Negative encounter with loose Rottweiler

zef

Near where I live there is a row of houses, the first has a huge Rottie, and one i've never liked as he would bark aggressively at me and my JRT as we walked past. He was always in his garden, either loose or chained within the garden.
I'm not afraid of big dogs, in fact i'm a big fan, and were it not for the 4 beasties in a semi d already we would have a big dog if we had the room.

So earlier this afternoon I had an errand to run and was to call into a friend living a few houses past this dog. No worries, do it every Saturday afternoon.
I passed a large hedge with my dog on a leash and out of the hedge shoots this huge 13 stone dog. (I had asked his owner the dogs weight a year ago as I was amazed at is size when I met him walking the dog)
I hesitate to use the phrase 'attacked'- because I wasn't 'attacked' but I was growled at , reared up upon, the dog lunged towards my dog and I. The rest is a blur- a man stopped his van at some point and got hurley and was beating the dog with it to get it away from me and my dog. He kept trying to roll my dog onto her back, and he had just been chasing a cat - i could see it in up the tree beside the hedge he came out of.
The dogs home was literally 10 foot away. They were out in their garden and all this going on, but out of their direct vision because of a kink in the road.
I have an anxiety disorder (see a HSE psych once a month) and have trouble leaving the house, I'm on disability allowance for same. I had agoraphobia for years but overcame it in 2010, getting out and about was one of the reasons I took on the dog from a terminally ill man too sick to walk her.

I am screaming and trying to hit the dog with the metal buckle a the top of my dogs lead, then i remember shouting to a teenage boy who was trying to help too 'that dog only lives there, get the owners'. The owners appeared, the dog was taken in, and not a word, not a sorry ,nothing was said to me. I was visibly upset, and shaking, teeth chattering, had a panic attack. To make matters worse, my friend who lived a few houses up wasn't in, so I had to walk past the dog again 5 mins later. He was sitting in the garden, being comforted by his owners. They saw me and looked away. When I got home, my decent headphones had gotten broken somehow in the fracas, which i'm annoyed about too .

I don't even know why i'm posting this. I'm still shaking. My world is small enough - I don't generally go out of my 'safe zone' (about 2km away from home is ok with me, anything further a challenge) because of my extreme life-long anxiety.
What would you do?
I'm afraid to go to the house about my 100e headphones as the dog is in the garden loose with a 'beware of dog' sign.

Elemonator

Sorry to hear OP. I had a similar incident years ago when I was attacked by two huge black labs. Ran into them again a few weeks ago, the owner has warned numerous times not to let them loose but he's a bit dim. It is a known rough estate in Fingal.

Contact your local dog warden at your county council. I was directed there by a Garda, not sure if they will do anything but its your best shot if you want to stay in legal boundaries. I know I did.

Big thanks to the guy with the hurley.

Damiencm

I would seriously consider reporting this to the authorities

Lisha

I'm so sorry you had to deal with this OP.

Shame on the the owners for not having to balls/manners to apologies or check were you ok.

I really hope this doesn't impact on you too severely. Lean on the support structures you have in place and best wishes to you.

zef

Yes, definetly... Big big thanks to Hurley Man in his rescue van. Perhaps this is the modern day super-hero , I think my dog would have been mauled/ bitten or worse without him.
I gave her a check all over, doesn't seem to have broken her skin, but she is noticably more clingy and anxious since we got home. We are made for each other, she's a really anxious dog.
I am thinking, but i don't know if i'm over-reacting or what. At one stage i was looking down on myself shouting f*** off , f*** off , f*** off for dear life, it was really surreal, like I was an observer. 4 hours later I'm still not over it.

Hi Damiencm, do you mean the gardai or dog warden? Would the Gardai be bothered? They are privately owned houses. I'd half be afraid the warden would want the dog put down, but the dog was loose in an estate full of small children when he barrelled thru the hedge at us. It's not the dogs fault, I guess, just the people who didn't have a lead or muzzle on him and not being more vigilant. He could have caused a serious accident on the main road too. Because of this, it's likely he would be pts, isn't it?

b_mac2

A 13 stone rottweiler? Hahahaha

zef

b_mac2 wrote: »

A 13 stone rottweiler? Hahahaha

I'm glad it amuses you.

littelady

How awful, I would be shaken up for days after that. I would suggest you post them a letter explaining your love of dogs and that you would never want there dog to be put down but you feel they have a duty of care towards those in your estate especially children and insist they muzzle, chain the dog or you will have to make a complaint to officials.

littelady

To be fair you do sound like a genuine nice guy. Portray yourself well in the letter showing your not one to normally complain.

b_mac2

zef wrote: »

I'm glad it amuses you.

There is no way that Rottweiler, or any Rottweiler on the planet is anything near 13 stone.
Makes me wonder are you exaggerating anything else in this story....

