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- Dog A is small, Dog B is bigger but gets along well with small dogs.
- Dog A growls and snaps (not just innocent barking and nipping) at Dog B. Owner A does nothing.
- After Dog B turns the other cheek twice, and just continues sniffing Dog A, Dog A snaps again (seems like fear-aggression).
- Dog B finally retaliates and gets one bite in.
Who pays for Dog A's vet bill? The person with the bigger dog, or the person with the more aggressive dog?
Small dogs are often aggressive as you said by fear. My corgi Katie is scared of dogs bigger than her. I didnt get her till she was 4 months old...damage done. Shes been in obedience classes & I have tried to introduce her to bigger dogs with no luck. IF I was dumb enough to allow her to get hurt by a dog on leash ..then I should pay the vet bill. BUT IF the bigger dogs owner refuses to leash their dog & keep them away then I going to sue the pants off them!!
Small dogs are often aggressive as you said by fear. My corgi Katie is scared of dogs bigger than her. I didnt get her till she was 4 months old...damage done. Shes been in obedience classes & I have tried to introduce her to bigger dogs with no luck. IF I was dumb enough to allow her to get hurt by a dog on leash ..then I should pay the vet bill. BUT IF the bigger dogs owner refuses to leash their dog & keep them away then I going to sue the pants off them!!
Unless the attacking dog has had previous issues with dog aggression, it seems to me that splitting the bill is the most fair. After all, it takes two to tango. Ultimately, it's on both owners as they walk up to each other to decide if they should let their dogs do a meet and greet, or to steer completely clear of each other.
I use avoidance tactics in my walks. Walking my dog(s) is for the sole purpose of exercising them, not socializing them. Sure Bandit will be disappointed if he isn't able to meet every dog he sees, but after a few minutes, he's distracted by a bird or a squirrel and the other dog(s) is completely forgotten. And again, even with a meet and greet, he's not going to forge a lasting friendship with that dog, he's going to forget them soon afterwards.
I almost feel that when two dog owners pass each other on the sidewalk, they feel that it's proper social etiquette to do a meet and greet each time, but I don't think so. Maybe I look asocial as I cross the street to avoid them, but at the same time I think the other owner is relieved and grateful that I do. Even this morning, I saw the lady with the two miniature poodles leaving the park and I stayed on my side of the street until they had passed. Both poodles lunged and yapped at us, I kept some parked cars between as a way to block the view from Bandit. Seconds later, he was more interested in a smell on our side of the street. Bandit is really good with all dogs, but I have to go to work shortly (as did the other woman) and keeping our dogs apart made for a more efficient walk.
So with Bandit being a very non-dog aggressive lab hound mix, if I was trying to avoid a meet and greet, and some other dog owner still insisted out our dogs should meet (feeling that their dog is friendly so why not?), and something set them off. No matter which dog got nipped (even theirs), I would say that it's 100% the other dog owner's fault for pushing the meeting. I would consider that other dog owner too naive about the ways of the dog social world.
My old dog often got into fights, especially with other females. Never once did she make another dog bleed. But I still have scars on my hands from getting in the way, and my favorite sweat pants have a spot sewn up in the bum, where my friend's dog (who died of nasal cancer) jumped up and bit me in an effort to get to my dog whom I had swept away in my arms. God love them.
What person runs up and hugs every person they meet? Dogs need to be able to be polite in the presence of other dogs but why do people feel they have to meet and smell each others butts? Proper socialization does not mean dogs have to be best friends with other dogs; it means they have to not wig out or stress in their presence. Another problem is that people who choose to do this often cinch up on the dogs and expect fact to face contact instead of letting the dogs meet as dogs do. Forcing direct eye contact between two strange dogs is asking for trouble.
I quite taking my dogs to Petsmart because of all the people that wanted to socialize their dogs with my dogs without even asking. I have even had people with little ankle biters on flexi's tell me "don't worry he's friendly". Uh, I have GSDs, they are properly behaved but one of them does not take lightly to having a strange dog run into her face and start jumping on it. I have not had an incident but dogs are dogs and I am not going to take that risk.
I agree with MIU...I had a person living close to me who is a really nasty old grumpy person who claims that he is allowed to yell at all dog owners due to him having had a stroke...
Well he never yelled at me but he doesn't like me since I have called the cops on him when he was firing off at neighbor hood kids for walking on his easement picking up a ball, watering parents while standing to close to his easement (putting the spriklers on when they were waiting with their kids for the bus stop which is located on his corner)..
I called the cops after him watering the parents and him yelling at them and we as parents getting a letter from the school stating that if our kids didn't behave better the busstop would be removed since this owner had stated that the kids had damaged his property. One phone call to the school was enough for an excuse and the school telling us that they shouldn't have send the letter out without having heard both sides of the story. There were many documented calls to cops about him firing off at many dog owners when they were picking up the poop!
One day I was in my working in my front yard and my dogs on a leash on a pole next to the front door so they could enjoy the nice weather and sit there on their leash which is no longer than 3 feet. Our front door is all the way back next to where our garage starts and than we have a driveway which fits at least 2 cars but even 4 smaller cars will fit.
