# Jupiter now has a permanent record



## CactusWren (Nov 4, 2018)

So every morning I play fetch with Jupiter in the park on a 100 ft line. I also recently got one of the Chuck-Its with a cord attached, to mix it up and try to increase his engagement.

I think he got a little too engaged.

On Wednesday morning, he missed the ball and got my hand, sinking his canine deep in my little finger. Blood spurted out and I had to go home and clean it up. I guess it wasn't too bad, but I did get a little woozy looking at it! Unfortunately, the wound started to swell and throb over time, and this morning I went to get it looked at and it's infected. Got a tetanus shot and antibiotics.

But here's the thing: apparently the nurse had to report Jupiter to the government because it was a dog bite. So they're going to contact me, and I guess even though it was an accident (well, I think it was), he's going to be in the system. I guess that's one strike.


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## Steve Strom (Oct 26, 2013)

Next time say it was an old nail in a fence.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

I expected that to happen when I was running a flyball teammate's dog at practice and she missed her tug and got my arm instead. I went to urgent care and got 8 stitches. I was surprised that they cleaned it and stitched me up and didn't ask any further questions, even though I did tell them exactly what happened since dog bites can carry a high risk of infection.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

Just explain the situation. Don't get to worried about it. The nurse doesn't get a say whether the dog is in the system or not.  The AC does.


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## middleofnowhere (Dec 20, 2000)

You train dogs, you work dogs, you are in dog service type business, you get bit once in a while. A person I trained with in Arkansas used to say "Keep your hands out of the dog's mouth!" Very unlikely your dog will have a record. ...


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## Sabis mom (Mar 20, 2014)

CactusWren said:


> So every morning I play fetch with Jupiter in the park on a 100 ft line. I also recently got one of the Chuck-Its with a cord attached, to mix it up and try to increase his engagement.
> 
> I think he got a little too engaged.
> 
> ...


That can't be right. I routinely use the stray cat/abandoned farm or guess there was a nail in that excuses, but I have told them occasionally that it was my dog. Nothing ever came of it at all. Missed the ball is pretty common.


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

Sabis mom said:


> I routinely use the stray cat/abandoned farm



The only thing to be cautious of with "stray cat" and "unknown loose dog" as an explanation is that you might end up with pressure to get a series of post-exposure rabies vaccine injections, depending on whether there have been local cases. They're quite expensive in the U.S. (with insurance coverage hit and miss...as with most healthcare down here). The county health department people can be part of the pressure to get them....how much pressure depends on the county/state. It could be anything from a mild recommendation at the clinic and nothing more, to multiple visits to your house insisting that it get done.


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## Saco (Oct 23, 2018)

Barbed wire, blackberry thorns, sharp rock.


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## germanshepowner (Oct 26, 2018)

I’m so sorry! I can’t believe that nurse. ? It’s your own dog and it was an ACCIDENT. I’d probably leave my dog at a friends house for a few days because I wouldn’t want it on my dogs record.


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## Jchrest (Jun 5, 2019)

Here’s the thing. One strike on his record is nothing but a first strike. 3 strikes, and he is labeled as a “dangerous dog,” which means he will need to be muzzled when out in public. Unless you don’t have proof of rabies Vaccinations, then they impound for 10 days, but same outcome, until a 3rd bite, it’s nothing. 

AC will likely contact you. You don’t have to lie. Tell them the truth. I would bet my husky on it that they just keep a record of it, but it doesn’t go towards his bite count. 

Been there, done that. AC has always been ready and eager to work with me. Maybe because half the rescues I get are from them, but they understand accidents happen.

It’s the same with any child coming in with injuries, they are required to report to CPS, but it doesn’t mean a case will be opened.


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## Luke Doggy Dog 63 (May 3, 2019)

My dogs got in a fight and I put my hand where it's shouldn't have been and got a finger tore up pretty good I was honest and they told me as long as it was my dog and the aggression wasn't directed at me they said they are not required to report it


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## LuvShepherds (May 27, 2012)

It depends on where you live.


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

germanshepowner said:


> I’d probably leave my dog at a friends house for a few days because I wouldn’t want it on my dogs record.



Well, then it could end up on your record instead. You aren't going to be able to evade a dog bite case by hiding the dog when AC comes looking for it.

An acquaintance had a dog with a minor reported bite -- it's first. She was panicked about her being taken in for a 10-day hold, which is common here even for vaccinated dogs (unvaxed ones get put down and their heads sent to the state lab for rabies analysis). The Director of AC has discretion to allow the quarantine for vaccinated dogs to be at your cost at your vet's clinic, or even at home, but it's a dispensation he doesn't have to grant. So she took the dog to a family member across the parish (county) line as she didn't want her dog to have to possibly spend 10 days in the shelter. When the ACO came by to talk to her and see the dog, she refused to tell the ACO where the dog was. That made it SO much worse! 

