Walking my dog today when a woman (running) overtook us. She had a dog on a long lead, maybe 6' or so. As they passed, her dog immediately lunged at mine, barking, snarling, drooling - the whole lot! It was so aggressive that I was afraid not only for my own dog, but for myself. I stayed still, shortened my own dog's lead and made her stand quietly beside me. All the time the woman's fighting to control her dog while it's just going ballistic. I guess my "disapproval" was obvious and she just laughed and said "That's how they communicate" as if talking to a five year-old. She ran off with her dog still fighting to get back to mine.

What are people like this thinking?? A nice couple that saw the whole exchange came up to ask if I was ok and commented on my own dog's behaviour. I can't believe people with aggressive dogs never seem to think they're doing anything wrong!

Thank you for listening/reading - rant over!

This is always very scary. I'm really glad you're ok. I think there's no way of avoiding this kind of situation because it just highlights how different people think. Or in her case, don't. People will always ignore the truth of the situation - and I find people rarely accept responsibility for their own actions or in this case their dogs.

She obviously felt this was acceptable when in reality it's absolutely not.

One woman's dog nipped Harley 6 months ago and he was terrified and she just laughed it off as though her dog was playing.

Really drives me mad, we have had aggressive dogs and never allowed them to cause anyone any problem so I know it can be done but number of people these days don't want to put the work in and keep everyone safe. Result if that is more and more aggressive dogs as once an aggressive dog attacks a friendly one it often makes the friendly one scared and then they become aggressive too.

I think aggressive dogs seem to be the current trend among the chav-tastics in the world. They all think it's really cool to be seen out with a snarling beast on the end of a lead, they think it makes them look hard. I think it just makes them look stupid and not in control.

Thank you for the supportive words everyone

I am the owner of a lead reactive dog who is lovely to dogs off lead but has suffered two attacks by dogs who were off lead. This has made her scared. We are working with a behaviourist to help our dog and getting there and the key for us is distance.

It's so sad to hear that another dog who is clearly not happy on the lead is in the wrong hands. There are so many sites and methods to help - the BAT technique has been our saviour.