Sorry this may be a bit long and rambly, I'll try and stick to relevant background info.
We have a 2.5 year old Bearded Collie and we moved to our current house with him when he was 9 months old. We're in a really rural area and live in one of a cluster of houses in the middle of nowhere.
Our next door neighbour has an elderly Jack Russel who throws himself against the window barking whenever I walk by with my dog. A couple of weeks after we moved here the JR got out of his garden and went for our dog - I wasn't there but DH said the JR drew blood from our dog.
Our dog isn't completely blameless - I don't know if this started happening after the attack or just before but our dog went from looking a bit confused and put out by the JR barking to starting to bark back and trying to go up the window of next door's house. So we started always having him on a lead to walk past. We hoped maybe the situation would improve when our dog turned 2 and was neutered.
So this is how we've been managing since then, the JR has got about 2 more times in the nearly 2 years since we've been here, both times he's gone for our dog and both times our dog has been completely passive, trying to hide behind me, lying on his back, trying to get away and wining.
Our dog is obviously stressed walking past the house, he strains in the lead and careers around the road and will pull whoever's walking him, sometimes there'll be a lot of barking then the minute we're past the house he relaxes and walks quietly, as he does anywhere else.
He is great socially with other dogs and is best friends with our opposite neighbour's dog. So much so that we share the dog walking and take them out together.
Our opposite neighbour was walking the dogs yesterday and there was this huge explosion of barking. Jack Russel was in his garden but having a right bark at our dog, mine reacted more forcefully than he ever has - lots of barking and pulling on the lead and our neighbour got bitten twice on the leg by my dog.
Neighbour thinks our dog was stressed and there was no malice in the bite, he's called it a nip but it went through his jeans.
I think our dog does get stressed and wound up walking past our neighbours. However, he's now bitten someone
We have a 2 year old and our opposite neighbour has a three year old. Where we live is so quiet they are often in the road between our houses. They also come out with us for walks.
I now have a situation where 10 meters from my doorstep, for whatever reason, I have an environment where I can't trust my dog.
I was brought up in a fairly strict farming family where one bite meant being put to sleep.
Our dog is so lovely, a truly gentle nature who I trust around any other dog or children, he's been amazing with our baby who is now a toddler. He has so much going for him. But I can no longer trust him in a particular situation that is really close to home and that we encounter everyday, where other people and children could be involved.
What would you do? Any advice or perspectives would be really welcome, thank you.
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18 replies
KormaKormaChameleon · 27/08/2020 11:24
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