Help Please Postman & My Dog

Sammy_Girl

Hello,

Today I received a rather upsetting letter from Royal Mail, and I don't know what to do

In it it says:

It has been brought to my attention that a member of my staff who delivered mail to your address has recently been bitten by an uncontrolled dog that came out from your premises.

The delivery officer was thankfully not badly injured in the attack, but has some bruising to his leg. I am sure you will understand that we are most concerned about situations like these.

I must point out that legally, as defined in the "Dangerous Dogs Act", it is the owner's responsibility to keep the animal under control. I am therefore asking you to ensure that your dog is restrained at all times when postal deliveries are made.

Royal Mail is responsible for ensuring the safety of its employees and failure to keep your dog under control would mean that I would have no alternative other than to suspend the delivery of mail to your address. Obviously, I would prefer to avoid this course of action and would therefore very much appreciate your co-operation in this matter.

I sincerely hope that w can resolve these issues amicably and it will not be necessary for me to resort to these measures.

Basically, our dog hates the postman - I understand the territory thing, but he is fine if other visitors, gas man, tv man etc, come into the house. He has never made contact with the postman before - he only ever barks at the window. We have a fence around our front garden, so that he doesn't escape. Unfortunately we had a furniture delivery yesterday, and as always I asked the delivery man if he was ok with dogs and he said yes. He brought in the tables and chairs but unfortunately didn't close the door properly and din't close the gate at all. This happened at the time the postman was in the street. So my dog ran out of the gate and headed to the postman.

Now my dog is as soft as they come and has never bit a person or another animal before. As I ran over I saw my dog jump up at the postman's leg and he was shouting and swearing at him and pushed him off. Obviously I apologised profusely and took my dog away. I am concerned because the postman never said at the time that he had been bitten.

I feel awful as I imagine it must be a terrible thing to have a dog run straight for you, but now I'm worried that we can be reported to the police, and have my dog PTS.

On the one hand I want to write a letter back to the Delivery Manager, apologising profusely, but on the other hand I don't want to admit liability in case they take us to court. Sometimes when OH is playing with my dog, he "mouths" him like he used to when a puppy, so he may have "mouthed" the postman but I seriously doubt that he bit him.

Sorry for the long post, and please don't beat me down. I know my dog should not have escaped and I do feel awful for the postman, and we'll make sure that we shut the doors ourselves in the future, but I am genuinely worried about what could happen now.

What would you do? What would you suggest?

Thank you x

UKTigerlily

I think whether or not the dog bit the postie you should assume he did, it seems to me RM are being reasonable, i'd phone up asap & speak to the person who sent the letter & explain & apologise, I imagine they want reassurance that this won't happen again & if it does, then they'll go further. I'm sure they have a few dogs like this on their rounds, you can understand why RM want to be sure it doesn't happen again, the postie will have had to report it to his/her boss.

I don't think from the letter that they intend to take it further unless it happens again (Or maybe if you ignore it). I'd catch the postman again & apologise, maybe he could leave the post with next door or you could see if he comes at a set time & make sure the dogs locked in another room?

I understand he's never done this before, out of interest, was he a rescue dog? (Wondering if in his past there may have been an issue with postmen for the dog) if so, maybe you could get him used to them. Maybe walk him by them on the other side of the road & such?

I don't think you need to worry but I do think you need to contact RM to show you take it seriously & to say how you'll prevent it again. GL x

jennynoo

Dear Sammy, I see no one else has relied yet so I'll offer my two penny worth. I think you just need to write to Royal Mail and explain what happened. Perhaps suggest that the postman come and meet your dog so you can help train your dog not to react to the post man - there must be something about him that sets your dog off, maybe some smell or something? Good luck!

breezerockz

i agree with uktigerlily, they could have said so much worse in the letter, you will have to be more careful not to let your dog run out etc, from now on,
one of our posties is scared of my dog, when shes tied outside he wont come to house , leaves post on gate, the other knows she is ok,
as said, agree with above.

cheepskate_2

Sammy_Girl wrote: »

:


Basically, our dog hates the postman - I understand the territory thing, he only ever barks at the window.

Thank you x

Not trying to beat you down at the moment, but knowing that this is going on and allowing it, mabye you should start to deal with the problem so this is never the case again, by not stopping the dog i.e barking at window, it is showing dog this is ok

izzitme

I am a postman & recently 2 of my workmates have been attacked by dogs. One had the tip of his finger bitten off & he was off work for 6 weeks whilst recovering.
With the help of the union & the company, he is taking legal action to be compensated for his injury. He insisted that the dog should not be destroyed as he understood the territory thing.

My other colleague had a dog run at him through an open door. It jumped at him & also attacked the owner when she tried to get it under control. Royal Mail sent the same letter as you received.