This man walks by and my dogs bark and he walks on and that was it...at least that was what I thought. 2 hours later a police officer rings my bell claiming my smaller dog had bitten this man and he had a bite to proof it....I explained the situation to the officer and he was at first stating that my sign "watch out for the dog" proofs I have visious dogs...I explained I have the sign to scare of buglars and bad people. I also stated that I saw neighbors outside when the man walked by and the police officer went to talk with them and all denied anything from having happened and that the man is always blaming others.
According to the police officer the man had a kind of bite wound but he was unable to descibe what kind of dog had bitten him. After the police officer witnessed a dog running loose in our neighborhood when he was there he came to tell me he thought it might even have been that dog....
So all I'm saying is that stories aren't always what people claim and I would have a vet examine the dog if the teeth match the wound!
someone said it takes two to tango and I agree - If it were me in the situation I would have offered to pay for half the vet bill but since she declined then I would say then just get over it... let her do what she needs to there is no proof that it was your dog that did anything to hers... Yeah and i also totally agree with the fact that you lost a friend (if you could really call her that in the first place)
my brother has a fila brasario and he lives in Nevada and he was walking his dog and a collie jumped off a neighbors porch and the fila grabbed the collie by the neck and there was a little damage not much . my brother offered to pay the bill for the vet . the lady started screaming at my brother that his gd dog came after her collie . My brother told that lady that he was not going to apologize for his dog that was doing his job in protecting my brother in what his fila proceeded to think was a threat to his owner . These fila are extremely loyal and will defend their owners at the cost of their own life . If the collie had been restrained in the first place none of this would have happened . The collies owner better be glad that all the fila did was grab him cause he could have easily killed him .My brother ended up paying her bill even though he did not have too . things can be settled without making enemys of your neighbors folks . It is real simple . my brother has paid this bill and gotten over it long ago .
Two people are walking their leashed dogs on the public sidwalk, both agree to let their dogs greet, there's a non-agressive, "woof, woof", the dogs are casually pulled apart, the two people continue to talk while the dogs are sitting quietly by their individual owner. An hour later Person A calls Person B stating that Person B's dog bit Person A's dog. Person B, who didn't see this "bite" and is truly aurprised, offers to split the bill since Person A is a friend and has no reason to think she's is not being truthful. Person A thinks Person B should pay the entire bill. Legally, who is responsible for the bill. Person A also called Animal Control and according to the officer who paid Person B a visit, reproted that Person A claims Person B's dog viciously attacked her dog.
Wow! I'm sorry, but IMHO, Person A doesn't sound like a very good friend at all! I know, that when my best friend and I allowed all of our APBTs to play together, we knew that if a fight were to ever break out (which, thank goodness all of them were/are sweet dogs! 6 "pit bulls" fighting at once would not have been a good thing, at all! ), we would split whatever vet bills there were. I just think that with Person A and Person B being friends, that's how it should work. The bill should be split. Especially since Person B didn't see what happened, and Person A is claiming that Person B's dog just randomly "viciously attacked her dog". No do ever attacks for no reason. There is no such thing as a truly random attack. Unless, that is, the dog that attacked is sick, or has Rabies or something. Not to mention, as everyone knows, dogs are animals, no matter how much we love them or how much we think of them as our children, they are still dogs. And dogs will be dogs. Regardless of what breed the dog is, how well bred it was, how well trained and socialized it was or how sweet the dog always is, there is always something that can, and will, set every dog off. Whatever that may be, may be very different from dog to dog. Every individual dog is different. But, there will always be something that can set a dog off. So, I do not buy the random attack story. Like I have said in a few recent posts, I really can't stand these people that have this "my dog can do no wrong" attitude. I'm sorry, I know I sound mean. I know Person A and Person B are suppose to be friends, but for me, that would be a deal breaker. Person A is just wrong here, IMHO.
Anyway, as far as what to do, if I were Person B, seeing as how Person A went behind Person Bs back and reported this to AC , I would do the same. I would just let AC know that their was a fight between these two dogs, the only person that witnessed it was Person A, and there is absolutely no way to prove that Person Bs dog was responsible for the attack in any way. Legally, as far as the vet bill goes, I'm not sure what you could do. I am sure that if Person A were to try and take Person B to small claims court over this, Person A would just look crazy since they were the only one that saw the "attack", or fight, and they have no proof which dog did what. I don't really know though.
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I'm sorry, but IMHO, Person A doesn't sound like a very good friend at all! 
I know, that when my best friend and I allowed all of our APBTs to play together, we knew that if a fight were to ever break out (which, thank goodness all of them were/are sweet dogs! 
6 "pit bulls" fighting at once would not have been a good thing, at all! 
), we would split whatever vet bills there were. I just think that with Person A and Person B being friends, that's how it should work. The bill should be split. Especially since Person B didn't see what happened, and Person A is claiming that Person B's dog just randomly "viciously attacked her dog". 
