What would you do if you were out with your dog and a loose dog tries to attack

[bellareea320]

Heres the scenario behind this thread. Five blocks away from my home there are two houses that have dogs that get loose all the time. The home with the boxer had an incident with chasing children into the streets. The other home have two pits that roam freely. While walking Luna yesterday one of the pits were loose. I turned around and went home. (dont know if they are friendly) My question is has anyone's dog ever be attacked by a loose or stray dog? Or what were you taught to do if another dog comes after you and your dog? I was taught that to drop the dogs leash and allow then to defend themselfs and not pull the dog away cause this makes it worse and go try to find something to aid in the break up because I am usually alone while walking LUna. I have never been in this situation so I was just wanted another point of view

 

[Mooshi's Mummy]

Good question. When Bear was 3 months old he was attacked by 2 staffies, completely unprovoked. The two staff's were off lead, Bear was on lead, by the time I saw them coming they were on him. I admit I did try to pull him away which made it worse, but he was a baby and I was SCARED. I am lucky though as the owner of the 2 staffs was about 20ft away and got his dogs off Bear after what seemed like an eternity. Later on after the attack I was told that if a dog attacks your dog then you PULL the attacking dog by the back legs, swiftly and firmly. I've never seen it done nor have I had to do it so I cant say that it works. My concern with your situation would be that there is no other person around to help to what do you do with the attacking dog after you have pulled it off. Sorry this isnt really a help, but I guess now at least you know to pull the other dog by the back legs if nothing else.

 

[ruthcatrin]

I carry pepper spray, as much for Apollo's defense as mine. Especially with the stupid little ones I'd rather pepper spray them than have Apollo defend himself/me and crunch them. Course, that requires me to notice the attacking dog before they actually attack or I risk spraying him too. On the other hand if the pepper spray with break up the fight before serious damage is done I will deal with having him catch pepper spray.....it is by far a less worse fate than having him get in trouble for the fight because he's the larger dog.....

You are very unlikely to get in trouble for pepper spraying a dog you feel is aggressive, its not permenent (like a gunshot would be), there is information that it may not affect dogs as badly as it does humans, and it has less potential for permenant damage than attempting to kick or otherwise remove a dog from the fight. I will note that if you pepper spray a dog and handle it afterwards be very carefull about touching your face till you can scrub your hands.

 

[musicdeb]

Good question. I walk Titan alone as well and we have encountered a number of off leash dogs. If I see them, I will turn around and go the other way while keeping an eye on them. Usually the owner will see us and recall the dogs. Hopefully, the owner has 100% recall. I have broken up fights at the shelter between 2 dogs. Your adrenaline kicks in and you just what you need to do. With one of the fights, it took 3 of us to break it up. The other fight I was in the cage with the 2 fighting dogs. I finally got one of the dogs off of the smaller dog but what an adrenaline rush. All I can say, you protection mode will kick in and you will do what needs to be done.

 

[Robtouw]

My first experience with an aggressive dog was completely unexpected. I had been around Sumo, a chow, for its entire life beginning at age 6 weeks to 3 years on a weekly basis and had been staying with his owners for a week. They dog knew me well. During a family party, I was standing outdoors on the patio talking with someone and hadn't seen Sumo all day. Some of the party gowers said Sumo suddenly charged across the entire back yard and attacked me. That dog had me on the ground before I even knew what was happening. It took 5 men to pull him off of me. I ended up with stitches in both of my hands and claw marks across my face, arms and neck. Sumo ended up with a broken rib and was put in quarantine for 3 months, then released to his owners. My inlaws that owned the dog refused to believe he was dangerous, which was stupid because they had an infant at that time. That was my last visit to their home. Sumo lived to be 5, he was euthanized after biting their child and putting a dozen or so stitches in her face after attacking her while she was sleeping.