The response was almost immediate. Within 1 hour of receiving the letter, the owner was on the phone to the boss. She apologised & said that the dog was normally in the back garden during the day & this was a "one-off". It would not happen again. Everything has been OK since.

All we ask is that we are allowed to post mail through your letterbox without fear of injury. If you cannot guarantee this, keep your dog shut in another room & put a basket on the back of the letterbox.

Above all, please contact the letter writer. I am sure that nobody wants to see an animal destroyed because of one incident.

Sammy_Girl

I was halfway through a reply, and the battery went and I lost the post :mad:

Thank you replying. I can't face a phone call as I am extremely embarrassed so I think an apologetic letter to the Delivery Man would be in order.

Unfortunately the Postie tends to come any time between 08:00 and 14:00, so predicting when he'll come is quite difficult.

I appreciate that RM are looking after their own employees, and I do feel awful.

If anyone has any tips or training methods to stop my dog from barking at the Postie, they would be much appreciated.

If we're walking along and he sees a postman (not necessarily ours) he does bark and pull on the lead. However this is the only time that he barks, the rest of the time when he's out he can be as quiet as a mouse.

It just seems to be the postman :beer: He did used to have a bark at the milkman, but that seems to have stopped now. Again I don't know why

Sammy_Girl

izzitme wrote: »

I am a postman & recently 2 of my workmates have been attacked by dogs. One had the tip of his finger bitten off & he was off work for 6 weeks whilst recovering.
With the help of the union & the company, he is taking legal action to be compensated for his injury. He insisted that the dog should not be destroyed as he understood the territory thing.

My other colleague had a dog run at him through an open door. It jumped at him & also attacked the owner when she tried to get it under control. Royal Mail sent the same letter as you received.

The response was almost immediate. Within 1 hour of receiving the letter, the owner was on the phone to the boss. She apologised & said that the dog was normally in the back garden during the day & this was a "one-off". It would not happen again. Everything has been OK since.

All we ask is that we are allowed to post mail through your letterbox without fear of injury. If you cannot guarantee this, keep your dog shut in another room & put a basket on the back of the letterbox.

Above all, please contact the letter writer. I am sure that nobody wants to see an animal destroyed because of one incident.

Gosh, I am sorr to hear about your wok colleagues

I can imagine it must be awful, after all the Postman is only trying to do his job. This is the first time that anything like this has happened, and I will make sure that it doesn't happen again. Normally, my dog cannot get to the front door as the door to the hallway is shut. He only ever barks at him through the window.

Thank you for your input.

UKTigerlily

hmm so if he's not a rescue who knows why he doesn't like them? Maybe he doesn't like the uniform colour or something weird lol

If he barks at a postie then is ok & stops reward him tons, maybe you could go to a dog training class or speak to a trainer who may shed some light on it!

MrsTinks

Firstly thank goodness the postie is ok
Secondly... from the dog perspective: Every day this person who looks the same comes up to his house, he barks at him lots and then it stuffs something in the door and because he barked even louder the person trying to invade his territory goes away! And guess what? It works every day! Never fails! Guy walks up, pushes stuff through letter flap and I bark and he does as he's told and goes away! Result!
So... now your dog has learnt that the postman should be scared away because he shouldn't be in his territory...
It's a learnt behaviour Which is good... because it can be corrected.
What happens when someone rings your door bell or comes in your house? This is important not just me being nosey

pboae

Often the problem with posties is that they actually come up to the door and rattle the letterbox (obviously, as that's their job) but it's an intrusion on territory that doesn't happen with say a milkman, and it's regular unlike a delivery man. The dog then barks to scare the postie away, and the postie leaves (which he would have done anyway), but to the dog it's been really successful in chasing off the intruder.

There are two ways to approach it, one is to stop it being successful. This means either getting a postie to help, or more realistically getting a friend to help by pretending to be a postie. They come up to the door rattle the letterbox, stuff things through the door, but stay making a noise until the dog stops barking. As soon as the dog quietens down they leave. Eventually the dog learns that barking and carrying on doesn't make them leave, but being quiet does. It's a time consuming process, and very hard to do if you can't control the situation and ensure the dog never gets to bark at a real postie during the training period. You also need understanding neighbours.

The other way is to remove the need for the postie to approach the door. Put a wall mounted letter box as close to the entrance of your property as you can. Preferably at the end of the driveway or round the side of the house, somewhere where the dog can't see it. But on the wall next to the front door is better than nothing.

In the meantime don't let the dog practice scaring people away. Stop him looking out of the window and barking at people, lock him out of that room if you have to, put that opaque sticky plastic on the window, whatever it takes, but remove the opportunity for him to do it.

Finally, if he is insured, speak to your insurers about it. If there is 3rd party liability cover (which there usually is) then you probably need their permission before you admit anything.