Dog Attack

[Miss Danni]

I have successfully used a hose to break up 2 of my own dogs, by turning it on full bore and shoving it up the nose of the aggressor. But I would not rely on it.

Out walking, I only feel safe with my maglite by my side. I'm pretty sure it would shatter bone no problems if needed.

[poochmad]

It's pretty scary when your dog is attacked. Years ago a lab pup of ours was attacked by an American Cocker Spaniel. It was pretty quick and kept dodging our attempts to grab it. Only the owner coming up with a broom stopped the attack.

More recently a bully raced across the road to attack our Field Spaniel pup - my husband's frantic cry (watch out) and the dog's growl warned me to pick him up (yes I know the wrong thing to do, but seriously all you think about is protecting your dog). Luckily my husband's yell brought the owner out who called the dog back, otherwise, who knows what would have happened.

We have a mongrel stumpy tailed blue heeler that is always loose around our house and will go after our dogs. I have no qualms in throwing stones or anything I see if it comes anywhere near our dogs. I think that if the owner doesn't do the right thing, they should expect that their dog might get injured.

[Miss BeRidgierent]

My dog and my brothers dog got into a massive fight one day at the park. My brothers dog is very protective of him, we were throwing sticks and they were chasing and having fun until Boss got to close to my brother then his dog just went for Boss, then of course Boss bit back, we could not get them off each other specially as they were big dogs. They were growling and latching onto each other. My brother acted real calm about it (I was screaming and yelling for the first min or so) we ending up grabbing each dog around their nose and putting our fingers in there mouth and yanking their mouths of each other then pulled them away. I know this was stupid but if we didn't they would have killed each other. My brothers dog still wanted revenge and tried biting boss's balls on the way home.

I think screaming and yelling could make a situation worse....? Using a stern and deep voice is more effective I think.

[Mason_Gibbs]

Will full blast of water from the hose work in that situation?

Or they will be too lost in their fight that they wouldn't notice?

The only thing that worked for my 2 when they fought was to spray a hose on their noses so that they let go to breathe.

[Mason_Gibbs]

My dog and my brothers dog got into a massive fight one day at the park. My brothers dog is very protective of him, we were throwing sticks and they were chasing and having fun until Boss got to close to my brother then his dog just went for Boss, then of course Boss bit back, we could not get them off each other specially as they were big dogs. They were growling and latching onto each other. My brother acted real calm about it (I was screaming and yelling for the first min or so) we ending up grabbing each dog around their nose and putting our fingers in there mouth and yanking their mouths of each other then pulled them away. I know this was stupid but if we didn't they would have killed each other. My brothers dog still wanted revenge and tried biting boss's balls on the way home.

I think screaming and yelling could make a situation worse....? Using a stern and deep voice is more effective I think.

Had to do this to separate my ridgies too - they latch on like there is no tomorrow, while 2 of us did that a 3rd had to spray water on the ones face to make her let go - it was not fun.

[ruthless]

I've played out this scenario in my head. I'd like to think that I'd have spare leashes in my pocket and I could get them around the attacking dog's necks and hang them until they let go. In reality I don't think it would be an easy task for one person though. Putting your hands up near the bitey end is fairly stupid too so I guess you'd just have to hope there were people around and you could tell someone to pull one dog out by the back legs [like Aidan said] while you did the same with the other one.

I like to just holler at off lead dogs to "get the f*** out of my way" before any fights can happen. It's been working for me so far...

[Teebs]

My old SBT was attacked by a dog, he was out of it, only thing he wanted to do was kill my dog - someone hit him over the head with a huge lump of wood, split the wood in half, dog didnt feel a thing

[Miss BeRidgierent]

My old SBT was attacked by a dog, he was out of it, only thing he wanted to do was kill my dog - someone hit him over the head with a huge lump of wood, split the wood in half, dog didnt feel a thing

but what is Glenda?

[Teebs]

My old SBT was attacked by a dog, he was out of it, only thing he wanted to do was kill my dog - someone hit him over the head with a huge lump of wood, split the wood in half, dog didnt feel a thing

but what is Glenda?

Glenda was a frog that lived in my garden, sadly he crossed the bridge a few weeks ago, he found his way into Atlas' mouth

but, he left his little baby behind, just need to make sure baby does not come out during the day and never meets Atlas.

[Rysup]

MY first Keesie was attacked (well latched onto) outside our vets by a Bull Breed I wont name, and the ONLY way they could get this dog off mine, was the vet came out and collapsed the dogs windpipe so it could not breath. I have never trusted this breed since. We had been leaving the vets, this dog was in a car, I still remember seeing it jump up from the front seat, jump into the back seat, throw its body at the back window, which somehow gave way, and it was out the window and attached to my screaming dog in the blink of an eye. An experience I will never forget, 18 years ago now.

