Dog been bitten by another - where do we stand?

[Dodder]

Exercising our dogs off the leads on Saturday late afternoon on a path in a public wood a collie appeared from behind us out of nowhere with no owners in sight. We got our dogs on their leads and I shooed him away and carried on but he kept following us and I had to repeat this three times before he finally disappeared.
We carried on with our circular walk and when we got back to the same place he was there again but this time the owners were present. We got our younger dog on the lead and attempted to do the same with the other dog, whilst they made no attempt to do the same with theirs. He approached our older neutered male a couple of times who was still not on the lead and eventually our dog had had enough and chased after him barking just to see him off. We saw their dog turn towards ours but there it ended, we put him on the lead and parted company. By this time it was getting dark.
On arrival home we were horrified to see two puncture wounds on our dog's flank where the Collie had turned into him. Took him to the emergency vet who stapled them up and charged us over £400. I called in to see the people on the way home about 90minutes after 5he incident showing them photos of the wounds and the poor dog after treatment. They said they would pay the vets bill but would contact their insurance company.
I then got an email last night to say their insurance company say they weren't negligent and wouldn"t pay but they have offered to cover 50% of the cost as a gesture of goodwill!
My feeling is as their dog bit ours that they should pay in full. I would do the same if the situation was reversed but does anyone know where we stand legally on this please? I have called BASC and am waiting for a call back. My current thinking is to threaten the small claims court for the vets bill plus damages due to the inconvenience this has caused if they don't settle the vets bill in full I also intend to report it to the police as the dog may well have done this before. Your opinions are appreciated - thanks.

 

[VSS]

It seems incredible that wounds requiring £400 worth of treatment occurred without you seeing a major tussle between the two dogs!
A couple of bite marks caused by the sort of turn-and-snap interaction that you describe could probably have just been treated with a bit of wound powder or spray costing a few quid! The sort of stuff you should keep in stock yourself for just such occasions as this. Dogs will be dogs, after all.
Sounds like maybe your vet is going to benefit most from any action you persue.

 

[Danny25790]

The Insurance and who ever else you get involved will see it as your dog chased after the collie and the collie defended itself. I know the vets bill is a massive kick in the balls as I had a similar situation and my 8 month weim was ripped open by another dog 6inches long, but dogs will be dogs and I would have gladly accepted the "goodwill" gesture. My dog was trying to play with another dog off lead as she is a puppy and the other dog got aggressive, they saw it as my dog chased theirs and then their dog got defensive.
Dogs will be Dogs

 

[Home Loader]

The offer of 50% an admission of involvement? But good luck in proving it wasn't self defence, I know it feels wrong but the first offer in this case is most likely to be the best.

 

[Kalahari]

Am I the only one on here that thinks, in a public place dogs should be under close control. Running off the lead isn't close control. Flak jacket and tin hat on.

David.

 

[jer]

I think the first one to sue is the vet.

 

[ian67]

Not wanting to p#ss anybody off but if your dog is off the lead and chasing other dogs there is no case/claim.

 

[Drum123]

Id have snapped there hand off if they had offered me 50%.

 

[ian67]

Id have snapped there hand off if they had offered me 50%.

absolutely

 

[dartmoordog]

Id have snapped there hand off if they had offered me 50%.

I think this is where I am also.

 

[Highfield]

Id have snapped there hand off if they had offered me 50%.

me too sounds like a sensible outcome given that both dogs were out of control at the time

 

[Fair Hill]

This sounds like a wind up to me just too hard to believe anyone would experience a situation as described and not see how they were at fault and also not spot a wound that cost £400 to repair.

Why is the breed of the other dog relevant and no mention of the type of dog that needed £400 worth of emergency treatment?

 

[Overlay]

Let sleeping dogs lie buddy, it ain’t worth the effort to try and claim it back, get the dog mended and forget about it

find another place to walk, enjoy yourself

 

[spannulman]

I think you are lucky. I used to work with someone who took out a private prosecution against a dog owner as his Yorkshire terrier was killed by a larger dog. However the police weren’t interested so he got his own lawyer involved, it cost him a fortune but he lost the case because the larger dog was on its lead and the York is was not. It was seen as self defence and the dog which died was ‘out of control’ as it was off the lead.

he reported that it wasn’t quite like that, the larger dog despite being on a lead was out of control but the law didn’t see it that way. I Imagine if it was a child injured the fact it was on a lead would not have come into it. But the law doesnt always help in the way you think it would. I would take the offer and move on past it, however unjust it seems.

