am sorry this incident left you so shaken Lavazza but now you have calmed down do try to remind yourself that you were not attacked by this dog, you say it was biggish and ran out of a church gateway It didn’t jump up on you or attack you, just took you by surprise - however unpleasant that surprise was.
The owner could have been a lot more sympathetic and apologetic, but I assume he was anxious to catch his dog. I am sincerely sorry you were hurt and the owner showed appalling manners in not helping you up. Sadly there are people like that, but it does not say it all about dog owners eazybee
It was an unfortunate incident, accident, but let’s not build it up into anything aggressive or illegal.
Dog theft does not come int this so I don’t understand why 25Avalon has brought this up and there was no reason for you to hide or be afraid of the owner knowing where you live.

I think worrying about dog thieves is the least of his problems.

He should be worried about his dog running in the road and causing a traffic accident!
And knocking you over of course!!

Do you have a local magazine or website? Perhaps you could warn others about a dog off the lead running into the road causing possible accidents.
If he is local he might read it and walk his dog somewhere else?

As lemongrove suggested, could you change your dog walking route for a while?

Hope you feel better soon.

Lavazza1st perhaps the big dog was bounding over to investigate your dog! May have just wanted to play?

What sort of dog is yours, and how did it react at the time?

@Marydoll LOL OK Yes its my favourite brand!

@MawB2 I can confirm it didn't actually attack, but charged into me, knocking me right over. I am not sure what it's intentions were, but my partner did hear it growl. I made such a noise screaming and shouting ( because I was terrified for my dog who my partner was holding) that it ran off. I do have a few claw marks on me, but that might have happened when it ran into me.

I was mainly afraid for him to know where I lived because he was blaming me and thinking I was responsible. If the dog was not found, he said he would come for us.

I am sure you were frightened by the experience but you will know as a dog owner that screaming and shouting are exactly the wrong things too when around a strange dog. You were not alone were you?
You have no evidence that he had any intentions towards you, you say the dog ran into you (mine regularly does that when she runs into the house - I generally just step aside) it could have been after a cat, or heading for home and his dinner!
It is easy to dwell on past events but do try not to build this up into a major incident, suggesting the dog owner had “taken something” and as for chasing you surely by the time you had picked yourself up abd habit over being dizzy you could not have been all that far away.
Put it behind you and go for walks in daylight from now on.

My neighbour has just told me this happened to her on her holiday on Harris, a dog ran out of a house and bit her on the leg, for the rest of the holiday it would not ley her pass the house so she could not go walking.
Why she did not report to the police I do not know, if it had been me they would not have heard the end of it.

@MawB2 I admit, I probably didn't deal with it in the best way, that's why I put it here in AIBU.

At the time, I wasn't rational, I'd lost the plot as I have PTSD. I need some therapy, but what with covid it's not happened. I've admitted, I screamed and shouted- I was terrified because of a previous event and probably over reacted.

I do feel bad for the dog, it could have thought I looked nice to play with and knocked me over because it was over eager? I don't blame the dog, if the owner had been attentive to the dog, they could have called the dog back rather than "barking up the wrong tree".

I did go for a walk in daylight today, just as the kids were coming out of school as I thought there would be lots of people about and less chance of dogs off lead.

Sorry but this is just a typical dog owner. Not the dog's fault. The owner should have it under control and on a lead. The cheek of it to blame you, beggars belief really. Hope you are feeling better now.

I’m sorry * harrigran* but I fail to see the relevance of your sister’s experience in Harris. A completely different situation which has no bearing on this thread.

It possibly says it all about certain dog owners eazybee. Please don’t include responsible dog owners under the same umbrella.

I'm not sure he's a typical dog owner, mrsgreenfingers56 (and I'm not a dog owner myself, by the way), but he is certainly an irresponsible dog owner.
I hope you are feeling a little less stressed by the incident now, Lavazza1st. It would have unnerved me, too. I hope, too, that you will gradually build up your confidence to go out and about more and will feel able to walk your dog at any time of day before too long. Personally, I would avoid going out in the dark unless it's a very well lit area, though.

mrsgreenfingers56

Sorry but this is just a typical dog owner. Not the dog's fault. The owner should have it under control and on a lead. The cheek of it to blame you, beggars belief really. Hope you are feeling better now.

"A typical dog owner"? What a sweeping statement, mrsgreenfingers56!

So the little old lady with her spaniel/Yorkshire terrier/Labrador (whatever) is the same as the young lad with his collie/staffie/mongrel?

There is NO such thing as a "typical" dog owner!

Poor you, you must have been so shocked

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

No, you're not being unreasonable at all! The dog owner was totally in the wrong; what if you had banged your head on the kerb and suffered a serious head injury, what if you had fractured your hip, what if you had landed on broken glass??? He may have lost his dog but you could have lost your life!

I hope you're feeling better today although I've no doubt that it will be sometime before you've regained your confidence. I agree with other comments too, you should report this to the police.

Sending you warm wishes for a full recovery.

Thank you Kalu, I've read some sweeping statements on GN, but that one just took the Bonio!