Yesterday Harborwolf and I were walking our dog. Up ahead of us was a woman walking her dog. As soon as she saw us, the woman started leading her dog to the far corner of the grass way off the sidewalk to give us a wide berth. At first, I thought she was doing this because she was nervous that our dog would go after her dog, but as we got closer, it became apparent that her dog was a lunatic.
Both dogs are fairly large. Our dog, Zoe, is an 70 lb German shepherd/husky mix, the other dog looked to be about the same size, and perhaps a golden retriever. As we passed, her dog went berzerk and started barking and snarling at Zoe like crazy. The woman did her best to hold the dog back, but this dog was way too strong, and the woman couldn’t hold him back. He lunged at Zoe, jumped up on her and started biting her neck like crazy. Seriously, it looked like he was trying to tear her throat out. The woman was freaking out, screaming, and trying to yank her dog off of ours. Harborwolf finally separated them, and we got the hell out of there.
I felt kind of bad for the woman. She was obviously sorry, and really freaked that her dog would behave that way. Harborwolf was pissed as hell, and wanted to beat the crap out of the other dog, and I was just stunned because it was so violent and it happened so fast out of nowhere. Zoe isn’t a violent dog. She didn’t bark or growl at this other dog. I don’t know what provoked the attack, but I remember that the woman screamed at her dog, “Biscuit, I can’t take you anywhere!” which leads me to believe that this has happened before, or that Biscuit isn’t a very well-behaved dog.
That woman and her family live a few blocks from us, and I’ve seen her children walking that dog on several occasions. That freaks me out, now that I’ve seen this dog yank his adult owner ten feet to get to another dog to attack it. What happens if that dog gets away from one of the kids to get to another dog? What if he kills a smaller dog? The incident not only pissed me off, but it worried me. There are a lot of dogs in our neighborhood.
Time to call the animal control officer in your town and report this, for everybody’s sake. If they’re on the ball they’ll investigate and hopefully have a stern talk with the owner(s) of this dog, maybe require some control measures. Even if they’re not, your filing a written report will start a paper trail for when (not if, I’m sure of it) the dog maims or kills and the authorities do have to deal with it.
Have you talked yet to some of your neighbors with dogs, to see whether they’ve had problems?
Also, once you’ve been able to calm down and regain your equanimity, you might consider talking to the dog’s owner(s), in your best “can’t we all get along” style, about what they can do (obedience training, choke collar, ?) to correct this problem.
However you deal with this, YEEEEEEEESH! What a freakin’ horrifying thing to go through!
Rereading your post, the woman comes off as clueless about how to handle a big aggressive dog, and not prone to get defensively hostile if you speak to her with clear intent to help, not rant. I’d still report this to animal control, but I’d also seek her out and approach it something like, “What a frightening thing that was! It must be awful for you when that happens. Have you looked into [whatever] to deal with it?”
It sounds like this lady could use some help from a trainer…
I have a dominance-aggressive puppy who would love to take on anyone who dared get in his face. He has a very strong sense of personal space, and doesn’t take kindly to dogs with no doggy manners. He doesn’t actively go out to seek battles, though. Biscuit is dog-aggressive.
Remind Harbourwolf to be careful when splitting up a dog fight. Ideally, you have two people who can pull on the dogs’ back legs and pull them off each other (wheelbarrow method). That keeps your hands away from the heads. Then again, I have what… 15 years’ experience in this business?.. and I still managed to get my wrist bitten last week by my own dog as I tried to split him and the puppy up during a dominance argument. Two stitches reminded me that I should not act in mommy mode…
It sounds like Biscuit is dog-aggressive and her handler can’t handle her. It would be easy for her to get a head halter, giving her more control of the head of her dog, go through some training for behavior modification, and/or muzzle Biscuit in public.
Check your dog over carefully, make sure she’s okay. Sometimes it takes a while to detect a puncture wound… If the other dog broke her skin in any way, take her to the vet and get some antibiotics, just to be safe.
She may be gunshy now, so give her lots of space when you walk and meet other dogs. If you see Biscuit’s owner again, suggest a basket-muzzle and training…
Perhaps you should stop by her house one day with some information on some training programs in your area. Explain how it really worries you that someone might report her dog and get it taken away from her.
OH! And yes, since the children walk the dog alone sometimes, SAY SOMETHING about the dog, either to animal control or to the owner.
If she can’t control the dog, the children can’t, and they risk getting in the middle of a doggy fight. There could be a wide variety of reasons for Biscuit’s behavior… Maybe seeing the vet would be the first thing to recommend… Since the owner seemed more clueless than anything, talk to her. chances are she’s at wits end too.
One thing you can watch out for in Zoe, when you walk, is eye contact. Usually that’s all that’s needed to set off a dog-aggressive dog. Practice making Zoe heel looking up at you when you encounter another dog. Offer her some turkey weiners They go a long way…
Just a guess here – is Biscuit an entire male? If you talk to the owner and she seems receptive to suggestions, ask if he’s been altered and if not, recommend that she have it done.
That won’t be the complete solution, but if he’s still got his balls, that could be part of why he’s so ballsy.
I would report the situation to the appropriate authorities. I would also let the owner know that a report has been filed and that some home owner’s insurance policies exclude coverage when a report like this is on file.
