Close call with my dog reactive dog

[Scrappi&Monty]

(Monty my rescue staffy mix is reactive to new dogs on walks, we've been working on it for about a year)

 

Yesterday when we went for a nice long walk he was very good and walked loose leash and calmly walked past the yards with dogs. 

All was good until we got back onto our street.

I let him go say hi to our neighbour who was out the front. There were some tradies parked across the road from her house and I didn't notice so I kept on walking, then next thing I know I hear yelling and there is a smallish about (30-40kg maybe) young Great Dane mix chasing after us (to come say hi.) The owner yells out for him but the dog just ignored it.

I was freaking out a little and the owner yelled out "its fine he's friendly" to which I replied

"Mines not!!"

(And now looking back on that the look on his face was priceless hahaha) 

I instinctively (but probably stupidly) ran away and tried to pull Monty away onto my friend's verandah. 

Because I thought "here we go, this dog is too close for comfort and Monty is going to go off and there will be a dog fight on the end of the leash" 

Anyway Monty got sort of sandwiched between the front porch and the other dog, but he DIDN'T freak out, he was obviously a bit worried (probably also because I was) but he didn't react badly, I think he may have even sniffed the other dog.

I was so relieved, I was going to go and apologise/explain to the man but as soon as I got Monty into our yard (after some pats and praise for being so good) he had already put his dog in the ute and left to go take him home I assume. 

 

Just thought I'd vent to some people that can understand haha.

and also ask for some advice on what I should've  done in that situation.

Because if his dog was aggressive or if his dog retaliated if Monty had of been aggressive, running away is probably the last thing you should do... 

Edited May 3, 2017 by Scrappi&Monty

[RuralPug]

No alternate suggestions here - I've found that even when I know the "correct" response sometimes in the heat of the moment instinct takes over and I do the "wrong" thing.

But I just want to say congratulations!  because it looks like all your work with your boy is paying off!

[Scrappi&Monty]

1 minute ago, RuralPug said:

No alternate suggestions here - I've found that even when I know the "correct" response sometimes in the heat of the moment instinct takes over and I do the "wrong" thing.

But I just want to say congratulations!  because it looks like all your work with your boy is paying off!

Good to hear. Thanks RP 

He's a bit weird, Mr Monty. He actually really loves other dogs that he knows (I.e. He is obsessed with Scrappi haha) but he can be aggressive/afraid of new dogs on walks sometimes. Dogs walking past our back lane (sort of a wire mesh rural fence) are fine, no bad reaction.

 

At PetQuaters the other day he was the worst he's been for months. When we walked in we walked past a little fluffy dog who was yapping aimlessly with no problems at all. There was a wolfhound getting a bath when we went to use the other bath, and Monty decided to do the horrible bark/"scream"/"yell"/howl thing. And he's so strong that he was wiggling while I was trying to get him in the bath to shut him up and he sounded like a dying cat! It was pretty embarrassing but what more can you do? (Once he was in the bath he was calm and fine) He'd been fine going there every fortnight or so for months and I liked taking him there because it was easier in terms of clean up and he got a quick little socialisation to practice manners. But he wasn't putting up with this particular dog apparently.

 

[Papillon Kisses]

Well done Monty!

 

I suppose if the other dog is aggressive then you're looking for information about how to break up dog fights. I have no idea what to do there.

 

I always carry treats on me for two reasons:

 

1) I take my dog off to the side / down a driveway / down a cross street / across the road and reward him for focusing on me.

 

2) If we get ambushed by a loose dog, I throw a big handful of treats at the dog. As these treats are super yummy it usually allows enough time for a swift getaway. Con: this reinforces the other dog's behaviour, so hopefully we won't see them again!

 

I have roared "NO. GO HOME." complete with hand gestures to a giant bouncy Ridgeback that would not stop launching himself at us and whose owner wouldn't do anything about it. The poor thing winced and ran home.

 

Not ideal from that perspective, but also because having your human yell like that is scary and would have set back the positive stuff we'd been doing. But as RP says, in the heat of the moment sometimes you don't know what else to do.

 

Interestingly Mal was wearing an Adaptil collar at the time and from the way Ridgie was acting (he ran over like omg I've missed you so much I'm so happy you're here!) I think he thought this old man Chihuahua was his mum or something. It was really odd!

[karen15]

I find most dogs react to "get out" and "go home". Said as a command I've found them effective, even from horse back.

 

I've unfortunately had a dog attacked on a walk. It was my staffy and he was nailed by a wolf hound. The only way to get it off was drop the lead, wait until it had him pinned, step up behind it and lock my legs in it's waist, grab its collar and twist and lift. Think I almost strangled the thing before it stopped going for my dog.

