Fortunately, for me, they picked out Brad Pitt on the ID parade. So, I'm off the hook.. until next time.
My dog was his usual impeccable self. If he can hear me, then he's in my control. In fact, he doesn't even need to hear me, as he will stop and wait. Or, as you can see in the video, come to me without the need to be told. He'll drop down when ordered and avoid hazards such as attacking dogs, bikes and people, quite competently. In over 5k miles joring and biking, he's yet to cause an issue. Although, I would never bet against that ever happening because he's just a dog.
My speed, alerting the parties ahead well in advance, me moving to the left side grass verge, was appropriate to react to the situation, which I was able to do. Any slower, or closer to the people and dog I was passing, and I would have lost the velocity to swerve and most likely would have hurt that labrador on impact. So, the speed was contributory in avoiding any collision.
Too slow and people whinge about the time I take to pass them. Too slow and I don't get where I'm going as quickly as I'd like. Many bikes on that path do over 20 mph past people. They don't use their bells either.
As for the poll. The correct answer would be 'The chocolate labs owners.' Like it or not, that's just the way it is. They tried to hold a dog, that appeared to be quite well trained, on ball drive alone. It didn't quite work out that way when they dropped the ball.
I had no problem with this minor incident or the dog. Clearly, they were upset with their dog and I had to pay for it somehow.
These things happen to us quite a lot. As this video below shows.