Please please help...dog death

Please please help me.

Last night, there was an incident involving my large dog. She doesn't like our neighbour's minature and extremely excitable dog, so I have always been so careful to keep them apart.

Last night though, our neighbours were off for a walk and their 2 dogs ran way ahead of them, onto our land and straight into my dogs. My big dog was on her lead but their dogs ran straight into us on a corner. It was literally a split second, I was busy falling over my pup and their other dog jumping up at me, I was looking down and if their dog wasn't on the ground I wouldn't have known that anything had happened. I didn't see a thing, it must have been one big bite and that was it.

I am utterly mortified, their dog was so little that she died of her injuries last night. I am just beside myself and cannot stop crying. I have no idea what to do. How on earth do I approach them, what do I do about my dog? They were obviously devastated last night but it was friendly, they blamed themselves as much as I do but things may have changed overnight when they have had a chance to sleep on it.

Although I didn't see what happened, it was clearly my dog that bit. I don't know what to do, I have third party insurance and am just waiting for the minute that they open. It feels like a catastrophic incident but I know that she is my dog and ultimately I am responsible. I feel like I have risked my own dogs life and am responsible for the little dog that they absolutely adored

My old dog got attacked twice while on the lead. Both times the police said it was nothing to do with them with it being dog on dog so don't worry. Also your dog was on its lead and under control so they only have themselves to blame. Their dog wasn't under control which in the end has caused this tragedy. Not nice for everyone involved but this is what happens when you don't have control of your dog. It could easily have been run over if it was running free in the street so don't beat yourself up about it.

Legally if the dog was on your land and off lead (therefore out of control) and your dog didn't welcome them then that's not really your problem. Legally you have no case to answer and I doubt whether your liability insurance will even entertain paying out because your dog wasn't the one that was out of control.

Emotionally, I'm sure you feel dreadful about it and I'm sure that I would too, but you can't turn the clock back. Nothing short of turning the clock back would probably satisfy your neighbours' wishes right now, which leaves an impasse.

If nothing else, I hope that this is a lesson to them that a dog running a long way away from their human could run into any sort of danger from being stolen to being harmed in a whole selection of ways, and they need to understand that if their dog was where their dog should have been then you would have been doing your bit to make sure that your dog was no danger at all to their dog. You are not responsible if circumstances occurred which were beyond your control.

U av nothing to worry about, facts ur land and ur dog on lead case shut i would say.

Have you spoken to your insurance people? that or maybe give the dangerous dogs act a read as that might give you some ideas.

Hope you are able to resolve this soon!

Thank you so much for your help and advice.

We've had some great professional and legal advice and everyone has said that we are not liable. That doesn't help with my neighbour's grief unfortunately. Their dog wasn't insured, so we have been presented with a huge vets bill. Our insurance won't accept responsibility, so it's just a matter of trying to keep the peace and perhaps offer half. I'm not sure that they will be happy with this but it's all that we can afford.

They feel that they're letting their dog's memory down and are unofficially reporting it to the police and dog warden. They accept that their dogs were out of control but that doesn't matter. My dog was never dangerously out of control, I hope that the authorities will take that into account. The advice we've had is that this is a civil matter but with our breed of dog it is never that simple.

We're doing everything that we possibly can. Our dog is muzzled and on a lead, it doesn't feel like we can do anything else but I know that it will never be enough for our neighbours. Just horribly uncomfortable living.