She attacked another dog....

[KZoppa]

wow! i'm sorry you're dealing with this!!! Labs may be bred for that soft mouth but i'd seen more than a few tear into another dog. I've also seen heelers agitate until the other dog snapped. No matter the real story, the whole situation sucks.

This is exactly why i'm nervous about going home for a few days. We're staying with my inlaws who have my girl Zena. Zena is a dominant bitch who is occassionally dog aggressive. She's spayed. Shelby is NOT spayed and may be submissive to people but other dogs she doesnt take any bull. I'm trying to figure out how to keep them seperated when i'm not available to supervise. My inlaws are kinda dog dumb and will just turn all the dogs out in the backyard at once without supervision.

I hope everything works out and there are no hard feelings. I do agree with keeping the dogs apart from now on though.

[BowWowMeow]

I am very sorry that this happened. It was a huge mistake in judgement on your friends' part and it's terrible that their dog was so badly attacked. I don't think it matters who started it--it's clear who got hurt. Luckily she wasn't hurt any worse.

I also wanted to say that there are lots of effective ways to deal with dog-dog aggression and none of them include euthanizing the dog. There are quite a few people on this forum who live with dogs who are mortal enemies and they keep the dogs separate for their entire lives by doing a crate and rotate deal or, sometimes they rehome one of the dogs if they can find an excellent situation. And there are other people who have had terrible fights between their dogs which seemed to come out of nowhere and often escalated and the owners have very carefully looked at their situation, often with the help of a behaviorist, and discovered that there were clear triggers with each attack.


I would be careful with your dog from here on out when she is with other dogs, especially if the other dog is dominant or is going to challenge her. I would also keep a good eye on your pup and be sure to provide lots of positive socialization for him with dogs that you know are rock solid.

[FG167]

Just because Labs are bred to be soft-mouthed in their retrieves does not mean that they can't BITE hard...their jaw and biting is just like any other dogs'...I have two Labs and know they can bite if they want to. One of my Labs has a mouth like an alligator - he darn near bites the tips of my fingers off when using treats - Madix, my shepherd takes treats perfectly and soft and has a wonderful retrieve - he also is training in Schutzhund - so can also obviously bite. I don't think one thing has anything to do with the other.

I have also heard dogs fight and find it hard to believe that a fight serious enough to result in that kind of damage was totally unheard...

I would not put a dog down for this especially since the circumstances are pretty much totally unknown...

[Mary Jane]

I'm very sorry that this happened. I cannot add to the conjecture about the fight. Just wanted to remind people that the first "face transplant" done a few years ago was the result of a woman attacked by her own dog while she slept. The dog that literally bit part of her face off was a lab and a lab that was not known for aggression.

[Konotashi]

I'm so sorry that you're going through this.

I'm appalled that your friend is making you pay for all of the vet bills. I wouldn't pay for more than half.

It's too fishy. The story keeps changing, the dog was injured because of their irresponsibility, they didn't abide by the rules you set which was why their dog was injured.... I don't feel it's your responsibility to pay more than half of the vet bills. Just IMO. It's unfortunate that their dog was injured, but they're dogs. It happens. Hoping she has a smooth recovery.

[ChristenHolden]

When I was 8 or so we had a black lab. He used to be beat up by my cousins GSD and then he got fed up and fought back. He then started to KILL other dogs not ours but he killed a wennie dog, another half grown lab and a lil mutt. My dad put him down. I balled and balled. I beged him not to shoot my dog but he said he could not wait on Rover to turn on me. So yes a lab can and will bite

[trudy]

what I would do is apologize, pay the vet bill and never leave the dogs in this place again. The best place is a pet sitter who comes into your home, no other pets of their own, or a kennel that keeps them separated from any they are unfamiliar with. The reason you apologize and pay is to keep the friend and prevent a report of a vicious dog on file anywhere.

All dogs will form a hierarchy if there is no obvious leader, and this was the situation. My dogs like quiet, calm dogs and yapping/skitzy types set them off, they will grab and hold as hard as they feel necesssary to calm the other down. I've had NO injuries as I am there and I stop it but it could advance, this is actually lucky only 1 dog needed the vet and with those injuries that was a very cheap bill, here we would be looking in the thousands.

I hope this is on no reports and that the dog heals well with no problems, and that you remember what your dog is capable of, all dogs can do tremendous damage, tehy have very powerful jaws

[Caledon]

I agree with Trudy.

It was your friend's fault, no questions in my mind. Is is your responsibility to pay for the bills? Could argue that one, but as trudy said this will keep the friendship. A 50/50 split would be the best you could hope for and since your friend offered that I thnk you have a good solution.

Knowing what I know now and if this were me (my dog hurt because I didn't supervise) I would be blaming myself and not accept payment from from friend. However I would really appreciate the offer.

If I read this 3 years ago, I would say the vet bill should be yours.

[WarrantsWifey]

As I stated above, we paid the vet bill, in FULL, and are paying up all follow up vet bills for this dog. She stated she didn't have the money for the vet bills so we paid 100% of it. She didn't file a report. I don't think she could anyways. Nobody witnessed the fight. Thanks for your advice!

[PaddyD]

Originally Posted by RazinKain

Ouch! She got whooped big time! No marks on your lab? I have owned many, many blue heelers and (1) lab also, and from my experiences, I would bet money on it that the heeler initiated the fight and your lab did what she had to do to protect herself. Heelers are extremely territorial and unpredictable. I hope everything works out, but I wouldn't beat yourself up over it. Like I said, your lab was probably just protecting itself.

Agreed. Hope the Blue Heeler heals quickly. Heelers can get quite feisty. My son had one that pestered my last dog until my dog put him in his place and that was that. If your lab is resource guarding she might have been guarding your pup.
I'm not so sure that Blue Heelers know how to play. They are quite focused.