Incident at the park, what to do from here? (a bit long)

[bastian]

I posted a while back about dog aggression problems I was having with my 2 1/2 year old GSD a while back. He's leash reactive and I believe his aggression stems from fear based aggression.. His past, long story short, he's been attacked twice by dogs who live in my neighborhood, and I made the mistake of stopping socialization at a time when it was vital to him because I was afraid. Once I started bringing him back out, he showed aggression towards any dog he happened to come across. I have made a lot of mistakes along the way but I've learned, and I am continuing to learn, and I want to avoid making another mistake.

I've been working with Sebastian for months now, following a lot of amazing advice that I've gotten here and we are making slow, but good progress. No trainer yet, but I am still planning on it once I can get this semester of school over with..

Since practicing sub-threshold, I can walk him by dogs now as long as I keep a safe distance, and he isn't as vocal as he used to be and it's becoming a bit easier for me to break his focus on other dogs. I haven't brought him around any other dogs yet and I've learned to steer clear of dog parks, but he does get along very well with my two Pomeranians that he was raised with.

The problem I'm having today is that while on our daily jog at one of the local parks, we were caught completely off guard by a dog that was off leash that charged at Sebastian from behind (Sebastian was on his leash, I have never allowed him to be off leash in a public place). It all happened so fast, I didn't have time to think and I don't know if I made the right choice.

In order to break up the fight, I hit the other dog with a nearby stick because it looked like he had latched onto Sebastian. The owner was very slowly making his way over to us even after the fight started, up until I hit his dog. He was very unhappy about it and he was threatening me, which I can understand, I wouldn't want anybody hitting my dog, but at the moment I really felt like I had no other choice. My dog was leashed, his wasn't. I tried to explain that and I tried to stay calm so I could at least find out if his dog was up to date on all his shots, but he wasn't having any of that. All he could do is yell and call me names and since I didn't have my cellphone on me (this seems very silly to me now) I figured my best choice was to go back to my car and call the police. He left before they arrived, but I did get his license plates, so what happens from there with him, I don't know.

The dog was a boxer mix, it nipped at his leg and then went straight for Sebastian's neck. Luckily he has thick fur and two collars (one for his tags and the other for his leash) so no skin was broken. I stopped by the vet before I came home just to make sure that he was okay, in case I missed anything. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the other dog.. Sebastian got in a few good bites and he did break skin in a few places.. I feel very bad about it.

I just don't know where to go on from here with Sebastian. I realize that it was not his fault, I've tried to stay very calm about the entire thing for his sake but I am afraid that this will be a set back in his progress. Do I just continue working with him as normal, and act like it never happened? And if this ever happens again, how do I react? I come across unleashed dogs all the time and they drive Sebastian crazy sometimes, but most of them at least have the sense to keep a safe distance..

[wyominggrandma]

If there is a leash law where you live and that dog was obviously off leash and out of control of his owner, that is his problem. Too bad if your dog bit his dog, he should have had control of him. I know you feel bad, but you shouldn't.
My thoughts would be continue doing what you have been doing and pretend it did not happen. Go on your walks as usual, but if you see another dog, just don't tense up and just keep walking like normal. If you don't act stressed, then hopefully your guy wll relax. good luck, sounds as if you are making progress.

[sit,stay]

Just continue on with the work you're doing. What happened was not your fault and was not your dog's fault. It was the fault of the idiot owner of the other dog.

I have a leash reactive, fear-aggressive dog and I have also been in positions where I had to do what I had to do when my leashed dog has been rushed by illegally off leash dogs. It stinks, but you do what you need to do.

Good luck with your boy. You did the right thing.
Sheilah

[Roxygsd]

You did what you needed to do. Keep working with your dog. I recently had a one hour session with a personal trainer that showed me a simple thing with a collar that has made a world of difference in her reactiveness to other dogs. Keep a choke or prong collar positioned just behind the ears (this means having a smaller collar that is challenging to get over the ears). This way when you give a correction, you are working that part of their neck that is more sensitive than the lower neck which is very muscular. Keep your dog even with your leg or behind you. Pull on the collar or knee them in the face when you want to redirect their attention. These two simple things have made a world of difference when we pass other dogs. Good luck.

[suzzyq01]

Wow that is awful!

A good way to break a fight up without causing any harm to the dog is to grab the hind legs of the dog and pull them away. This normally works best for two owners serprating the fight. In a one owner situation with two dogs I would just grab both dogs by their scruff and pull them apart (I have been bitten doing this, it's not the best way to seperate a fight but with nothing else around you do what you gotta do).

I would carry mase with you on your walks from now on and if you see a dog charging Sebastien then I would pull it out and spray the dog in the face. I've used it before, it works well.

