Southchurch Park this time....

....and another scary dog moment!  It's going to be back to the safety of the allotments and flower photography for me!  On arrival an owner of two very lively Border Collies opened the door of his camper van and the two dogs flew out in great excitement and ran around in totally mad circles while the owner got ready for a walk with a ball.  They were fine and disappeared in a different direction.  I caught up on my walk with a huge dog ( a Leonberger I think) which I have seen before in the park.  Normally he's part of a group of older chaps who sit in a group to chat.  I was about to pass him as he was walking slowly when the "mad-as-hell" Borders appeared from nowhere still in very excitable mode. The sleepy old Leonberger sprang into action, pinning one of them to the ground.  There was terrible sound of yelping, growling, barking.  The big dog owner had to use all his strength to pull his dog away and calm him.  The collie whimpered and shook himself clean but appeared ok and then to my horror the owner released his grip on the big dog - he had no lead on him.  I was already walking away in a different direction with my tiny scrap of a dog in my arms fearing the resumption of hostilities but no....all was calm and I think the two owners  appeared to clear the air before walking away.  A group of ladies also looked on with horror and asked if I was ok.  They confirmed that the Leonberger was a regular and they had never seen it behave like that before.  It does show that our pets can display unpredictable behaviour however confident one may be that they would never do that.  The Borders made no approach to the Leon but their highly excitable state may have triggered something protective in him.  Who knows?  Just glad it ended ok.