I take so much care not to let Casper (aka black bullet) annoy people and other dogs. We can almost say he is not reactive any more. Saying that I still keep him mostly on a longish line, although most of time we don't need it now. On his walks with our dog walker he is fab, relaxed and loves mooching with his pals in a huge secure area. Anyhow, this morning at 6.30am I took just Casper and Bramble out. Benson had bumped his leg on a stone wall. Wonderful walk, Casper just loving his quiet ramble, and so was Bramble, with 100% recall. Got to the end and a pack of collies (around 7 or 8..) with one owner, who was on his mobile. We had spotted them earlier and avoided them. This time Bramble ran half way over and sat down, instantly she was surrounded, I called her but too late, she sat hunkered down, sat on her tail, then she yelped as one bit her...the man called out sorry, but that dog likes to put others in their place (wtf?????) I smiled and shouted...yes...so does this one..Casper looked at me...I looked at him...whispered "go"....and just dropped his lead... Yes, there were collies scattered all over, Bramble then ran back, she was terrified. She has a small scrape near her eye. Casper didn't bark once, he just stood, tail erect very quiet. Not one dog approached him, even for a sniff which I thought was odd. Then I whistled and without a backward glance he trotted back. I am annoyed though, what is it with people? I take so much care with my dogs, not to overface them and this guy has 7/8?? In a really public place and close to the entrance. I really hate bully dogs, they knew she was a young bitch. Casper, well I think he was calm, confident and self assured, his erect tail slightly forward posture was interesting, not aggressive, but very attentive. Nothing reactive in his behaviour, just dealing calmly with them. On the way home he glanced casually at a couple of cyclists, so I could tell he wasn't bothered by the collies, and his theshold was low. Bramble is fine, I cleaned her scratch with salted water, and popped a bit of cream on. She just seem to bounce back thank god!
aw poor Bramble. This reminds me of when we were on one of our severnside walkies in bristol when Maisie was tiny and a collie went over and was really rough with her so she yelped and casper ran over to protect her. he's so lush. It is mad the amount of people i see walking 5 or more dogs at a time on their own. i couldn't do it! Glad Brambles ok and Casper wasn't fazed
Terrible behaviour from the Collie owner, that's really awful behaviour, just terrible. And poor Bramble. I hope she is ok. I can't agree that was appropriate to send in Casper though - sorry, I know it's an upbeat big brother story (and of course good for him, and it worked out fine which is really great). But I can't agree that you can say 'go' to a dog and it runs over and in whatever manner intimidates other dogs. Even if it had been very, very, carefully trained to do that it would still be a risky thing to do. And with a (former) reactive dog....what would have happened if Casper had reacted and growled, lunged, told off etc. another dog? He would have rehearsed that behaviour, setting you back.
Firstly this wasn't an upbeat big brother story, wish is was, but no it wasn't. The "go" cue for my dogs means..run and have fun. I use it a lot with Casper. He has never, ever, growled or intimidated another dog. Ever. He has never "told off" another dog. In this instance I completely trusted Casper, it was much better for him to have a "go" cue off lead, it was a split second decision, knowing Casper would run fast, and enable Bramble to escape. Bramble was attacked by three dogs, Casper is a lot faster than me.
Glad it ended well. I admit, though, that I had a sharp intake of breath when I got to the bit where you let Casper go. That would be too risky for me - putting Casper at risk of a bite or a bad experience, I mean. I know that Bramble needed rescuing, so it wasn't an easy situation, but I might have kept Casper with me and just walked up to Bramble with Casper instead of letting him off. Appreciate the fact that there is no easy course of action in these situations and the fault lies entirely with the hopeless and negligent Collie owner.
We've all had stuff like this happen to us. I get so tired of other peoples dogs bad behaviour upsetting my dogs. Doug would have done exactly the same theres was no way they kind of stuff would be allowed to happen on his watch and he would do it with the same way calmly and assertively. its amazing to watch the posture change the situation with no aggresion. Casper is a dog who's clearly got it going on upstairs clever clever boy. Hope Bramble is ok and starts to feel ok about it all
I agree, and if it had been Benson, I would not have let him off, he would have been put on his lead, because he would have reacted by growling and snarling, I would then have had the problem of 2 dogs getting bitten not one. Casper was in a better place with off lead, and on lead being walked up, he would have barked and lunged, which is actually the behaviour we are avoiding. My husband is furious, and he knows the dogs. He would have had no compunction but to have removed the dogs on the end of his boot. Yes Casper has a history of being reactive...but he has never been aggressive. He reacts to being on a lead in situations which cause arousal, or if other dogs are aroused on leads around him.
