Wishing Shadow the best. I'm sorry that happened to him. No fair that he had to deal with that on his own territory. Big hugs for him.
Poor boy. Do you have any idea who the dogs belong to? Are there no laws regarding domestic animals running at large? You are lucky he wasn't badly hurt, four dogs could inflict a lot of damage when they gang up.
Oh Horrible Fiona.....glad it's was only superficial injuries physically and mentally too by the sound of things....you've got so much to do on the house and land I can imagine driving for supplies must be so difficult to plan time wise .....Blimey how we all are wary of off lead dogs charging over to ours ...a situation like this is much further down the scale....hopefully you won't see them or anymore of their type again ....xxx
I'm really sorry Fiona, that is horrid, poor Shadow I hope this doesn't have a long-lasting effect on him. Poppy has definitely changed since she was so badly bitten; this morning my mother was walking her together with her border collie, and a staffie (on a retractable lead) attacked Sally (mum's dog). She wasn't hurt - but Poppy ran away, and eventually found her way home along a busy road to where we were at Mum's house... She has never run away before, but obviously having been attacked a couple of months ago has really rattled her. Hopefully you can get on top of the situation and it won't affect Shadow.
I've just taken them on their first walk (with me) since he was bitten, because I've been back in Andorra since yesterday morning and they've been in Spain with J; they got back this lunchtime. Both dogs stayed very close and were a lot more attentive to us than normal. That could be a range of things; they've not been in Andorra for a while, so the altitude might be slowing them down (it is me!), or the travelling has tired them out, or something else. We walked past a house which has loads of barking dogs outside and he didn't take any notice - he never does with these dogs, weirdly, even though they bark loads. I went out of my way to avoid a couple of dogs at the start of my walk, and as normal didn't see anyone else for the rest of the time. I'm happy to keep it like that for a few more days and then, when we're back in Spain at the weekend, I'll see if I can take him out one-on-one to see how he reacts towards other dogs. Poor Poppy, her experience was far worse than Shadow's. My mum's dog was badly attacked at around the same time as Poppy, and needed loads of stitches, and she's now really scared of other dogs and has to be kept on lead because she just runs off.
All we can do is to keep building their confidence, so they believe most dogs are good and can be trusted. We were doing so well until today with Pops... and now since this morning's fright she has had a barking fit at two separate people. We'll keep working on it and after a while she'll be ok again, at least on the surface, but I do think that the trauma of having been attacked will never completely leave her. I hope your Mum's dog is ok and she regains her confidence, and that Shadow isn't adversely affected.
When Ginger was bitten by our neighbors GSD she took a dislike to all GSDs. She was still fine with other dogs. I wonder if Shadow will be concerned about specific breeds. None of our dogs have ever been particularly nervous around other dogs. They all seemed to be pretty confident, but were never reactive around other dogs, on or off leash, (except Ginger with GSDs)
It's so not fair that lovely Poppy and Shadow have had these bad experiences. I guess I am happy that the possibility of me running into a dog off-lead is pretty slim as I walk around town, and even when I go to places off-leash I don't encounter many other dogs. So frustrating. In the country here there are plenty of farms and acerages that have "farm dogs", mainly for protection, I guess, especially if it is actually a farm with livestock. It's handy to have a dog or two to scare off the coyotes, wolves, bears, or Cougars. But the downside is that your dog is obviously at high risk of being run over; eaten by said coyotes, wolves, bears or cougars; or shot by a farmer if they are trespassing on their land. And of course if your dog is caught harassing someone else's livestock, game over. There is a different mentality towards "farm dogs" and regular "pet" dogs. I don't get it myself, but it is definitely a reality. Lots of farmers have big German shepherds or Bernese Mountain Dogs or Great Pyrenees for livestock protection, these are the dogs who live outside all the time. And they also might have the pampered inside dog such as a Chichuaua (?sp.) or Bichon or whatever. They will lavish all sorts of care and attention on the pet dogs but pretty much leave the outdoor ones to their own devices.
That's a heart stopper for me Karen,glad everyone was ok,and safe,a shocker for your poor Mum xxxx Lisa it's a tricky balance by you for sure.....you have such serious predators around there is the need for protection but the flip side is if the protectors aren't supervised there's the potential predatory for problems from them ....
