A plea and reminder to parents of dogs

gemini12

This afternoon we were out with our dogs (2jack russell and a border collie). A young lad, I would say about 12 arrived with a staffie on a lead. Our two Jacks went to see her and say hello and for a minute all was fine then suddenly the staffie turned and grabbed one of ours on her back. I would say that she is the friendlier dog of the two, loves everyone people or dogs and just wants them to love her. She screamed and naturally the young lad could stop her. We dashed to her as fast as my walking stick would let me, fortunately not far and between my OH and self manged to part them.
The result is one injured dog who has stitches and is now very sorry for herself but even more to the point a very upset young man who couldnt apologise enough.
Please please parents dont let your youngsters take the dog out alone. You dont know what is going to happen. It has taught me a lesson as our granddaughter sometimes takes the 2 littlies but if that had happened whilst she had them I am not sure she would have coped very well and she is 14.

elsien

I hope your dog is ok and I agree with you about kids taking dogs out on their own. I've seen a few quite small kids out with big staffies (that's what it tends to be in my part of the world anyway) and the dogs seem lovely but I've still thought they'll never manage if the dog gets silly. Not necessarily aggression but somethings as simple as heading into a road. Having a powerful dog myself I know how they can take off.

With respect though, however friendly your dogs are, often dogs are on leads for a reason, so even a friendly dog approaching can trigger aggression. Mine is fine if dogs leave her alone, but off lead dogs approaching her really freak her out. I get people saying as their dog is all over mine, "oh he/she's fine" and I have to say "but mine isn't, please call yours away." Then they look at me all put out.

wilykit

My EBT likes other dogs, but only if they're on a lead, otherwise he gets really nervous of them being around him, especially if they try to sniff his bum. We were walking once and this man had his dog off lead and it came up to Bully and you could tell he was uncomfortable and straight away laid down on his stomach so this dog couldn't sniff him. Bully likes other dogs but I was worried he would snap an asked the man to get hold of his dog as Bully would have probably eaten him!

I would have hated for the other dog to be injured due to the owner not having any consideration for other dogs!

ali-t

elsien wrote: »

With respect though, however friendly your dogs are, often dogs are on leads for a reason, so even a friendly dog approaching can trigger aggression. Mine is fine if dogs leave her alone, but off lead dogs approaching her really freak her out. I get people saying as their dog is all over mine, "oh he'she's fine" and I have to say "but mine isn't, please call yours away." Then they look at me all put out.

Well said. Off lead dogs are the bane of my life. It drives me round the bend when I am walking mine on the lead and people let off lead dogs run up to them. Dogs on leads are usually ill, recovering from an op, in season, aggressive, nervous, not dog friendly or the owner doesn't want them to play. It never ceases to amaze me the amount of people who take no notice of this.

OP, I hope your dog is ok and isn't too traumatised by these events. Fingers xed for a quick physical and emotional recovery.

welshmoneylover

gemini12 wrote: »

This afternoon we were out with our dogs (2jack russell and a border collie). A young lad, I would say about 12 arrived with a staffie on a lead. Our two Jacks went to see her and say hello and for a minute all was fine then suddenly the staffie turned and grabbed one of ours on her back. I would say that she is the friendlier dog of the two, loves everyone people or dogs and just wants them to love her. She screamed and naturally the young lad could stop her. We dashed to her as fast as my walking stick would let me, fortunately not far and between my OH and self manged to part them.
The result is one injured dog who has stitches and is now very sorry for herself but even more to the point a very upset young man who couldnt apologise enough.
Please please parents dont let your youngsters take the dog out alone. You dont know what is going to happen. It has taught me a lesson as our granddaughter sometimes takes the 2 littlies but if that had happened whilst she had them I am not sure she would have coped very well and she is 14.

I'm sorry to hear of your dog's unfortunate accident.

However, perhaps in future you need to keep your dogs under control and on a lead at all times. Perhaps the staffy was feeling threatened being approached by so many off lead dogs.

I wouldn't pin all the blame on this incident on the young lad either, I think you must shoulder 100% of the responsibility.

Off lead dogs make my walks with my dogs an absolute misery at times.

shegirl

ali-t wrote: »

Well said. Off lead dogs are the bane of my life. It drives me round the bend when I am walking mine on the lead and people let off lead dogs run up to them. Dogs on leads are usually ill, recovering from an op, in season, aggressive, nervous, not dog friendly or the owner doesn't want them to play. It never ceases to amaze me the amount of people who take no notice of this.

OP, I hope your dog is ok and isn't too traumatised by these events. Fingers xed for a quick physical and emotional recovery.

Or they're Beagles and the owner actually wants to take them home rather than lose them to some amazing smell:rotfl:

I hate seeing kids taking dogs out for walks,especially bigger or powerful dogs.There are a few around here that do and it makes me nervous,there's a couple of girls under 10 walking a bull terrior,boys with staffies and the worst has to be the kid walking the rottie!!!Why would any parent think it was a good idea?

hoogervaaner

Again I am very sorry to hear of the injuries to your dog but can only echo the sentiments of the posters above. My dogs are ALWAYS on a lead and 100% under control in public for good reason and I get tired of people saying their out of contol dog 'only wants to play'.

dontone

shegirl wrote: »

Or they're Beagles and the owner actually wants to take them home rather than lose them to some amazing smell:rotfl:

I hate seeing kids taking dogs out for walks,especially bigger or powerful dogs.There are a few around here that do and it makes me nervous,there's a couple of girls under 10 walking a bull terrior,boys with staffies and the worst has to be the kid walking the rottie!!!Why would any parent think it was a good idea?

Same goes for Basset Hounds.:rotfl:

Totally agree on hating seeing kids taking large dogs out for walks. There's one girl of about 13 years old who takes a rather aggresive looking GS out on the walk near my house. What makes it worse is that this girl wears roller boots whilst out with it, and it's rather powerful. I've seen her a few times let go of the lead because it pulls and she isn't strong enough to hold it. It's scary to see.
Hope your dog gets better soon OP.

Girlpantsx

Poor dog! I hope he feels better soon.

My horrible neighbour used to let her 9 year old walk their Rottweiler. What makes it worse was that the dog was never trained. He'd never listen to a word they said, he'd run off from them (and usually hide in my back garden) and would just pull the kid along the road as he wasn't strong enough to control him. Luckily, the dog wasn't nasty, and got taken away.

sarabe

I hope your little dog is okay but must agree with the other posters. However friendly your dogs are please only allow them to interact with other dogs by mutual consent of both owners (and dogs) and never let them approach dogs on a lead.

Having had a large breed dog with an injury that required wires through his leg the last thing I needed was other dogs approaching him when we were taking controlled exercise as part of his rehabilitation.

puppy999

It is againest the law to hav a dog off the lead in a public place I dont walk in grassy areas now for that reason as the dogs come runnin over and attack mine he is only 2yr an Akita and is a whimp which is a good job as he could make a really mess ........ Please keep your dogs on there leads