About 7 years ago, my Rotti, Rollie was laying in our front yard next to me while I was working on my flowerbeds. A blue pit bull that had escaped from a neighborhood about a mile away, ran into our yard in full charge and attacked him as he tried to protect me from the growling dog. The pit was coming after me not my dog. They ended up in a nasty fight with Rollie pinning the dog down by the neck and my husband came to our rescue. Rollie ended up with 16 stitches, various scratches and the pit ended up dying via screwdriver, the closest thing my husband could grab. We ended up calling the sherrif's dept, had to prove Rollie had his vaccinations, and requested the owner be tracked down. They had 2 prev complaints on file, the dog had escaped and attacked before. The deputy actually thanked us for ending the problem. It ended up in court, they tried to sue, we countered, and we won. Rollie had been trained by the German Police Dept in Griesheim in defensive protection to guard me and how to react to an attack. He had extensive behavioral training as well, and it paid off.

Our other experience was with three pit bulls at my friend's farm. Our horses were boarded there. On one occasion, we arrived to find the two pits chasing my horse in his paddock, both were trying to bite his lower leg areas, Buck was kicking, pinning, and running for his life! We ended up chasing the dogs off with a lunge whip. Two days later, they returned, this time going after my horse and one other, each horse ended up with stitches in their legs. We, again, chased the dogs with whips and trapped tow of them in one of the unused stalls in the barn. I had my husband put both dogs down, called the sherrif's office and went through the process again. This farm was about 13 miles from my home. One of the dogs had been collected by animal control for biting once prior. Again we were taken off to the side and thanked by the deputy. Several days later my friend called law enforcement to complain that the third had again come on to her farm and was chasing her dogs, when the sherrif arrived and tried to get out of his vehicle, it charged at him so he shot it. Carol's dog ended up with stitches to his mouth, and various cuts from the fight. She could have easily been injured or killed by the agressive dog, but did not hesitate to help her lab get away from it.

To make a long story short, when it happens you don't have time to consider options, you react and do what is immediately necessary. I am a huge animal lover and do not believe that any one breed is vicious or needs to be ended, but when faced with an aggressive animal attacking my boys, I will not hesitate to end the attacking animals life. We could have let animal control take the dogs, but they would have ended up back at home, getting out again and hurting someone else. I do not think that there are sufficient laws existing to protect people from bad owners that allow these animals to become aggressive, the owners of the dogs should have been held accountable.

 

[moonglow]

I also want to add never ever reach between the two dog or anywhere near their heads. It's probably a given that you know this but it is important enough to make sure it's said. When one of our dogs went after our other dog my brother tried to break up the fight by grabbing one of their collars and ended up with a nasty bite on his forearm. I know that when an other dog goes after my dog the automatic reaction for me is to grab them so I always keep the no touching rule at the top of my mind. I like Ruth's pepper spray idea, my neighbor's dog has attacked my dogs a few times and I'm thinking of holding pepper spray when I have to go in our back yard with Roly till our new fence goes up. One time when my neighbor's dog went after one of my dogs I used the backpack I was holding to swat the dog off mine, in other instances I look for objects around me that I can use to force the attacking dog in off mine.

 

[bw68]

If the dog attacked I would stomp on its ribs until it let go of my dog.

 

[Mooshi's Mummy]

If the dog attacked I would stomp on its ribs until it let go of my dog.

And risk getting your leg turned into hamburger?

 

[raechiemay]

I had a pit charge towards me one time I was walking daisy in my parents neighborhood. Sad thing was the owner was in the driveway washing a car & the dog was off leash. Daisy was wearing a harness & all I could hear was a mixture of growling & nails on the concrete. I reacted by hoisting daisy way over my head, thankfully she had a harness on so the actually lift didn't cause any harm. I held her there for about 5 minutes while this dog was jumping all over me trying it's hardest to get to daisy. The owner was screaming at it the entire time trying to get it to come back. 0% recall. At that point I was livid. The woman approached the dog & I to grab his collar & lead him back. She made a comment "oh he's just trying to play". Yeah. I really don't think so. I told her that if her uncontrollable dog ever approached me again while I was walking my dog on a leash I would not hesitate to kick it square in the face. And I'll be sure to wear some kind of heavy soled shoe next time. I know that doesn't mean much coming from me being 5'4 but needless to say I have not seen that dog out ever again. And that was probably 3-4 years ago.

