Two dogs swarmed my dog - what to do in this situation

[Harriedharriet]

We were walking our dog (a German Shepherd) on leash. On the other side of a two lane bigish road a woman was walking a Lab and another similar sized dog. The two dogs focused on our dog barking at him. Then, they started to pull the woman and ran together across the road toward our dog. The lady could not hold them, they refused all comands and the ran in rings around our dog barking non stop. Our chap was staining to get away, he was on leash which dh did not drop. The dogs were not snarling all the time but there were a few. It felt like a second before the dynamic could change. The woman just stood back calling them. I was shouting at them "NO" and trying to big arm them away. Had they attacked they would have really damaged our dog and maybe us.
What should one do in that situation? I was very shaken up after it and partly because I felt so helpless in my ignorance. The two dogs working together was very frightening.

Wow, that's awful and I don't blame you for being shaken up. If she can't control her dogs, she shouldn't be walking them - that has the potential to be so dangerous :(

I don't know what advice to give you except maybe turning and walking away if possible, or body blocking, but I'd be very wary of doing too much as I wouldn't want to get bitten!

I hope you're okay

so she stayed over the road?

I think I would turn back the way we came and walk back, even if they are following, they will eventually stop following.

Not surprised you were scared.

Bloody hell, you'd have been within your rights to kick them away. I hope she apologised?

I have been in a similar situation and honestly, there’s very little you can do as they are so fast.

I kicked one of the attackers but was only able to do that because it had my dog down on the ground and was holding her down.

The best advice I can offer is to train a good recall and if at any point you see another dog in the distance whose body language you feel is a bit ‘off’ take no chances and walk away.

And yes, if you're genuinely feeling threatened or scared, then you are within your rights to defend yourself. She can't complain if she fails to have her dog under control.

My husband always says if that happens to us to let our dogs lead go so he can defend himself or run away. Of course I wouldn’t on a busy road but would if it was a quiet location

I don't know if this is correct, but recently I read a recommendation that if you are surrounded and in fear of attack,then you drop the lead, as the dog is better able to escape without being attached to you.

But that could be nonsense, as I can't remember the source.

This has happened to me before, I was walking my dog, with my baby in the slimg and my older children beside me. A small woman walking two large dogs approached, her dogs went mental when they saw us and practically dragged her across the road to get to us, snarlingand snappingthe whole time. She had them on extendable leads and she had zero control. Thankfully we were able to dash off behind a wall where we out of sight, i don't know what would have happened if they actually got to us, there would have been nothing i could do as I had the baby on my back and my other children were petrified! When I peeked around the corner she was dragging them away in the direction she came from. Surely if you know your dog will react like that you should have it muzzled?

My husband always says if that happens to us to let our dogs lead go so he can defend himself or run away
I think this is more for owner safety incase of re directed bites.
My dog was off lead and it was horrendous.
The other dogs chased her and where they are all so fast for so long I was so helpless and unable to do anything because I couldn’t get close enough to anyone.
I do feel it would have been much easier to stop had she been on lead and I’d been able to get in front of her and threaten the other dogs.
Though there is of course the risk of the dogs turning on you.

The woman lost control immediately. As soon as the two dogs decided to come over they pulled her to the ground and bolted. She got up and ran over shouting but then stood back. She told us to stand back and let them work it out but I did not like the two against one - they were "assessing" him. I was shouting in a very loud voice "NO' and waving my arms in front of them but it was very fast and there was lots of abrupt movement.
When we got control of the situation she said the Lab is very sweet but has been attacked by a big dog before therefore ...[hmmm].
I wanted to kick and kick hard (I had good thick boots on ) but was afraid they might then attack us and it would escalate. I wish I knew what to do. It was very scary. The German Shepherd is a big dog but is a lamb so he was totally spooked.

@CarolVordermansBum

This has happened to me before, I was walking my dog, with my baby in the slimg and my older children beside me. A small woman walking two large dogs approached, her dogs went mental when they saw us and practically dragged her across the road to get to us, snarlingand snappingthe whole time. She had them on extendable leads and she had zero control. Thankfully we were able to dash off behind a wall where we out of sight, i don't know what would have happened if they actually got to us, there would have been nothing i could do as I had the baby on my back and my other children were petrified! When I peeked around the corner she was dragging them away in the direction she came from. Surely if you know your dog will react like that you should have it muzzled?

That is a terrible thing to have happen, especially when you are so vunerable with the children.

@MrsJunglelow

I have been in a similar situation and honestly, there’s very little you can do as they are so fast.

I kicked one of the attackers but was only able to do that because it had my dog down on the ground and was holding her down.

The best advice I can offer is to train a good recall and if at any point you see another dog in the distance whose body language you feel is a bit ‘off’ take no chances and walk away.

