Smacking someone elses dog?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I admit that I have some baggage on the issue.

In 2001, I split from some long-time friends whose dogs would regularly bite and scratch me and destroy my property and theirs. Although I shoved the dogs away and yelled at them, I never hit them. But the couple would regularly scream at me, accusing me of hitting and kicking their dogs. At the end, they had started to accuse me of hitting their children! Not something I would ever do and I never got how they could do this to a friend.

Hell, on one occasion, the smaller of their two dogs bit me in the crotch under the table and hung on. I had to pry and force him to let go, whereupon he fell backwards into the woman’s leg, at which point she launched into a huge verbal assault accusing me of kicking the dog for no reason. When I stated what had happened, she screamed at me for being STUPID enough to put a napkin on my lap (during dinner), because I should have known that the dog liked to eat paper.

:eek:

Good riddance to assholes like that.

But then, another couple believed them, and got all freaky careful with me around their dog until splitting from me during my divorce process.

Fast forward to last night. My BIL was out of town. My sister was coming home from out of town, planning to be in very late. My parents were taking care of the niece and nephew and the dog had been left at home, so I volunteered to stop by and let the dog out.

The dog doesn’t know me well and is a rescued dog. Foolish me. I let her out of her kennel, but couldn’t get close to her to put the leash on her. I sat down on the floor and tried to sweet talk her. The moment that I touched her collar, she went nuts and mauled my left hand. I walked over to the kitchen sink to wash it off and she tried to attack me from behind. When I tried to herd her back toward her kennel, she almost got me a third time.

That’s when I smacked her hard across the face. She stumbled backward across the kitchen, leaving a trail of feces in her wake. But she was very easy to herd back into her kennel after that. I cleaned up and went on my way, after leaving my sister a note and calling my mother, who nannies for the kids. Made me feel terrible, based mostly on my past baggage.

Called back this morning and got my mother. She was actually kind of happy about it, because the dog, who was out of control and bullying her very old, smaller dog yesterday, was very well behaved today. Haven’t heard from my sister and BIL about it, but on my end, I’ve settled down and realized that Hey, the damned thing attacked me THREE TIMES. It was about bloody time that I smacked the fucker and stopped the behavior.
For those of you with dogs; Have your friends and family ever had to defend themselves from your dog’s bad behavior? Have your dogs attacked other people? How do you feel if someone else has to strike your dog in self-defense?

For those of you who have been in my position; How do you feel about hitting someone elses dog if it’s hurting you or damaging your property? How do you feel about the dog’s owner? Have you had similar experiences to any of the above?

2

If my dog draws your blood and you need to smack him, damn right you smack him! I mean, you don’t kick him, and you don’t slam him into a wall, but if you’re attacked? (I do assume you hit it pretty hard to make it crap all over the place, though. And I wish you hadn’t had to hit it. But I wouldn’t blame you since it bit you up.)

3

I have been knocked down and dragged by german shepherd dogs, and frequently have been menaced and cornered by neighbor’s dogs (dogs in the full eye-contact stare, hackles up, tail in aggressive-dominant mode). I prefer to ask people to control the animal, but if they are not present I feel you are entitled to protect yourself. Hitting the dog with a stick or a fist is an option if you have the power to back it up. I feel that we teach dogs manners to protect THEM. Attacking a human can be a death sentence to a dog, as can wandering freely around the nieghborhood.

4

No; hell no; and deeply ashamed. [The Best Dog in the World snapped at The Best Friend in the World when he (the dog) was startled awake once.]

However, for the second part, always remember with dog, when you resort to violence you have already lost!* You should be able to control a dog with the tone of your voice and hand signals. [And a sharp rap on the nose when they get into the trash.]

You know, you may be unlucky, or you may just not be a dog person. Maybe you could borrow Mom’s dog and take some ‘obedience’ classes. A trainer might help you communicate more effectively.

  • Actually, that’s good advice for dealing with children, too.
5

Dude, I don’t care how much of a dog person you are, it shouldn’t run up and bite your ass when you’re rinsing out the toothmarks it already gave you.

6

You are always allowed to defend yourself. I am a dog owner and a dog person, it is unreasonable and irresponsible for dog owners to expect other people to be dog people. If an owner has a poorly socialized dog (maybe as a result of it being a rescue dog), the owner has a responsibility to not put it or other people in harm’s way.

7

:dubious:

I spent my teen years on a farm. I have no such illusions that animals are like people and can be controlled by mere words and voice. Hell, people cannot be controlled in that manner.

The “words alone, anything else and you’ve lost” paradigm is a dangerous fantasy when it comes to animals, especially threatening carnivores.

8

Wait, friends, back up. I was NOT blaming the victim here!

No, absolutely not, and I apologize for being unclear.

My point was that dogs are pack animals, generally amenable to commands from one who can successfully present one’s self as an alpha. [Yes, there are exceptions; most dogs under ten pounds come to mind immediately.]

