Dealing with dog attacks

Marigold

Marigold

Moderator
PKF Supporter
Joined
Apr 30, 2011
Messages
8,130
Reaction score
193
Location
Hampshire, U.K.
Feeling all shaken up and tearful ATM. Behind our house there is a large grass field, owned by the Council, which is used by many people for dog walking and as a gateway to the surrounding countryside. My dog Trog is a very small and quite elderly Norfolk Terrier. I usually keep him on the lead, more to keep him moving than to prevent him running off, as otherwise he investigates every clump of grass at length and progress is slow. Also in the past, over the years, he has been attacked by various out-of-control and larger dogs, so he's understandably nervous when a strange dog approaches, and he gets in first with defensive growling. This morning we were out walking when an 8-month-old Staffie bitch appeared round a corner, running loose, and raced up to us. They started growling at each other, and as I've had a run-in with this dog before when she tried to attack Trog, I attempted to grab her collar and pull her off. Very quickly this situation escalated and she was trying to fasten on to Trog's neck and the tone of her growling was changing to definite threat. Her owner then appeared a hundred yards or so behind, and I shouted to her to help me get her dog off. She just continued strolling at a gentle walking pace, not hurrying at all, totally useless. By the time she eventually arrived, Trog was crying with fear and pain and the Staffie had hold of his neck and was biting him. I had made several attempts to catch her collar and eventually I managed this and did pull her off just as the owner arrived.
We then had a heated exchange of words, with absolutely no apology at all from the woman for her dog's behaviour, no enquiries about Trog, and no acceptance that her dog was in any way out of line. As is usual with such people I got lines like 'she has a very sweet nature' and 'she gets on well with lots of other dogs' 'she wasn't hurting him' and 'she only wanted to play, she's just a puppy.' Never mind that, at 8 months old, she's already 3 times Trog's size and is learning behaviour which will make her more dangerous as she matures. This dog attacked Trog about a month ago, and again the woman didn't intervene or help at all, it was left to a man who happened to be near with his own dog to help me on that occasion, and we were just near our back gate so I got him inside quickly without speaking to the owner. Luckily Trog has a thick coat and wasn't injured, but each time he's attacked by another dog he gets more worried about meeting strange dogs and must appear to other people as nasty and snappy, though he's fine with friendly dogs he knows personally. Also I was very frightened and upset myself, I'm in my 70s, I have a heart condition and asthma, and this sort of thing does me no good at all.
I'm also worried now about meeting this dog again - it would be a shame if we couldn't use the field for fear of it -I had thought I'd take my riding whip next time and use it if necessary, but don't want to feel I have to do this. Any ideas on how to deal with this?
BTW, I used to teach the woman, at Primary school, and her mother had great success with puppy-walking for Guide Dogs, so there should be some knowledge within the family about how to train puppies, though unfortunately she's dead now and thus unable to help!
 
Oh Marigold I am so sorry! What an awful shock for you and poor Trog.. :( :(

I am horrified by the womans attitude, absolutely appalling! I am not too sure of the best way forward in this, whether there is somewhere she could be reported?

I have heard that portable sonic repellents can be quite useful, if her dog is susceptible to them?

http://www.primrose.co.uk/advanced-portable-sonic-dog-repeller-p-1271.html

t doesn't sound like the dogs fault but an inexcusable apathy on the owners side, some people really ought not to have dogs! :x
 
Very upsetting Marigold! I have had a similar experience in the past, and sadly at the time, my 'Defensive' instincts were aroused and things got a little out of hand shall we say, in my dealings with the aggressive dog and it's owner!
I might hasten to add that my reaction was certainly NOT the best approach to the situation. Marigold, if you know this other owner and have hitherto been on reasonable terms with her, could you approach her and discuss the situation with her? Hopefully in a less 'charged' situation she may understand the upset and risk of physical and Psychological damage this situation is putting poor little Trog and yourself at? Perhaps in a plea to her 'kinder' nature she may see sense and control her dog in the future?
 
