How Do You Respond When An Off-lead Dog Is Aggressive With Your Dog?

[sas]

Call the Ranger and report it regardless of if you think you have enough details.

What would the ranger do, given that I don't have much info? Would they just log the complaint?

In-case it happens to someone else and they lodge a complaint, they may be able to provide more information.

More than 1 complaint about one specific dog gets Rangers to act...

[Affirmation]

When I had Bullmastiffs I used to walk the around them streets as we didn't have a doggy park then, and I would get dogs rushing at him from their houses onto the footpaths. I'd tell the owners that my dog wouldn't start the fight, but that he would finish it so they quickly called their dogs back. In the end I didn't take them for the walks as it was just getting too dangerous and this was a small country town, so cities etc would be 100 times worse I'm sure.

I see people walking their dogs in the town I work in and they carry golf clubs to beat off aggressive dogs.

I've never seen a red Akita, but it did look to have that in it. The red colour looks like the Sheba Inu, but they are much smaller. What ever the breed, it still has no right being off lead in ANY park if the owner has no control over it. I have to say that if it was me in that situation, I would've called either the ranger or the police straight away and have the problem animal/owner delt with then and there.

Gotta love the new rules that people have to walk their dogs, but until we can go out and KNOW that our walk will be peaceful, then what benefit is it, especially if it ends with a dog or person seeking medical treatment.

The world has truely gone NUTS

[corvus]

Jindos are Korea's national dog and they don't export them.

I would not drop the leash, because if my dogs run and the other dog catches them, god knows how far they will be from me. I would rather hold onto them and make sure I'm on hand if I'm needed. Plus, a running dog is just an invitation for a chase.

This has happened to me a few times and I'm just not a screamer in a crisis. I don't make any noises and that's not something I can control. I've had a small dog in the past when it happened, and twice I physically lifted my dog out of the path of the charging dog at the last minute by the leash. It prevented my dog from being savaged both times. This is the reason why my dogs now wear harnesses.

It has happened to me once with Kivi, who is too big to lift out of the way. He wasn't on leash at the time. He didn't seem phased by this setter roaring down on him with teeth bared, but I was ready to do battle and shoved Kivi behind me. The setter came to a screeching halt at the last minute and turned out to be friendly, just having a very bizarre way of meeting new dogs.

Last year I had a dog try to jump up to grab my small dog out of my arms. I just kept knocking him aside with my hip or my arm until someone grabbed him. I was lucky I was tall, because I had my dog over my head and he was a pretty big dog.

[RuralPug]

That Jindo pic in post #7 looks to have a very dingo-ish head. Not inposssible that the dog in question had some dingo in it.

Yep definitely report every incident to the local ranger, if similar happens when there are two of you there, one should break out the mobile and snap a picture of the offender AND one of its owner.

[Her Majesty Dogmad]

Took Matilda to my vet with the xrays etc and turns out she does require specialist treatment. The estimate for this (after paying initial $1000 last night) is between $3500 and $4000 .... This lovely and distraught owner has paid this money, not because it's easy for her to do so but because she loves her dog. I knew it was a great home but I honestly wouldn't have blamed her for not going ahead with this, Matilda's an old dog but she's beautiful.

While we were there, the vet said "look it could be worse, last week we were unable to save a maltese that was attacked by a staffy in an off leash park, kidney/liver was ripped ..."

[rubiton]

As was mentioned - I make sure I am between the oncoming dog and mine (she has been taught to stay behind) - then I drive the thing off by roaring and threatening to kick it . The majority of dogs are NOT human agressive and if YOU get their attention off your dog and towards you most of the time they will back off and stay clear of your 'space'. I have come across one dog that held my gaze and growled - it was in the centre of the road and its mate came around behind at a distance. I dont think it even looked at my dog I think it was human agressive at me but I just roared git and kept going along the path at the same rate til I was out of its perceived territory.

By picking a dog up and trying to hold it out of reach you are making yourself a climbing pole - and as poodle explained if you are confident and stand up to an oncoming dog it should back off and give you space (as ceasar is always going on about with owners who have dogs that rush the front door, gates, etc). Guess its a hard choice though especially if you dont see it coming and you have a doubt in your mind about confronting an agressive dog.

And once you get out of the situation report it to the council/ranger. I've been bailed up (or they tried I drove them off once but saw them ahead) by two agressive shihtzus at the park. They are well known amongst dog owners but appears Im the only one that has reported them to the council - and if I think they are staying put I will ring the ranger as the complaince person at the council advised as the owner just seems stupid and ignorant of the rules.

[Scarlet]

I've stood between my dogs and two offlead ones behaving aggressively.. they didnt' go past me.

But if they had, the first thing I'd have done would be drop my dogs leads.

I've done similar a couple of times and luckly the dogs have backed off.

I use my ultra deep, gruff voice.

Luckily it has worked but if it didn't I let the lead go and hopefully my dogs could flee home or maybe they'd join together and attack - I have no idea.

[Bisart Dobes]

Picking up your dog is the worst thing you can do - you are making yourself a target as well, I know it is an instictive action to protect them but it is so dangerous. You are far better to put yourself in between the other dog and yours and yell - the bigger physically you can make yourself look the more dominant you will become to the other dog. If you are in the awful position of actually having your dog bitten the best thing to do is to pick the attacking dog up by the rear legs and lift them as high as you can and hold them there - this takes away all the power the dog has - the bite wounds are lessened and if it lets go you can keep it away from your dog. What you do after that if you are by yourself I don't know

Having said this I got so sick of idiots and their dogs that I now drive my dogs to free run areas where I know there are not many dogs, plus they are well behaved and they have sensible owners.

