My dog almost lost an eye today because of an irresponsible dog owner.
This is my dog, he's big, daft and because he isn't always good with other dogs he is kept on a tight reign when out in public.
Over the last week or so my son has been taking him for a walk with his friend and his dog to get him used to being around other dogs. On the walk today he not only played with his friends dog but had friendly meeting with a couple of other German Shepherds. This was a first as he tends to not like other big dogs.
At the end of his run around the park my son put him back on his lead to walk him home when a dog came running over and after a little time of sniffing each other the dog attacked ours without warning biting at his face. Our dog responded by going for it's throat and pinning it to the floor before my son pulled him back and away from this dog. The other dog wasn't injured and finally it's owner ran over, put his dog on a lead and walked away without a word, just a slight nod of his head.
It was only then my son on checking him over noticed he was bleeding just above his eye, you can see below how close that injury from the dogs teeth came to taking out his eye.
Our dog could have caused serious injury to the other dog but chose to just over-power it and then allowed my son to pull it back. (Yes he allowed that to happen as if he was really nasty my son wouldn't have been able to pull him off.)
Tonight I'm still angry that a dog owner allowed his dog to run free in a park and attack my dog and didn't even apologise or ask if our dog was OK.
I've been walking my dog and seen as other dog owners let their dog run free as they come up barking at us while I put my dog on a lead and control him while they just shout their dogs name from across the park and it doesn't listen or follow their commands.
I have a big dog and make sure he is always under control in public so why do owners of medium or small dogs act in such an irresponsible way in allowing an untrained animal run free?
Our dog is OK and has had lots of fuss and treats for the way he acted today after being attacked.
Wow! what a handsome! I love dogs =)
I have a kid =)
resteem
First off, I'm glad that your dog is OK!
I'm sure it's just the anger speaking, but do you really think there is fundamental difference in responsibility between owners of large dogs and owners of small dogs? There are some small dog owners and some large dog owners that are quite irresponsible and some that are not. I have seen both on numerous occasions.
I guess I'm taking offense because I'm a small to medium sized dog owner and since my dog is not good with larger dogs (gets scared, so barks A LOT and tries to chase them away which are habits I guess he picked up in his past as a stray) and I view it as my responsibility for my dog's behavior not causing any trouble. That's why he's on a leash and I also don't take him to places where dogs are regularly off their leashes because his behavior might cause a negative response in an otherwise balanced dog that came to say hi because he decides to attack them. He does that quite rarely nowadays, but there is always a chance that this behavior would kick back in if the dog he meets feels particularly large and scary to him and since it remains a possibility, I view it as my responsibility to anticipate and prevent it on time.
Most people with dogs that don't usually show aggression and that know how to socialize properly with other dogs would allow their dog to go socialize with the dogs that are in a park where dogs are generally taken and walked as they see it as your responsibility not to bring a dog that would start trouble there and I think indeed it is. That's why I avoid those places with my dog. Still, sometimes they are wrong or they are for some reason unwilling to admit that their dog is sometimes aggressive or causes trouble. I've had a local idiot here claim that his rottweiler was not aggressive despite her having attacked a number of dogs already while being off her leash and basically left unattended. Most people would blame everyone and everything else before they admit any of the blame on themselves or their pet which leads to this type of annoying situation when people's pets cause trouble or harm and the owner would walk away without even apologizing like in your case. It is indeed infuriating and I would be left fuming after an incident like that too.
As a youngster I got kind of attacked (or more like aggressively barked at) by a young but already large german shepherd while the owner stood by laughing at how scared I was and how I was stepping back while the dog was inching towards me and not being brave enough to go for my legs properly though this was its intention. The prolonged fuss even attracted a few stray dogs that I heard coming up behind me barking and since I used to be really scared of dogs, my fight-or-flight kicked in and instead of continuing to step back, I stepped forward and kicked at the dog violently. Only after the dog squealed in surprise (my kick did not actually connect) did the owner decide it was time to put it on its leash and even yelled at me as if I was not in the right to protect myself in the escalating situation.
Now does that story tell me anything about german shephered owners or big dog owners? I hope you'd agree that it doesn't, so let's avoid pet-sizist sentiment here :P
I'm not saying all owners of large dogs are good and owners of smaller dogs are bad but in my local park there is a group of 5 or six people who walk their dogs and just stand around talking while their dogs run around like a pack. one dog in particular will run right across the park to bark at any other dog being walked or even people walking through the park. Their owners don't even stop their conversations to control their dogs, it is dog owners like these I'm on about and in this case their dogs are all smaller dogs although I'm sure owners of larger dogs can act in the same way.
I know, I guess I took it a bit personally ;)
Those people sound quite irresponsible and selfish indeed. I guess owners of larger dogs might have stopped doing this sooner as their dogs can cause more trouble and might already have which has made their owners more responsible while there are indeed some irresponsible small dog owners who let their dogs do whatever they feel like with the false presumption that small dogs cannot cause any trouble or harm which of course is not true.
For instance, there is a husky that gets walked in the same general area where we go for walks and despite and they have a story of their dog playing with a smaller dog. At some point the smaller dog got aggressive and started biting his hind legs which eventually lead to the husky retaliating and actually hurting the smaller dog. I think it was the responsibility of the owners of the smaller dog to react as soon as their dog got aggressive and it's not just the large dog that was to blame in this situation. Of course, dogs are dogs and sometimes react unexpectedly to their owners and problems might happen that would have been difficult to anticipate for either owner involved.
I was walking Houston (on leash) last night when another dog came barreling out of its yard. I wasn't going to wait and see if the dog was friendly, not with my dog being 14 years old and under ten pounds. I quickly scooped him up. The other dog's owner never even left their own backyard, just called after the dog twice. Fortunately, all turned out well, but...sigh.
Glad it didn't turn out nasty, it can be scarey when a dog runs out at you like that.
Awesome Dog
thank you for sharing
Resteemed
Awww, poor baby - I'm glad he's okay. This reminds me of my little Annie, who passed away a few years ago at 21 years old. She had only 1 eye, and was practically blind in it; and no teeth. Annie was a toy poodle/terrier cross and I inherited her from my brother after he passed from pancreatic cancer in 2008. Annie weighed less than 5 pounds - but even with all her health issues, she would literally chase down any and all large dogs in the vicinity if I wasn't constantly scooping her up so she couldn't terrorize them. With no teeth she would not have been able to actually hurt anything ... but even the largest dogs were wary of her and would keep a healthy distance. LOL.
I am really glad your dog is okay. Some people are just irresponsible whether it be with their pets or their kids. And you can't make them change. The only thing you can do is train your own pet and it sounds like you are doing a good job.
You're right that you can't change them although hopefully the owner of the other dog will take more care with his dog from now on.
That's why we should carry any stick to control the situation if any bad dog attacks on our dog.
The problem is, if my son walked around with a stick while walking the dog he would end up in trouble with the police as people are told teenagers are trouble and nasty.
Well maybe it's time to change that image. Why not put simpley teenagers are teenagers??? ^^
That is my thoughts, we've had an open house on his friends since they were kids, all have been welcome and they are all great kids.