# My dog got attacked. Her response surprised me.



## Kaimeju (Feb 2, 2013)

I knew it would happen sooner or later. We have so many off-leash dogs in our neighborhood and people who think they should just let their dogs run wild and "sort it out themselves." I was walking Gypsy on the sidewalk and we got attacked by a teenager's brindle mix who was getting out of a vehicle off-lead. It was just loud and frightening, no injuries whatsoever so that's good. My dog (female, spayed, age 4.5) has a bite history with other dogs so I was fully expecting there to be a bloody battle. She usually enters a situation with ears and tail up, has always shown very offensive posturing rather than typical fear aggression. A couple of months after I adopted her, we started working diligently to curb her reactivity. It's been about eight months since then. She still shows the same body language if another dog gets in her face but has stopped trying to bark, lunge, or bite. When this dog attacked, she acted differently than I have ever seen her: ears flat, tail tucked, just trying to get away and crying. I hope this doesn't affect her progress or change her personality. I am not sure if she has ever been aggressively confronted before in this way. Most of the time the dogs that bother us are not serious, just barking at a safe distance or being annoying. I have got her to the point that even little chihuahuas have come up to us on the street and she will not attack them. 

It makes me so sad that most of her experiences with other dogs have been negative since coming to live with us. She has a very sweet temperament and I feel like what she really needs is structured exposure and socialization. I have been trying to do this through classes and it helps, but one good experience once a week doesn't outweigh what happens during the week. When other dogs show submission or fear she becomes a bully, so I never let her interact. I just feed her treats for ignoring the other dogs and paying attention to me. This post doesn't really have a question associated with it, just sharing a story. I thought my dog would be the type to escalate a fight, but it turns out she is not like that at all. I wonder what was different, if it was just that the other dog was more confident or because he came at us so suddenly.


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## Harry and Lola (Oct 26, 2013)

It is scary and it happens so quickly. Noise is good with dog fights, silence is not, when dogs are silent and fighting there is usually always contact made, I always remember that saying 'beware of a silent dog'.


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## Chip18 (Jan 11, 2014)

You should read this thread if you haven’t already.
http://www.germanshepherds.com/foru...-if-another-dog-attacks-your-while-leash.html

Your job is to protect your dog. A walking stick, mace or pepper spray, stand in front of your dog and scream at the other dog. Jumpiing from a car is a new one to me ( my dogs don't bolt of cars, homes, garages etc) but yeah it happens.

If you know dogs are running lose, then you need a plan of action, either to defend your dog or load her in the car and go some place safe to walk, No plan at all isn’t much of a plan; if you "know" loose dogs are around. Granted "this" dog wasn’t around as it were but had you had a plan it would have been better for your dog.


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## Kaimeju (Feb 2, 2013)

Chip18 said:


> If you know dogs are running lose, then you need a plan of action, either to defend your dog or load her in the car and go some place safe to walk, No plan at all isn’t much of a plan; if you "know" loose dogs are around. Granted "this" dog wasn’t around as it were but had you had a plan it would have been better for your dog.


I'm not sure what I could have done in this situation since it happened so fast. Based on the angle I would have been macing my own dog. In the past getting in front of her and screaming has worked. I might get pepper spray for the future though. I am just a little concerned about the legality of macing a dog that hasn't technically done anything. I live in a rough neighborhood and the neighbors with small loose dogs hate my dog because I yell at theirs all the time. If I could be sure to get away with it, I would LOVE to mace the next dog that tries to mess with us. I am so angry.

I take her to walk other places as much as I can but this is not feasible to do before work. 



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## HarleyTheGSD (Feb 13, 2012)

This is my fear. 
We have a lot of off-leash dogs around here. When I walk Harley, the dogs usually walk right up to us, but Harley is very submissive and never payed much attention to the dogs. It's Varick I'm worried about. Around the middle of last year, a pit bull walked right up to us (did NOT look friendly), and my boyfriend took a huge risk and held the dog back by the collar. Luckily, Varick isn't very reactive, he just gave a few deep growls. No lunging or barking. I'm going to start bringing pepper spray on walks from now on.
Sorry that this happened, good luck!


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## Stosh (Jun 26, 2010)

Get a cattle paddle at the feed store. It's plastic, about 5 ft long, shaped like an oar and has a rattle inside. You can safely put a block between another dog and yours and it won't hurt either of them. You can hold it over your head and rattle it and that will scare most dogs away. We use them when we first start herding training to keep the dogs off the sheep. Very effective way to protect your dog- which as CHIP18 says, is your job. Your dog will definitely notice


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## Chip18 (Jan 11, 2014)

Kaimeju said:


> I'm not sure what I could have done in this situation since it happened so fast.


Yes I noticed that in your post and I have never seen or had that happen myself but it's something I'll be more aware of in the future thanks! 




Kaimeju said:


> Based on the angle I would have been macing my own dog.


You do the best you can sometimes that happens, in the other thread a member had to spray his own dog also, still better than a dog attack I think.





Kaimeju said:


> In the past getting in front of her and screaming has worked.


OK then your dog knows you are there for them! 





Kaimeju said:


> I might get pepper spray for the future though. I am just a little concerned about the legality of macing a dog that hasn't technically done anything.


 That's what being prepared is about! Your not going around macing innocent dogs! Dogs don't "need" to meet and greet! It's not your job to determine if a dog is friendly or not. Loose dogs comes running up to mine and he's gonna have a problem with me! 

We’re not talking about going to a dog park and randomly spraying dogs in the face! 




Kaimeju said:


> I live in a rough neighborhood and the neighbors with small loose dogs hate my dog because I yell at theirs all the time.