She was lucky that your dog did not do more to defend itself. I have a friend who owns a very gentle, very strong dog. The dog has over the years killed two dogs in situations very similar to yours.
Last time my cats were in fight mode, I grabbed the garden hoe in case anybody needed “encouragement” to knock it off. I’ve learned my lesson, too.
As for the OP, I agree with all others - time to talk to animal control. Her dog is a danger, and needs to be properly restrained in polite company. If she can’t handle it, she needs to find a way to work this out.
And now that my mod duties are done, I can offer opinions and advice. Our dog has been in several fights at the dog park. He’s not aggressive, in that he’s never started a fight out of nowhere, but he refuses to be submissive and over-reacts to dominance behavior. Sometimes a fight breaks out when another dog tries to mount him or herd him closely while he’s chasing a ball. A couple of times he was attacked seemingly out of the blue by an aggressive dog (with dogs, though, you never know what they’re saying with their body language so ours might have been giving him the doggy finger). And the last time he was busy barking and posturing with one dog, only to turn and start fighting with the lovely, docile dog who came up and sniffed his butt during the display.
We don’t go to the dog park anymore.
So I do have some experience with fighting dogs. First of all, definitely use the wheelbarrow method to separate them. No matter how pissed-off they are, most dogs immediately go into “Whaa?” mode when you lift their back legs off the ground. Dog bites can be nasty – no matter how worried you are for your dog, don’t risk reaching in. It doesn’t work as well, anyway.
Second of all, attacking another dog without any provocation is pretty rare, even among dominant alpha males. At the very least, I would recommend that your neighbor buy some sort of control device while walking her dog like a Gentle Leader harness that keeps the animal from overpowering her. She should probably also talk to an animal trainer to see if there are ways to socialize the dog (I’d guess it’s unlikely at this point), or figure out the best way to defuse these situations before they happen. Regardless, keep your dog away from hers – if you see her coming, cross the street.
I concur with reporting the incident. That takes away any legal standing the owner has to say “oh I didn’t know Biscuit would eat your child!” In some states, if you send a registered letter reporting an attack to the owner, the second attack is pretty much the end for the dog. Police, animal control, neighborhood watch, school crossing guards, etc. could all be notified to keep an eye out for this dog for their own safety as well as to report attacks. There are plenty of nice doggies waiting for homes that mean, agressive doggies are hogging. And…some people shouldn’t have doggies of any kind. I stopped watching Animal Precinct because of all the dogs that get starved and abused and then put down because they don’t understand that they don’t have to kill or be killed anymore…
BTW, Giraffe none of this is directed at you specifically, it sounds like you undertand your doggie and his/her/its limitations, more at the agressive dogs that the owners can’t or don’t control.
One last piece of advice, carry a big stick. A broken shovel handle, a sawed off baseball bat, a big flashlight, etc. to use on an attacking dog. A poke or swat will get attention from a fighting dog and such weapons can be used at varying degrees of lethality, if need be.
And before people go off on me, I am not advocating beating dogs to death for no good reason…but if the choice is me and my pet or your pet, and yours was the agressor…I’m not going to lose alot of sleep over it. I have never beat a dog, but I’ve been close enough to needing to that I have given it alot of thought.
Yes! After the incident, I laughed about such an aggressive dog being named Biscuit. Even though it was so scary and stressful, I still wanted to laugh when the owner was screaming, “Biscuit! Biscuit, no!!!”
Anyway, in response to everyone else, yes, I think I’m going to call animal control or the police. I know I should, but I’m scared of her getting her dog taken away from her. I know that’s such a wussy thing to say, but maybe Biscuit is a great family pet who just freaks out at other dogs. I don’t want to break the hearts of the woman, her husband, and their children because of what happened. On the other hand, (I’m being so wishy-washy) I am very concerned that her dog has serious aggression issues, and can’t be trusted with other dogs. I’m not saying this because Zoe is my dog, but honestly, Zoe didn’t bark, growl, or do anything that I could see to provoke this dog. Even when Biscuit was tearing at her neck, she just stood there.
I’ve checked Zoe’s neck thoroughly, and haven’t found any evidence of puncture. I think her thick, thick coat protected her. Biscuit probably only got a mouthful of fur.
Exactly. This dog clearly can’t be trusted anywhere near other dogs, and it’s only a matter of time before it does some serious damage. I appreciate that you don’t want to hurt the nice people who own Biscuit, but if their dog continues unchecked, it will eventually do some serious damage to another dog or human. What about the heartbreak of the innocent people who own the dog that Biscuit mauls? What about the heartbreak of Biscuit’s owners when they have to put their dog down because it’s become uncontrollably agressive? This dog needs to be reported, and its owners need to be told to get their dog under control NOW.
Zoe isn’t even a bit gunshy right now. She’s fine and happy. She didn’t even seem that bothered right after the attack. It takes a lot to phase her when she’s on a walk, and she’s a tough dog without.
As an fyi, I wasn’t going to beat the crap out of the other dog. I was just going to use my Doc Martens to separate the dogs using a motion that I have named “a kick.” If Zoe had yelped, then I would’ve beaten the crap out of that dog.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to take the dog for another walk. She’s starting to get a bit impatient with me.
They go a long way…
