KEEP YOUR DOG UNDER CONTROL!!!!!!

Some of you know that about 6 months ago my daughter (9) was bitten on the face by a pit bull. That was tough to watch and affected me. A lot. Made me envision a man-eating dog is just waiting behind every bush or car. It's taken a while to bring myself back down to something approaching reasonable. Oddly enough it was just a few days ago that I noticed that I didn't have anywhere near the level of anxiety when any of my kids aren't within arms reach.
Fast forward to about 45 minutes ago. I'm in the front yard working on a window on the house. My 6-year old boy is out there when I hear him make a urgent, scared noise. Not a yell, just kind of a scared grunt. I look over and there's a 60-70 chocolate lab coming at him. The owner does NOT have hold on the leash. I can't get out of this bush fast enough, it's THICK. Now, the dog only wanted to play, but its twice my sons weight and nearly as tall. The dog is jumping up nipping at him (but not getting him) and kind of pushing him into/against the bush face-first. I'm yelling at the owner to get the dog. My daughter is in the house helping me on the window. She sees it all going down and is freaking out. The guy get's the dog away and I'm trying not to over react while calming my son down verbally (I'm still in the bush). Then the dog starts coming back AGAIN, not on leash!! I yell "GET YER DOG!!! GET YER DOG!!!! TINA GET THE GUN NOW!!!!!"
The dog didn't bite him, just scared the crap outta him.

What's with some people? Is it really soo hard to keep your dog under control? If it happens again, I'm not giving him a chance. I'll just shoot the dog, maybe him too.

I carry when on bike rides with my girls just for that reason. Too many close calls. Bad owners=bad dogs.

Since I am sure that the local LEO's are probably aware of the incident with your daughter I would make a call to them ASAP and report the incident. I would also consider signage stating no dogs allowed on your property and / or something about the local leash laws.

Yes you are probably over reacting but with good reason. I am a dog owner and nothing irritates me more than irresponsible dog owners. Dog owners need to understand that not all people love dogs in fact there are those that hate them and don't want any interaction with them. As a dog owner I am very mindful of this. Because I choose to share my life with a dog does not mean that everyone else wants to / needs to.

I am very sorry to here about your daughter. I did not know about it. I hope she is doing well and I hope that you don't hate the dogs but instead focus your energy's at the owners as they are the real problem.

Every dog owner needs to understand that when there dog does something bad they should go get a news paper and roll it up and repeatedly hit them self in the face head and neck for being a poor dog owner.

People seem oblivious to how uncontrolled their animals are. We never did training schools or anything like that when I was a kid, and we always had large dogs (to include a German Shepard, and hybrid Red Wolf). But all of our dogs stopped on command, came on command, and did not approach strangers of any age, but then of course we had 9 acres for a wild animal to be a wild animal. Dogs are wild animals, they have to know that they are not the alpha of anything when master is concerned. 80lb wild animals don't tend to co-exist that well in urban environments.

I have a large Pit/Lab mix. I love him dearly. If he came after your kids and you were scared for their safety and shot him, I'd apologize profusely for my stupidity. Loosing a daughter's face is WAY worse than losing a pet. Sorry, but I can get another dog.

I know my dogs are big babies, but you don't. That's why they are on a leash.

DrBoost wrote: GET THE GUN NOW!!!!!"

DrBoost wrote: I'll just shoot the dog, maybe him too.

DrBoost wrote: What's with some people?

Good question.

Sounds like your over reactions are rubbing off on your kids. No need to saddle them with that.

How were my kids over reacting? My son (6) saw a dog that is double his weight coming at him, full run and made a scared grunt kinda noise. after being pushed face-first into a large ewe bush he started to cry and get panicky because said dog was jumping at him and nipping at his head.
My daughter was a few months off from having a 100 lb pit bull bite her in the face was very upset while she witnessed something similar appearing to be happening to her little brother.
How am I over reacting? I witnessed my daughter get bit in the freaking face by a dog that nearly out weights my wife. I carried her as she bled profusely to the van while the dog jumped up and was biting at her leg. All the time she was screaming and I was just praying that her eye was still in it's socket, I couldn't tell. When I see a dog jumping on my little boy, I'm gonna take care of things. I didn't go hog wild on the dog or the owner. But when the dog came back again, for the second time, I called for my gun. had my wife got there in time I suspect I'd have beat the dog with it as opposed to shooting it.....this time. There were no teeth on my son or I would have shot it.

