Loose Dogs.

BeauHunter · August 2013

I have 3 small dogs - a 13 year old Lhasa Apso, a 3 year old Rat Terrier and a 12 week old Pitbull Puppy. I have walked my 3 dogs - ALL leashed of-course - down the same route for the past few months. There has been this large husky that is always loose. Normally, I just yell at it and tell him to stay or git and it works. But today, he ran out at us, ran across the road and attacked my Pit Puppy. My puppys' entire head went into this dogs mouth. I bear maced the dog as-well as do everything else I could to get the dog to stop. After I finally got the dog out of its' mouth, I was able to get the dog to leave. My puppy screamed the entire way to the vet, thankfully it was only a quarter of a mile away. My puppy suffered wounds that resulted in 68 stitches in his tiny face as-well as permanent loss of eyesight in his right eye. My dogs are very well behaved. They walk perfectly on leashes, ignore dogs and people when they're passed, they don't bark at other dogs etc. So there was no reason for this dog to do this. Of-course a note with pictures of wounds and the vet bill were left at the persons' doorstep. The people were there, however, they decided not to answer the door. We do not have animal control out in this rural area. I will now start carrying a small handgun on me, as-well as the bear mace in order to detour dogs from repeating this again. Of-course I do give PLENTY of warnings. It would never be my intention to hurt a dog or animal in general, but when it comes to my babies' safety, I'm at a loss as to what to do other than this. I wouldn't shoot the dog unless absolutely necessary, but it would be a small gun, most likely a pellet gun or the like to just scare it off and it wouldn't be shot at the dog unless needed, but merely near the ground to scare it away. Is this a reasonable/rational thing to do or am I going a bit out of hand with protecting them? Any other ideas as to what should be done with dog-vicious dogs that come out at us? If I take other routes, it is much worse with the loose dog infestation.

Garnet · August 2013

Oh wow that's horrible! Poor puppy. Have you looked into the leash laws around your area? Some places won't do anything abouhis if there are no leash laws. Although that doesn't excuse the dogs random attacking by any means! My brother uses a pellet gun and sometimes a real gun just to hit the ground a few feet away from loose dogs that come in his yard to prevent a dog fight between his very large very strong male pit bull. His pit has been on a runner his whole life and my brother has beware of dog signs and no trespassing signs up (for the humans to see of course lol) he's had the law called on him before for shooting near loose dogs, but its either scare them off or bury them when his pit kills them. His pit is extremely friendly to humans and female dogs, but a male dog is a different story.. I don't think you're going to extreme, but you may want to check with local police on what the law is on handling loose dogs and what's best for dealing with it. Just to make sure you get in no trouble

Alabama · August 2013

I would be concerned about using a gun with the possibility of being sued by the other dog's owners. Even if there are no leash laws, you should still report it to the police. It should still be considered against the law for a person's dog to do damage outside its own property. And, you get the police report so that if it does happen again and you are forced to shoot the animal, you have some kind of documentation that the people knew there was a problem.

MrClean · August 2013

I hate that your puppy got attacked! I also live in a rural area and my dogs and I are often harassed by loose and roaming dogs, although just seeing my 90lb+ Irish Wolfhound (even though she's now only about 7 months old lol) is usually enough to discourage animals and people from making an unwelcome approach. Have you considered a taser/stun gun? The issue Alabama brought up came to my mind as well. If you accidentally (or out of necessity) end up shooting the loose dog, you may end up with legal trouble from the owner of that dog. However, if mace doesn't work using a taser on a low setting would stop an attack without causing any real damage to the dog. It also may be safer for you and your own pups since you wont have to worry about a ricochet or misfire. For that matter, since you may already have the gun, you could just use blanks. The loud noise alone should be enough to scare the other dog away. I have a rifle that I keep blanks in that I use to scare bears off of the property and it works perfectly.

BeauHunter · August 2013

I did end up getting troopers involved, as we are out of city limits, so animal control will not come out this way. I did get the "okay" to shoot any loose attacking dogs as my pets, as-well as myself and if I have my nephew with me, can be hurt by said dogs and then, it is a matter of protecting ourselves rather than just shooting to shoot. I will consider getting a stun gun though as I don't want to hurt any dogs, I just don't want mine or my nephew or even myself getting hurt by a dog. I'm afraid of other peoples' dogs and for a good reason! My Pit pup, looks like a Bull Terrier pup! VERY swollen face. He is being a good sport about it though. I'm sure it hurts very bad to have to have his face washed every 6 hours! And unfortunately, people see a Pit, especially one with facial wounds and think they're "bad", even if he is just a tiny little puppy! A lot of people were scared of him today, which made me mad. But then there were some that actually took the time to hear what happened and fell inlove with him.

Garnet · August 2013

I know my brother is looking into a stun gun for his pit. I hate to hear that your puppy is in pain! I know I have problems with the pit bull stereotype. My mother was terrified of them until I brought my female pit home. She loves her to death but is still scared and leery of other pits. I even got into an argument over it just a few days ago

Alabama · August 2013

You know, it might be less expensive to get a cattle prod since you live in a rural area. You won't have the range of a stun gun, but if they get near enough or charge you, you have more than one shot to use and still keep the animal at arm's length.

Dramatic · August 2013

Vinegar is a natural dog repellant, dogs hate it. So you might also want to try putting some in a spray bottle and spraying at dogs that are coming too close. Of course, if they're bold and keep coming anyway, you might need to take more drastic measures. But maybe just as a way to be absolutely certain that the 'stay back' message is crystal clear in a way the dog will understand.

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Loose Dogs.

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