Dog attacks and crazy owner factor

[krissy]

I've been curious about this for awhile.

I'm on a greyhound forum, and from time to time there are posts about greyhounds being attacked on walks by aggressive, loose dogs (walking not on a leash, allowed to roam, loose in unfenced yard, etc.). As a result, I have come to discover that MANY American greyhound owners are walking their dogs with weapons (sticks, bats, riding crops, mace, tasers). I don't know of anyone in Canada who carries any sort of "weapon" with them while walking their dog... nor do I hear much about aggressive dog attacks here. I have run into many loose dogs... some friendlier than others... but all I have been able to collect up with a leash and walk back to my house beside my dogs.

This has made me wonder...
1. Greyhound owners are crazy (this is actually fairly cemented in my brain in general... but still)
2. Dog owners are crazy (this is not a greyhound owner related phenomenon but all dog owners act like this)
3. Americans are crazy (lol, kidding... I mean more so in the sense because there is an aggressive loose dog population problem in the States?)

Sooo... do you worry about aggressive, off leash dogs? Have you been attacked before? Would you consider it a problem where you live? And do you carry weapons while walking to protect against these attacks?

 

[sassafras]

Not so much here, but on other dog forums I visit people frequently advise carrying weapons like cattle prods, pepper spray, billy clubs, etc.

I don't really walk my dogs through the neighborhood for their exercise that often, and I try to arrange our hikes and runs at times when our regular trails are likely to be pretty deserted, so it's not something I even really think about that much. It's not something that I would worry enough about to carry something unless I started having problems - except I do try to carry an extra slip lead with me.

From the way some people talk, there are some neighborhoods with a lot of roaming, sketchy dogs out there, though.

ETA: Years ago, while walking my old dog Roxy, I guess we were technically attacked by a pair of small dogs who ran out their open front door when we walked by their house, I think the people were having furniture delivered or something. Anyway, one of them jumped up and latched onto her neck and just sort of hung there until I grabbed it and tossed it back into its yard. But I'm not sure I would have hauled out the cattle prod for that.

 

[GoingNowhere]

My guess is that people on forums are crazy! :rofl1:

 

[Sekah]

People intense enough to spend hours posting about their pets on forums tend to be crazy.

I don't carry anything more than a leash, a bait pouch and a cell phone when I go out. I've never had reason to be concerned with loose dogs, and don't expect to.

 

[SpringerLover]

In my old neighborhood in the cities, I carried spray shield. And of course the times I forgot it were the times I needed it. Bailey was attacked by an off leash small dog while in Florida last winter. The dog bit her in the mouth and made visible wounds. I wish my mom had been carrying spray shield then!

Where I live now, I've encountered one loose dog. He wasn't friendly toward other dogs but he didn't charge us, so I was able to grab his collar while Gabby backed away.

 

[StillandSilent]

When I had Argon, who was DA, I carried mace to fend off loose dogs friendly or aggressive. I wasn't going to risk a fight because people couldn't control their dogs.

With the current two, I don't bother.

 

[*blackrose]

When I lived in a rural area where EVERY dog was left loose on their property, I didn't carry a weapon, but I did have to beat a few dogs off of mine a few times (using a leash as a whip, kicking, etc.), and there was also an instance or two I had to throw rocks at dogs to scare them enough to stop approaching.

And I wonder why my dogs were DA.

In that instance, it wasn't so much that the dogs approaching were severely DA and wanted to HURT my dogs, but that they saw us walking along the edge of their territory (the road) and approached to ward us off. Almost every dog would stop their advance as soon as we left "their" property line and moved on to the next. A few instances, however, WERE dogs that wanted to hurt my dogs, and I couldn't walk south down the road with the dogs due to two Aussies that wanted to physically harm my dogs, and then a Great Pyrenees that was allowed to run loose who not only would have tried to kill my dogs, but also would have tried to physically harm me. (She tried to attack my sister on a bike ride, once, and also went after a family with a baby. The owners finally decided to keep her penned up, after multiple complaints.)

It actually got to the point that I just wouldn't walk the dogs on the road anymore, because constantly exposing them to idiot dogs was doing more harm than good. Even when I was out visiting, I refused to walk Abrams because I didn't want to chance us being attacked by a dog.

In my current subdivision, I do see people with their dogs out loose in their yards, but their owners are always supervising. Whether that means the dogs would charge us when we walked by or not, I don't know, but quite frankly I'm so leery of loose dogs I have no desire to find out by exposing my dogs to the situation. And even now that I have friendly dogs who wouldn't mind being approached by a friendly dog...just no.

So I walk my dogs in public areas were there are strict leash laws.

I've NEVER had a dog attempt to attack us that warranted the use of a weapon other than my physical self. That being said, I also had two dogs whose part of their job was to keep coyotes off our property. They could handle themselves long enough for me to take control of the situation.

 

[Elrohwen]

I think it really really depends on the area you live. Where I am, there are no loose dogs running around in general. The only time you will see a dog off leash is if someone is hiking/walking off leash and doesn't have enough control of the dog to recall them back (or doesn't care). I've only encountered that situation a couple times and each time the dogs were more or less friendly with mine, and never aggressive. In my area, the majority of the time people don't let their dogs run loose, and if they do, the owner is close behind and the dog is not known to be aggressive.

In other places it is much different - stray dogs are common, and owners may not realize or care that their aggressive dog is approaching others. To me in my location, carrying a weapon on walks is a bit crazy, but to others in different locations it might be necessary.

ETA: My own dog isn't leash reactive or aggressive, which also makes me more easy going about things.