After the incident my wife went to pet the dog in an attempt to show my son that the dog was just friendly, wanting to play, which it was. The problem was, its playing was jumping up trying to nip my wife in the face.

Zomby Woof wrote:

DrBoost wrote: GET THE GUN NOW!!!!!"

DrBoost wrote: I'll just shoot the dog, maybe him too.

DrBoost wrote: What's with some people?

Good question.

Not sure if that was directed at me or not. But of course I'd have not shot the owner. I wouldn't shoot the dog unless it was actually attacking my son. But this thing was really, really coming at him, more than once. If he'd have knocked my son to the ground (he'd have done that if the bush wasn't keeping him from falling) who knows what'd have happened. Plenty of dogs see certain behavior by smaller animals (like 6-year old boys) and it triggers the prey drive.
If the owner is unable to get the dog under control, I'm not going to wait to see the prey drive kick in. I'm gonna shove the rifle but into that dogs ribs with as much force as I can, grab my boy, and get him out of there.

As a dog owner I have to say this. If your dog comes on my property he will be shot. He has no permission to be on my property, I do not want him on my property and if he comes on my property his life will end. If my dog goes on your property I fully expect to never see him again.

If you disagree with that gtfo

I'm going to also go with bad/irresponsible owners = bad dogs.

My dogs aren't bad, they just don't play well with others. As a responsible owner, I don't walk my dogs. My dogs stay in my yard. One of my dogs hates other dogs, one of my dogs hates small children, and my other dog hates anyone who gets near my wife.

So, I keep my dogs away from others. They don't leave my house/yard.

DrBoost wrote: How were my kids over reacting? My son (6) saw a dog that is double his weight coming at him, full run and made a scared grunt kinda noise. after being pushed face-first into a large ewe bush he started to cry and get panicky because said dog was jumping at him and nipping at his head. My daughter was a few months off from having a 100 lb pit bull bite her in the face was very upset while she witnessed something similar appearing to be happening to her little brother. How am I over reacting? I witnessed my daughter get bit in the freaking face by a dog that nearly out weights my wife. I carried her as she bled profusely to the van while the dog jumped up and was biting at her leg. All the time she was screaming and I was just praying that her eye was still in it's socket, I couldn't tell. When I see a dog jumping on my little boy, I'm gonna take care of things. I didn't go hog wild on the dog or the owner. But when the dog came back again, for the second time, I called for my gun. had my wife got there in time I suspect I'd have beat the dog with it as opposed to shooting it.....this time. There were no teeth on my son or I would have shot it. After the incident my wife went to pet the dog in an attempt to show my son that the dog was just friendly, wanting to play, which it was. The problem was, its playing was jumping up trying to nip my wife in the face.

Your over-reacting: "I can't get out of this bush fast enough", "I'm yelling at the owner", "GET YER DOG!!! GET YER DOG!!!! TINA GET THE GUN NOW!!!!!", "If it happens again, I'm not giving him a chance. I'll just shoot the dog, maybe him too."

Your kid's over-reacting: "My daughter... sees it all going down and is freaking out. "

I get that your girl was bit and I get that you don't want that to happen again. But when you lose your cool, not only do the kids, but so may the dog. You yelling at the owner could be the escalation from a dog that wants to play to a dog that feels a need to protect against a threat. If this were that same pit bull, maybe your reaction is justified, but it was a non aggressive dog that wanted to greet and play. Yes, the owner should have had better control, but freaking out unprovoked does nobody any good.

And I'm not trying to criticize so much as encourage you to weigh the reaction. I met a grown ass woman last week who was so scared of our 15 year old 40# dog that she stood in the corner cowering while he was laying on his bed on the opposite side of the room. Someone taught her that irrational fear. I'm just trying to not let your kids grow up to be her.

Should have kicked that dog as hard as you could. They need to know they are not the alpha. If their owner won't teach them do it yourself. I do it all the time (not as hard as I can) but if somebody's dog jumps on me it gets kicked. I just tell the owner to control their dog and move on. If my dog jumps on you or gets nippy, by all means, do whatever you feel is necessary to control it.

Dogs need to be on a leash or behind a fence in the State of Vermont. It's state law. But, they expect localities to enforce with no funding.

Dogs WERE wild animals once. They are domesticated animals and as such need to be treated as such. They do not know limits. We have to provide them. Leashes and fences are the only way.

We no longer walk our dogs in our town due to one nearly being killed by an off leash dog running across the street to attack ours.

Growing up I hated dogs. My wife and our greys changed that. I know better that bad owners make for bad dogs.

