What should you do if your dog is attacked?

Parent Cafe
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<p>Tonight’s walk was one of my worst nightmares. I was walking my two little dogs in the neighborhood. They were just trotting along on a leash, happy as can be…and from out of nowhere, a loose dog ran growling and snarling, from across the street and attacked one of them. It was a large dog, perhaps a Rottweiler, who attacked my little cavalier king Charles spaniel.</p>

<p>The dog flipped my little girl over on her back and seemed to be trying to bite her neck. My dog was crying and yelping, I was yelling and kicking the vicious dog in the head. It was probably just for a short time, but seemed like it lasted forever. Finally the owner (who was outside) came over, and between us, got the killer dog off my girl. The owner seemed shocked, and said, “I shouldn’t have let her out” and, “Let me know if you have any vet bills.” I think she was too much in shock to apologize, or say anything else. Weirdly, all the adults that were in her yard just stayed there, and never came over. When she asked if the dog was okay, I said, “I don’t know, I’m just going to leave now.”</p>

<p>We got out of there as fast as possible, and the dogs ran all the way home. My cavalier seemed fine, but really in a hurry to get home. She ate, then threw up, so I took her to the vet. No injuries, just pain medication, so no vet bill to send to the owner. My husband called to make a police report, but they weren’t interested, as nobody was in danger. I feel like I need to make some sort of report, as it is obvious that the owner knew her dog was vicious…ie the, “I should have never let her out,” comment. I wonder how many dogs it has attacked. This dog had a mission, and completely ignored my kicks to the head. It seemed intent on killing my dog. Had it done so, believe me, it would not have survived another day. We really love our dogs.</p>

<p>So is there anything I can do? I’m not litigious, there seems to be no injury (unbelievably), but I can’t ignore a vicious dog that is looking to attack others. Now I’m afraid to take my dogs for a walk in my own neighborhood.</p>

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<p>I don’t what county you are in but there are provisions for dangerous dogs.
[RCW</a> 16.08.100: Dangerous dogs ? Confiscation ? Conditions ? Duties of animal control authority ? Penalties and affirmative defenses for owners of dogs that attack ? Dog fights, penalty.](<a href=“http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=16.08.100]RCW”>RCW 16.08.100: Dangerous dogs—Confiscation—Conditions—Duties of animal control authority—Penalties and affirmative defenses for owners of dogs that attack.)
At the very least it should be quarantined.</p>

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<p>This is for king county outside Seattle.
Regional Animal Services of King County’s service area includes all unincorporated areas of King County and 25 contracting cities. For service, please call 206-296-PETS (7387) or email <a href="mailto:pets@kingcounty.gov">pets@kingcounty.gov</a>.
If you are experiencing a life-threatening animal-related emergency, call 9-1-1.</p>

<p>Animal control field officers respond to the following requests:</p>

<p>Vicious animal complaints
Cruelty investigations
Animal bites
Injured animal rescues
Law enforcement agency calls for assistance
Loose livestock on roadways
Aggressive or sick animal pickup
Find a lost pet</p>

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<p>Call Animal Control Dept. in your area and file a report with them. They’ll start a file on the dog.</p>

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<p>Thanks, emerald and nysmile! We are in King county outside of Seattle. I will definitely call them tomorrow. Next time that dog might kill the other dog (or toddler) that it attacks. Why do people even have vicious dogs like that? This is a safe neighborhood, there is little crime. It’s not like they need it for protection.</p>

<p>Animal control sounds like the place to go.</p>

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<p>My sympathies: this was obviously a very frightening event.</p>

<p>But I have to point out that a rottie who was intent on killing a Cavalier King Charles could do so in seconds with a single bite and shake of its head. Yet this dog apparently didn’t even inflict a wound. (Thankfully!) So I don’t think it is the killer you fear it might be.</p>

<p>Nevertheless, it is obviously dog-aggressive, and the owner probably knows that and, from the sounds of it, normally takes steps to make sure that it doesn’t have the opportunity to encounter other dogs off leash. (I would also suggest that to large dogs very small dogs sometimes seem to be more like prey than dogs, and arouse their prey drive. Like a squirrel would.) And surely you are aware that plenty of dogs who invariably enter the dominance competition with other dogs are complete marshmallows where humans and human children are concerned.</p>