What could have potentially ended nicely with the dog at her vet's, or even at home, turned really ugly.

The ACOs told her that they would return again in 24 hours, and they'd bring a Sheriff's deputy with them on the next visit -- and they would be prepared to arrest her if the dog wasn't on her property then. They threatened to bring a felony criminal charge related to hiding evidence that she was lawfully required to produce. Needless to say, she decided to play by the rules, bring the dog home, and work with them when they came back the next day.


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## Jchrest (Jun 5, 2019)

@Magwart, where do you live? That’s horrible. I couldn’t imagine someone cutting off Lyka’s head to send to a lab. Especially when she’s licensed and UTD on vaccinations, including rabies. She doesn’t have anything on her record, but she could have easily when I first got her.


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## germanshepowner (Oct 26, 2018)

Magwart said:


> germanshepowner said:
> 
> 
> > I’d probably leave my dog at a friends house for a few days because I wouldn’t want it on my dogs record.
> ...


I guess I’m a bit too nuts and protective about my dog because I would do whatever it took. I would haven’t have told the nurse anything at all to be honest though. 

But that’s because around here, you have to be a bit protective because big dogs are monsters to all the small dog owners. My friend had a dog off leash, gorgeous and 8 month old sweet husky/gsd, and she got reported because it “came after” a small dog. It was running by and stopped to say hello. The same family stopped by my friends house the next day to see if their kids could play with the puppy. Ugh. I’m just extra cautious now.


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

Jchrest said:


> @*Magwart*, where do you live? That’s horrible. I couldn’t imagine someone cutting off Lyka’s head to send to a lab. Especially when she’s licensed and UTD on vaccinations, including rabies. She doesn’t have anything on her record, but she could have easily when I first got her.


Louisiana. 

The law here allows AC to order dogs PTS so that they can cut off the head of unvaxed dogs on the FIRST bite here. The reason is that you can't diagnose rabies without an autopsy. Titers here count as "unvaxed" -- but they might let you quarantine at the shelter instead of killing your dog.

If your dog is vaxed, you get an order for a 10-day hold in the "bite room" of the shelter, which is like a psych ward of crazy dogs. The dogs are kenneled 24/7, without any walks or human contact other than getting their food through a slot. If you're nice, have a good vet history with a documented relationship and a vet who is agreeable, and the AC director likes you, he can allow the quarantine to be at your cost at your vet's clinic -- boarding there, with the vet submitting a report that the dog is symptom-free in 10-days. If you're REALLY nice and responsible, he can allow it to be at home -- no visitors, sign on the door that dog present is under rabies quarantine, etc. They might notify neighbors too. Nobody has a right to that though.

I once had to go to bat for a 12-week-old GSD puppy that had been ordered to be held on rabies quarantine pending euthanasia. He had a euthanasia order hanging over him because he SCRATCHED a child on walk by bounding up and jumping, and the parents of the child reported it. His family relinquished him to AC to avoid future liability for a "dangerous dog." This was a totally normal, good puppy just being a puppy -- they were newbies who had thought he was turning aggressive because of normal mouthing, so this was the last straw for them. Once the AC people heard "biting at home" on top of the scratch of the child, the pup was done for. The shelter vet and I had to beg the AC Director to give him a break because the whole thing was idiots who didn't understand normal breed behavior -- luckily, the AC Director was a "Doberman guy" and agreed to let the pup off of death row if rescue would take responsibility for him, but it was a lot of work to make it happen. The pup literally had a PTS-order for 5PM that day, so I had to get him out before then. The handsome little fart was a perfectly normal, rascally pup who grew up too be a magnificent dog with a wonderful temperament with a breed-experienced family. He's fabulous with their grandkids, goes with them on vacations, and is generally the poster-dog for what everybody wants in a family pet.


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## CactusWren (Nov 4, 2018)

Just got off the phone with AC. They were nice and all, but the upshot is I have to send over rabies proof and Jupiter is quarantined for 10 days. 

10 days with no walks, no practicing with the German shepherd club, no going to the trainer's, no playing fetch with the long line.

All for an accidental bite that I pretty much caused by playing with a short tug-of-war leash to the owner.

Wow.


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## Petra's Dad (Jan 6, 2020)

Did you get to quarantine him at home? I can't believe all of this is over an "accident". I would be curious to know about the legality of Magwart's story with the AC threatening felony charges.


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## CactusWren (Nov 4, 2018)

Petra's Dad said:


> Did you get to quarantine him at home? I can't believe all of this is over an "accident". I would be curious to know about the legality of Magwart's story with the AC threatening felony charges.


Yes, I quarantined him at home and everything went fine. He adjusted much better to the lowered activity level than I'd feared. 

Interestingly, I just talked to my next-door neighbor a few weeks ago. She had the same thing happen to her, but it was a cat that scratched her and the medical provider reported her to AC, too.


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