My dog was attacked today

[mrsfred]

Totally unprovoked. He was playing nicely with another dog when a Staffie on a lead approached. Both dogs stopped to say hello and the Staff lunged forwards and bit my dog on the mouth and wouldn't let go.

Cue £90 vet bill and very sore dog with cuts to his jowls, gums and tongue.

The vet gave him antibiotics and pain-killers. His face is swollen and he is looking very sorry for himself.

WHat can I do?

relax

keep yr lead relaxed

dont have a tight and/or short lead, i call this defensive handling. you pass anxiety down the lead to your dog.

holding the lead tight causes anxiety, anxiety causes physical tension, physical tension triggers pain.

your dog may learn to associate pain with the sight of other dogs.

if he is worried when over dogs are close, dont cuddle or mother him, this reinforces his fear.

simply be aware and jolly and give him treats as dogs approach

dont allow other dogs to hassle him or invade his space,

Thanks. I'm going to bed now. Trouble is he's very big so people assume he's okay with their dog worrying him. I've had to ask people a few times to get their off teh lead dog away from him if they are worrying him.

We do have a very short lead - will change that.

He's okay with some dogs but usually when we've approached them and there's been some mutual bum sniffing.

cool

when you get your longer lead keep both hands on the end resting on your belt buckle.

otherwise you end up using one hand to grip onto the lead half way down, ending up giving your dog with the same defensive handling message you already do with a short lead.

btw, short and/or tense (tight) leads also teach your dogs to pull, due to opposition reflex

Thanks, Clutha - that's really useful advice. Will do it today.

Morning Clutha.

I wasn't observing him that closely - sorry! I remember he was pulling towards the two off lead dogs. Yes, they broke off playing and 'trotted' toward him with tails wagging.

One interesting point is that, usually we have a lot of problems with our dog running off at speed to play with other dogs (because of this he is usually on a long lead). In this instance he didn't, waited until the dog got closer, then approached quietly.

He due for the chop in a couple of weeks and once that is done, we'll be back to training classes to sort out our recall.