Aggressive dogs and stubborn owners
I apologise for the long text, this is a vent post so I have to write all the relevant facts.
For context, I am more than happy how stable and well behaved my dog is, I have put a lot of effort into her training and her being a border collie she takes to training very well (talking about behavioural training here). She is also naturally submissive female dog ever since we got her.
Normal walking route through park I take my dog is usually filled with off leash dogs which I usually don't have a problem with if they just pass by us or even if they come to sniff, my dog is also off leash but she is trained to heel next to me when we pass both off-leash and on-leash dogs on the walk and she usually ignores them anyways(she is all toy motivated, doesn't care about other dogs and she knows if she ignores other dogs passing by she will get her ball when they are at a safe distance). She has a perfect recall history, never failed to not recall ever since being a little puppy.
Soo today we stopped to throw her ball uphill on the side of the main trail. It's not a crowded walk though the forest and we could see both sides of the trail quite far so we usually stop throwing her ball if somebody is passed just to prevent any scenes if other dogs are not trained. We were throwing her ball about 5 minutes without anyone passing by and then two large rough collies suddenly appeared out of nowhere and were rushing towards our dog barking. She was recalling with her ball towards us and dogs were rushing to her from the side and one got within a few centimetres from her behind with open mouth ready to bite. Luckily the collie didn't manage to bite her since she was running back towards us faster and she recalled behind me and my bf while we stepped infront of the two dogs and stopped them from pursuing her further. We looked around and couldn't find the owner for about 30 seconds after which he emerged for a side trail opposite from us and the hill. He is screaming trying to recall the dogs which they eventually listen tlittle late there bud). He then put their leash on and told them off. Then instead of apologising to us he was trying to "defuse" the situation by saying "that wasn't aggresive, if they wanted to bite they would have gone for the thoat" and so on and so on. Somehow we managed to be at fault for throwing the ball (again, we watch out to not do that around other dogs but that doesn't excuse their aggressive behaviour and obviously they ran from far away where we couldn't even see them when we threw it). I am beyond furious at the owner for trying to blame us for his aggressive dogs. We already ran into the owner and his dogs before and every time they are either on the leash barking and pulling towards our dog while passing by or they are off leash and charging towards her but we step inbetween and they stop. All the other times we were just passing by them while she was locked into heel and ignoring them, this was the first time a toy was involved in the situation so I don't believe it's just because she was running with a ball. This was also the first time we were not close enough to her or them to actually step between them but also luckily she was running back to us and was faster this time. I am scared for future encounters that we won't be so lucky.
Soo my question is are we at fault here? Even partially?
Also is there any preventive measure we could take for the next time we meet them(hopefully not). It's obvious he isn't training his dogs to be calm when meeting other dogs cause we have been walking this path for a year now and met them about 10 times and every time it is the same behaviour. He didn't correct them even one time before today when they acted like that towards our dog (and I'm sure all others on that trail), today was the first time he actually corrected them but maybe that was just because I said to leash them cause they were aggressive.
I have been twisting and turning in the bed for hours now trying to fall asleep but even tho this happened nearly 10 hours ago it still haunts me and I am extremely anxious thinking about the next time we encounter them. I tried to give her pets while that whole situation with the owner unfolded to not give her any stress but I am sure she picked up on my stress. She forgot about the situation instantly and was offering her ball to me.