Thank you both for your kind words. The sonic repeller looks a really good idea, foxy, I didn't know about them. The link you provided was out of stock but others were on Amazon so have ordered one and shall walk Trog somewhere else until it arrives. As the Staffie is still quite young I hope this will help, and anyway it will give me more confidence. Yes, Lordcluck, my husband said I should have kicked the dog hard in the guts, but this would have been easier said than done with both of them whirling round and growling, without poor little Trog getting an extra booting by mistake. Anyway, I don't think I'm very good at kicking dogs, this would have put me in the wrong with her owner, and it wasn't at all the dog's fault, she's just a half-grown untrained puppy whose hunting and fighting instincts were aroused and who was right out of control. I don't suppose she has any recall, but as the woman wasn't even attempting to call her off I couldn't say.
I don't think talking to the woman would do any good at all. She was quite impervious to the evident distress that both Trog and I were experiencing, in fact she couldn't accept that we weren't just making a fuss over nothing and that it was OK for her dog to 'play' with mine. I shall just try to keep clear in future, but as her dog is allowed to roam at will a long way away from her, this is quite difficult, and i can see the problem may get worse as the dog gets bigger.
 
Marigold, I'm so sorry about your experience, I do hope Trog is ok and physically uninjured! Having had dogs all my life and owning and training Golden Retrievers for the last 35 years I understand very well your fear of meeting unfriendly dogs! I dread this all the time. Of course, being Golden Retrievers, mine love every dog and every person they meet, but unfortunately the dogs they meet are not always so friendly! As this is not the first time this has happened to you with this dog you could report it to the RSPCA as this is potentially a dangerous dog and could be a danger to you or a young child. Whether they will do anything about it or not I don't know. It all depends on the inspector who covers your area. The second thing I would do is get a 'dog stop alarm'. You can buy them on the internet and it will give you peace of mind when walking your dog. If you do get one, try to make sure either you have your own dog on the lead before you use it or get him used to it first with reward training, otherwise it could startle him and he may run off. Obviously in an emergency it would be best just to use it anyway to stop any dogs attacking your dog.

The other problem you may have now is that your dog is giving off the wrong signals because he is frightened of being attacked and if you meet an unfriendly dog this won't help the situation. He will also pick up on your anxiety and tension. It may be useful if you can meet up with some dogs he doesn't know or not very well and re train him with rewards to be more relaxed around new dogs.

Hope this helps, but if I can be of any further help please let me know.

Hope you're ok.

Best wishes,
Sue
 
my sister used to use a loud horn to distract her dogs if they started,
im petrified of dogs coming near me if i have a dog with me, i get in a right state quite offen picking up the dog and running. people tell me there dog is good with other dogs and bring them over to me this is when their dog and mine now fly at each other
iv seen to many dog fights and also at a tot had my face ripped to bits by my nans dog to even risk it
my fear really spoils what could be a very nice walk and i wont go to the pond (which is the nicest dog walk ) in case i bump in to another dog
so hope you can find some way of doing your walk with out fear
hope your dog is ok now
 
Sue said:
The other problem you may have now is that your dog is giving off the wrong signals because he is frightened of being attacked and if you meet an unfriendly dog this won't help the situation. He will also pick up on your anxiety and tension. It may be useful if you can meet up with some dogs he doesn't know or not very well and re train him with rewards to be more relaxed around new dogs.
Best wishes,
Sue
Click to expand...
thanks Sue, yes Trog is fine, slept in the sun all afternoon and has just got his own back on the world by chasing a cat out of the garden (not a hope of catching it, but maybe it will leave the nesting birds alone in future!) When Trog was a puppy, we did all the right things, as we did for our previous Norfolk, took him to APTDT training and socialisation classes, took him out to meet people and dogs, and he came from a very experienced breeder who had all the puppies in her kitchen with their mother and another 'uncle' older dog, so he had a good start, and he wasn't our first dog. By nature, he's not so confident as our previous one, although they were cousins, and unfortunately he was first attacked quite badly by a black Lab. bitch when he was quite little (Norfolks are so tiny when they are puppies, they can sit on your hand and weigh the same as a bag of sugar at 8 weeks, so even at a few months they are not very big and can easily get overawed by large dogs. He still only weighs in at less than 13lbs and is 10 ins high, so you can imagine what a bigger dog must look like to him.) I think a lot of people with big, young, boundy dogs just don't understand that their dogs do look threatening to small ones who don't want to play their sort of active games.
We did all the things you suggest, Sue, and as I said he's now fine with most of the dogs he meets, and I don't feel nervous about meeting other dogs because although he does growl at new ones (especially harmless black Labs, he's a bit racist about black dogs!) I have him under control and most of them just look a bit surprised and don't take him seriously. But over the years, just as I think he's getting better, something like this happens and we're back to Square 1. At his age, (12) and with his experiences, I don't think retraining is much of an option, he just does his best to look and sound fierce, although he's a teddy bear really and has never attacked another dog himself, too scared I think!
So I'm looking forward to trying the zapper, will let you know how I get on. If I do see the woman out walking, I think I shall just say 'how disappointed your mother would have been, to see you with such an uncontrolled dog, when she knew so much about how a puppy should be trained.'
 
