Dog Attack

glen84iris

Hello,

About 18 months ago, I was walking my two labrador crosses past my neighbours house. Both were leashed, one was muzzled.

One of my neighbours two rottweiler's charged out (ignoring its electric shock collar), bit my muzzled lab, went for the other one, my unmuzzled lab fought back and I landed a solid kick to the rottweilers jaw. The rottweiler retreated. Neither of my dogs was bleeding although both had been bitten.

I phoned the house owner (old family friend), the dog owner is the son who lives abroad. I explained what had happend. They said they would 'keep the gates closed'.

Today, my brother nad his girlfriend were walking my two dogs past the same house, again, both on leashes, one muzzled. The rottweiler charged, again bit my muzzled lab, my other lab fought back. The house owner eventually emerged and called off the rottweiler.

My lab needed a general anesthetic, ten stitches to her ear and is now missing a piece of her ear. I have heard today (could be true, maybe not) that the rottweiler has atacked 2 other dogs.

I am wondering what to do. Part of me wants to get the law / warden involved and have the dog removed. As a dog owner and lover, I would hate to see any dog destroyed. However, I realise that sometimes it is necessary. Conflicting with these options is that we know the family and have done for years.

At a minimum I intend getting the vets bills paid and having strong words with the house owner. However, perhaps the first attack and my subsequent phone call has just been proved to be ignored and now I should take stronger action.

I would love to hear some thoughts on this issue.

(apologies for waking a sleeping thread, however, I have less than 25 posts and cannot start a new thread)

Cherry Blossom

Post split away from an old thread, OP there is no limit on the number of posts for starting threads.

Arbiter of Good Taste

Go to the dog warden now. It doesn't matter whether or not you are a dog warden. What if the he injures a person?

Coopaloop

Definitely report this, it could be a child next time, and there will be a next time, its already happened twice to your dogs. I know its awful to have a dog destroyed, its the owners fault that the dog is the way he is, and you are doing the right thing.
I hope your doggie is Ok, poor pet.

Dozen Wicked Words

Definitely report it op, your poor dogs. Who, or what next, someone else's pet or worse, doesn't bear thinking about.

tk123

Coopaloop wrote: »

Definitely report this, it could be a child next time, and there will be a next time, its already happened twice to your dogs. I know its awful to have a dog destroyed, its the owners fault that the dog is the way he is, and you are doing the right thing.
I hope your doggie is Ok, poor pet.

Dog attack does not equal child attack and secondly a dog won't automatically be destroyed because it's attacked other dogs. The owners will probably fined and told to leash and muzzle the dog. OP we had a similar issue in our area and the comminuity Garda ended up being really helpful...he just happened to be cycling around the park one afternoon after an attack and somebody went up to him and complained and took it from there. A group of owners got together and were reporting incidents etc and a lot of others (myself included) stopped walking in the park at certain times so as to avoid him and the dog. Last I heard there was a court appearance and the dog was 'gone' whether it was taken off him of pts I don't know - this would have been months and months after it was initially reported.

10 stitches though(!) your poor dog OP :mad:

borderlinemeath

Report the incident OP, you might not be the only one who has reported these dogs. Hope your dog will be OK, physically and mentally, it really doesn't help relations with other dogs once your dog has been in an altercation with another.

And once again this just goes to show how electric fences and collars are worse than useless. They don't contain dogs like a proper wall or fence can.

Dog attack does not equal child attack

I totally agree with this. Dogs that are dog/small animal aggressive are not usually people aggressive and it's always used in a "won't somebody think of the children" type post... BUT the association with the shock can possibly instigate an attack if the escaping dog associates the pain with what he sees on the other side, be that a dog or a person. A relatives goldie ended up going for her husband after one shock too many and he was the nearest thing to the dog. She had to get rid of the dog in case he went for their child. Yet he was the mildest meekest dog, but terrified of the shock.:(

Knine

Another thing people don't realize is that sometimes children can be out with their own dog & get caught up & accidently bitten in the middle of dog on dog attacks. It can very easily happen. It can also traumatise them greatly.

I would be avoiding walking past that house if possible until the offending dogs are properly contained.

glen84iris

Hi Guys,

Thank you for all the messages. After careful consideration, I called the house owner.

I explained that as we are friends and even though I know how attached people get to their dogs, I would have to take further action as this was the second offence (on my dogs). I said if there had been evidence, that after the initial attack 18 months ago, the owner had taken steps to avoid a reoccurance, I may have let it go. However, this was not the case and I would have to call the dog warden.

In the end, I didn't need to as he phoned me back, and said they had decided to have the dog put to sleep. Although I feel bad for the dog (in my opinion, a better owner would dog proof their property), I am happy that this situation will not occur again. As mentioned by Knine, others can get caught in the middle of dog fights. The owner covered the cost of my vet bills.

After an initial night of pain, my dog is back to herself apart from bumping into everything with the collar. Her ear will be a funny shape for the rest of her days but it would have been much worse if her eye had been damaged. We stayed up with her the last two nights incase she managed to get her collar off.

Thank you again for all of your helpful advice.

Ashbx

Pity the rottie had to be put down! Sounds like the parents were dumped with this dog when the son went abroad and just couldn't handle the dog!

Glad to hear your dog is recovering though!

tk123

Ah your poor dog OP!! I think it was very reasonable of you to go to them like that first before taking it any further.

sillysmiles

tk123 wrote: »

Ah your poor dog OP!! I think it was very reasonable of you to go to them like that first before taking it any further.

Surely the first port of call is always to talk to the owners, especially if they are neighbours or you know them. If they are going to respond negatively after you talking to then you know that you still have the resort of taking it further.

Sorry for your dog.