""A lead is a good thing but a muzzle can be a bit of overkill.""

I would have thought so too, until about three years ago, when I saw a toy poodle remove half a finger from a three year old outside a shop.

A split second, a bark, a yell from the child, mum looked up from where she was putting her purse into her handbag. Too late!

The kiddie was under control with mum holding a set of reins. Pity the dog wasn't.

It ain't size, it's temper, that determines the degree of harm, and in that case had the dog been muzzled, it wouldn't have mattered that he was walking ten paces ahead of his owner, with no lead.

Don T.