Firstly I'd like to thank anyone that reads this entire post because I know it will be a long one., wasn't sure what to write in the title.
My partner and I run a business situated next door to our home. We have 3 dogs, and I have one dog in the office as company more than anything each day, so each dog is in once every 3 days. We have 2 lurchers and 1 whippet, one of the lurchers being the same size as a whippet. 2 of our dogs wouldn't make a noise or hurt a fly. One is what we call 'gobby' ie she greets everyone with a waggy tail in our business premises but if she thought someone was to threaten us I know she would bark, she also barks in our home when someone knocks just to let us know someone is at the door.
This last week it happened to be her day in the office. A customer who we'd had a disagreement with a bill over 3 weeks ago turned up. Seemingly to arrange for us to do another job for him, seemed very pleasant and like everything was ok. He asked my partner to check for something which meant he would have to go through to the far end of our buildings, instead of following him he came around to the private office and stood there looking at me. I said hello and asked him if he wanted a drink while he waited and invited him to go around to the customers lobby. He simply said no, I want words about the previous bill, I'm not happy with you. I calmly told him I wasn't going to argue about it and believed it had been sorted as everything had been signed off. The second I said I wouldn't argue about it as I could hear he was wanting an argument from his tone of voice. His body language changed and walked into the office. I asked him politely to go around to the customers area as the office was for staff only and then he flipped, started shouting profanities at me and and told me to f### off you little b###### I'll do what I f###### like and started calling me all the names under the sun. I then picked up the phone and said if he didn't stop threatening me I would call the police, he then came at me so I dialled 999.
My little gobby whippety lurcher started barking at him the second he got aggressive with me, not that he even glanced at her or seemed bothered by it, after all she doesn't look like anything intimidating (she never growled once). By now my partner could hear the dog barking and came running through and got there just as he got in my face and spat at me. As he came at me to spit, although I honestly thought he was going to headbutt me, my little whippety lurcher went to nip his leg but because my partner got there at the right second and stepped between myself and the man and so she got my partners leg instead. It was hardly a nip, she's missing 2 of her canine teeth anyway so doubt she could do any damage if she wanted to. She's never done anything like it before in all the years we've had her, my 6 year old son plays with her all the time, and has grown up with her, I'm 100% sure it was just purely because she thought the guy was going to hurt me.
My question is, after all that, other than it making me bit of a nervous wreck, I'm so very worried that he will try and get our lovely girl taken away and pts out of spite. Could he do that? We don't have signs up because I was told not to put signs saying about a dog being in the office because we would be liable if she so much as barked. So is she safe because she was protecting me in our place of business and was just barking at him? (I doubt he saw her nip my partner because I didn't know she'd done it until my partner told me) Do I need to have a sign up to say we have a dog in the office? We only have a sign on our garden gate as we live on a main road saying 'caution, dogs running loose' purely because we don't want people walking in the back way as they have been known to and let them out onto the main road. Should I call the police back and let them know my dog barked at him when he threatened me just in case? I'm more worried about my little girl getting taken away than this guy coming back for round 2.
My partner and I run a business situated next door to our home. We have 3 dogs, and I have one dog in the office as company more than anything each day, so each dog is in once every 3 days. We have 2 lurchers and 1 whippet, one of the lurchers being the same size as a whippet. 2 of our dogs wouldn't make a noise or hurt a fly. One is what we call 'gobby' ie she greets everyone with a waggy tail in our business premises but if she thought someone was to threaten us I know she would bark, she also barks in our home when someone knocks just to let us know someone is at the door.
This last week it happened to be her day in the office. A customer who we'd had a disagreement with a bill over 3 weeks ago turned up. Seemingly to arrange for us to do another job for him, seemed very pleasant and like everything was ok. He asked my partner to check for something which meant he would have to go through to the far end of our buildings, instead of following him he came around to the private office and stood there looking at me. I said hello and asked him if he wanted a drink while he waited and invited him to go around to the customers lobby. He simply said no, I want words about the previous bill, I'm not happy with you. I calmly told him I wasn't going to argue about it and believed it had been sorted as everything had been signed off. The second I said I wouldn't argue about it as I could hear he was wanting an argument from his tone of voice. His body language changed and walked into the office. I asked him politely to go around to the customers area as the office was for staff only and then he flipped, started shouting profanities at me and and told me to f### off you little b###### I'll do what I f###### like and started calling me all the names under the sun. I then picked up the phone and said if he didn't stop threatening me I would call the police, he then came at me so I dialled 999.
My little gobby whippety lurcher started barking at him the second he got aggressive with me, not that he even glanced at her or seemed bothered by it, after all she doesn't look like anything intimidating (she never growled once). By now my partner could hear the dog barking and came running through and got there just as he got in my face and spat at me. As he came at me to spit, although I honestly thought he was going to headbutt me, my little whippety lurcher went to nip his leg but because my partner got there at the right second and stepped between myself and the man and so she got my partners leg instead. It was hardly a nip, she's missing 2 of her canine teeth anyway so doubt she could do any damage if she wanted to. She's never done anything like it before in all the years we've had her, my 6 year old son plays with her all the time, and has grown up with her, I'm 100% sure it was just purely because she thought the guy was going to hurt me.
My question is, after all that, other than it making me bit of a nervous wreck, I'm so very worried that he will try and get our lovely girl taken away and pts out of spite. Could he do that? We don't have signs up because I was told not to put signs saying about a dog being in the office because we would be liable if she so much as barked. So is she safe because she was protecting me in our place of business and was just barking at him? (I doubt he saw her nip my partner because I didn't know she'd done it until my partner told me) Do I need to have a sign up to say we have a dog in the office? We only have a sign on our garden gate as we live on a main road saying 'caution, dogs running loose' purely because we don't want people walking in the back way as they have been known to and let them out onto the main road. Should I call the police back and let them know my dog barked at him when he threatened me just in case? I'm more worried about my little girl getting taken away than this guy coming back for round 2.