Marigold it is very obvius that the woman is absolutly blinded by her dog and she will do nothing to improve.I would report her to correct body (not sure council or RSPCA)especially that this happened for the second time! Dog ovner is responsible to keep his dog uner control all the time if they can't do it they should not have a dog in the first place.I know that you had ordered this special divice until arrive you can use empty plastic bottle with dozen of stones inside-screw the top back on and next time any dog try to aproch shake the bottle hard next to the dog ear.Works every time,this metod is used somtimes to condition dogs so they know they action are unwanted.i hope you do not have to use it but worth of trying.
 
Hi Marigold, such a sad tale. I think you should report the owner as Tyg says. The fact that the dog is showing such aggressive tendancies at still a relatively young age is very worrying. At 8 months old the dog is not a 'puppy' it is an adolescent and should know better. What you described wasn't puppyish play fighting.

What if this dog went on to attack a child.

I had a dog many years ago who had been badly mistreated as a puppy and had aggressive tendancies. She was vicious to other dogs and suspicious of other people. I always kept her on a lead in public but after she killed two cats in my garden and in my parents garden I had her put to sleep. it broke my heart but it was the right thing to do. I was terrifed she would do something worse.

My sister works for the Dogs Trust and they very recently had a new dog attack and kill one of their 'longtimers' - it's very distressing but it does happen.
 
i couldn't report the owner because, although I know her first name from my past contact as her teacher, and I know she lives locally, her name has changed and she isn't in the phone book and i don't know her address. I tried to find her phone number to ring her last night, but no joy. Also, on this occasion no actual injury was caused. The law is pretty useless in this area. My daughter used to live at the end of a long cul-de-sac lane in the country, with an unadopted private road. To walk the dog (and her young baby in a pushchair) she had to pass a cottage with a totally unrestrained and aggressive dog, which one day rushed out and savaged her dog (who was on the lead) so badly that the vet had difficulty in saving his eye. You can imagine what this did to Sara, on her own with a baby and a bleeding and traumatised dog, and again no help from the owner. He wouldn't even pay the vets bill. They reported it to the police and the dog warden, but they said that, legally, they couldn't prosecute because the attack wasn't on a public highway and was the first such attack reported about this dog. It did subsequently have another go at her dog, after which they moved house, from the cottage they loved and had spent a lot of time and care on. So reporting my little incident, not even on any sort of road, would be useless. I've read about postmen being attacked and not compensated because they were on the private path between the road and the house door, and only last week a delivery man was evidently very nervous when Trog came ambling out to greet him, recounting a story of a near escape from a vicious German Shepherd loose in the garden - he said 'I just threw the parcel towards the door and jumped over the fence.'
This did leave me feeling very shaky, goodness knows what I'd have felt like if Trog had been injured rather than 'just' badly frightened. But I'm determined this woman and dog isn't going to stop us using the field - i shall go armed next time, not only with my zapper but with my riding whip. I've had this whip for over 50 years, still in good nick as I never needed to use it on any of our own ponies, but it might teach this dog a lesson!
 
Good for you Marigold, but be careful. You don't want to get into trouble yourself, or worse, hurt!
 
Sorry to hear about your terrible experience Marigold. But please do NOT take anything that could be percieved as a deliberately carried weapon. You could potentially be charged for 'intent to cause bodily harm' if other owner says you threatened them with it. Umbrella or walking stick perhaps, as they have legitimate purpose. Believe me, if you cannot justify your possession of any item that may be used to cause injury, you could be in unbelievably big big trouble. And if you actually injured them with it, even in self defence, you are facing prison for a first offence.
 
Don't worry, Chris I'm certainly not going to use anything on a person, and if I did carry and use a weapon on a dog I knew to be dangerous from a previous encounter, in legitimate self-defence, because it was actually attacking my dog or me, I don't think I would be in trouble for doing so.
The zapper arrived today - took dog out for walk- tried using it pointed away from him as I was concerened in case it also upset him. He evidently heard it as he pricked his ears and looked at me, but wasn't distressed so it must give a good directional beam. Frustratingly, there were no dogs around to try it out on! One of our neighbours has two noisy terriers which race down the garden and bark at any passer by - thought I might try a little harmless short beam in their direction - but even they were not around! My friend wants to know how I get on as she has an old blind dog who gets very distressed if other dogs bound up to him unexpectedly and out of control.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top