[Miss BeRidgierent]

My old SBT was attacked by a dog, he was out of it, only thing he wanted to do was kill my dog - someone hit him over the head with a huge lump of wood, split the wood in half, dog didnt feel a thing

but what is Glenda?

Glenda was a frog that lived in my garden, sadly he crossed the bridge a few weeks ago, he found his way into Atlas' mouth

but, he left his little baby behind, just need to make sure baby does not come out during the day and never meets Atlas.

ohh right im sitting here trying to figure what it was

poor widdle garden frog

[B-Q]

I've only had to deal with one dog fight when out on a walk so far. Buster is very DA so he is always onleash, i want the leg to stand on incase anything ever happens. Nealry every loose dog that approaches him keep sits distance with eh show he puts on, but one did get too close in behind us before we saw it coming. It was twice his size but he grabbed the skin on its head and wouldn't let go. The owners were close behind and holding their dog, I was holding Buster and just trying to wait till he let go, I kicked him int eh ribs a few times but its pretty useless. It probably just made him more over the top.

I've found that me being the tough one when I see a dog generally works, I few times I've turned around and just yelled "NO" as loud and mean as I can and its made a dog back off, other than that it'll cop being kicked or having stuff thrown at it if it won't back off a bit.

I'm also glad Buster is generally big enough and tough enough to look after himself for the most part and we havn't run into too much trouble *touchwood* and I'm glad Quinn is still small enough for me to pick her up quickly if I have to because she's nervous as it is.

Being in that situation with no help would be just about my worst nightmare.

[KKDD]

Grab the back legs and pull up and back hard and fast (not just back). If you think you will break the dog's legs you are doing it right. Obviously, some people will not be able to do this and it won't help much if two or more dogs are attacking.

Thank you Aiden - you obviously know your stuff. I have found this to work for getting even powerful dogs off other dogs. If more than one dog is willingly participating in a fight, this technique needs to be applied on all dogs at the same time, by as many people as there are dogs. And then you need to keep them apart. Thankfully, most dog fights have only one or two willing participants.

The usual panicked human responses of making a lot of noise and attacking dogs yourself in this situation will often make it worse.

Aiden, I have heard that throwing a blanket over the fighters will often cause them to detach. is this true?

[Aidan]

Aiden, I have heard that throwing a blanket over the fighters will often cause them to detach. is this true?

I've never tried it so I couldn't say. I guess you could try (if you had one handy :D ) but I think I would just opt for the calm use of severe and sudden force, it works for me in so many areas of my life

[Nekhbet]

if it's only one person and you're confident enough choke the hell out of the dog latched on, especially if its a larger one grabbing a small dog. I've had to do this before and it stops the big one shaking and chewing.

if there;s more then one person wheelbarrow the offending animals and remove ALL other dogs in the area

if you're by yourself and a dog has yours tie your dogs leash to the nearest object, grab the back legs of the offender and slowly walk backwards until it lets go.

Deoderant sprayed in the eyes and mouth will maybe stop some dogs. Other times just call for help.

[megan_]

once you've wheelbarrowed the attacking dog away, how do you let it go? Aren't you at a high risk of getting bitten yourself? Will it just try to attack your dog again?

[labsrule]

Unfortunately my beautiful black lab youngster (14mths) was attacked a couple of weeks ago at the dog park we go to on a regular basis, by two staffies and a large black shepherd cross all from the same family that I had never seen at this park before. We have always had such a great time at this dogpark as the dogs we have encountered there have been great and so have their owners.

My boy and I were the only ones there at the time this f*ckwit owner arrived with his dogs and he had no leads with him. My boy is extremely friendly and sociable and is not an in your face Labrador at all and never jumps on other dogs, never humps them, is never rude to them and is just extremely good with other dogs, both large and small and just loves to play chaseys with other dogs where they all take turns at chasing one another at great speed.

Anyway these dogs came running straight to my boy and surrounded him and then my boy and these 3 dogs all ran off playing chasey as that is what my boy loves doing the most. My boy was running back towards me and the two staffies were really crowding him and when he wasn't too far away from me the two staffies who were on either side of him started jumping all over him and biting him and as I was going over to them one of the staffies grabbed one of my boy's ears and pulled him down to the ground by his ear with the help of the other staffy who was all over him and biting him and when he was down on the ground, the shepherd cross got in on the act as well and the staffy wouldn't let go of his ear and they had rolled him on his back ;) . The other staffy then grabbed his other ear and both staffies then proceeded to drag my boy along the ground on his back by the ears whilst the shepherd cross was trying to bite his stomach and legs. My boy was yelping and of course the moment the first staffy grabbed his ear I had already rushed over, so by the time my boy was on the ground being attacked by all 3, I was in amongst it screaming at the dogs, booting them, punching their heads, wacking them with the metal clip on the lead trying to poke them in the eyes and grabbing any part of them I could as I attempted to try and get my boy on his feet as he was in such a vunerable position on the ground . I don't know how I managed it, probably sheer adrenalin gave me the strength to help my boy get back on his feet and by this time the two staffies had let go of his ears but all 3 of them were still trying to bite him, so I was swinging everything at them to get them away from my boy and finally their f*ckwit owner comes over and asks so innocently, what happened. What happened I screamed is your fu*king mongrel dogs attacked my dog and you did fu*king nothing and you and these mongrels should not be allowed in a dog park.