You are exactly right, the speed is what makes it so chaotic. Aiming a kick is hard as a result. Our guy was on leash. So even had we gone in the opposite direction the fact that they were off lease and racing toward him would have put us in a positon of running away from them. I wonder if that would have escalated it?

This happened to me when I was walking along a lane, 3 or 4 dogs came running out of a house completely unsupervised and were really threatening. I was wearing big boots like you and stamped my feet as hard as I could and yelled at them. Actually my collie even seemed to take my lead and also gave them a warning growl to keep away and then we were able to walk away without being attacked. So scary and if we’d have backed down I think they would have gone for us! Only advise I can give but really you’re at the mercy of the dogs :(

The woman lost control immediately...I wanted to kick and kick hard (I had good thick boots on ) but was afraid they might then attack us and it would escalate

Not much you can do in the moment - and the fact that you all got out of the situation safely suggests whatever you did was right. However, it can be reported to the police because this is the very textbook definition of dogs that are dangerously out of control.

That women needs to walk them one at a time if she can't control her dogs together.

One of my dogs is a total dick around other dogs and is muzzled for this reason. He is walked solo so I can focus solely on him without the other dogs.

So no magic bullet then.
Bugger!

I have abandoned all social grace in these moments and yell, tell and kick. I yell at the dogs and swiftly walk the other way, I tell the owner repeatedly to collect their dogs and I kick if need be. They usually retreat with the voice but a kick does it too. I walked dogs for years without needing these skills - it was like a utopia for the first 20years if ownership then this kind of shit happens a lot now.

On the plus side if you are a huge arse when the owner next sees you they avoid you rather than running on repeat like they do with the more amenable owners

Never, ever kick a dog, especially if it’s aggressive and in a pack. That is extremely bad advice. If it bites your leg and won’t let go you’ll go down leaving you free to bitten and attacked, possibly by multiple dogs. You won’t be able to get it off. Do not flap your arms around either. keep your arms and hands to yourself and try and back in to a corner slowly.
Report her for not having her dogs under control. Did you shout at her to get her dogs away from you? Carry a stick, sometimes telling the dog to ‘sit’ or ‘leave’ works- they should be familiar with that command.

Scary stuff and has happened to us too! Our one was on a lead and had a t-shirt on as he was recovering from an operation and the wound needed to be covered. We were on a campsite and all of a sudden these two quite large jack russels came out of nowhere and started to attack our dog! luckily they were quite small and we managed to shoo them off, my husband with a kick and then their owner finally came and got them off! We were so so angry as they should have been restrained in a campsite especially if they bloody rush/attack other dogs! We then noticed that my dog's t-shirt had a hole in it under his chin, so the bloody thing had tried to go for his throat!

@Suzi888

Never, ever kick a dog, especially if it’s aggressive and in a pack. That is extremely bad advice. If it bites your leg and won’t let go you’ll go down leaving you free to bitten and attacked, possibly by multiple dogs. You won’t be able to get it off. Do not flap your arms around either. keep your arms and hands to yourself and try and back in to a corner slowly. Report her for not having her dogs under control. Did you shout at her to get her dogs away from you? Carry a stick, sometimes telling the dog to ‘sit’ or ‘leave’ works- they should be familiar with that command.

Thank you Suzi. I know it is dangerous to kick and you clearly laid out why. A stick is a very good idea for future walks. i did indeed shout at the woman but she was utterly overwhelmed.

It is so scary when it happens. We always walk with a big stick. I read somewhere that if a dog is biting someone pick it up by it’s hind legs and it will open it’s mouth. When it happened to me I shouted at the dogs to get back.

This happened to me, after realising the dogs weren't going to work it out and the attacker was just attacking my dog, my husband picked up our dog to try to life him out of the way. The attacking dog just started jumping and biting until his owner pulled him away. Later found bite- holes in my husband's t shirt, so it was scary to think he was so close to being bitten too. Wish I'd reported them now!

A dog trainer told me it is worth having something really tasty in your pocket that you can throw, slightly away, as a distraction. I do always have smelly tasty treats with me now when I walk our dog, although I'm glad not to have had to use them so far.

A dog trainer told me it is worth having something really tasty in your pocket that you can throw, slightly away, as a distraction
I think that is awful advice and question if this trainer was suitably qualified.

Throwing treats may work with ‘over the top’ won’t take no for an answer, bolshy but ultimately harmless dogs I suppose.

But ‘real’ aggression, the kind of aggression where there is genuine intent to cause harm is usually based in very deep fear.

A dog that intensely agitated and fearful will be way, way over threshold and I imagine would not take treats no matter how high value.

There’s also the question of rewarding such dangerous behaviour increasing the possibility of it happening again.