I am so unbelievably tired of people in public with their dogs off leash.
Seriously.
What the hell is wrong with them? Don’t they know there are cars, squirrels, cats, and MY F**KING DOGS out there!?!?!?
Here’s where this rant is coming from.
That’s my face. Got one on the back of my leg, and my arm…… But that one was the good one.
I took my dogs out for their morning exercise, which today happened to be pulling a scooter. And as we round the round the first corner, we see a lady walking 3 dogs of her own. No Problem. I’ve never seen her or her dogs before, so we head out in the other direction.
This is a necessary part of having dogs that react poorly to aggression. I can have them in a down next to a strange dog if that dog is controlled. But, if that dog is acting sketchy……. They’ll react. So, as I’m trying to set them up for success, I avoid situations, that I’m not sure they have a good chance of doing well.
That said, I took my dogs and left. Or at least I tried to. That’s when I heard “No! Come back here!”. I look over my shoulder and see the dogs coming at us….Yep…… Off leash.
Her dogs proceeded to run in a circle snapping at my dogs. Which of course gets them wired as hell. Now because they’re on a tow line in harnesses, they proceed to get completely tangled. Which in the presence of the other dogs instigating a fight, causes them to redirect on each other.
Now, this took about two seconds to happen. My dogs are fighting while tied together. Great. I have to get in end try to separate them, which is VERY difficult to do, with three dogs fighting tied together and three other dogs, nipping and running around our mess.
So….. I catch a bite from one of mine, as I’m trying to untangle them. It wasn’t re-direction. He just didn’t know who he was biting. I was laying on top of him, and trying to use my hands to untangle his line, and ward of the dogs, who were biting at him from any exposed parts. This is when I got the bites on the backs of my legs and arms from the loose dogs. My dog had already been hurt and was just biting anything he could. He got a grip on my face, but he outed on command. I just don’t think he knew it was me. This isn’t unheard of in trying to break up multi-dog fights.
Now, to give you the real picture… As this debacle is occurring, the lady is standing their WATCHING. And saying shit like, “Are, you OK?”, “You need help?”. And I’m just yelling at her to get her dogs and get the hell away from me. She doesn’t.
I have to wait for people to literally pull over on the side of the road, and shoo the other dogs away. That gave me the drop in intensity I needed to separate my dogs.
The people that pulled over were very cool. Partly because they could see the other lady/dogs had caused it. And, partly because they see me every day, as we run, walk, and pull dogs. They know we are good people, and handle our dogs with great care and responsibility.
None of them were scared of our dogs. And these, essentially, strangers all helped me out. One couple took one of the more injured dogs, and drove them back to my house. I walked the two less injured dogs back to the house. This happened about two blocks from my home, BTW. One guy, walked my scooter back with us. And, still another, gathered up my wool cap, glasses, and gloves that had come off in the scuffle.
To those people, I can say I am tremendously grateful for their courage, help, and understanding. I really don’t know what I would’ve done if they hadn’t run the other dogs off.
Anyway…… Things to take from this:
1. LEASH YOUR F**KING DOGS!!!!
2. Be hyper aware that there are idiots with ill behaved off leashed dogs literally everywhere. Your vigilance can’t be limited to dog parks and other “typical” off leash areas. This can happen literally outside your door. And even though we’ve run these same exact streets for about 10 years, you can’t get complacent. This person may be visiting, or god forbid have moved here. No assumptions!
3. Although pack walks are super cool……. This is the downside. I have to treat my walks with my own dogs, with the same kind of hyper cautiousness that I take with other peoples dogs. No more group walks. At least until we get enough acreage to do it without leaving our “compound”.
4. Even though my first response to this is to just solidify the fact that I hate people…… It actually gave me a few reasons to think that there may be a few good ones left after all.
3 Bad Bullies 
What a nightmare! So what happened to the irresponsible woman and her off-leash monsters?
No idea. I’ve never seen her or the dogs before. And bystanders had to run her off to get her dogs to leave. She never came back. Hopefully, I’ll never see her again, but, I will up my security level.
WOw! My worst nightmare is having to break up a fight with Sierra (on leash) and an off leash dog…I’ve been tempted to buy a break stick…but the other part of me says…you invest in a break stick, you are telling the Universe a fight is gonna happen…but, after your experience…either that or pepper spray. I think I gotta do it while I live in the city. Like you said…99% of the time, it’s cool. I ask the off leash a-holes to leash their dogs. But if they charge Sierra, she will react…and, I think she will fight if it came down to it. This is a good wake up call, dude. I am so sorry your dogs got hurt. that sucks. re-direct is a bitch. I’ve experienced it and it just sucks. I’m gonna go for the pepper spray. That way I can prevent a fight from breaking out instead of breaking up a fight.
Don’t bother with a break stick. They’re useless for a solo attempt. You’ll never get it in and they’ll just re grip. Breaking sticks were use in the pit. But they were used by the ref. Corners get the back legs, and pull apart, preventing re grip, and that’s when the 3rd man can go in and use the stick to pry the remaining grip. And, that was only done on a “turn”, so only one was gripping.
So, the walking stick, and other aversives are a better bet.
Break sticks don’t help unless the people out number the dogs.
I do want to mention that I’ve been bitten by a Pit Bull 3x…2 were puncture wounds and one broke skin but was more like scratch. All of them were bite and release due to me being irresponsible and setting the dog up for failure. Looking at your wound, I can assume the same. That whole mauling thing that you read/hear about really makes me wonder if media made it up…just saying.
I am so sorry. What a horrible situation. I’ve broken up fights between two dogs many times and I’ve been bitten. I can’t imagine what you went thru. When you are in the middle of the fight you can’t even feel that you’ve been bitten. But when it is all over, those bites hurt like a bxtch. Please let me know how you are feeling today. Oh and by the way, I hate people too 🙂
I’m feeling fine. More pissed about the relationship rehab I have to go through with my two males after a spat like that. Also, that my walks are a little more tense now, that I’m on the lookout for the surprise lady.
But honestly, I’m fine.
I’m tougher than I am pretty.
Thats so terrible! My own dog, while not aggressive, is an over-exuberant greeter & is not 100% with his recall, so I do NOT let him off leash outside of dog parks. And I am constantly looked down upon by certain other dog owners! I get comments like “you should let him off, he needs to run” or “you should work with him more so you can trust him.” Only the (responsible) owner knows whether or not their dog can be trusted off leash, and if they can’t, they should recognize it and not be pressured into it. And, you shouldn’t only be thinking of your own dog, but other dogs that may have issues around you should your dog run up to them. I am so tired of irresponsible owners. Hope you and your dogs heal quickly.
Sounds like a similar story I had and how my dog got kicked out of obedience class. The dogs were allowed off leash, during individual play time, some moron thought it was a great idea to allow his dog to come over to mine and take his tug from him. Huge fight broke out, while my dog had a good hold of other dogs skin the “professional dog trainer” was trying to pull the other dog away meanwhile another dog owner just stood there and allowed his dog to mingle around the fight while I’m trying to yell at this idiot to get his dog away, of course my dog let go and went for the other dog. My dog is not allowed back unless he’s muzzled, I told them “no way in He** am I coming back”!