SUSAN Clarke makes a caustic comment in her letter about her puppy bitch that was attacked and scarred by another dog while being exercised.

She was walking with the dog and its companion in the countryside with each of them apparently off their leads when the incident, and that prior to the attack she and the owner of the other dog were concealed from each other.

To ascribe the blame on the other guy simply because she believes his dog should have been on a lead seems a little unjust and slanted.

My last dog was a re-homed dog and inevitably she came with some baggage – aggression toward other dogs and, needless to say, cats. She was exercised on a lead with her first walk was at 5am to avoid confrontations with other dogs.

Walks later in the day were problematic.

Still on a lead she would be continually harassed by dogs running around unchecked and with their owners seemingly unconcerned with where they were.

But when she nipped one of her tormenters, very often the owner would not have the effrontery not only to give me venomous looks, but in some instances also have the nerve to tell you to control the dog better.

I have lost count of how many times that I have told these misguided owners that my dog dislikes other dogs and that is the reason why she is on the lead. And as for Susan saying responsibility should not be on the owners of dogs displaying perfectly normal social greeting behaviour; that is absolute rubbish.

All breeds of dog have characteristic temperament differences and even the most obedient and docile dogs can act out of character. Dogs are dogs and they can easily revert to type for no apparent reason.

I am not saying that placing the blame on the other person for what happened isn’t valid this instance, but the guy must be aware of his dog and its traits.

I doubt that he would have let it off the lead otherwise. But with Susan to have a five-month-old puppy off the lead and one that she says is “training in progress” then that was somewhat naive to say the least, and that this could have been a contributory factor in the subsequent incident.

John B Waldron Stourbridge