This is a post I never thought I would have to write. My beautiful boy bit a jogger 3 days ago. I held off posting until I spoke with my lawyer, seems it's safe to talk about it here.
Details:
1.5 year old intact male GSD. Did puppy and obedience classes with great effect and socialized well until the beginning of last winter at which point he was about a year old. Since then he has had limited contact with strangers as we live way out in the country and have few visitors during the winter months. About a month ago I had friends over and he showed a great deal of aggression towards them, which was something I had never seen in him. He lives in a loving home with 3 kids, one of which is 2.5. He is wonderful with all of us. My toddler can do anything with him and he is so gentle. We also have 2 cats. He harasses them but does not try to hurt them. Just wants to sniff their bums, which irritates the heck out of them.
The bite occurred Sunday morning. He was outside on his lead for a morning pee while I made coffee. Next thing I know I hear ferocious barking coming from the front of the house. I ran out and witnessed him barking like crazy at a woman that was jogging by on the street. She started screaming and running around trying to get away from him. She fell down. As soon as I got down the driveway and yelled for him to come he did, and ran up and into the house. My wife walked her home while I stayed and gave a statement to the police along with providing vet papers and other details. His lead (250lb beast cable) failed due to fatigue at the clip.
The woman went to the hospital. Her injuries are a bite to the buttocks and a broken wrist. When she was running backwards from him she fell and landed hard on her wrist. We have reached out to them and offered to pay bills and help in any way we can. For now they are not ready to talk to us. My dog is quarantined in home for 10 days and right now the animal control officer is on vacation so I have no details as to what the next steps are. I know he will go for a vicious dog hearing as the town requires it. I also know at this point he will be terrible if brought into a room full of strangers.
Here’s some things I noticed about the attack. He had about 20 seconds with the woman before I was able to make it out the door and down the driveway. During that time he barked like crazy and got very close to her and bit once. With the way she was jumping around, I’m not even sure if the bite was intentional on his part. (Please realize, I’m not trying to dismiss the incident in any way, just trying to give you guys as much info as possible.) I also have not seen the pictures of the bite yet so I can’t say how bad it was. I do know there were no stitches required. When she fell backwards, he did not advance on her, just kept barking.
Right now, I’m not sure what the outcome will be. I don’t expect the town to force euthanasia but keeping him is not an option. My wife is steadfast and I can’t really blame her. The double jeopardy laws of RI are just too much of a risk. I have tried to contact the German Shepherd Rescue of New England and they can’t help until he is in a shelter and in dire need. I’m not even sure placing him is possible with a bite on his record. I have also reached out to the state police to see if they would be interested in evaluating him but have no info yet. My next call will be to Vom Winhaus Shepherds to see if they could do an eval once the 10 day quarantine is up.
My family is traumatized right now and I’m having trouble dealing with this emotionally. This is my fault and I will always have to live with that. This poor woman was sooo scared and I just can’t get the scene out of my mind. I love my boy and have been spending lots of time with him but none of that really matters now. What’s done is done. I guess I would like to hear anything you guys have that might help me place him or otherwise handle the situation.
Details:
1.5 year old intact male GSD. Did puppy and obedience classes with great effect and socialized well until the beginning of last winter at which point he was about a year old. Since then he has had limited contact with strangers as we live way out in the country and have few visitors during the winter months. About a month ago I had friends over and he showed a great deal of aggression towards them, which was something I had never seen in him. He lives in a loving home with 3 kids, one of which is 2.5. He is wonderful with all of us. My toddler can do anything with him and he is so gentle. We also have 2 cats. He harasses them but does not try to hurt them. Just wants to sniff their bums, which irritates the heck out of them.
The bite occurred Sunday morning. He was outside on his lead for a morning pee while I made coffee. Next thing I know I hear ferocious barking coming from the front of the house. I ran out and witnessed him barking like crazy at a woman that was jogging by on the street. She started screaming and running around trying to get away from him. She fell down. As soon as I got down the driveway and yelled for him to come he did, and ran up and into the house. My wife walked her home while I stayed and gave a statement to the police along with providing vet papers and other details. His lead (250lb beast cable) failed due to fatigue at the clip.
The woman went to the hospital. Her injuries are a bite to the buttocks and a broken wrist. When she was running backwards from him she fell and landed hard on her wrist. We have reached out to them and offered to pay bills and help in any way we can. For now they are not ready to talk to us. My dog is quarantined in home for 10 days and right now the animal control officer is on vacation so I have no details as to what the next steps are. I know he will go for a vicious dog hearing as the town requires it. I also know at this point he will be terrible if brought into a room full of strangers.
Here’s some things I noticed about the attack. He had about 20 seconds with the woman before I was able to make it out the door and down the driveway. During that time he barked like crazy and got very close to her and bit once. With the way she was jumping around, I’m not even sure if the bite was intentional on his part. (Please realize, I’m not trying to dismiss the incident in any way, just trying to give you guys as much info as possible.) I also have not seen the pictures of the bite yet so I can’t say how bad it was. I do know there were no stitches required. When she fell backwards, he did not advance on her, just kept barking.
Right now, I’m not sure what the outcome will be. I don’t expect the town to force euthanasia but keeping him is not an option. My wife is steadfast and I can’t really blame her. The double jeopardy laws of RI are just too much of a risk. I have tried to contact the German Shepherd Rescue of New England and they can’t help until he is in a shelter and in dire need. I’m not even sure placing him is possible with a bite on his record. I have also reached out to the state police to see if they would be interested in evaluating him but have no info yet. My next call will be to Vom Winhaus Shepherds to see if they could do an eval once the 10 day quarantine is up.
My family is traumatized right now and I’m having trouble dealing with this emotionally. This is my fault and I will always have to live with that. This poor woman was sooo scared and I just can’t get the scene out of my mind. I love my boy and have been spending lots of time with him but none of that really matters now. What’s done is done. I guess I would like to hear anything you guys have that might help me place him or otherwise handle the situation.