Dog fight aftermath.

Paradigm

Without going into too much detail, Me & my wife were out with our two dogs yesterday & my boy was attacked by a collie. Unfortunately my two both went at it & it ended up in a bit of a mess, covered in blood around the neck area & carrying one of it's front legs.

It was running loose & both of mine were on leads. There were a couple of other dog walkers who witnessed the scuffle, one I see fairly regularly.

At first I was thinking that I would offer to pay for some of the vet treatment it obviously needed but after getting home & thinking about it I began to change my mind.

Last night the collies owner came round with plenty of attitude demanding that I pay half of the £400 odd emergency bill (stitches to neck & leg + xray) & things descended into a bit of an argument where I told him to go away (words to that effect), I wouldn't be paying a penny & him threatening to inform the police about my "dangerous" dogs.

Thing is, while I know the police are unlikely to do anything for a dog on dog attack, my dogs weren't the aggressors & his attitude stank, I don't want the hassle of any police involvement + I walk past this guys house everyday.

I'm wondering if I should offer something just to keep the peace?

What do you think?

Person_one

Whatever you do about the bills, I'd have muzzles on your dogs from now on so that you aren't in this position ever again.

When you say the collie attacked, can you give us a bit more detail?

Paradigm

Person_one wrote: »

Whatever you do about the bills, I'd have muzzles on your dogs from now on so that you aren't in this position ever again.

When you say the collie attacked, can you give us a bit more detail?

I did edit the post but since you replied I thought it was only manners to re-instate it

I'm going to go & see him later, hopefully things will have calmed down & we can sort something out.

rising_from_the_ashes

Difficult one

Although your dogs were on lead and the other dog was the instigator (and it could therefore be seen as your dog defending itself) - if your other dog also got stuck in then ..... (although it's bound to defend it's pal)

Personally, I'd pay 1/2 the bill and probably muzzle my dogs in future so it can't happen again

Horrible thing to happen - hope both your dogs are OK

rising_from_the_ashes

Just to add

If I did offer to pay half the bill - I would also be saying that I would expect him to keep HIS dog on lead & muzzled from now on too

I'd probably also report him to the dog warden (who can issue ASBO type orders ensuring people do keep their dogs under control)

Misty_Blue

In a 50/50 fight, the traditional way to sort it was that each dog owner paid one another's vet bills. However, as your dogs were on leads I would refuse to pay a penny, quite frankly. The collie's owner is responsible for what happened as his dog was the one not under control. I would definitely also make a report to the dog warden.

Are your dogs Dogue de Bordeaux? Some people with ill mannered, badly trained dogs let them run up to anything and start trouble, but if you have a large "vicious" (Daily Mail perception! )breed, they automatically try and shove the blame onto you. Last night, my neighbour's terrier came tearing across the road, off the lead, and started snapping at my Akita who was on the lead. I can guarantee if she'd got hold of it and done some damage, its moronic owners would be trying to blame me.

Unless your dogs have tendencies towards unprovoked aggression, I would not be muzzling them when they're on leads. If my dogs are on leads and are attacked, I want them able to defend themselves.

krlyr

Might be worth speaking to someone like Trevor Cooper at Doglaw for a professional POV. We can only advise on what we'd do, or our interpretation of the situation.

Personally, I'd consider getting in there first with reporting his dog for attacking your, though I can understand why you may hesitate to report it if you think he's just bluffing. Telling him you've been and got legal advice may be enough to scare him off taking it any further.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

key words here are on a lead and defending itself and pal.


I don't see why your dogs should muzzled from now on like other say it should, the dogs did what anyother dog would do in this situation a dog loose of its lead attacked one of your dogs to protect you and their pal they dug in to protect themselves the dog and you, what if next time your out your dog is muzzled and something/someone attacks you? your dogs cant do anything theyre muzzled so no I don't believe in punishing your dogs with a muzzle for someone elses mistake.


police wont be in the slightest interested, my neighbors daughter was attacked by a large dog, called police they asked what breed it was and when said it was cross breed of rotweiler and Alsatian they said they would give a incident ref number and that was it wouldn't even attend because its civil matter to persue with the dog owner, even though neighbors daughter had stitches to her leg, the hospital was disgusted with this and called the police themselves and they were told its a civil matter nothing to do with them.


your neighbor now and I don't see why you should pay towards it, it attacked your dog (and could have been you and OH) it should have been on the lead under control.


cant see a court awarding the neighbor with vet fee because the owner had no control over his dog his dog commenced the attack and I bet the dog didn't respond to commands to stop either, your dog(s) never ran upto this dog, your dog was doing what they thought was best for its pal in defending it, and its owners.


had my dog attacked another, and came off on the worse end of it own attack through my own fault of not having it on a lead and under control and completely avoid that situation, I'd be more than apologetic to the victim, if there were any injuries I would expect to pay a vet bet to the victims dog, I would not expect to have my vet bill paid because my dog lost its own attack on another dog and lost.

Paradigm

The full story, boring I'm afraid......

The collie is well known amongst the regular dog walkers for being a nuisance, not in an aggressive way, it's a bit of a "nutter" for want of a better word. It races up to other dogs then runs round them in circles, playing I suppose?

It's always the wife who's out with it & it's never on a lead, in fact I'm pretty sure she never has a lead with her.... she has no control over it at all.

Lately our morning walks have coincided and it seems to have taken a dislike to one or both of mine, when she sees us she has to grab it by the collar & when we go past it's bouncing about, barking & snarling. Generally my two don't bother with other dogs, they do their own thing but I've noticed recently that my boy is getting a little racked off with this "thing" giving him grief & as soon as he sees it his hackles are up.

Normally it just starts barking, giving the woman time to grab it but this time it just ran at him from a fair distance & didn't stop, jumping at him....

I'll be going round a bit later hoping that everythings calmed down, what happens next is down to his/her attitude.

My two are ok, she's got nothing & he's got a few scrapes/tooth marks that just needed cleaning up.

Paradigm

Misty_Blue wrote: »

Are your dogs Dogue de Bordeaux?

Yes. Brother & sister, now nearly 7 & pretty much glued together.

elsien

If she knows her dog is difficult with other dogs and chooses to walk it without a lead or any other means of control, then quite frankly shes lucky it's not got in more strife before now.
I wouldn't muzzle yours if it were me, nor would I pay. Unless you feel that your dogs over reacted when you might offer a proportion whilst not admitting liability.
The thing that sticks out for me is was the collie actually attacking yours, or was it leaping round like a loon because it has no doggy manners? While it should undoubtedly still be kept under control, I think for me that would make a bit of difference as to how I perceived it if I were the other dogs owner. Although that's a personal point of view, that's all.