Brightside Mine - loose dog.

[Alfexplore]

Just a word of caution should anybody take the driveway/path up past the former Brightside Mine area near Calver (Now a guest room) or indeed if visiting sites further up the trail. As i came past the said guesthouse a very menacing and large dog shot out of its wide open door and started making very aggressive threats and sudden lunges to me. It definitely belonged to the main house, below, and all the commotion, including me shouting at the dog, which seemed to help, bought the owner to his front door and called the dog in , without a care in the world that the dog had come very close to actually attacking me. The point im making is that this path isn't used that much so the owner didn't bother taking precautions, with the dog being able to roam the site, freely. Even the Driveway gate to the main road was open. Please be careful as this dog was as close as it could have been to attacking me. I'm made of stern stuff and it didn't bother me too much but next time somebody may not be so fortunate, specially if young children walk past.

 

[Lankyman]

I don't know the locality - is the track a public right of way? You might consider reporting the incident to the Peak NP (or whoever is responsible for rights of way down there). I had a dog being 'over excited' in the Dales a few weeks ago and alerted the NP. It was on a public footpath going through a farmyard and I suspect the dog was deliberately on the loose there to put people off.

 

[Alfexplore]

It is 100% a right of way even though its on somebodies driveway. I will give the Dog owner the benefit of the doubt as an oversight based on the fact that i wouldn't think that many people or using the path or maybe he didn't know the dog had got out or somebody in the guest house left the door open. Nevertheless next time i go up there i will be very cautious.

 

[pwhole]

I've been up there a few times over the years, but never seen a dog, so not sure if it's a recent addition. To be honest, I've never seen a person there either.

 

[Stoney Boy]

They've been reported to the police previously.

 

[Lankyman]

They've been reported to the police previously.

This sounds a bit ominous. I'm a dog/cat person and usually get on famously with them. There does seem to be a small number of people though who either don't care or don't realise that their dog's behaviour can seem (or be) threatening. It might be sensible to report an incident before someone actually gets hurt, which would be in everyone's interest (including the owner and the dog).

 

[Alfexplore]

Being as the police don't bother attending break ins with any haste means I'm not wasting my time reporting something as trivial as a dog that viciously came at me and a colleague, on a public footpath, they would be far too busy for that sort of thing. Looks like its not the 1st instance.

 

[wildsurf]

Being as the police don't bother attending break ins with any haste means I'm not wasting my time reporting something as trivial as a dog that viciously came at me and a colleague, on a public footpath, they would be far too busy for that sort of thing. Looks like its not the 1st instance.

When a dog escaped and bit my son whilst he was out on his bike the local police were brilliant. We only reported it because we were worried that it was a track popular with young families and had it been a much smaller child it could have been a lot worse.
Police visited the same day and came back the a few days later to tell us what they'd done. Said dog is still there on occasion, but much more securely enclosed in the garden. Owners got a caution and had to go on some kind of course or lose the dog.
I just admit we did not expect much to come of our police report and we probably wouldn't have bothered if it wasn't for fact when I went to the house to make them aware their dog was loose there was no one home and it went for me too (and subsequently the police when they visited).

 

[Pete K]

Being as the police don't bother attending break ins with any haste means I'm not wasting my time reporting something as trivial as a dog that viciously came at me and a colleague, on a public footpath, they would be far too busy for that sort of thing. Looks like its not the 1st instance.

I expect that the police are unlikely to take action based on a single report like this. However if this was also experienced previously by other people and everyone had reported it, I bet the police would then take some action. It might seem like a waste of time to you now based on one encounter, but several reported incidents demonstrate a pattern of behaviour to the authorities, who will then have some justification to approach this person. If you don't log it, nothing will ever be done about it. Not until someone gets bitten anyway.

 

[ChrisB]

Police may not attend a break in because they can't actually do anything. They don't have the resources to get there while the criminal is still there, or to take forensic evidence and investigate. No outcome that scores them any performance points.

Whereas a dog that's been reported more than once can be followed up whenever they have time, and action taken, and positive statistics generated.

 

[Alfexplore]

I have submitted a report to the local police