Had a horrible experience today.Took Benson (now 16 weeks old..) out to a large local dog walking area/park. Not where I usually take him, but he was quite happy. We did some great recall, and he paddled in a pond and happily presented me with a twig he found! Then disaster, I was unaware of a dog walker coming towards me with 2 I think bull mastiff type dogs, Benson galloped over, I called him back but he was too distracted. Well to cut a long story short they attacked him, growling, and all I could hear was this terrible yelping from Benson. He was curled up in ball while the owner was shouting trying to get his dogs off him. ..after what seemed an age Benson got out and ran towards me tail between his legs and trembling. I was furious!! Benson was unhurt thankfully and doesn't seem traumatised by the event, but I am so upset, will never take him there again. Another dog owner came over to see if he could help and said there were a few "bad uns" around. My question is what to do if this happens? How could I have prevented it? I thought I was so careful watching out for dogs and make an effort to keep Benson away from them as I don't think everyone appreciates an excited puppy! We have kept close to us when walking so right from day one we have had him off leash where ever possible and safe, he has been so good too, and so far as long as he is close will recall even with other dogs around. I do wonder if I am over-reacting, but I am so upset and ended up in tears in the car on the way home..
Re: Dealing with Aggressive off leash dogs if i spot a dog on lead i recall jasper and pop his lead on, how upsetting it must have been for you
Re: Dealing with Aggressive off leash dogs I can understand how upset you feel We are not masters-of-recall sadly, but I guess this is where your proofing comes in with other dogs to ensure your recall is there to protect you all.
Re: Dealing with Aggressive off leash dogs How terrifying for you and I hope poor little Benson is OK :'(. If I were you I would just ask any owners of off lead dogs to kindly put their dogs on lead as you are training your puppy or quickly pop him on his lead if you manage to spot the other dog(s) first. We have a Flat Coat Retrieve in our village and he just doesn't like any dogs, and nobody minds putting their dogs on leads until they have passed by as we would all rather avoid a nasty incident. In time you will be able to recall Benson from other dogs to avoid such an awful encounter. Have you got Pippa's Total Recall as there is a section in the book that helps you practise this very exercise? Please take care. x
Re: Dealing with Aggressive off leash dogs Oh good grief,that's awful what a fright,poor little Benson..... If Dexter is off the lead and I see a dog on a lead I call him back and put him on the lead .we are still working on getting past other dogs without looking a show so we will use the opportunity to practice and all parties are safe. I now adopt a 'no stopping 'to talk to other dogs on leads if we are just walking along....we are working on getting along on our way with a 'look at me ' command and I am back on high value roast chicken for that and we get past most times looking reasonably sane! I've never had a bad situation with an aggressive dog off leash......I once had a walk with an annoying dog that was mythering Dexter snapping at his ears and legs,Dexter had his tail down and was trying to get back to me all the time but the dog wouldn't let him,I stopped doing that walk....the owner said they were playing...I don't know much but they were NOT playing Dex was just surviving! Used properly and organized well,dog parks can be great places for dogs to have fun and socialize,but I'm nervous of them.I choose my walk times based on the amount of dog traffic I can expect to see and by now I've got a good idea which dogs I'll see as well on our walks.I get a bit anxious of big numbers of dogs together ( which is what can happen in a dog park,I know this wasn't the case for you today though)in case a hoolie gets out of hand and there is aggression.....that also comes from a lack of confidence of my knowledge of dog signals and play behaviour so I'd rather just keep things small and in my comfort zone.....it's quite common for me to invite dogs into our garden ( it's not big) for Dexter to have a play with other dogs without it getting too big for my comfort zone.Thats my method of keeping things under control for me,but I know it's not what everyone would do. I can honestly say I would have been in tears too and it would have knocked my confidence no end of I'd experienced meeting those 2 dogs.....I'm glad Benson wasn't hurt and doesn't seem knocked by his encounter,poor little fellow. Best wishes Angela x
Re: Dealing with Aggressive off leash dogs I am so sorry, how very horrible.. All you can do is keep a keen eye out. It's a balancing act, because you want your puppy to meet lots and lots of dogs, and learn to socialize with them. Did he actually get bitten?