Some people communicate well with dogs, some people don’t. [Some people communicate well with cats, babies, adults, men, women, bosses, subordinates … some don’t.]

If the OP is not a dog person, but runs with a dog crowd, s/he might want to study communicating with dogs. Learn the voice pitch and body language that indicate to a dog ‘because I said so, that’s why’.

[and help the rescued dog, too]

9

I agree, and I’m one of those “don’t swat or scream at the dog” types 99% of the time. If you’re being attacked, no reasonable person would expect you to stand there and take it.

10

You are entirely, completely, wholeheartedly in the right in that situation. The dog had proved that it would bite you seriously and did not stop attacking you. You had every right to do what you did. It’s a shame that you had to do it, but you were completely right.

11

You may be interested in this thread. Scenario was different, but there were some insightful responses which may pertain to your situation.

12

Round these parts, shoot first, bill the owners for damages and spent ammo second.

13

If it’s someone else’s dog and is used to being the alpha, you aren’t going to be able to just go in there and have it behave. Expecting anyone who doesn’t live with a dog to keep control of it when the owners don’t is unrealistic.
Yes, you should be able to defend yourself against a dog. Anyone who complains if you smack a dog that’s biting you is an idiot, unless they’d prefer that you stand there and take it, so they can pay for your medical bills and then have to put the dog down.

14

I have owned dogs and am very much an animal person.
But that said-HEY, YEAH! If you are being bitten, you defend yourself!
And those “friends” sound like a waste of skin, air, and time-good riddance.

Resorting to hitting human anyone under age 12 if you age over age 21 is, indeed, bad news. Unless, of course, they are bigger and attacking you first. At that point, the best defense is defense.

15

I have owned dogs, but have never had any visitor have this problem. We socialize our dogs so they don’t do these things.
If, however, I did get a dog that acted toward a guest like what happened to the OP, I would have zero problem with my guest dealing with it. If I was in the house at the time, I would make damn sure that the dog knew I was alpha, and he had fucked up. (put the dog on the ground, paws up my hand around his neck) I would then banish the dog from the pack for a while (time out, just like with kids) before I let him back in.
I would then apologize all over the place for my failure to properly train my dog.
The OP friends are asshats.

16

Your old friends are idiots so you lost nothing really.

In the current situation I don’t have any problem with what you did. I feel bad for you and the dog. IMO the you were both put in a bad situation. The dog did not know you well enough to trust you and lashed out in defense of itself and the property but since the dog attacked then you had every right to defend yourself. It was not the dogs fault or yours.

I have three dogs who are very well socialized. They have never growled or bitten anyone and are half ass guard dogs at best but I would not trust them with a stranger. There is no way I can say for sure what they might do if approached in their own home by someone they did not know.

My mother has a dog that has no social skills and when she used to bring him over my house I wished I could smack the little shit. Of course I didn’t because I don’t blame the dog I blame her for not training him.

17

If a dog bites hard enough to draw blood, I’d say the right thing is probably to give it a serious thrashing (something I wouldn’t approve of in almost any other case). The reason is that in many areas biting dogs are not tolerated - typically, the second verified complaint of a bite is grounds for the animal to be put to sleep.

18

Slapped the shit out of it, huh? :smiley:

19

I no longer am a dog owner, but when I was the family dog was socialized and trained. She never menaced anything except eardrums. If she had bitten, I would not have objected if the victim smacked her.
My parrots WILL attack, but I control their interactions with humans, and it is not right to smack a parrot (they tend to die of broken bones and stuff). My birds are trained, and do not bite without making their intentions VERY clear. The difference is, a dog can run up to people and really harm them, or kill. The birds are locked up. You have to get really close to get hurt, and they can only kill you if you suck them into your trachea .
Aggressive biting cats are also likely to get smacked. Its appropriate, cat bites are dangerous.

20

This is why I don’t like being around many “dog people.” There are so many variations in how people train their dogs that I only feel comfortable around a dog I know well.

I grew up on a farm where we had cows, rabbits, ducks, dogs, and cats living together (mass hysteria!). But the dogs learned to behave themselves around people and other animals. We had the freedom to help train the neighbor’s dog, too, when he would wander to our property. But I don’t want to cross a line and offend someone by trying to train their dog for them, or by using a method that they think is wrong for “pwecious puppy.”

A lot of people are inadverantly cruel to their pets by treating them as “little hairy people.”

My friend has a dog that they trained to lick people (well, they encourage the licking, that is). I loathe saliva, it’s like a phobia for me. Not to mention that the house is warm and the dog is hairy, and she pants almost constantly. She has foul breath and she eats her turds…not a dog I want panting in my ear or licking my cheek (not that I would appreciate any dog doing that, but turd-lickers make it extra gross). I am an occasional dog/cat/house sitter for them, but that’s not enough time to re-train the dog. Their house reeks. I don’t think the dog shits in the house, but she probably does that scooting thing, leaving small, putrid ass crumbs on the carpet. Honestly, I’m waiting for that dog to die so that visiting my friends becomes tolerable.