<p>I’m not sure what you should do. The owner of the other dog seems to have behaved pretty well in the circumstances. I’m sure she was shaken also. The main thing is that you need to feel safe walking in the neighborhood. Could you call her and discuss it, find out what she normally does to contain her dog, strongly suggest that she fence her yard or at least an area of it?</p>

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<p>It was awful. I’m very fearful of dogs, and uncomfortable when I see a strange one coming at me, so this sure didn’t help. I’m actually not sure if it was a Rottweiler, though, I was just taking a guess. I’m not too good at identifying dogs. But I don’t know if my 20 pound dog could have been mistaken for a squirrel. She’s kind of fat. </p>

<p>I’m not sure if I should call the neighbor. I don’t even know who she is. This was about eight blocks from my house. It would have been a different deal if it was a next door neighbor, or someone who I knew. I wonder if she would tell the truth? People always say it has never been a problem before. Perhaps I should talk to her neighbors. I don’t want to get too personal, really. I just want to get this on file in case it happens again (or has happened many times before), but it’s not like I want her dog to be taken away.</p>

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<p>Where we live a dog that attacks human or pet is impounded until determination is made whether to label the dog dangerous. If yes owner must take several precautions, required to fence entire yard, keep dog fenced, put up signs on property. State law requires paying all damages for injuries inflicted and double damages if owner knew the dog was aggressive. You could lobby your city council for stricter ordinances presenting your case as example of the need. Tell them you called the police and got brushed off and didn’t know what to do. If the correct course of action is to call animal control, then police should have advised you of this.They should be aware. Part of their job is knowing how to direct people to get help in dire circumstances when it’s not a police matter. </p>

<p>Go back to that house and ask to see the current rabies tag. There might have been some kind of minor wound that was overlooked. Ask what precautions they plan to take so you can feel safe in your neighborhood. Suggest wearing a muzzle when outside if they haven’t already taken that step. Perhaps some specialized obedience classes? You can be polite, but you are completely within your rights to press this if the authorities won’t. The owner hasn’t tried to track you down and check on condition of your dog?</p>

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<p>Bus, wow, that was awful. I hope your vet made sure that your poor dog is current on her shots. Call the animal control and see what they suggest.</p>

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<p>So sorry. I know how scary that is. Animal control needs to know. Hopefully, the owner will be extra vigilant. A pit bull (rescue and good with its own family) came out at our dog who is a huge Golden while H was walking our guy. H wound up with a bite and had to get medical attention. We went back to the house and the people were really nice and apologetic. They were working with huge dog, but agreed that it wasn’t ready to be an I fenced yard. We did not call animal control, but if the people had not been as responsive as they were, we would have.</p>

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<p>A friend in Seattle was walking her spaniel on a leash when he spied the delicious calf of a mailman as he was sitting in his truck. Said dog took a bite ( don’t remember if it broke the skin) as they walked by.:o Although the owners provided animal control with vet records, he still needed to be confined to their yard for six weeks & they had to pay a fine.</p>

<p>I agree that he might not necessarily be vicious as it sounds like if he wanted to do damage he could have, but dogs should always be under control.</p>

<p>I think that the owner should get a citation & a lecture at least. Dogs if not in a securely fenced yard or in an off leash area, should be on a leash.
You might want to carry pepper spray just in case it happens again.
I don’t go to some off leash areas ( like marymoor) because some of the dogs I don’t trust.
But in general I’ve not had a problem, although once a rottie did charge out of his house and tried to fight with my 70lb but elderly lab. I had to throw rocks at him.</p>

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<p>I have a 10 year old border collie/aussie mix. I take her on a long “disciplined” (no sniffing, no pooping, she has to “heel” to me) walk pretty much daily. In our area dogs are required by law to be on leash or fenced. There is one house on our daily route where the gentleman that lives there lets his large German Shepherd-looking dog out in his front yard off leash in the morning. Usually that dog is very well-behaved, but he did charge at us one day, snarling and looking to do damage. The man just smiled and that made me furious, but the dogs did NOT really come at each other. It was a dominance/territory thing and has not happened since even though this dog has been outside as we are walking.</p>

<p>I have been on the other side of this as well. I puppy sit for my adult kids’ dogs at times, and have to be very mindful of my older dog’s very real need to be the Alpha in her own home. I actually have a dog trainer friend who came over and spent time with me and one of my grand-dogs so that she could show me how to best facilitate the dogs peacefully co-existing in my house when they visit. There have been instances of my older grumpy dog asserting herself with the younger ones and, though these can sound scary, no damage has ever been done. We always watch them carefully, though, so nothing escalates. </p>