Examples of idiots in our area

Years ago I had 3 of our dogs - yup 3 fully grown Dobermanns - running in an oval which was fully fenced and the gate locked. This idiot put his 2 small white fluffys in this area after walking past me and my dogs while I am standing on the other side of the oval thinking 'you are kidding me - right ?' and then had the balls to tell me that my dogs could be put down for attacking his dogs. Ofcourse they all ran over to the other dogs to check them out but they didn't attack them (though I think Khann did pee on one of them :D - ooops) - he said then that 'rushing' is the same as attacking. Well - he was the one that got attacked then - by me .

Recently I had our young boy (2yrs) Ryder at an offlead park at a training session - we had finished and he was just trotting around while we packed up all the equipment. These two dogs came up - one an Am Staff X I think and the other a black schip. The Amstaff and Ryder went straight into play bows and started bouncing around together - he thought she was beautiful ;) - but the little shit was being dominant towards Ryder - Ryder looked sideways at this dog and just ignored it, it kept on pushing him - actually jumping up onto him and snapping, growling etc etc I asked the owners to put him on lead because of his behaviour and they said 'we don't mind if your dog bites him - he needs to be put in his place' - as she finished this sentence Ryder had come up right next to me to obviously get away from this little shit and then it decided that it would again jump up onto him and it bit at him - missed him only because I slapped him off with my hand. He came straight back at Ryder and so I jabbed him in the top of the head as hard as I could with my fingers and yelled at him to get out - little shit stood there with a stunned look on his face and took a step towards Ryder again so I threatened him with the same action and he decided retreat was his best option. I looked up to see his owners faces - stunned that I had hit their dog and the woman said 'You can't hit our dog - he's only little'.

Good lord - did she / they get a serve - I told them that I asked them to get the dog away from my dog politely, I told them that they are stupid to let their dog act this way towards other dogs, I told them how dare they tell me I cannot hit their dog but say its ok if my dog bites him, I told them that they are damn lucky my dog isn't aggressive, I told them that my dog is a 40 kg male adult dobermann who would crush the body of their dog in one bite if he were provoked enough to attack, I told them that they have no right to put my dog in that position - no right to allow a situation that would potentially teach my dog to behave in this way, I told them that they don't deseve dogs if they let this kind of behaviour occur and god knows what else spewed out of my mouth . . .

I am so lucky that my dogs are well socialised and have good temperaments - and I am so lucky that Ryder didn't / doesn't react to other dogs. But fact is that he is a 40 kg adult entire male dobermann who could kill this little dog with one bite and then in this situation who would have been to blame - yup . . . it would have all come back on me and my dog. So I have just removed my dogs from these situations because I am just so sick to death of idiots and it seems they just keep breeding more - can't wait to get our property.

[Vizsla Nut]

After our Zac being attacked at an off lead dog park by a pack of dogs and being pinned to the ground by throat by the pack leader, hubby kicked the crap out of the dog and also got his leatherman (knife) out to really stop the dog, fortunately it didn't come to that. The dog was not going to give up and Zac was only a puppy at the time, so could have easily got even more out of hand. After a few swift kicks and 'come and get your effing dog mate' the owner came over and tried ripping his dog off.

Funny how all the owners of the pack dogs disappeared after that.

Hubby always carries his leatherman when he walks Zac now and has reached for it a few times when people can't call their dogs off. Again, a swift kick seems to do the trick most times...

[Leithy]

Normally me standing in front of my girls and telling them to "go home" is enough to send other dogs away. However I've never seen a dog in attacking mode go for my dogs- I've been attacked by dogs a few times trying to go for my leg and trying to kick them is hard enough. I had a six cm bruise on my leg after one attack where a tiny bit of fat made it onto my sock- I was so horrified. Stamping my feet works too.

It all depends on the size of the dog I guess. I'm not very strong so if a larger dog came along I'd try my hardest but I doubt I could physically do anything to my dismay. I'd try and make sure the attacking dog got a few kicks to the guts tho- I'd never run from my girls in a situation like that.

[rubiton]

Its not about size its about attitude - if you stand tall and growl deep and loud and eyeball them most should stop in their tracks and 'give you space'.

My dog was off the lead in an empty park and a little ahead of me - rounding the bend in the path she suddenly started staring at something around the bend and stopped. Seconds later when I got there I found out why three loose dogs (perhaps belonging to a person way over the other side of the park in the shadows-well thats where the leader went). Lead Dog was eyeballing mine til I broke its gaze and growled at it and instant change of posture when it looked and me and it took off as did its followers.

Even when a huge dog spotted mine when I went to the post box the yelling worked. I wasnt sure as he was huge and had gotten out of his yard (I dont think it was a good outcome for him as where there once was a huge similar dog a few weeks later it was replaced with a SWF - yard was in a neighbouring street). Huge dog came straight across busy road - just avoided getting hit due to drivers stopping and was intent on coming up to mine. Was bold/dominant rather than aggressive but didn't feel like taking the chance to yelled at him to go home. He followed us the 20m to where the house was then took off further up the street (away from busy road) but kept his distance. Felt bad later not grabbing him but my dog comes first and he was gone by the time I got her inside and turned around to see where he was. So we go shopping and 2 hours later there are 2 dog rangers outside our house seemingly looking for a dog - this was the only one that was out wandering and must have scared someone to have two combing the streets for him as it got dark. I now know the number to call for loose dogs out wandering. But he was big and putting on the bluff of 'get away from my dog' still worked even though he was a little bigger than beign able to be kicked if needed in defence.

[Pointees]

I had two dogs run at me and my dog today on our walk. Long story short, I pulled my GSP behind me, and protected him.