Hoku was attacked (she's Ok)

[kaialeena]

Glad to hear she is okay! I remember taking Sierra for a walk a few years ago when we passed by a guy walking his two bulldogs on a double leash. The bulldogs were growling at Sierra and she showed no interest in the dogs and wanted to walk faster. She is the usually type to want to be friends with every human and dog, but she could tell these dogs didn't want that. Well, one of the dogs broke off the leash and ran after us to attack her. The other guy couldn't do much because his other bulldog wanted to join in. I heard her yelp and it scared the crap out of me. We were able to pull the dogs away and after I searched over her, I didn't see any blood, but I saw the wet spot on her front leg where he bit. I was quite upset, but in this particular instance, the owner did have his dogs on a leash. His bulldog was just strong enough to break it.

[Shelley]

I am so glad that Hoku is OK!! Scary!

I was attacked once by a pitbull of all things while walking my boyfriend's small dog when I was in college. The dog I was walking was small, under 20 lbs, so I picked Benji up and held him over my head, while screaming for help. Miraculously I told the pitbull to "GO HOME" and he left as his owners were coming. Even my boyfriend said what I did was stupid, the damn pitbull snagged the back of my arm with his teeth. The owner was apologetic, and produced Rabies vaccine records and was fully cooperative, but still... I could have been really hurt.

[smartrock]

Maybe your husband just stepped on Hoku's foot in the fray- we've heard more than one yelp from Lark that is probably from getting a toe or foot stepped on. It doesn't take much for her to yelp. I'm glad there appear to be no lasting effects for Hoku.

[Abulafia]

I am so glad that Hoku is OK!! Scary!

I was attacked once by a pitbull of all things while walking my boyfriend's small dog when I was in college. The dog I was walking was small, under 20 lbs, so I picked Benji up and held him over my head, while screaming for help. Miraculously I told the pitbull to "GO HOME" and he left as his owners were coming. Even my boyfriend said what I did was stupid, the damn pitbull snagged the back of my arm with his teeth. The owner was apologetic, and produced Rabies vaccine records and was fully cooperative, but still... I could have been really hurt.

Yikes! That's scary.

When I was a kid, an off-leash (and very poorly behaved) Springer Spaniel ran up our driveway and after our cat. The cat could, of course, have gotten away and beat the crap out of the spaniel, but I didn't know that, so I picked up the cat and held her as the dog jumped at me, trying to get at the poor cat.

I believe I ended up with about forty puncture wounds in my shoulder from her teeth, and cuts on my neck and side from her clawing to get away. She was terrified, and I was an idiot. I was only trying to save her, when in fact I had trapped her. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

[Annette47]

Ugh! Sorry that happened.

We’ve had two incidents that I can think of where an off-leash dog went after mine. In the first case, he slipped out of the house while a neighbor was opening the door because she was supposed to be walking him. He made a beeline for our guys, Chloe gave him the stink eye and so did Jolie so he veered off and went after poor Mulder (rather than facing the bitches who wouldn’t put up with his nonsense), who was about 13 at the time, and had always been a lover not a fighter. Mulder didn’t resist but the dog was on top of him growling and biting at the back of his neck. The dog had longer hair (like a Golden but I think he was some sort of English Setter mix) and I grabbed him by his neck hair and pulled him off Mulder (was grabbing for his collar and missed). Mulder was stiff and sore afterwards, but basically okay - his neck was soaked but the skin wasn’t broken, but the dog did nick my knuckle with his teeth when he swung around to see who was grabbing him. I don’t think he was trying to bite me though. Probably not the best move on my part, but I needed him off my senior dog ASAP, and the neighbor was completely useless, as was my husband who was there too.

In the other incident, my neighbor’s chocolate Lab was off leash on their property when I was walking by with Chloe. She came running up, and started eyeballing Chloe who didn’t care for being stared at, and they started snarking and going after each other, but it was more of a dominance thing than trying to draw blood if that makes sense. They were both up on their hind legs snarling and barking at each other, so I put Chloe in a headlock under one arm and whacked the other dog (who was off-leash) in the nose with a flexi to get her to back off, at which point her owner was able to grab her. Again, probably not the best move, but I was acting on instinct.

[TuMicks]

The best thing you can do (I remember reading this from a good source... just can't remember where it was) is to grab the dog (presumably the aggressor?) by the tail and pull the dogs apart. The dog can still twist and maybe grab you, so it isn't fool proof. But the idea is to keep your face out of harms way.

[Shelley]

To break up a dog fight, you are supposed to grab both hind legs, (of the aggressor?) and not let go! They can't get to you to bite you, if you have both back legs. Then you pray to god someone comes to help you.

[Annette47]

T break up a dog fight, you are supposed to grab both hind legs, (of the aggressor?) and not let go! They can't get to you to bite you, if you have both back legs. Then you pray to god someone comes to help you.

Yeah, that assumes that both dogs aren’t invested in the conflict. With the two scenarios I posted about, that probably would have worked with the first one had I had the presence of mind to think about it, but when the two Lab bitches got into it, even though the other one started it, I’m not sure Chloe would have backed off on her own, although I probably could have yelled at her enough to get her to stop.

[Snowshoe]

In our recent attack Oban was off leash (allowed on the trail) and the other, bigger dog was leashed, dragged his owner down to see us and then just mounted and attacked. WE did have two people but couldn't pull either dog for fear of ripping Oban's ears off. If you are going to try that hind leg thing you hope to hell to have big enough, strong enough people to practically lift each dog up nearly off the ground. And keep them both up off the ground in case the bottom dog wants to retaliate. Most fights I've seen you wouldn't have a chance to do that anyway as the dogs are just a whirling dervish of growling, biting, snapping.

[Blackboy98]

Glad Hoku and you are OK.

There are two mixed bred dogs in a yard we pass when we go on our subdivision walks and they are on an electric fence. Obviously the fence is turned off or does not worked because they both come charging out as we pass the yard. The owner came out one time an yelled at the dogs and they responded and said he would be responsible if Gabe had any injuries. I told him Gabe would defend himself very well and probably severely injure his dogs as he has a very high prey and defensive instinct. I have control over Gabe, but when he gets in his high prey state, his becomes a very aggressive animal. If I let him go, those two dogs would be dead in seconds.