Over the autumn my dogs have twice had an off leash Staffie roar up to them, and he has then tried to mount them. He stopped short both times when I shouted at him and the owner came up and leashed him. These incidents both happened with my younger dog, thankfully. The older one would have reacted extremely badly and there may well have been a fight.

Luckily a couple of days later I saw the owner when I did not have the dogs with me so I approached him. He said he was sorry but his dog only wanted to play, and was a puppy and would not hurt a fly. I said that the behaviour was unacceptable and that even if his dog would not attempt to bite mine, mine would surely attempt to bite his if he or I could not shout the dog off in time. He then had the nerve to tell me that his dog “only wants to show his dominance”. I told him in no uncertain terms that there was no reason on earth why my dogs should have to tolerate his dog showing his dominance and said that if he did not put his dogs on leash if he saw us in the distance I would have to make an official complaint. He was the type of chap I actually had some misgivings about approaching but he seemed to understand the issue and appears to have changed the time of his walks so we haven’t run into him since.