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When Is It Ok To Kick A Dog


ncarter
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I've been in a few potentially nasty situations with other dogs.

For instance I was walking on a footpath once down at south beach, my dog on left side. I saw this malamute tied up in the grassy area about 3 metres off the footpath on the right. When I went past the mal it lunged towards us so hard I thought the lead was going to snap. Now had the lead snapped I dont know what I would have done, I thought the mal wanted to get at my dog and I wouldnt have been able to get any help for say 15 seconds as I was by myself and the owner of the other dog was a fair way away.

Ive had aggression dogs come up to us on the beach before and yelling at them in a deep voice is normally enough to deter them. Then I was reading on here about how warley (sorry warley just using you as an example) often has to kick stray dogs in the street when she is out walking her dogs. So I thought when is it ok to kick a dog who comes up to you off lead and there is a decent chance it is going to be aggressive towards your dog? Can a kick be a good deterant in a potentially dangerous situation?

Im not someone who has ever had to kick a dog just wondering what peoples views are on this.

Edited by ncarter
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I think in the heat of the moment you probably wouldn't think about what was the right thing to do, you'd probably just react in order to protect yourself & your dog.

In an ideal world you would use the least force necessary to prevent harm, but adrenaline sometimes makes you do things you wouldn't ordinarily find acceptable.

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If an aggressive dog came rushing towards my dog and I, and 'growling' at it to back off didn't work, I would kick it if it tried to attack my dog. Absolutely. I would do anything to protect my dogs in a situation like that.

Edited by huski
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I don't like the idea of kicking any dog, but would do so if necessary to protect myself or my dog (or my other animals) from harm.

To me, harm includes physical or emotional trauma. I don't want my little puppy bowled and terrified by a huge, rude, "friendly" dog any more than I want her bitten by an aggressive one. I'd rather cause ten seconds of pain to the other dog than have to potentially deal with 15 years of fear aggression in my puppy. Sorry if that upsets anyone, but I've already had to retrain one very aggressive dog - it's not something I really want to go through again.

IMO my job as my dog's pack leader is to protect her. So in the situation you describe, I would definitely kick the mal if I couldn't deter it with an aggressive stance and growling at it.

Having said that, if the other dog really wants to have go at you or your dog, kicking it isn't necessarily going to put it off either.

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If an aggressive dog came rushing towards my dog and I, and 'growling' at it to back off didn't work, I would kick it if it tried to attack my dog. Absolutely. I would do anything to protect my dogs in a situation like that.

Ditto.

The above is the only situation that I would find it acceptable to kick a dog. Also if the dog was attacking another person/child and wouldn't let up, and if I had nothing else (like a hose etc) at my disposal.

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I have been in a situation where although I didn't kick them, I kicked sand in their faces.

I was on the beach with a friend(ex friend) her dog, and my 3 kids. ABout 100metres up the beach was a 4wd with 5 large x breed dogs. They must of got wind of us and come bowling toward us. Well, I told the kids to stay in the water, my so called friend put her xbreed mutt in the back of MY CAR and my little Kimba girl(stafford) was still playing fetch with her ball. The first dog, seemed OK but the other 4 came up growling and carrying on, and Kimba, still didn't give to hoots and was still concentrating on her ball. But then the dogs came towards me and Kimba saw and put herself between me and the other dogs. They were all snarling and bearing their teeth but my little Kimmy girl stood her ground but they started to charge so I started kicking sand straight at them. You would of thought there was a sand storm. Thank god it worked though and they went back to their owners.

But I will say that I would not like to kick any dog but as previous posts have said, when you are in that situation, most of the time you dont have time to think but just react and if kicking them is the only way that i could save my dog, then so be it...

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Ive kicked a dog that was attacking my entire male dobe. It slipped its collar after we walked past it and came after my boy ready to kill. My boy did not retaliate at all but I sure as hell did and gave it a fair boot in the guts. It stopped enough to look at me like WTF and the owner grabbed it. The next day we had an off lead dog come up and start biting my boys legs, me screaming at it was enough to scare it off, I wont go into the verbal attack I then bestowed on the owner. The following day we came across an entire male viszla and jrt, no owner and they came after us. Thankfully I had my OH with me(i dont know what i could have done on my own) and my quick thinking diverted any attacks. I no longer walk my dogs because of these 3 incidences but would not hesitate to kick a dog again should one ever rush up to us like that again, I wouldnt be waiting to find out if its friendly or not.

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I've never had to, and I've had some damn scary moments. I've pushed them away with my hands, though, which is stupid, but you don't think of those things when you are scared an animal is going to hurt someone, possibly you.

I don't imagine myself doing it because in the past it has never occurred to me. I always dive in with my hands and think later that feet probably would have been safer. Safer, maybe, but they aren't exactly a precision instrument. I'd probably end up kicking the wrong dog.

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I have never had to kick a dog but have given an owner a clear warning I would kick her dog if she did not get it away from Boo.

I would kick as I am not stupid enough to put my hands between 2 dogs, 1 of which is in bite mode. I would prefer my foot/ leg be bitten than my hands - easier injury to live with!

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Others may be interested to note that Queensland Govt recently introduced a new piece of legislation called the "Companion Animal (Cats and Dogs) Bill".

It goes into a whole heap of different requirements the most significant of which is the requirement that all puppies and kittens must now be microchipped prior to sale.

But - there is aslo an interesting new definition of nuisance dogs.

Now we are all aware of Dangerous / Declared dogs but in Qld there is a new "Menacing" dog definition.

Would certainly apply to every unfortunate dog confrontation that is being described here I would think.

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If an aggressive dog came rushing towards my dog and I, and 'growling' at it to back off didn't work, I would kick it if it tried to attack my dog. Absolutely. I would do anything to protect my dogs in a situation like that.

Exactly as huski said - growling at it and foot stamping doesnt work and it ignores me and charges past at my dog its going to get kicked either the mirco second before it contacts her or as happened once when it jumped in her (I didnt kick it hard enough but owner appeared to control dog as it had slipped out the gate accidentally).

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I would and have done so when a Boxer was up on it's back legs while try to grab my Dobe ( I had his front end off the ground and his head over my shoulder) who had no idea what was going on and wondered why I had grabbed him as I had.

The boxer had all teeth bared going troppo and stood up on it's back legs and his his mouth about four inches from my face. I did kick him, but with the top of my foot not my toes which was enough to knock the wind out of him and get him to back off.

I don't quite know what would have happened if I didn't, Bloody sap of an entire male Dobe certainly wasn't going to protect me!

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