It might be my imagination but there seem to be more aggressive dogs out there these days. Since lockdown it seems more apparent. Nervous or incompetent owners unable to control their dogs or enabling their aggression.

 

[OJL1991]

The only crime here is the vet charging £400 for what a good terrier man could do in a couple of minutes.

 

[Dodder]

Thanks to all for your input even if it might not be what I wanted to hear!

I genuinely always thought that if your dog bit another and caused damage then you were liable but hey ho maybe I'm wrong.

Agree 100% re extortionate emergency vets bill. Sadly we dont know any terriermen! Had it been any other night other than a Saturday we might have left it till the morning and taken it to our normal vets where it would probably have been a lot less than £400. But as you can see VSS it needed a bit more than just wound powder.... He had one staple in the top puncture and four in the larger one.

We have encountered this dog before but always seen him first and put ours on a lead just in case. I have never trusted collies as they are the only dog that has ever bitten me for no good reason. We have also experienced unprovoked attacks before, so always try to put ours on a lead when we encounter other dogs as a precaution. Previously this dog has run past at speed and disappeared, but this time he was really being a nuisance and seemed to be almost provoking our two. At no point did the owners even try to control him and didn't even appear to have a lead for him.

Our dog certainly didnt attack him or else I would agree with you all - the collie kept coming up to him and then running away until eventually he chased after it barking at it. This sort of thing happens 99.9% of the time in these situatipns, it is all bluster.

Fairhill - the reason we didnt see the wound on our Weimaraner was that it was getting dark and there was no real altercation. Our dog simply ran after him & barked at him and he turned towards ours without a sound - we had absolutely no idea he had been bitten until we got home.

Thanks again to you all for your input.

 

[ian67]

Thanks to all for your input even if it might not be what I wanted to hear!

I genuinely always thought that if your dog bit another and caused damage then you were liable but hey ho maybe I'm wrong.

Agree 100% re extortionate emergency vets bill. Sadly we dont know any terriermen! Had it been any other night other than a Saturday we might have left it till the morning and taken it to our normal vets where it would probably have been a lot less than £400. But as you can see VSS it needed a bit more than just wound powder.... He had one staple in the top puncture and four in the larger one.

We have encountered this dog before but always seen him first and put ours on a lead just in case. I have never trusted collies as they are the only dog that has ever bitten me for no good reason. We have also experienced unprovoked attacks before, so always try to put ours on a lead when we encounter other dogs as a precaution. Previously this dog has run past at speed and disappeared, but this time he was really being a nuisance and seemed to be almost provoking our two. At no point did the owners even try to control him and didn't even appear to have a lead for him.

Our dog certainly didnt attack him or else I would agree with you all - the collie kept coming up to him and then running away until eventually he chased after it barking at it. This sort of thing happens 99.9% of the time in these situatipns, it is all bluster.

Fairhill - the reason we didnt see the wound on our Weimaraner was that it was getting dark and there was no real altercation. Our dog simply ran after him & barked at him and he turned towards ours without a sound - we had absolutely no idea he had been bitten until we got home.

Thanks again to you all for your input.

I know its not a good situation or outcome. I'm in no way pointing fingers at you for fault or blame.
I'm glad your dog will recover.
Also were only pointing out our legal opinion, not the whats right and whats wrong.
Your dog did not deserve this neither did you deserve the grief.

 

[gixer1]

Not wanting to p#ss anybody off but if your dog is off the lead and chasing other dogs there is no case/claim.

^^this^^ I think you are lucky they offered to pay half, I’d have refused as your dog gave chase.

 

[Stalker62]

I then got an email last night to say their insurance company say they weren't negligent and wouldn"t pay but they have offered to cover 50% of the cost as a gesture of goodwill!

I would be grateful to have neighbours with this decent mentality.

I am sorry your dog was injured.

However, I am afraid I agree with the other parties insurance company and that you would have no winnable case at court.

Apropos medical treatment of dogs.
A dog handler colleague once "repaired" a rip in the chest of his Alsatian by shaving the wound and applying gaffer tape. His dog make a full and rapid recovery - I trust so will yours.

 

[Drum123]

My old man always put honey on dog wounds to help them heal.I swear his dogs used to cut themselves so they got to lick the honey off.