' Unpleasant' experience when walking my dogs. what do do?

How I feel your distress I do hope you feel calmer today,I don't think you could have handled the situation any differently at all and thankfully you had the help of neighbours.
I also agree that speaking to the owner would serve no purpose at all due to his attitude,he obviously needs lessons in how to look after his dog he sounds clueless to say the least.
Can you walk your dogs along another route in the future.
Is there a Community Police Officer you can talk to and express your concerns about the dog maybe they can have a word with the owner as surely other neighbours must be concerned about this man lack of responsibility towards his dog. x glamma x

I think approaching the local Community Policing team might be the best approach. If this dog is allowed to run about and into the road, there's potential for a serious accident and the police would want to prevent that.
Failing that, do the local authority have power to intervene and order the owner to keep his dog under control? Might be worth a phone call.
I hope you feel better and able to enjoy your walks again very soon.

Your dogs were so good not to react adversely in that situation Iam64 well done for having them well trained. You must have been quite shaken by the event, I agree with other posters, this owner needs to be reported before there is a serious accident.
Try another route for a while until you feel confident. Good luck.

I can picture the situation so well Iam64 and think you were very fortunate to have stood your ground and managed to keep your own dogs under control. In your shoes I would have a word with the local PCSO, but not in a spirit of complaint, rather out of concern to prevent another similar incident happening to you or another dog walker. Someone else may not have your presence of mind and the outcome could be very different.

Very frightening, I agree. I had 2 similar incidents when living in France.
I wrote a letter to the mayor, who has legal authority there over that kind of thing. I laid it on thick, I have a heart problem etc. which is true. He visited the owners and made them put up a secure fence.
Otherwise he could have had the dog removed to a secure place. Also the dog tested for anti-rabies.
Maybe the police can do the same here?

ps and well done to you and your dogs. I made "fierce noises" too!

Well done Iam you successfully communicated to the loose dog that you were the Leader of your Pack and that he’d better b****r orf back home before you went into attack mode.

Since none of my dogs was attacked I carry a hiking stick (with a sharpish end) when I take my dogs out, and I’d use it if I had to. No problem!

Usually though, like your unwanted dog, they back down when I confront them with ‘fierce’ noises too!

Contact the local dog warden and ask them to have a word.

You did just the right thing. Many dogs would have reacted badly if they had been under threat and who could blame them. The ending would then have been very different. The owner should make sure that their garden is escape proof, but I guess they are not too bothered.

Thanks so much for your supportive posts everyone. My young spaniel sized dog was badly mauled by a staffie a couple of years ago. My dog was playing with another dog, when the staffie appeared out of the woods, attacked my dog, leaving several puncture wounds. Some time later, a similar incident happened with an off lead German Shepherd when my dogs were on lead. I never had a reactive dog before but these incidents caused my young dog to bark, growl etc if an unknown dog got in his face. I've worked hard to help him watch me and walk on and he walks well past any dog now. He was frightened last night and barked anxiously but the training worked, he and the big dog stayed right by my side no lunging etc towards the other dog.
Old Meg - the big stick is a good idea and one I decided to use after yesterday. Our village facebook page had a photograph of the dog today - with a note saying 'loose staffie cross on 'xx road yesterday afternoon". - I posted about the incident so maybe the owner will see that.

Update - the owner contacted me via facebook. He was sincere in his apologies for the incident and 'all the stress' it caused. His dog is in season, is overexcited, broke through a fence weakened by the recent heavy winds. He's fixed the fence. He accepted his dog is 'very loud and vocal but her barks worse than her bite". He apologised for appearing rude, explained he was caring for his young brother at the time. I offered to put a post on our local site confirming I now understood how the dog escaped and accepted his sincere apology. His response "oh yes please, that would be great, my mum follows that site and has already given me a real telling off". - so facebook does something positive.

Good result Iam64 all's well that ends well,

That sounds really unnerving. Is there a different route you could take to avoid passing that dog's garden? Some owners are just so irresponsible!

Glad the story had a positive sort of outcome.