Well, I Sure Feel Like a Jerk...

[JoLeigh]

You were FAR kinder then I would have been my Mother in Law and Sister in Law are very fearful of dogs too but they don't attack (which is exactly what this girl did) any strange that comes up to them. If she would have calmed down and apologized to YOU (imo you owe them nothing you did nothing wrong) I would have calmly explained a better way to react that wouldn't put her in danger. But she and certainly her mother are old enough to not behave in the manner they did after she stopped freaking out and you said what you did. I would have less then politely excused them from MY property.

[Gypsydals]

You did nothing wrong. Sure you maybe could have been less harsh but as a knee jerk reaction to someone swinging at your dog on YOUR property. I think you handled it fine and better than I would have.
The well known rule around here is you come into my pets house or yard you treat them with respect, you don't hit, or complain about them. If not you get told to leave and not in a kind manner either.

[Dogdragoness]

Here here!!!! why the hell should i be nice? Swinging at one of my dogs is akin to someone swinging at my kid if i had one, which is what i always say,,, 'Would you like me throwing my shoes at your KID because i dont like kids???' Something tells me they would have the same reaction if the roles were reversed :/

[Dogdragoness]

Originally Posted by Fran101

Anywhere else I would've said your dog has no business sniffing anybody and how she reacted would be totally normal of someone going out into public who doesn't WANT a dog sniffing her. It's not her job to have to deal with a dog getting in her personal space.

BUT.. it's your property and frankly, your dog didn't do anything crazy or intrusive.

BUT.. another BUT here lol .. what you said to the girl does sound quite harsh. She was probably scared and reacted the first way she knew how.. not everyone is raised around dogs or know better. She probably just wanted the dog to go away.
Nobody is perfect and I know LOTS of peoples kneejerk reaction would've been to tell her off.. but I can see how people would've thought it was a rude way to react. She didn't hit your dog, she just freaked..you could've just called the dog to you and told her it was ok and that there was nothing to be scared of instead of telling her all that which sounds pretty harsh IMO

That's hindsight though. I'm sure you didn't mean to be mean to the girl.. I'm just saying, I can see how a third party might think you were being mean because you told her that.

*shrug* just try to explain that you weren't trying to be mean to the girl.. you were just trying to explain and didn't like the way she was treating your dog.

Just my 2 cents.

IMHO it doesnt matter if the dog DID do something someone would deem intrucive (to some people a dog smelling them is intrucive) she was on her property. I have a rule... on MY property in MY house, if you dont like: dogs on the couch, dogs in the house, dogs walking up to you, wanting to be petted then you know where the gate is... dont let it hit you in the a** on the way out >:/

[JoLeigh]

Originally Posted by Dogdragoness

IMHO it doesnt matter if the dog DID do something someone would deem intrucive (to some people a dog smelling them is intrucive) she was on her property. I have a rule... on MY property in MY house, if you dont like: dogs on the couch, dogs in the house, dogs walking up to you, wanting to be petted then you know where the gate is... dont let it hit you in the a** on the way out >:/

My thoughts exactly the dog LIVES here you dont this is HER property not yours. As long as they weren't being guardy or pushy and rude they need to deal or CALMLY say they arent really comfortable around dogs.

[RD]

No, that's not harsh, Cheetah. At all.

She could take a lesson from the dogs and learn some impulse control, because although I understand being afraid of dogs, she's not a BABY. She is able to communicate in ways other than shrieking and flailing, and she should do so. You gave her good advice - don't freak out and act like that, stay calm and ask someone to get the dog away. How is that harsh? It's reprimanding her a little I guess, telling her not to do what she was doing, but it's GOOD advice and it'll get her a lot farther with people accommodating her phobia of dogs than freaking and flailing about will.

Edit: ... I seriously had to come back and say how much it boggles my mind that what you said could be considered offensive. LOL.

PS - The only time I have ever tolerated something like that was with a developmentally disabled FOUR YEAR OLD who couldn't properly articulate his problem and resorted to smacking my therapy dog in the face with a book. Even he got a talking-to from his mother about why hitting wasn't okay, and I got an apology from her even though Dakota was fine.

I've had a "perfectly normal" teenage girl flip out on me for my service dog walking too close to her table in a restaurant (sorry if there's only about 3 feet of space and my dog comes within 2 feet of you...) and her excuse for her ridiculous, childish behavior was that she was afraid of dogs. People have a lot of phobias, I knew a girl who was legitimately petrified of young children but she didn't hit children when they came up to her... Have some self control ffs.

[Dogdragoness]

@RD Agreed & liked 100%