Meanwhile I managed to get my boy on the lead and briskly walked him to one of the gates with the 3 mongrels still crowding around us and hassling my boy all the way to the gate. The owner obviously had no way of controlling them as he had no leads with him I just wanted to get my boy home safely so that I could check him all over for any physical injuries, particularly the ears and around the neck and stomach as I was sure there would have to be puncture marks in his ears at least. After a thorough going over I could not find anything sign of injuries and he didn't appear to be tender to touch anywhere and there was no blood anywhere and he seemed his happy normal self in the car ride back home and he bounded out of the car when we got home to greet his two mates and seemed happy as Larry and there was absolutely no change in his behaviour.

After I had been home for about 10minutes and thinking about what happened and getting angrier about this idiot and his dogs, I decided I would go back to the dog park, on my own, as it is only about 7-10mins drive from my home as I wanted to get this guy's car rego details. When I got back to the park it was empty as he probably knew he was in the shit and probably took off as soon as I left.

I took my boy out for his daily walk the next day and watched him intently for any sign of anxiety/fear when any other dogs came into his view and he was just his normal silly excited self. :D On the Monday, I contacted the relevant Council and laid a complaint about the dog attack and I received a letter from them acknowledging my complaint and they rang me a couple of days later to tell me that their ACOs would do some random checks on this dogpark to see if this fu*kwit owner and his dogs are there. I didn't try to get any info from this owner at the time as I just wanted to get my boy out of this park asap and safely away.

During the course of the week on his walks and outings he got to meet a number of dogs, both new dogs and some local dogs he has met before and he was his normall happy self with all of them showing no anxiety/fear, in fact no difference whatsoever in his behaviour . A week later I took him back to the same dog park and when we pulled up to the park he was beside himself with excitement, like he normally is :D and there was no hesitation from him whatsoever about going into the park and started immediately playing with the lovely dogs there and got to run himself ragged with his favourite chasey games. I took him again on Sunday and same thing, had a great time with the lovely friendly dogs there. During these two visits I warned the other dog owners about this f*ckwit owner and his dogs.

When these dogs started attacking my boy, my strong protective instinct just took over to get in there and help my boy, particularly once they pulled him down to the ground and rolled him. I was too angry and worried about him to be scared of the mongrels attacking him and would do whatever was required to help him. I honestly believed at that time I would have killed one of them to save my boy and I believe my boy's size and build and lack of fightback protected him from any injury as a smaller or slightly built dog could have been seriously injured or killed by these mongrels.

My boy is just so beautifully natured with an awesome temperament and not one dominant bone in his beautiful body and these mongrels were like a gang of thugs and bullies picking on a soft dog who was an easy target :mad I have the Council's animal management after hrs and bus hrs numbers programmed into my mobile now so if I ever see that f*ckwit there again, I will be rining the ACOs straight away.

Since that incident, I have been thinking about what I could arm myself with to help protect my boy if he is unfortuante enough to be attacked again whether it be in a dog park or just out walking and capsicum/pepper spray did cross my mind as I want something I can carry and conceal that is effective on dogs. Can you actually buy capsicum/pepper spray in Australia and if so where can you get it from as I have googled it but cannot find any actual places to purchase it.

[Aussienot]

If you wheelbarrow the dog in circles as you back away , always keeping the dog's head facing away, you will minimise the chance of being bitten. The dog's whole focus will be on keeping his balance on his front two feet, and a lot of the fight drains away. Get far enough away, and try to find someone to help to leash or control the offender.

[biker girl]

OMG Labsrule its situations like that, that I am talking about :D

Thanks everyone for your replies, Adian again....thankyou :D

When out walking our dogs, we dont have "stuff" with us to protect our dogs with, so your suggestion makes sense............hopefully I never have to remember it!

[all that glitters]

My old SBT was attacked by a dog, he was out of it, only thing he wanted to do was kill my dog - someone hit him over the head with a huge lump of wood, split the wood in half, dog didnt feel a thing

but what is Glenda?

LMAO I wondered the same thing! Nawww RIP glenda

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Oh yeah, what's a Maglite? (wants to carry one too, whatever it is lol)