Re: Dealing with Aggressive off leash dogs That's horrible for both you and Benson - hope you are both feeling better now! We had a very similar thing at the start of last week, when we ran into a chap walking his dog off-lead. If a dog is off-lead, I tend to assume it's safe... Anyway, after greeting this Boxer very appropriately, it flipped Brew over onto her back and stood over her, muzzle over her throat and growling very nastily. I didn't dare call her, because I was concerned that if I intervened and she then moved quickly in any way, it could make the situation worse. She was playing dead... The Boxer's owner stepped in and physical manhandled his dog away... Apart from learning that if we see that particular dog again, mine are going on lead and we are changing direction, I don't know what else to do... so will be very interested in other people's responses. I was also ready to tell anyone else we passed to watch out for that dog... The only other thing I did was try and keep my voice normal and react to Brew exactly as normal - as soon as she was free, I recalled her normally and rewarded her as usual. I didn't want her to remember it as a horrible experience - but I don't know if I did the right thing. Fortunately later in the day we passed another Boxer - one we have seen before and that is genuinely friendly - and she did not react at all at its outline. Clare
Re: Dealing with Aggressive off leash dogs I think you reacted really well Clare. Last year Hattie was set upon twice by a very nasty Border Collie that lives in our Village. The owner has her off lead all the time knowing she reacts to ever dog she sees. Hattie was ON lead for both incidents and Fly was off lead and it did affect Hattie because whenever we see Fly she does a low growl and hides behind my legs. What makes me really cross is the miserable owner NEVER apologises. Fly has taken a sheep down and narrowly got away with being shot by the farmer who brought her home and told the owners "next time …" and it attacked another local dog that sustained nasty injuries. When I was training Charlie in the paddock I didn't see Fly coming through, again off lead and he went over to say hello before I could stop him and the owner waved his lead aggressively and was shouting and trying to make Charlie go away, I went over put Charlie on lead and politely told him it was Fly that should be on lead and muzzled as she has the problem. Makes my blood boil
Re: Dealing with Aggressive off leash dogs [quote author=charlie link=topic=4388.msg53189#msg53189 date=1391971707] When I was training Charlie in the paddock I didn't see Fly coming through, again off lead and he went over to say hello before I could stop him and the owner waved his lead aggressively and was shouting and trying to make Charlie go away, I went over put Charlie on lead and politely told him it was Fly that should be on lead and muzzled as she has the problem. Makes my blood boil [/quote] I'm impressed you managed it politely, Helen! I understand why it made your blood boil... I think there is a dog like that in a lot of villages, where all the locals know to watch out for it, although I agree with you completely - it should be the owner who is managing their dog! In one of my online pootles through dog training videos, I came across Doggy Dan, who despite the dodgy sounding name, seems to be a quite pleasant New Zealand dog trainer - albeit with a bit of a thing about pack leaders. One of his videos was dealing with on-lead greeting, and he said in that that most problems are caused by human interference with dog behaviour... that's what sprang back into my mind last week, although I was very unhappy to see my little 5 1/2 month old dog on her back in the mud with a dog's teeth millimetres from her throat... She knew what she was doing though, and her instincts obviously kicked in! Clare
Re: Dealing with Aggressive off leash dogs In terms of what to do - I don't know what the right answer is. Now Charlie is injured I always take someone with me to the common, where we have met some aggressive dogs before. Our outline plan if another dog sets about Charlie is for the person on "dog watch" to get hold of it's backlegs or back end and pull it away backwards. Whethr this would work or not, I don't know. The last time Charlie was attacked, in Wimbledon Park, I hauled the other dog off him with its collar. Charlie ran off to a safe distance and I dragged the dog back to its owner, and won't repeat my language here on a family friendly forum.
Re: Dealing with Aggressive off leash dogs [quote author=JulieT link=topic=4388.msg53202#msg53202 date=1391973706] The last time Charlie was attacked, in Wimbledon Park, I hauled the other dog off him with its collar. Charlie ran off to a safe distance and I dragged the dog back to its owner, and won't repeat my language here on a family friendly forum. [/quote] Nobody messes with our Julie ;D I agree Clare, I think we under estimate our dogs ability to sort dog pecking order out themselves. Last weekend Woody the local Fox Red Lab about a year old charged at me full speed, jumped all over me and yep covered me in mud whilst his owner was chatting on his phone totally ignoring him, Hattie jumped in between us and told Woody off who went back to Mark with his tail between his legs ;D She was not having any of it but that is completely correct in my view not letting a pup behave like that
Re: Dealing with Aggressive off leash dogs Absolutely correct, the pup should be told to mind his manners, well done Hattie. My old GSP Flick was called "the school mistress" because she always kept the young dogs under control in our group if they started to misbehave, just walked between them with a stern expression.