Your doing your job and they'll at least be more likely to keep there little uh ...dog under control when they see you coming! So that's job done!





Kaimeju said:


> If I could be sure to get away with it, I would LOVE to mace the next dog that tries to mess with us. I am so angry.


There is that I don't think it's an issue if your dog is on leash but I'm not a lawyer. But for me macing kicking hitting with a stick or flat kicking another dogs butt is preferable to seeing my dogs hurt or me getting stitches breaking up a fight because I let a dog get to close and opps he wasn’t friendly. 




Kaimeju said:


> I take her to walk other places as much as I can but this is not feasible to do before work.


 Well it's about protecting your dog. Getting attacked is a bad experience, getting attacked in the morning and having a good time in the afternoon isn’t gonna balance out in the long run. But that's your call, just be prepared and there is the big stick or cattle prod approach also.:laugh:



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## Chip18 (Jan 11, 2014)

HarleyTheGSD said:


> This is my fear.
> We have a lot of off-leash dogs around here. When I walk Harley, the dogs usually walk right up to us, but Harley is very submissive and never payed much attention to the dogs. It's Varick I'm worried about. Around the middle of last year, a pit bull walked right up to us (did NOT look friendly), and my boyfriend took a huge risk and held the dog back by the collar. Luckily, Varick isn't very reactive, he just gave a few deep growls. No lunging or barking. I'm going to start bringing pepper spray on walks from now on.
> Sorry that this happened, good luck!


That is scary and risky. Sounds like you guys handled it well. Usually the pitts I've faced where coming hard this guy doesn't sound out of control so it "might" have been a real pet that got loose?


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## HarleyTheGSD (Feb 13, 2012)

Chip18 said:


> That is scary and risky. Sounds like you guys handled it well. Usually the pitts I've faced where coming hard this guy doesn't sound out of control so it "might" have been a real pet that got loose?


No, this pit wasn't running at us. But it was "creeping" up on us. He had his eyes glued to Varick. The dog being so calm and alert is what scared me. 
The messed up part is that we saw the owner on the porch, and when they saw us, they went inside. My dad suggested calling the authorities, but we decided that we would wait and see if it happened a second time, this time, without Varick.


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## erfunhouse (Jun 8, 2013)

I'd call the police and animal control. Letting a dog attack is a police matter. If your dog took a submissive posture BEFORE the attack this dog is an even bigger liability and will attack again IMO. 

Metro 10/2005-5/2013
Sabo 3/2013-now
Kia 1/2014- now


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## Mister C (Jan 14, 2014)

*here is what I did*

First a disclaimer. I am not a professional trainer but think I have a decent understanding of behavior. Feel free to disagree as I am constantly in learning mode.

Story 1: There is a male Great Pyrenese in our our neighborhood. I never trusted this dog or his owner. He was always glaring at my GSD Maddie just spoiling to make trouble. His owner is an idiot and insists on taking him and her other 2 Great Pyrenese dogs to the local dog park off leash. She cannot recall or control any of those dogs let alone 3 together. They are the reason I don't go there anymore. 

Anyhow, I was walking Maddie on leash and he was loose--several blocks from his house by the way. I spotted him coming down the hill about 20 feet away. His head was down, body rigid, tail straight out, not growling and stalking towards us slowly. All signs that he meant business. There was no way this A hole of a dog was going to hurt my dog. I yelled "NO [name of dog]! GO HOME! in my deepest most commanding voice. He ignored me, laser focussed on Maddie and continuing his stalking. I had no stick, spray or other weapon. I am now in front of Maddie. As he lunges for my dog I jam my knee right into his nose really hard. The timing was perfect and I connected with his nose very well. He yelps, finally looks at me and starts to turn away giving me a shocked "what the heck just happened to me look". I see the opening, glare at him, yell again while taking a step towards him. His fight was gone and he walked away looking bewildered. 

Story 2: Was walking Maddie at the local park not long after we rescued her (Story 2 happened long before Story 1). She was off leash and i struck up a conversation with another dog owner. She had two dogs--a small emergency backup dog that was making nice with Maddie and her main dog who was laying down about 30 feet away. I got distracted and didn't notice that Maddie had made eye contact with the main dog (a 125lb shepherd mix). 

Main dog doesn't care for the look from Maddie and gets up. His silent angry glare, stiff body posture, etc spelled big trouble as he stalked towards Maddie. Oh no. Not good--very, very not good. Before I could even react he breaks into a run and launches at Maddie. He bites her back, slams her to the ground, rolls her over, and starts biting her soft belly below the ribcage. He wants to kill my dog!! The only sound was Maddie screaming--he never barked or growled once. I get behind this bruiser of a dog, grab his tail and pull up and away getting him off Maddie. I start swinging him around by the base of his tail keeping his back legs off the ground so he cannot get to me. Fortunately, his owner finally steps in and tackles him. I then rush my dog to the vet to get her stitched up. She had a giant hole in her belly and a nasty bite on her back that took a while to heal. 

I screwed up big time in several ways in Story 2 and my dog paid for it. I still feel guilty about it. I should not have had her off leash with an unknown dog around like that. She had great recall and was super obedient but that wasn't enough for a situation like that. I should have been paying more attention so I could redirect Maddie immediately so as to not piss off the main dog. 

I also could have easily paid for it too but was determined to save my dog from being killed. I am not sure what I would have done if the owner had not tackled her dog.

Thanks for listening. Again, feedback invited as there are people way more knowledgeable than me on here. I just read the Leerberg article and it seems like very good advice.


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