It was an attack, yes. Unfortunately Katy's sister, Gypsy was very reactive and would bark at anything with a pulse. They were both on a lead, the terrier wasn't. Dad snatched Katy up but the terrier jumped and bit into her tail, ripping the end off as it fell back. It was horrible.
Mum rarely walked them out after that. Only if she had either me or dad with her and we were armed with a stick. It almost happened again with a labrador that grabbed Lucy, but luckily she was wearing a coat and he only came away with fluff in his gob. Again though, Gypsy was the root cause.
I loved that dog like she was my own (she was in the end for the last 5 years of her life) but she was a nightmare. 14lb of pure fear aggression. The worst case of 'small dog syndrome' I've ever known. She'd try and take on dogs 4x her size (and Katy would pay for it).
When we inherited them, I got them both yellow and black 'NERVOUS' leads. But people never take any notice, they just let their dogs bounce up with "It's OK he's friendly" while I have a tasmanian devil on the end of the lead and end up screaming "Lovely, but this one ISN'T!"
That’s terrible. Ivor was attacked a few times, and he became nervous around big dogs. I tried not to pick him up as my view was always that if I started doing that it would imprint on him the right to be fearful and I wanted him to build his confidence
I did have to pick him up once though as this dog just wouldn’t leave him alone. The owner thought it was funny!! Tbh, our preference was to walk Ivor off lead as much as possible (he could also outrun danger)
With you on that one. If we got in serious trouble with another dog I'd let them run if possible. Ours are off lead pretty much anywhere that isn't a road (within reason, not near livestock or ground nesting birds etc). They have excellent recall and nothing short of a greyhound would catch them.