advice needed asap.

neveranymoney

I am typing this shaking and in pieces. I posted not too long about our wee rescue dog Scampers and settling in . He has been a total joy and none of us can imagine our lives without him.

He has always been dog reactive and we have never been too sure if he was just being over excited or not a doggy dog so kept him away as best we can and recall is non existant but these are on going things and we have handled them the best we could.

We are just in from what can only be described as a nightmare. Lovely big long walk, nearly home and a lady with a bichon frise was coming towards us on a narrow footpath. My husband had scampers on a harness and lead and because the dog is Mr Scruffy Lovely Face, I think the lady was letting her wee dog over to say hello. Her dog was not unpleasant in any way, Scampers did not bark or growl but launched himself onto the other poor animals nose/snout/muzzle area and there he stayed for what felt like an eternity but was about 5 minutes.

My husband tried desperately to prize his jaws open to no avail, my 7 year old son was IN PIECES crying hysterically and my poor teen daughter looked about to faint. The poor woman was in an awful state and my husband tried hitting Scampers, a hand has never been raised to him EVER, as by this stage there was blood everywhere, people were coming out to see what was going on and a lady was about to ring the police (I full heartedly agreed with this as nothing was working).

A young fella with a small dog (who we had crossed the road to avoid earlier on - the irony) came and helped pry Scampers jaws open and the lady took her dog away quickly to get to a vets (we wish we had given her our details) and this fella had blood all over his hand and I said, "have you been bitten?" and he replied no, it was the other dogs.

My son has cried the whole way home that he doesn't want the dog anymore, my husband (and the dog) are covered in blood, the imp is unscathed(?) Please advise me what to do, he is such a well behaved, well loved dog but are we able to trust him in the house? He is not a barky, growly dog anyway and as I type, he has taken himself off to his bed and that is something he has NEVER done as he lies with us on the settee in the evenings and when we initially got home and took him out to the garden, he rolled around very oddly and belly crawled, with his back legs out behind him for a while.

Person_one

I'm sorry, this must have been very traumatic for everyone involved, I really hope the bichon is ok but your family too.

The first thing you need is a muzzle to be worn outside the house, and to avoid allowing your dog to come into contact with others at all costs.

Then a vet check, to make sure there isn't a neurological or other reason for this behaviour.

The next thing you need is a reputable behaviourist to work intensively with all of you. If you have insurance you might be covered for this, but don't scrimp on it.

Best of luck, I really do hope you can turn this around.

Fosterdog

Your dog is probably in shock, best to leave him alone in his bed for the rest of the evening unless he chooses to come to you.

If he has never reacted like this before it would be well worth a trip to the vet to rule out any medical cause for his attack, if it was at the end of a long walk he may have been in pain and being face t face with another dog was too much for him.

Keep him in for a few days for his stress levels to return to normal, invest in a muzzle to use on future walks, try to avoid walking him in busy areas and at busy times of the day.

Maybe ring around some local vets to see if you can find out where the other dog was treated and ask them to pass on your contact details to the other owner for you to either pay for the treatment or claim off your insurance.

rising_from_the_ashes

Oh no - what a terrible thing to happen

I remember when Ben was attacked and it was awful


How long have you had him?

Has his behaviour been unusual at all in the past couple of days - if he's feeling ill it could explain it

I second the muzzle just now - until you can try to get to the bottom of it, it's the safest thing AND a vet check just to make sure there's nothing medical that triggered it

How is he with small dogs usually?


It's really hard when you don't know their history - I know my neighbours JR is really viscious with big black dogs BUT he was badly attacked by one when he was little so it's understandable and as his owners know this, they can work around it and keep everyone safe

Hope you find a solution (((hugs))) to all

meritaten

this is awful for you. but please calm down. Dogs fight - its a fact of life!
it seems to me the lady let her dog over to yours and Scampers reacted badly.
there could be a few reasons for this - Scampers may just have hated the dog on sight, the other dog may not have approached in the appropriate manner, Scampers may have been feeling 'ultra protective of his 'family'. if he has gone into seclusion he obviously feels he is 'in the wrong'.
Dog fights can be really violent and are upsetting to witness - that was a really brave person who sorted them out!
you should make an effort to find the owner of the other dog and pay the vets fees. ask around the neighbourhood - someone will know them.
as for your own dog - I would suggest a muzzle in public?

my springer was mostly dog friendly - except she hated GSDs with a passion and would attack! the kennels she was kept at didn't really believe my warning until they housed a GSD next to her and WW3 broke out! the problem was solved by taking Meg out of the kennels (Meg spent more time in their house anyway - they adored her).
just because they attack other dogs it does NOT mean they cannot be trusted with humans!
please try to forgive your dog - she/he may be trying to impress you with how good they are as a guard dog!!!

Fosterdog

Also please don't feel like this is your fault or that you have done anything wrong. It can happen to anyone.

I also have a dog aggressive dog, his aggression only started after he was attacked by another dog but over a year later he is still a work in progress.

I am at the stage where he doesn't need to be muzzled the whole time we are out but I only walk him where I have a clear field of vision and at the first sign of another dog he is muzzled and I work on desensitising him or distracting him depending on the situation.