Re: Dealing with Aggressive off leash dogs How frightening for you both. I hope Benson is ok? Please don't let it dent your confidence in taking him out. Sending u big hugs from me and Harley xoxo I am continuously practising my recall, it is difficult as you don't always spot other people or dogs soon enough to intervene. I hope the owner apologised?
Re: Dealing with Aggressive off leash dogs [quote author=charlie link=topic=4388.msg53215#msg53215 date=1391975981] Nobody messes with our Julie ;D [/quote] I'm afraid not ;D ;D ;D ! I know my dog is very, very well socialised, I've read stacks about dog to dog interactions, studied hundreds of dogs on the common now, been through the "he is only playing" excuses - and am now confident I can spot putting-a-puppy-in-his-place (which is a million miles from aggression) or boisterous play, from a badly socialised dog interaction or aggression. So am now rather robust, I'm afraid!
Re: Dealing with Aggressive off leash dogs Really sorry that you had that shocking experience with Benson My last dog was attacked in a very similar way (and he was very badly hurt) and I too thought a thousand (maybe a million) times 'what could I have done differently...how could I have prevented it'... Whatever you do, don't feel guilty. It was the fault of the other owner. It was not your fault. The only way to keep our dogs totally safe is to never let them off lead (I am not willing to go to that extreme) and never let another dog come near (impossible). All we can do (I think) is build a great recall and try to judge situations as best we can, calling our dogs back if it looks like trouble. What I would do now with Benson is try to arrange positive play sessions with other friendly dogs. Also, even if he does not seem to be visibly afraid when he sees other dogs, give him a treat and lost of praise for calm behaviour when any other dog appears. You want to head off at the pass any possibility of him developing nervousness around other dogs, so be proactive and reinforce that positive association
Re: Dealing with Aggressive off leash dogs Thank you all for your supportive replies and loads of good advice and help! I think I was terribly shaken..to make matters worse I am rehabbing from an accident so my instinct to charge over and haul the dogs of Benson was curtailed somewhat which added to my feeling of frustration! Luckily his friendly and confident nature hasn't been dented as this morning he was happily playing with the farm dogs who are always pleased to see Benson and say hello. There was a new one this morning which didn't phase Benson at all. One of them is a gorgeous lab called Scooby and it is a delight to watch Scooby at work. Lots more work on recall, and have decided not to take him to that dog park again...it just isn't worth it. The owner of the the 2 mastiffs did apologise, and actually said his dogs were playing, well Benson has been knocked over playfully before,,,the difference in that type of boisterousness was very different to what happened yesterday. Going to go out in a bit for a longish stroll, so looking forward to that, hubby is going with me hopefully will get a few photos!
Re: Dealing with Aggressive off leash dogs I too have been at the nasty end of a dog attack, well, Chip has, but it was when I first got him and he was very timid. However, now he's built his confidence he thinks every dog is ok to play, on or off lead. The way I look at it, if a dog is on lead and my dog bounds over to it and the on lead dog snaps, that's my fault. Its on a lead, it has to be walked. BUT you cannot spot every dog at the park every time. These things happen. I practise the recall, he responds to it very well (most times) and I just do my best to keep him under control in busy areas. He hates husky type dogs, if we see one of those, he's popped on his lead till we've passed. I must admit though that one man in our local park has a nasty couple of terriers he lets off and I have told him that my walking boots are quite substantial and the next time it goes hell for leather at my dogs ankles, (Chip just woofs in its face) or mine, I shall be wearing it as a slipper!!
Re: Dealing with Aggressive off leash dogs [quote author=Missy33 link=topic=4388.msg53369#msg53369 date=1392040122] The way I look at it, if a dog is on lead and my dog bounds over to it and the on lead dog snaps, that's my fault. Its on a lead, it has to be walked. [/quote] I think that's generous, but you may very well be right. I think a really aggressive dog should be muzzled though, even on lead. I wonder if that's a bit harsh. I suppose I think that because although I'm a big believer of keeping my dog away from other on lead dogs, dogs will be dogs, and puppies in particular will run up before an owner can react, or just makes a mistake.