DBB

b_mac2 wrote: »

A 13 stone rottweiler? Hahahaha

Give it a rest.
The op is going by what the owner said the dog weighs.
In any case, the dog's weight is immaterial. Having a laugh at the expense of someone else's crappy experience is pretty low.
Don't post in this thread again.
Thanks,
DBB

ganmo

Talk to the local Dog warden on Monday

Heisenberg1

OP I would report that to the Garda immediately what if a child was walking by they might not be so lucky.

zef

I'm not exaggerating anything. I didn't 'guess' the weight of the dog, I was walking one day and met the man and dog and commented on his size, and asked his weight.
Thank you little lady, I'm female, and animal lover to boot. Thats why I posted here, not in AH, or Legal issues. Because people here are more rational about animals and heir role in our lives.

andreac

Hi zef. What an awful experience for you and your doggy. I would Def call the warden or at least call down to the owners if you think they might be approachable
I had a similar experience a few months ago but I had 2 Rotties with me, my 2 males and a big male rottweiler came out of a garden and attacked my 2 boys. Thankfully the owner ran out and managed to get him away from us. I was so upset and terrified and I own 3 rottweilers. I went home crying and shaking. I had my heart set on ringing the warden next day but decided to call back to the owners and just have a chat which I did and the man couldn't have been more apologetic.
But if you don't think you could talk to the owners then I would certainly call the warden asap.
Hope you are ok now as I'm sure you it was a terrifying experience.

Just to note, there is no way that rottie was 13 stone. A male can weigh around 7-9 stone max. 50kg is the average sized male so they were totally exaggerating with their 13 stone. But regardless of its weight a male rottweiler coming at you like that is very scary.

jopax

Hi op,

That is a horrible experience for you and the small dog.
It is disgraceful that the owners don't realise that people that don't know the dog would be very scared at him barking & lunging like that.
I did just want to say in defense of the rottie, if he was intent on doing damage or was savage he would have attacked and there would be no stopping him.
It doesn't justify what happened its just that the rottie will do what dogs do like chasing cats or barking at people or dogs passing their property.
What I'm trying to get at it is that the owners are very ignorant and they give the dog a bad name by letting that behaviour go on.
I hope it doesn't unsettle you too much.

zef

Thanks andreac . I'm sorry you had the same experience, I went home crying and shaking too. And as an animal lover, its very unsettling in general.
I had a Dobie years ago until he was stolen. As I said I like dogs, any size!
I would call up for chat, but this guy and his mother only seemed to care about their dog. I might try it tomorrow afternoon, without my dog and with my son with me for support.
After lots of tea, supportive adult son and doggy n kitty cuddles, I'm feeling a little better.
Thank you for your support and feedback, helps get the incident in proportion, though frightening/ terrifying (i was afraid my dog was going to be killed) the public helped and most all of you have helped, even being able to vent the incident here was helpful . Thank you.
In the owners defence also Jomax, I've never seen the dog loose ever before, and he is there a few years. You'd notice him, like!
Tea & boards , great remedy for a shock

andreac

You poor thing. I'm sure it was very upsetting. I was the same and I'm not afraid of anything really dog wise but when you see a huge male coming at you and your 2 big males on the end of it, you know there is going to be trouble so I can only imagine your poor little doggy against this big rottie.
Hopefully you can get this resolved easy enough but don't feel bad if you need to ring the warden.

kathleen37

Horrible experience for you - I'm really sorry you both had to go through that.

I wonder if you could get a friend or your son to go and knock and say to them you wanted to discuss what happened?

Bearing in mind your issues with anxiety, I do understand if you would rather not do that. The only thing I was thinking was that it may be better than calling the dog warden if they live so close to you. Especially as you seem to have spoken to them before? As has been mentioned, if you'd rather not do that, perhaps a letter instead would be a good idea. At least that way you can make sure you get out exactly what you want to say.

My thoughts are that as a minimum, they really, really need to make sure the same doesn't happen again. Shame on them for not even apologising. Things could have been much worse than they were...

I hope you're both feeling better. One thing to think of is that you both managed to get past the house ok soon after it happened so you know that you are able to do that ok. Well done you!

zef

Hi Kathleen and thanks for your post, I have a close friend who is calling over after work and we will go up and talk to them. It was very good of her to offer. I have a bit of a black eye and a huge bump on my nose. Woke up yesterday with what I thought was a bad bout of sinus', one bad enough to need ponstan for it. Got a shock when I saw my face in the mirror! (more than usual, like ) The dogs been a bit clingy too.
I really don't want any drama-rama, as you say Kathleen I walk there daily, It is near a dog-park, which my dog loves. I didn't ring the gardai or the warden-yet. As you say, the main thing is to ensure this dog doesn't bother anyone outside of his own garden again.
Sorry I meant to ad I have not ruled out calling the warden. If its the dogs first time coming to notice, he should be ok. If its not, well, thats what the dog warden is there for.