We didn't realise she had done a runner until we heard her barking outside the gate. Then of course I was terrified about what had happened to my 80-year-old mother - had she fallen and was she lying in the mud somewhere? Had Poppy run home to get help? Naturally Mum didn't have her mobile phone with her... I was so relieved to see her when she got home, and I guess that all's well that ends well - Sally doesn't seem to have any wounds, Mum was shaken and angry but ok, and we now know that Poppy is a real scaredy-cat!!! Seriously though it could all have gone much worse. Mum saw the lady with the Staffie and asked her to keep the dog away; but the woman insisted the dog was ok. The Staffie (a rescue) then promptly lost the plot, dragged the blasted retractable lead out of the woman's hands, and knocked Sally to the ground. Apparently all hell broke loose, with my mother shouting, the Staffie owner trying to get her dog off Sally, and Sally shrieking. In the mayhem, Poppy quietly decided that discretion was the better part of valour... Ugh, what a morning! How is Shadow doing today Fiona, have you met any other dogs since?
Poor Poppy. It sounds awful, and though so scary for her to have left, perhaps it's just as well. Poppy getting tangled up with the Staffi might have been an awful lot worse. Charlie has recovered well from the attack by the Mastiff, and we haven't had any more problems since he growled at another Chocolate Lab and indeed he now plays with this dog and is fine. I've completely changed his routine though, we no long walk in the busiest parts of the common, we drive further to find quieter spots. We also do a lot less on lead walking where there are off lead dogs, because I think this situation makes Charlie a little nervous if off lead dogs jump round him when he is on lead. I still walk with my stick, and I have only failed once in letting a dog I wasn't sure about approach Charlie (and that dog growled slightly alarmingly, Charlie looked like he was going to growl back and square up to the dog but he didn't in the end, he moved away when I asked him to do so). Apart from that, one dog has growled at Charlie on the Scentwork day (a reactive rescue lurcher). Against those two dogs, Charlie has now met hundreds of dogs that he has had a positive experience with, and it does seem to have worked. He isn't quite his normal self. He is definitely more reserved than he used to be around other dogs, and when dogs are walking towards us he'll return to heel and we'll walk up to them together. Which is an improvement on him stopping and waiting, and it does mean I get to decide if the other dogs approach Charlie - but it does indicate that Charlie has not returned to his full confidence, I think. All in all, I think we got off lightly in the end.
Shadow is doing fine today. We saw a dog this morning at the start of our walk. Shadow was on lead at the time and went completely and utterly nutso. It's a dog that we've met a few times - a lovely young bitch (I think a coonhound) who is completely mad and just runs around in circles all the time. We were a way away and he started barking, lunging and whining to get to her. It was definitely more frustration than aggression; I had to get him away to calm him down, so I ended up running down the road with him, because that was the only way I could get his attention off her and onto me (a bit). When he calmed down enough to listen to me, I let him have a play, so he could have a positive interaction with a dog. It was a five second greeting, and then we went on our way, so I was happy with that. But, we've obviously gone back to square one in him being able to remain calm around other dogs. At least he wasn't scared or aggressive, though. I'll take him out at the weekend to see if we can do some work on looking at dogs at a distance without going crazy. Someone has moved in to the apartment next to ours in Andorra and has brought their cat. We have adjoining terraces with big full-height windows looking out. The dogs saw the cat walking across in front of the window the morning and went mad, so I did about ten minutes of clicker training calm (with Shadow - Willow just sat by my side looking disinterested in the cat but more than happy she was getting treats) so that will hopefully all be in the same vein at some impulse control!
The owner of the other dog was a bit perturbed by me running off with Shadow! He was a bit put out - "She won't do anything!" - and I was still too busy managing my own monster to try to explain why I had to get him away
Just catching up after being away - very sorry to hear Shadow was attacked, and extra frustrating when it was on your own land, but glad he wasn't badly hurt.
It does sound as though it has sent him back a few steps - although as you say he doesn't sound scared, just that other dogs are suddenly far more interesting again. Don't suppose the coonhound was/is coming into heat or something, that might explain him reacting in such an extreme manner?