<p>Point is, there is a difference between true aggression and dominance in dogs, and I think (as someone above already pointed out), if this dog was truly aggressive, he could have easily really hurt your pup. It’s scary as all get out to witness, but thank goodness this other dog was not in fact trying to kill and eat your dog! </p>

<p>I agree, though, that this dog needs to not be off leash, and I think your neighbor gets that at this point.</p>

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<p>It sounds like a very scarey incident but I also think the neighbor with the rott (or whatever) was quite decent about it. A visit to their house to discuss the situation calmly might be a reasonable thing to do.</p>

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<p>I agree it was scary but I do think the owner of the other dog did the right thing at the time. We forget that dogs are dogs and that sometimes they forget their training. Dog on dog aggression is very different from dog /people aggression. I had a dog that I always had to watch around other large male dogs. The same dog would tolerant babies climbing and pulling on him. I would go and talk to the owner and politely express your fears. It may be that she can change when and how she lets him out. This also could have been a badly socialize dog that thinks that rough play is acceptable. He may be plays hard with large dogs where it would physically be fine but no so good with a little Cavalier. I am very glad your dog wasn’t hurt.</p>

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<p>So glad your dog wasn’t hurt too badly. I would recommend filing a complaint to animal control. Our next door neighbor’s dog attacked our Lab in our yard with me present this past summer. It was the most terrifying thing I have ever been through. Neighbor’s dog bit my dog on the rear and back of neck, about 50+ stitches and 2 nights in hospital. We called animal control, neighbors got a $40 fine and that was all. Different states may do things differently.</p>

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<p>busdriver, so sorry this happened. Our dog (a large Lab) has been attacked twice by the same dog. Sabadog and I walk in our neighborhood at least twice a day; we live near a large park area that is a mecca for dog owners in the neighborhood. Quite a few folks have their dogs trained to voice recall, and those dogs are usually off leash. This dog was a pit mix that was not trained at all - we had encountered him on walks and given any opportunity he would strain against his leash, snarl, bark and was generally aggressive towards Sabadog, so we did our best to avoid him. For some reason, the owner decided he could be off leash. The first time, the dog came running from 50-75 feet away and went after Sabadog. He is substantially smaller but was biting at Sabadog’s ears, throat, privates, anywhere he could. The owner finally sauntered over to grab her dog by the neck and I advised her at that time if it happened again I was calling animal control. Guess what. It happened again, only worse. She wouldn’t tell me where she lived (we were at the park) - so my neighbors helped me locate where the dog lived. They like Sabadog. I then made the report to AC. AC usually doesn’t care if there’s an injury - they want to make sure there aren’t going to be injuries. Since you don’t know these folks, I wouldn’t go over there myself - I’d ask AC to handle it. But that’s just me.</p>

<p>Edited to add: our trainer recommended a citronella spray as a deterrent. I carry it daily.</p>

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<p>Is bug spray made from a grass going to be enough to repel an aggressive dog?
I spray my dog with it & he likes it.</p>

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<p>EK: It’s not the odor of whatever you spray on your dog that matters. It’s spraying something – probably most anything – at the aggressive dog that will send him running.</p>

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<p>I would firmly insist to the police that you want the information down as a reported incident even though they consider it no harm done. That is in case, some future episode, which hopefully does not occur, does happen to you or to someone else. </p>

<p>My sons walked dogs for a long time as part time jobs while in school, and I was always nervous because we have a lot of big dogs in the neighborhood, and, yes, sometimes they do get out. Fortunately, no attacks, If it’s a real possibliitly in your neighborhood, perhaps, you should carry something with you, MACE, something and know how to use it, as you’ve been hit already once. My brother used run with a club when he was in high school, as there were so many loose dogs in our area, including “junk yard dogs”. He beat up many a dog before they learned to stay away from him. I ran with him once, and it was terrifying, but that was the type of neighborhood we lived in those days, and people tended to let dogs loose more than they do now. People also didn’t jog, bike and run like they do now.</p>

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<p>EK, I trust my trainer; she breeds and trains GSDs and uses this product herself when necessary. She cautioned me against pepper spray as it can enrage an aggressive dog even further. If you want to use MACE, make sure it’s legal where you live or you could have a bigger problem.</p>