 

I used to do the legs and waist thing with the staffy as a game. They can't bite you from there as they can't bend enough to reach you. For us he'd wiggle and squirm to get free and play, it was part of our wrestling games. But it paid off when it counted........

 

Saying "mine isn't" will certainly make that guy think in future about randomly allowing his dog to run up to someone.

 

Your work with Monty has obviously been really successful for him to cope so well. He was probably more concerned because you were worried, than worried himself (from what you've said) which is just excellent.

 

Post our attack, I found putting me between a rushing, attacking dog stopped another attack. Most dogs won't go for a human, and breaking line of sight is effective IME, however there's always a risk that the unknown strange dog will take on a person.

 

Luckily for me, I'd put a lot of effort into socialising the staffy as a pup and he was a beautiful, friendly dog. He suffered no ill effects from the attack and remained the happy friendly dog he always had been. Me on the other hand, well I now despise loose or aggressive dogs and do all I can (reporting to council etc) to get rid of them.

[Scottsmum]

I think in this scenario you did the best you could.  Survival & a stress panic kicks in ... so yay for avoiding that. 

[Scrappi&Monty]

PK haha that's quite strange about that Ridgey, maybe it was the adaptil, although probably just an overly friendly pup. I think he learnt his lesson! Haha 

 

Karen;

to be honest I can't even remember what I yelled  Not even vaguely. Actually can't remember if I did yell anything... 

I heard someone on DOL who said "mine isn't" in response to "it's ok my dog is friendly" and I just kind of blurted it out. I think first he thought I was scared of his dog. 

I think I quickly considered stepping in between them, but I thought Monty might start snarling/trying to get the other dog through my legs or something then I would be in the middle.

I know with dog fights you sometimes have to let them sort it out and NOT get in the middle of it. The knees on the waist thing is a good idea (depends how long the dog is though haha), I haven't heard of that. I know to grab their collar. Or if they are relatively small dogs I've head grab their hind legs (2 people, one for each dog), pull them apart and swing them so they can't bite you. That would be quite the manoeuvre though and probably completely impractical in most situations. 

Edited May 3, 2017 by Scrappi&Monty

[karen15]

practise the leg thing with Monty. If the dog is a barrel,I don't think it will work as they'll wriggle free and a tall dog would also be an issue. But if the have a waist, you can get in the skinny bit between the ribs and hips and they can't get out. Very risky as you said to get in a dog fight, but the position was excellent to give me the leverage to twist and lift as I could lift straight up. In females, we're generally stronger in the legs, which certainly helped.

 

it was a last option for me as the owner was nowhere and it was hammering the crap out of my dog. After an initial scuffle, Sam had dropped belly down to the ground, and it was standing over him chomping his neck and head. A lady who saw it all happen was surprised I got it off him. Council were great. Attack happened around 6-6.30 am. We went straight to the vet once we got home (couple of km walk!). Poor Sam was drooling everywhere, which the vet said was shock. He was really muscular and there were no punctures or rips. A few days later lots of scabs came off his neck area from where it was trying to get him. Anyway, council answered the phone before 7am. Ranger was at my place by 8 but we were at the vet. By the time he came back at 12, he'd spoken to the witness and spoken to the dogs owner (it had jumped out of their yard so I knew the address). Dog was declared dangerous in max 3 days from memory.

 

I didn't even know the witness was there, but she saw it all happen. The house didn't normally have a dog and when I saw it I thought there must have been a fence behind the hedge, no.... the dog jumped out through the hedge, said hello to mine (we couldn't miss it), we went to walk off and it attacked without warning. Reciting the witnesses name and number stopped me from having a major meltdown on the way home.

 

I'm so lucky Sam was a pretty tough, well conditioned dog. The two I have now, cocker and westie, would have been dead. So now I see a loose dog I do all I can to keep it away.

 

think I've told this one before. Was riding my horse one day, loose dog started heading towards us. We pulled up as he was quite spooky and I was patting him and said to the horse "don't worry, you can kill him if he gets too close" Never seen a dog go on a lead so fast.

[karen15]

a PS the cocker wears Sam's car harness. I had to fully shrink the neck to fit her, but the belly stayed the same as for Sam! Thank goodness she has now slimmed up - she was obviously very fat when i got her!

[Papillon Kisses]

Yeah our VB warned that the collars can sometimes cause other dogs to take a special interest in the wearer.  I don't know how common it is.

 

I forgot to mention that I've also trained Mal to go behind me when asked (so I'm body blocking) and previously practiced it with environmental dogs. He did a great job at doing that with the Ridgie.

 

And I've trained "let's go!" (walk fast or run in opposite direction) which is very useful. Kikopup has a YouTube video on it.

