My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

If you're worried about your pet's health, please speak to a vet or qualified professional.

The doghouse

Ddog was attacked yesterday - he doesn't care, but I do

10 replies

Climbingahoneytree · 27/03/2019 06:21

I just need to vent. We were out on a walk yesterday when ddog was approached my 2 young large breed dogs. He is medium sized.
DH has been walking him more than me recently and said he played with the same dogs recently. I immediately said I didn't like the intermittently tense body language from one of the dogs (only subtle but present) and so we walked further away (large green space) and completely out of sight.

5 mins later, the dog shows up, no owner with it. Ddog was next to me minding his own business. The dog grabbed him and started trying to bite his face and legs. It got in a few bites to the face (removing fur but not a lot else) and did make his ear bleed. Ddog didn't do anything other than growl in response but the other dog wasn't stopping, fortunately I confused the other dog for a second by making a long high pitched noise and DH was able to pull it off. I'm heavily pregnant so would have been stuffed if DH wasn't there.

It's owners didn't even know, nor care, what was happening. They couldn't call it back but also had no idea what it had done as they couldn't see it. I shouted to them that their dog has attacked and bitten, and they didn't say anything at all. Just went and sat back down where they were to start with.
(After putting the dog on a lead).

We left with ddog and let him greet some friendly dogs on leads. He didn't seem shaken. I've also arranged a lead walk witha similar breed dog later where I will load him up with treats.

It doesn't seem to have effected him but I am so angry and now anxious myself. He's the breed that everyone will avoid, when he won't hurt a fly. For this reason other people haven't ever really walked him for us. I was finally getting content with a family member walking him and open to the idea of them letting him off lead (his recall is solid but I just worry that he will boisterously approach an old person or something) but now I'm worried they will see this stupid dog and not realise.

How do you get over your dog being attacked unprovoked when your dog doesn't seem to care?

OP posts:
Report
Climbingahoneytree · 27/03/2019 06:24

Sorr for any typos, it's early!

OP posts:
Report
Decormad38 · 27/03/2019 06:39

It’s traumatic isn’t it? It will affect the dog less than it affects us because it’s part of life in a pack. The other dog asserted dominance. You could get him back into a pack with a dog walker so that he is then used to asserting himself. We have a tiny dog but she’s fairly dominant. When she gets too ‘antisocial ‘ we make sure we get her with other dogs and it calms her behaviour.

Report
missbattenburg · 27/03/2019 07:08

It's not part of life in a pack and the domestic dog does not form packs. That this dog is not affected will be down to its personality and (presumably) a wide range of good or neutral experiences with other dogs to counter balance this one bad one.

OP, the same will be true of you. Give yourself a few days for the stress to dissipate from your body - if that means not walking the dog for two or three days then that is fine. Then focus on building up more food experiences to help counter this bad one. Maybe your first few walks might be at times or places where you are less likely to bump into other dogs. Just at first. Go easy on yourself and I promise memories like this one will fade again.

Report
Climbingahoneytree · 27/03/2019 07:43

Decormad thank you for commenting but the dominance theory was debunked by the guy that originally came up with it, I certainly don't want to teach him any negative behaviours.

missbatternburg thank-you. I work with dogs to be honest so avoiding them isn't an option! Frustratingly if it was somebody else's dog I would be very calm about advice, and I know that the same advice applies to us, but because it's my boy this time I have worried myself. I do think my dog won't really care and that it is more me than him. I'm hoping one lead walk with a similar breed later will help me with it, then a few quiet walks after that, and then back to normality for me next week. Thankfully our boy has a larger than life personality so it would take a hell of a lot to put him off dogs.

OP posts:
Report
missbattenburg · 27/03/2019 08:18

Sounds like a sensible plan.

Report
missbattenburg · 27/03/2019 08:18

Good luck!

Report
Fortheloveofscience · 27/03/2019 08:24

I’m sorry this happened. You will both be fine and all will be forgotten soon. However, I would have gone ballistic at the owner for not having his dog under control and at very least tried to get some contact details.

Report
BiteyShark · 27/03/2019 08:28

Just wanted to say so sorry that this happened to you and your dog. It amazes me how many owners don't care about dog on dog attacks especially if it's their own attacking another Angry

Report
Climbingahoneytree · 27/03/2019 09:11

I’m sorry this happened. You will both be fine and all will be forgotten soon. However, I would have gone ballistic at the owner for not having his dog under control and at very least tried to get some contact details.

I roughly know their address anyway as I regularly see her taking it out. I was going to say something but DH insisted there wasn't much point as she wasn't interested in controlling it in any way. She was a teenage girl so I'm not sure how much of it would have sunk in.

OP posts:
Report
DogHairEverywhere · 27/03/2019 10:04

If you know where they live, i think I'd be tempted to talk to them, or drop them a letter, explaining how your dog was injured and that owning a dog that is dangerous and out of control in a public place could result in their dog being pts. The letter (or talk) does not need to be aggressive or threatening, but they do need to take responsibility for their dog. (I'm just thinking it needs to not happen again).
WRT your dog, i would give him a day or two for the adrenaline to subside, before taking him to carefully arranged doggy play dates with dogs he gets on with to build up his good experiences.

Report
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.