Now if it were Duchess. I'm not sure what I'd do. I like the pepper spray idea & will look into getting some. At least we will both be protected bc I know if push came to shove, Duchess would probably tuck her tail, roll onto her side, pee herself & start screaming.

 

[Cur]

Our neighbor has a beagle mix (I think) and it is batsh*t insane. We have about 30 yards of sparsely populated tree between our houses and he lets his dog out un-tethered. It has charged on to my property, right up to my yard, but stays just inside the treeline several times, barking / growling very aggressively. He has chased our 7 yr old boxer several times. The dog has charged my wife twice. I put a canister of Fox 5.1 pepper spray at the back door and she now brings that outside and I told her spray that dog if it even comes close to you or the dogs. My wife talked to the owner one day when she was out for a walk and saw him at his mailbox, she told him his dog charged at us through the woods a couple times and he just said "Huh", and turned around and walked away.

I carry a .45 and a very, very sharp knife. I now also keep a baseball bat outside the back door. If that dog attacks me or the pups, I'll kill it.

 

[Cody]

I have had a lab type charge at my foster dog, I pulled her behind me stepped in up to the dog it went t go around me and I gave it a hard kick in the ribs. That stopped it and it took off.
It is my job to protect my dogs, and I will not hesitate to kick an on coming dog. Yes that runs the risk that I may get injured, but so be it.
That said not many dogs charge at us, even in parks if they come towards my dogs they tend to stop, turn and run lol.
Luckily I live in an area where there is 0 tolerance for a dog rushing another dog, regardless of breed.
One of my friends was walking her Malamute down the street, her dog was leashed, when a Yorkie charged out of a driveway (owner was standing there) and ran straight into Jakes mouth.
Needless to say the Yorkie was dead in seconds. My friend was horrified, went home followed by the yorkie's owner screaming at her, called animal control and by law immediately. They came out and got the story from both side's, then proceeded to write a fine to the Yorkies owner for having the dog off leash. Was the owner of the Yorkies fault plain and simple.
There was also a story here of an off duty police officer who was walking his pitty on a leash and a neighbors golden charged it. The police kicked the charging dog and ended up killing it. The owners of the Golden were outraged when City By Law told them they were in the wrong and responsible for their dogs death. They went to the media, but the general public here agreed with the City.
It is about RESPONSIBLE dog ownership.

 

[bw68]

Yes its my job to protect my dog

 

[Jadotha]

When my daughter was seven, she was attacked by a Rotti. He had been on a lead, but broke loose from the owner, leaped on my daughter's back, knocked her down and tore a big chunk of flesh out of her bum. He was moving up to bite her neck when I reached them. I went mad, grabbed the dog by the collar, wrested him off her and tried to break his neck. I really don't remember much until I was on the phone calling the ambulance. No thinking was involved, I acted purely instinctively.

At present, we have a couple of unpleasant dogs in the neighborhood who occasionally get loose and can be aggressive toward other dogs. However, my GD Dylan had an uncanny ability to charm them, and at 38", our IWH intimidates them.

 

[Mooshi's Mummy]

Yes its my job to protect my dog

I think I prefer the pepper spray route and keeping my body intact. Just personal choice. LOL

 

[Duetsche_Doggen]

A gun.

 

[kevinmuaythai]

I had a pitbull charge us walking before, I stepped in front of my dog and told him sternly to go back home, and he stopped about 5 feet from me and growled then turned and walked away looking back at me and growling. However because of my job I need a utility knife on me at all times. Given I don't even eat meat I would hate to kill a dog because of some idiots irresponsibility but if i had to protect my dog I guess the knife is fast on hand.

 

[Mooshi's Mummy]

A gun.

Not in the UK Im afraid.

 

[Duetsche_Doggen]

Yeah, I know for you guys its different.

Can you use a cattle prod or tazer?

 

[ruthcatrin]

A gun.

That too, but it is a more permenant solution and since I hope to be able to stop the potential attack before it reaches the level that the authorities are likely to consider lethal I'll stick with pepper spray unless I cannot seperate them otherwise. I live in NY which affects how the local authorities are likely to handle it if a gun is involved.....

 

[bw68]

My guns are too big and I dont have a handgun, my size 17 shoe will have to do