I agree, continue walking him and try and remain calm, cool, and confident you and him can handle anything thrown your way. Also, carry your cell phone! haha.

I would really work on the attention getting "look" "watch" type command. This is amazing when used with "leave it".

Look Command for Reactive Dogs

Good luck!

[Gilly1331]

Carry pepper spray or mase. You can buy these things at local gun stores, hunting store and maybe even walmart. Spray the on-coming dog but move away as you spray and make sure its not with the wind blowing at you. This should hopefully keep the dog from getting to close and prevent any contact between you/your dog and the charging dog.

Continue your walks as normal and do continue working with him. Do you have any friends/neighbors with non-aggressive dogs that can practice walking up and down the roadway with you passing in opposite directions? First start on opposite sides of the road or yard then slowly move closer once the dog starts to calm down. The more practice with calm dogs he will start to pick up on it as long as YOU stay CALM.

Good luck! And it was the other dogs owner who was at fault for his off leash dog not being in control and I would have hit the dog as well if it attacked me/my dogs.

[bastian]

I live in Arizona so there are leash laws. I talked with the officer and he informed me that I wouldn't be responsible for any damage done which was a relief on my part. I guess I just feel bad because a dog got hurt because it's owner doesn't know well enough to keep it on a leash.

And, thanks everyone. I will continue working with him and try to let this incident go. I was afraid it would set back is progress and affect him the way it has in the past, but I think that has more to do with me. I just don't want anyone to get hurt, especially my boy.

It probably would have been easier to break up the dog fight had the owner reacted differently, but he seemed just fine with walking over to us instead of running.

I got lucky there was a stick nearby.. but at any rate I would definitely be willing to take a bite before I ever let anything happen to Sebastian. I'll also definitely be keeping my cellphone on me from now on.

I've considered mace before but someone warned me about it and said it might make the dog react even more aggressively, as well as do damage, so I just didn't look into it again after that. I will definitely be looking into again though so I can be prepared next time.

I practice the "watch me" command with Sebastian a lot at home but he has a lot of trouble with it outside.. He gets distracted and focuses in on anything that moves, it doesn't matter what it is. I should probably work on it a lot more outside where there's more distractions.

Roxy, thanks for the advice on redirecting him. I use a martingale collar with Sebastian, and it has helped me gain more control on our walks but I do have trouble redirecting him sometimes because I don't think I've been doing it right, so that definitely helps. Thank you!

[Gretchen]

Since it is hard to commit to a trainer while in school, just wanted to let you know the prong collar training posted by Roxygsd is exactly the same advice given by our trainer - it is right on. Our trainer also recommends carry mace as posted by suzzyq01. He actually says to get bear mace and make sure you are not down wind of it when spraying, or turn away from it.

I'm sorry this happened to you. I can't believe the owner of the Boxer mix yelled at you! I'm sure this is not the first time the Boxer mix has done this, glad you called the police. I don't think you'll be seeing that dog around anytime soon.

[bastian]

Originally Posted by Gilly1331

Carry pepper spray or mase. You can buy these things at local gun stores, hunting store and maybe even walmart. Spray the on-coming dog but move away as you spray and make sure its not with the wind blowing at you. This should hopefully keep the dog from getting to close and prevent any contact between you/your dog and the charging dog.

Continue your walks as normal and do continue working with him. Do you have any friends/neighbors with non-aggressive dogs that can practice walking up and down the roadway with you passing in opposite directions? First start on opposite sides of the road or yard then slowly move closer once the dog starts to calm down. The more practice with calm dogs he will start to pick up on it as long as YOU stay CALM.

Good luck! And it was the other dogs owner who was at fault for his off leash dog not being in control and I would have hit the dog as well if it attacked me/my dogs.

I don't have any friends or neighbors willing to help me in training Sebastian sadly. I think part of it has to do with the fact that their dogs aren't really trained and they're also afraid of their dog getting hurt, which I can understand. When I walk Sebastian I just make sure I go by places where dogs are fenced in so I can work on getting him more focused on me around other dogs.

I try walking him around the outside of the dog park sometimes keeping a safe distance, but some people seem to have a serious issue keeping their dogs on leashes, I don't know what it is.. People in Phoenix are just a little odd. So he's nipped a few dogs that have gotten too close for his comfort, no fight though, just a nip and he does bare his teeth when they get too close.

I'll also definitely be looking into getting mace now. Anything I can do to keep something like this from happening again. Thank you!

[CassandGunnar]

Be careful when purchasing Mace to use against a dog. If possible, try and find the "bear repellent" type of OC. Regular chemical mace does not work very well, if at all, on dogs.
We trained our sheriff's K9's in an environment with chemical irritants and a lot of them are not effective on dogs.