When I was 6 or 7 a dog chased after me and I fell in a ditch. I believe they were running natural gas lines or something and thats where I fell. The dog jumped in and bit me as I could not go anywhere. My mom and aunt took me to the hospital and they started asking about the dog. Since we did not know the dog and could not locate it, I got a E36 M3load of rabbies shots. That scarred me for a long time. I saw the smallest dog and fear would set-in in me. My parents always had boxers, I was not afraid of my dogs but any other dog, I would not get near. I can understand your daughter's reaction, as well as yours and your son.

We have a dog just like SBF described pretty much. He is the smartest sweetest dog around my wife and I, but he gets really anxious and defensive if anyone new is around, and its attack mode if its another animal.

We do like to walk him around the neighborhood from time to time, so we also have problems with other people who don't keep their dogs on a leash or fenced up. It ends up making their dog our problem as we try to keep ours from fighting.

100% agree DrBoost. Use your berkeleying leashes.

pinchvalve wrote: I know my dogs are big babies, but you don't. That's why they are on a leash.

This.

Plus everyone is convinced their dog is a big baby, even if they're not. In fact, it seems like the worst dogs, the owners are completely in denial about how bad their dogs are.

Several years ago, lived a neighbor to my gf's apartment had a very aggressive dachshund. It was especially dog aggressive. Owner never kept it on a leash. Every time I saw it, I got into a kicking stance prepared to kick it as hard as I could if it got within reach. I am good at reading dogs' behavior, and that dog was a threat.

DILYSI Dave wrote: Your kid's over-reacting: "My daughter... sees it all going down and is freaking out. "

If you think a child is over-reacting because, a few months after being bitten in face by a dog severely enough that her father was unsure if her eye was in the socket, she "freaks out" while witnessing what appears to her to be the same thing happening to her brother, you are berkeleying insane.

How many 6 y/o's have the wits to deal w/ an unrestrained, overzealous animal twice their weight... uh, prolly none.

The burden is clearly on the dog owner.

In reply to Beer Baron:

Exactly...

I -know- my dog is a big cuddly idiot.

He's also an 85lb big cuddly idiot who loves kids and does not realise that he can knock them over and scare the hell out of them.

That's why he's on a leash unless he's in the dog park.

I only let kids play with him if their parents say it's ok.

To the O.P. Sorry about your crappy experience with an irresponsible owner.

Shawn

To anyone who thinks he's over reacting, this dog may have been "just trying to play" but one main thing, he was "nipping". Which means biting. Which means huge problem.

All three times I've been bitten by dogs (never very bad, once I was quick enough to get out if the way, once the owner managed to pull the dog back, and once the lame ass little piece of E36 M3 was just to much of a puppy to do much more than hang from my arm) the idiot owners said "he has never bit anyone before!" And I answer "every dog at some point has never bit anyone before"

Joey

In reply to DILYSI Dave:
I get it. Believe it or not, I was trying to keep my cool. I was saying to my son "You're alright Luke. You're alright" But was also telling the owner to get his freaking dog NOW. Like someone else said, he could have hurt my boy with no ill intentions at all. The dog wasn't just jumping up and down, it was jumping ON HIM! You know what en Ewe bush is, right? Those real sturdy, ugly evergreen bushes. He was pinned by the dog in the bush. The thing was, I didn't even know if the dog was aggressive or not until after the second charge. There shouldn't have been a first charge, let alone a second one. And I'm simply not going to wait to see what's going on. If a dog is uninvited on my property and going at my kids I'm not going to do anything but protect those kids.
Kids are resilient though. He was outside playing in the front yard 20 minutes later, and after the dog was gone my daughter was calm. Her wounds are just scars now, and those are getting more and more faint every day. But I'll be dammed if I'm going to allow that to happen again.

Putting myself in your shoes:

If I thought my children were in danger, I would defend them.

Nobody can fault you for this.

I don't get it either. Our first dog was a small golden, and the sweetest dog ever. We would walk her without a leash (leash is attached, and she would carry it in her mouth--she also knew all the neighbors, and apparently she would escape and go tour the neighborhood where the neighbors would let her in give her treats), and had no problems doing it. I still wouldn't.

Then we got Ralph. Wonderful with kids, but he is clumsy and certainly would knock some small child over. He is also not good with other dogs. He is always, always on a leash. And it drives me crazy when a dog comes running up to play, and I'm screaming at the owner, "HE'S NOT NICE! KEEP YOUR DOG AWAY". Drives me nuts.