It situations you can be damned either way you just have to go with what you feel is best. if it had happened with mine I would have been very worried about the one being attacked being really hurt or be chased out into the road and if the dog being attacked ran back to us for safety the collies would come and might attack my other dog or me. None of us were there so its a tough call. I'm just glad it ended well and no one was badly hurt.
What a horrible experience. I don't know what it is with collies (I'm assuming Border rather than Lassie type) but we've had trouble with them and their irresponsible owners in the past. Glad it ended relatively well. Like Julie and Rachael though, I do have reservations about using Casper in some sort of 'my dog is better at putting others in their place than yours is' arrangement. That said, who knows what each of us would do when faced with such a predicament - it's always a lot clearer and easier in hindsight. Hope both Casper and Bramble are unphased by it all.
Kate that's awful for all of you, I really don't trust Collies at all and have yet to meet a nice one. The fact that you have trained Casper to the point that you trusted him in this situation is credit to you, good for you going with your gut instinct. It's easy for people to sit in judgement but everyone has had to make split second decisions with their dogs. I really hope you are all OK after such an horrible incident. How is Bramble now? No lasting problems I hope xx
I know this thread is a year old. It is always interesting though, when we talk about dog behaviour, reactivity etc...what impact does an experience like the above actually have on our dogs? Do our dogs remember the actual dog that bit them? Bearing in mind Bramble was 7 months old, a puppy when this happened just over a year ago now. Well we met the very same pack last night. The owner had most of them in a transit van, which was good, so he was just finishing his walk. I kept Bramble on her lead, it was a slip lead so she was close to me and relaxed. A couple of his dogs came through the entrance and stopped dead, I put myself in between Bramble and them, took a couple of steps back, glanced at the owner who looked rather anxious, he had a plastic bag of treats and was throwing them on the ground..( made a change from being on his mobile I thought...) I relaxed my body, called Bramble a good girl. She was absolutely fine, much to my relief. She did though, stiffen, and curl her lip into a snarly face..the collies though just quickly jumped into the van. She then trotted on as if nothing had happened, with not even a backward glance at the van. Phew!
Harrowing tale, I just read this for the first time! I can't believe anyone would be so irresponsible as to allow a dog that "likes to put others in their place" to be off lead?! Some people truly beggar belief...I'm glad Bramble seems to be none the worse for it, and well done Casper!
Glad Bramble is OK, especially as these things can have an impact... It does make me wonder about Collies. We where out yesterday morning and after our walk stoped to have a coffee. There was a Collie at the table next to us when we got there. We keep Vanilla on a short leash around certain dogs, this being one of them. Next minute is snarled as Vanilla went to get a drink. I moved the bowl, but it carried on. I asked the owner how old, as the daughter came and asked if she could stroke vanilla. Daughter said their dog is not like that. Theirs was only a few months older. It seems that they just change personality once they get a bit older. This is our personal experience, so apologies to anyone who also has a Collie.
The only negative experience Luna has had so far with another dog was with a BC when we were in the UK. I saw a woman with three of them, way away. Luna ran towards them, but stopped (as I knew she would, because they were too far away) and then I recalled her. One of the BCs saw her running and started to chase, catching up quickly and nipping at her heels. Poor Squidge was very scared, but no harm came of it. My sister says these dogs are a total menace, completely untrained (the owner was screaming at the top of her voice, which the dog ignored) and do that sort of thing all the time. I actually like BCs a lot, but they do have an innate herding instinct which can make them very nippy dogs. In fact, I was once bitten by one as a child, doing my paper round. As is the case with so many breeds, I think that people often buy them thinking they're smart and beautiful dogs but just don't know how to handle the less desirable parts of the breeding.
