As I’m sitting here typing, my dog Lydia is lying next to me sleeping peacefully here on the couch. She’s perfectly fine now, and hopefully having some pleasant dreams as her feet twitch every few seconds. A few weeks ago though, we were nursing some aches and pains from a dog attack.
We went out for a walk, on the route we’ve walked for years. She was on a leash, walking quietly, minding her own business, when all of a sudden a dog lunged on top of her. Neither of us saw it coming. There was no warning whatsoever – no growling, no barking – absolutely no warning at all! As it attacked, there was just a flurry of dog, and a lot of yelping and growling mostly by Lydia. It was nearly impossible to know what to do and left me feeling so absolutely useless. There was no way I was going to reach down and try to pull them apart so I just yelled for help and tried to pull Lydia back. It was useless though because the dog had a pretty good hold on her. Eventually someone came and pulled the dog off of Lydia and I was able to check her neck to see if she was bleeding. There wasn’t, thankfully.
The dog owner, who saw the attack, is an idiot. He didn’t check to see if my dogs or I were ok. Nor did he apologize. And, after taking Lydia to the vet, the guy wasn’t interested in paying the bill. After talking to a couple of the neighbors though, none of this is surprising. The guy has had a few complaints to animal control because of the dog getting out and doing the same thing. Animal control won’t do anything though since there was no permanent damage to either one of us.
The way the current vicious dog ordinance in Austin is written, this type of dog is not considered vicious, and therefore all animal control can do is to give the owner a little ‘dog owner responsibility’ speech. In other words – nothing. There’s a new vicious dog ordinance being worked on though, which I’ve posted about before. Many people, including me, are unhappy with some of the language in it because it makes the ordinance too vague. Once the ordinance is finished though, hopefully animal control will be able to take some type of action when something like this happens.
The good thing is that Lydia is feeling a lot better now. She was limping for a few days, and had some scratches and small puncture wounds on her neck, but she’s going to be OK.
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My poor little chihuahua was killed by next door neighbor’s St. Bernard last week. My little Rambo somehow got underneath our backyard fence and wondered into my neighbor’s yard. Rambo always barks in the backyard as he feels tough there, but he would never hurt a fly. It’s such a tragedy. The St. Bernard’s owner is paying for the funeral expenses but this doesn’t bring back Rambo. The vet reported it to animal control, but they say that because my dog got into his yard, they can’t do anything. My arguement is just because a dog wanders into your backyard, does that give another dog the right to kill it? At one point we had a doberman in our household, and she never hurt Rambo. This same St. Bernard attacked our black lab while we were walking him outside, 2 years ago. I just don’t understand why people own aggressive dogs. Anyone with a toy dog be extra careful!! They are so little and helpless. I hope my pain will ease in time
the same thing happened to my dog, she got under to there yard and the dog ripped hermione(my dog) to shreds, we tried to get her help but it didn’t help, we baryed her in the back yard. but the nabbers dont even say sorry that there dog killed mine, i know how you feel, and its so hard. i got my dog in 5th grade, and she was only 8….
I’d have your dog checked by a vet because joint damage( limping) may have serious complications
I have a lab that came out the door after my grandson with us. He has been welltrained likes children an d other dogs she been to obedient class and passed all with top grade .There was a small dog next store because the small dog was yapping at him,, My went to smell her and the little dog bit her so my dog bite back and the little bit me plus her owner. I need stitches but didnt want to cause a problem with my neighbor. we felt bad and told to take her dog to the vets and to call and gave her our number she did not call and now wants us to pay the vet bill of 4,000 dollars. her dog was only eight weeks old not a pure breed but any way her lung got puntured and the owner toook it upon her self to pay the vet with charge card . If she had called we would told her no way the pup was to young to pay that kind of money for. My dog is a pure bred if it had been the other way around I would have told the vet no put him down and I love my lab. But with the world the way it is and i dont have that kind of money to spend on a dog. I would pay for the price of the dog but that is it. I feel for her but that is a llittle much I think. we did not sat we would pay for surgery. Only for her to have it checked not operating she should have called. what the heck did she think I gave her my number.
typing not so well but her little dog bit me and also her. she was afraid to pick her own dog up. I made my let go on command.
Back in February I took in two stray pit bulls in an attempt to find them loving homes. When I arrived home with them they attacked my 12 pound miniature pinscer. It was the most horrifying thing I’ve ever experienced. I know that I responded in probably the stupidest way I possibly could have and am lucky to still be alive, but I instinctually began trying to break the dogs up. I’m not a big girl, but I just couldn’t stand there and watch these dogs tear my dog to pieces in the middle of my living room. One had her by the neck and the other had her by the legs and they were shaking her and pulling her in opposite directions. At one point I did get bitten on the hand and it felt like the end of my ring finger was ripped off but I kept pulling trying to get these dogs to release her. I figured I could worry about myself later but I had to save my dog. I did successfully get them off of her and out of my apartment after two or three of the longest minutes of my life. My dog was absolutely terrified and didn’t even want me to touch her. I called animal control and reported the incident, and after making sure my dog didn’t have any life threatening injuries went outside and actually found one of the dogs and held onto it until animal control arrived. It amazed me how the dog just snapped right out of that “fight mode” and became so submissive so quickly. When I approached her she actually cowered as if she thought I was going to hit her. I sat down next to her and comforted her until animal control arrived and when he took her she sweetly went with him and hopped right into the back of his vehicle. He was also able to catch the second dog. I was so sad at this point because my dog was absolutely traumatized and these two beautiful animals would be put to sleep after a 10 day rabies observation because they were considered to be viscious dogs. I don’t believe for a minute that domesticated dogs naturally behave this way, I believe that some monster mistreated these animals and encouraged fighting and probably dumped them because they weren’t “up to par”. I ended up fighting problems with my finger for a month before finally having to have surgery because when I was bitten the tooth punctured my fingertip and broke the bone which eventually resulted in a bone infection. I had a large chunk of bone removed from my finger along with a good bit of infected tissue and had my fingernail removed. I was extremely lucky to still have my finger, although it doesn’t quite look the same anymore. I was told by my surgeon that if I had been older he would have amputated my finger no questions asked because of the difficulty in clearing up a bone infection.
Not a day goes by that I am not reminded of what happened that day and of how lucky I truly am. I know that by intervening in that fight I saved my dog’s life and it is very obvious that she is extremely grateful to me for that but I also realize that those dogs could have very easily turned on me and things could have ended very differently. There are still times that I close my eyes and can see and hear the events of that afternoon as if they were happening all over again. My doctor told me that was post traumatic stress disorder. I hope one day it will go away. I count my blessings everyday that the worst damage was done to me and that I will heal and that things ended up the way they did, although I am still sad for those two animals that never really had a chance to live a happy life ina loving home.
Sounds like they could’ve had a chance, had the dogs been introduced properly. It seems as though the pit bulls were brought in the home together while the min pin was already inside. Was that the case, or did you introduce the dogs on neutral territory? Also, walking the dogs for their first introduction is a huge factor in taking in new dogs, as dogs are truly pack animals. Which you saw when the 2 pits attacked your min pin. Rescuing dogs can be a wonderful thing, I just wish the rescue groups did more educating, and training, than nurturing and coddling. Especially when it comes to pit bulls.
My full bred yellow labrador was attacked by a neighbors dog today. My dog ” Buddy ” had several serious injuries. ” Buddy ” clearly is in a lot of pain, even with the pain medications prescribed by the vet at the emergency clinic. ” Buddy ” is not an aggressive dog at all. I am devastated. Retired in Texas.
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