 

Can he always do these things when anxious? Probably not. But he does impress me on ocassion and make some great choices. It's all about teaching them that these choices exist and that they're valuable.

[Loving my Oldies]

I don’t know why you thought for a nano second you would go and apologise to the tradie.  He was the one in the wrong.  

 

Anyway, very pleased that all your training and working with Monty has paid off.  Well done.  

 

 

[Scrappi&Monty]

5 hours ago, Papillon Kisses said:

Yeah our VB warned that the collars can sometimes cause other dogs to take a special interest in the wearer.  I don't know how common it is.

 

I forgot to mention that I've also trained Mal to go behind me when asked (so I'm body blocking) and previously practiced it with environmental dogs. He did a great job at doing that with the Ridgie.

 

And I've trained "let's go!" (walk fast or run in opposite direction) which is very useful. Kikopup has a YouTube video on it.

 

Can he always do these things when anxious? Probably not. But he does impress me on ocassion and make some great choices. It's all about teaching them that these choices exist and that they're valuable.

Yes we do "let's go" too. Very handy.

[Scrappi&Monty]

2 hours ago, Dame Danny's Darling said:

I don’t know why you thought for a nano second you would go and apologise to the tradie.  He was the one in the wrong.  

 

Anyway, very pleased that all your training and working with Monty has paid off.  Well done.  

 

 

I know, it's his fault his dog came up to us, and I know I shouldn't apologise, but I'm that kind of person... it's kind of bad haha. 

Also I wanted to explain to him why

I did what I did in reaction so he knew that I wasn't overreacting and that he shouldn't let his dog run up to people, especially people with dogs. He did call it as soon as it started to come to us, but he may as well not bothered. To be honest, before he even considers having an offleash dog while he isn't paying attention, he should do some training so it has a bulletproof recall and knows to stay where it's told.

 

 

[Loving my Oldies]

Some tradies think it is their right to have unleashed dog on any sort of working site - from family home to multi-unit complex.   

[RuralPug]

56 minutes ago, Dame Danny's Darling said:

Some tradies think it is their right to have unleashed dog on any sort of working site - from family home to multi-unit complex.   

I believe that they just don't think at all!
They want a big scary looking dog to guard the tools in their ute but don't do anything in the way of training. 
Not much of a guard dog that runs off to play with every other dog it sees!

[Scrappi&Monty]

42 minutes ago, RuralPug said:

I believe that they just don't think at all!
They want a big scary looking dog to guard the tools in their ute but don't do anything in the way of training. 
Not much of a guard dog that runs off to play with every other dog it sees!

I know, if he was supposed to be minding the tools he wasn't doing a very good job!  I'm not sure if this pup was supposed to be a guard dog, or just a mate to hang about with. 

He wasn't very good at sticking around regardless! 

[corvus]

I *love* safety behaviours. Today my three dogs got a sudden visit from two loose, very friendly dogs. Two of my guys are just not super comfy with fast greetings from bigger dogs, and the youngster gets very stressed about it. She is little, so she has been learning to jump into my lap if she wants safety, and I stand up and hold her. She makes a lot of noise in my arms, but she still keeps choosing it, so I guess it helps her. Mostly I think she's afraid she will get skittled, and that at least can't happen if she's in my arms. Erik pops between my legs when other dogs stress him out. It is a good place for him to be. It gives him some buffering from the other dog as they have to come front on to me to get to his face, and even if they do that, he can scoot backwards and I can block them from following. It also means I can hold onto him so he doesn't take matters into his own hands if he's off leash. Safety behaviours that genuinely work for dogs are a good choice. I can't even remember how I taught Erik, now. It was a trick on cue, and I think I just started cueing it if another dog was pestering him. My partner and I are a well-oiled machine on the off leash beach. Erik ducks between my legs and I walk him away like that while my partner diverts the pestering dog and holds it for its owner if necessary. If I'm by myself, I rely on those safety behaviours that are focused on being close to me to help me get the dogs away if I need to. They stay close and focused on me. The main thing is to keep my head on and look for barriers I can use if a dog is coming in fast and I know mine are going to find it upsetting. I'm usually too busy scanning the environment for obstacles I can use or getting my dogs to play LAT to interact with the incoming dog. My guys also know to jump onto things, which comes in handy often. They tend to be calmer on a perch, they have a strong reward history with it, and it often throws an incoming dog so that they slow down. It will get the little dogs higher up so they don't get swamped and can jump off the back if they need a quick barrier. The other day, Kestrel saw someone coming with a dog on a narrow footpath and decided on her own she was going up onto a treated pine fence. She fell off because it was skinnier than she is even, but she was too busy trying to get back on to bother about the dog going past.