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That's unacceptable I would say. You're correct, the responsibility is on the owner to control Owen (edit: Barry). It sounds like a matter of time before one or both of your dogs gets injured, which isn't what anyone wants.
It must be hard for the owners to accept that their dog is the problem but they need to. If it's only 1 specific dog (yours) that they have issues with then it's not exactly going to be a drastic change or reduction in quality of life to keep him on the lead if they spot you.We've had a similar case with Crumpet, but with Crumpet being the nobhead. She's really taken to a dog in the park and wants to run around with it like she does with her best friends. That involves lots of noise and rough play and this other dog really doesn't like it and has snapped at Crumpet before. I now just put Crumpet on the lead and move to a different bit of the park so that she's not tempted to misbehave around that dog. I would say that it has reduced the quality of a walk where we bump into that dog by about 3%.
ltc-
Cheers. (Owen is my dog, btw, Barry is the cunt).
For clarity, Barry is not just being a nobhead and over enthusiastic (Owen has had his moments in that regard with other dogs for sure), Barry is genuinely monomaniacally obsessed with and aggressive towards Owen. Whenever he catches sight of him he is instantly growling, barking, frothing and dragging at the lead to get at him. It's insane. I've never seen a dog have as consistent or intense a reaction as this. I totally get that it must be stressful for his owners as well, but they are rapidly losing any goodwill I might have had towards them. The tricky thing is, the park we seem to always overlap in is the most convenient park for me and where Owen has lots of mates. Otherwise I'd just go elsewhere.
owl
Follow-up/rant here - it has happened three times in the past few days, yesterday Bazza was on lead when we entered the park (which, tbf, has been the case most times I've seen him recently, so thought they'd reached the only reasonable conclusion - being 'I should control my rabid teddybear of a dog') - I let Owen off to play with some friends he met and before I know it in comes Barry steaming after Owen. His owner doesn't recognise me and starts saying "that's Owen isn't it, don't worry, just leave them, I'll get mine when I can but it would be good to see what happens" - to which I tell him in fairly colourful terms to get control of his dog now and we will not be 'seeing what happens'. He performs a frankly impressive (and hilarious) rugby tackle of the tiny cunty stuffed-toy and off he drags him, still frothing and barking at Owen, who comes and hides between my legs (a truly ridiculous/pathetic sight if you can picture Owen). Next day, our walks overlap again and Barry is on lead again. Fine. Owen goes offlead to play with a mate and does, unfortunately, run in the general direction of Barry (who is stood with a load of other little dogs, Owen can't resist a dog-gathering). Owen never gets more than 10m from them, before veering off to play with some other dogs. I'm walking after, mildly embarrassed at his lack of recall, but knowing I'll soon have him on. Then, I hear a sudden shout and Barry seems to have burst free from his owner and is hooning straight towards Owen again. His owner, again, starts shouting 'don't put yours on, it will be easier if they're both off' which is just bollocks, and ignores the fact that Owen is almost always submissive and have previously laid down in the face of a Barry onslaught, with me only just reaching in time to grab Barry before he could do whatever his twisted mind was dreaming of. I, again, told him to fuck off and get his dog under control. At this point I said we needed to have a chat about this, and he shouted his address at me as he left. I popped round later, but no-one was in so I put a card through with my number on, asking him to call. He sent a message, just saying he received the card but was busy till Sunday. I then sent a message back saying thank you and would be happy to speak then. BUT, it then happened again this morning, Barry comes steaming over but I had Owen on lead so just grabbed him, dangling him away from Owen who was getting visibly stressed, understandably. Owner didn't say anything and looked exasperated. I got home absolutely fuming but managed to write a reasonably composed message explaining why I was anxious about this (Owen's a puppy, we have a 3 month old so have put loads of training into keeping him calm and not aggressive, these incidents have often caused a pronounced stress response lasting days and our last trainer - big lad, ex international rugby player - has a massive scar on his chest from his welsh terrier, so we know they can do damage) and asking what he thought we could do. He sent a message back saying there was a lot to take in and he'd have a think. I said if we could agree that Barry would be on-lead when they saw Owen in the park and he wouldn't start with all the 'let them sort it out', 'leave Owen off lead' nonsense that would be a really good start. He responded that keeping Barry on lead isn't an option and would be unfair on him. Absolutely no recognition/acknowledgment that as he has the monomaniacally aggressive dog, there is a responsibility on him to handle that. I know you're only reading my side here, but on my newborn's life, Owen has never aggressed or in any way instigated this shit with cuntyballs.
I am so close to actually losing my shit with this guy.
tldr/ Barry's a cunt and so's his owner.
edit - apologies for reply to Goats, I didn't mean to do that.