There are now several dogs he is used to and can play happily with unmuzzled, but there are some that he seems to have taken a lifelong dislike to and he will never be unmuzzled around them and I avoid them as much as possible so I don't set him up for failure.

He can now have a dog walk right past him and remain focussed completely on me, as long as the other dog walks past and doesn't stop to sniff/say hello to him he has no signs of stress at all and no reaction and remains completely relaxed.

It takes time and a lot of work but you can go on to have a regular life with a dog aggressive dog just by taking some precautions.

Wellyboots6

How awful for you, so sorry

My dog is very dog aggressive when on his lead so I would definitely recommend a muzzle. If it fits your dogs head shape then baskerville ones are very good and also have the added bonus of causing people to think twice before letting their dog interact with yours.

I agree with the trip to the vets too. It could be your dog was hot and bothered, or be in pain, or have an issue with small/bichons/dogs on leads etc. A trip to the vets cold help rules out illness, although it does sound from his behaviour when you got home that he could be in discomfort, so I would suggest getting to the vets as soon as you can.

Make sure you mention to the vets that your dog did not growl or give warning. Mine gets very very vocal and launches himself in to the air when he sees other dogs, so it gives everyone a good warning of what his intentions are.

If you aren't confident with him in the house at the moment there is nothing wrong with using the muzzle in the house too until you have had the dog checked out. Just make sure he gets regular breaks to have a good drink, although they can drink quite well through the basket type muzzles. If you are uneasy around him he will pick up on that.

I hope you get things sorted, sounds like quite a shock all round

mellymoo74

It is worth getting him checked by the vet just incase hes poorly.
Y two have been squabbling more than usual I think it may be partially to do with the heat.

krlyr

Great advice from other posters. One thing I would say, although I very much recommend the vet trip ASAP, I would say be careful taking behavioural advice from a vet. Not all vets are well-informed on behavioural issues and I have heard of some vets being very quick to recommend euthanasia.

I would have the vet do their side of things, a thorough physical examination, run blood panels (I would recommend a comprehensive thyroid panel for the aggression behaviour too) and everything, but I would approach a good behaviourist for the behavioural side of things. Somewhere like APBC will help ensure the behaviourist uses modern, fair methods - http//www.apbc.org.uk

mellymoo74

krlyr wrote: »

Great advice from other posters. One thing I would say, although I very much recommend the vet trip ASAP, I would say be careful taking behavioural advice from a vet. Not all vets are well-informed on behavioural issues and I have heard of some vets being very quick to recommend euthanasia.

I would have the vet do their side of things, a thorough physical examination, run blood panels (I would recommend a comprehensive thyroid panel for the aggression behaviour too) and everything, but I would approach a good behaviourist for the behavioural side of things. Somewhere like APBC will help ensure the behaviourist uses modern, fair methods - http//www.apbc.org.uk

Fully agree with this. Good behaviourist are well worth seeking out id just tell the vet hes been acting out of sorts? Is he insured?

neveranymoney

Thank you all so much for your quick replies. The reason I haven't replied so quickly was that I had an impromptu visitor - something that doesn't happen too often and do you know what? It was the best thing that could have happened. My friend and her 6 year old daughter haven't been in the house since Scamp came and he has never met them and I explained at the front door what had happened and was visably shaking so her daughter was turfed into the living room with my son and they were told to knock themselves out with the WII, he was his usual, sucky wee lovable self with my friend. She would be very much a doggy person and he was all over her like a rash and she calmed me down saying basically the same as many of you have said here. The other dog invaded his personal space (I am in NO WAY rationalising his behaviour) he has never really liked small dogs and my daughter actually said to my husband that he had actually started to walk on the road to try and create space between the two.

He is insured through Argos, they have taken a direct debit payment and when I first set up the insurance, I recieved an email with a ref no but haven't recieved paper work, so do I just take the ref number with me to the vet? Sorry for dumb questions, but I am not in my full faculties!

Scamp is now on the two seater, a place he only goes to if he is too warm or fed up. I am woefully out of my depth here, what was so eerie was the silence, as I said, no warning growl, barking, anything and he just held the other dog as if in a trance, my friend automatically assumed he had been shaking the other dogs poor face from side to side and been frenzied, the way terriers would, but he wasn't.

Husband had a quick neb at your replies whilst I 'entertained' ie, told poor unsuspecting friend our tale of woe and wished bitterly that I hadn't given up smoking and went on to pets at home and then jollye's to get a wee muzzle, but they were both closed. He took my brave daughter, (who actually looks green) with him and they had a chat about it in the car. She is sitting petting him now, I cannot relate to you all how much he is a part of our family.

It is open surgery at our vets in the morning so we shall be going first thing, we had turned such a corner with Scampers, the hyper grooming and pacing that he exhibited when he first arrived was 99% eradicated and we told anyone who would listen how he was the perfect dog except when he saw another dog - HA! I certainly would be looking into the behaviourist aspect of this as had it just been me and the children, I honestly dont know what I would have done. My husband and daughter don't think the other dogs snout was hanging off as that was what we feared, but thinks it is probably badly punctured. Scampers seems to only have a very small scrape on his lower jaw, which I can't understand how it isn't worse as I THINK the poor other dog then clamped around Scampers lower jaw, if that makes any sense to you. Going to wait until the kids go to bed and pour myself the biggest drink ever.