 

[DJEtzel]

I get rushed by dogs a lot. After a miscommunication (ish) over the weekend, BF and I + two shepherds were rushed by another large shepherd who wasn't aggressive, but was very intense and annoying.

I don't "allow" my dogs to meet strange dogs like that. The situation is far too tense to allow a healthy introduction, so when I am in a leash-only area, I will curse at people allowing their dogs to rush me/mine if they don't react well after a polite "Please recall/leash your dog NOW". None are ever very aggressive (sometimes a little snappy), but mine can be (aggressive/snappy) on leash with that sort of tension coming at them, and I don't blame them and don't want to see them get hurt/they shouldn't have to defend themselves, and I don't want to create reactive dogs. I've kicked dogs pretty hard to get them to go away before, usually with pissed off owners. I had a lot of trouble walking/biking with my very Dog Aggressive Boston Terrier foster years ago, because we would have to stop at least once per walk and I would have to pick him up, upside down over my should and put him in a headlock (to protect myself) while I kicked a friendly rushing dog away and explained to the owners just how much my dog would have 'effed theirs up. People just don't get it.

That said, I don't carry weapons. My foot usually does the trick pretty well, and I'm used to breaking up dog fights without any tools, so I don't worry much.

 

[Ozfozz]

At my parent's place most people don't have fences around their properties, so it's not uncommon to have a dog or 2 approach while out on a walk.
Thankfully, I've been fortunate in that they either don't bother us, or are friendly.

Cobain and Rigby usually don't solicit too much attention from other dogs either way. They outright ignore most dogs when they are on a leashed walk.


Not to paint all dogs of a breed the same, but I think with BSL being as intense as it is here in Ontario, those who own potentially dog aggressive dogs tend to keep them more appropriately contained.
The most common dogs I find loose are Golden Retrievers and beagles and other "soft" breeds.

 

[Maxy24]

Loose dogs are incredibly rare here. There is one aggressive dog that is often loose but he lives at the end of a very long twisting road and never leaves there, so we just don't go that way. I've never encountered an aggressive dog on a walk and have only ever encountered one loose dog while walking Tucker. People use leashes yay!

 

[noludoru]

Where I live now, no.

Where I grew up? YES. We got attacked on leash 4-5 times by several different dogs. NO WONDER HE'S DOG-AGGRESSIVE NOW. I kicked a lot. I never brought weapons. And I don't worry about dogs on walks now. It's a toss up as to whether it'll be me or Moo who will hurt them first - we're both pretty aggressive.

 

[JacksonsMom]

I think it entirely depends on area. The thought never used to cross my mind and I used to think some Yorkie owners were crazy talking about carrying umbrellas and sticks and pepper spray.

But I've gotten somewhat paranoid about it. I've spoken to a few folks who had their little dogs attacked by pit bulls or pit bull-like breeds around here, in a pretty nice neighborhood too, and after I heard a few of these stories, I became paranoid about walking Jackson around without scoping out where I am, and what I would do if something happened, etc.

And then I've had 3 instances where he had dogs running towards him/after him but luckily I was with others and able to lift him up (thank you harness!) into my arms quickly while others got the dogs away. One time my friends neighbor in a townhouse opened her door and her little dog CHARGED Jackson and just went straight after him. I leaped onto the ground and separated them, LOL... my instincts tend to kick in fairly fast, but had it been a larger dog? I don't know.

So anyway if I decide I want to walk, I tend to go to public parks where there are leash laws and most of these state parks around here, people do follow the rules. I see the occasional off leash dog in a large field or by the water and I don't mind that -- you can usually tell when people have their dogs under voice control, etc. That doesn't bother me. It's usually the neighborhoods that scare me more.

Now my dads house is in the 'country' - we are surrounded by 1000s of acres of farmland, but we're smack dab in the middle in a tiny neighborhood with about 12 houses. All the houses except ours seem to have dogs and 90% of them roam loose. Honestly most of them don't bother me. They're friendly enough, usually stay on their own property, come over to say hi once in a while. But we have two Labs that are SUPER misbehaved and unruly. The one Lab is who attacked Jackson once, just came running straight towards us.

So those few instances have gotten me paranoid. I keep pepper spray in my car so I have the opportunity to grab it if I feel the need.

 

[Pintage]

I never had a problem with encountering offleash dogs in CO (and the ones who were illegally offleash were always non-aggressive and non-threatening).

I'm from a not-so-good neighbourhood in HI and you see roaming offleash dogs *everyday*, and they're almost always guardy and their body language is just super sketch. I think pitbulls and their mixes are the most popular breed in HI (and the vast majority of households on my side of the island just treated their dogs like backyard ornaments... i.e. they spend their ENTIRE life kenneled or chained to a tree), so these are the dogs that were most frequently seen roaming loose.

No one in this town cares about the loose dogs, either, our Humane Society will pick them up and drop them off at their owners (no fee involved) so the same people just let their dogs roam the streets day after day. I no longer will walk my dogs in this neighbourhood (I'll drive a bit to a nicer part of town), the closest call was this one incident where me and my dad's Korean Jindo "Ttosoon" walked past this low-lying hedge and this enormous Rottweiler came charging at us out of no where, barking and growling, trying to lunge at Ttosoon (who is herself EXTREMELY dog-aggressive). I kept my body in between the two dogs and was just screaming and hollering hoping that someone would come help (they didn't even come into physical contact, I successfully used myself as a barrier... that could've ended badly :yikes: ) The Rottweiler's owners did, they dragged him away with not even an apology or checking to see if we were okay. Freaks.

In the time that I lived there I actually did carry an aluminum bat with me most of the time. I never actually had to hit anyone, if a strange dog tried to approach me and my dogs I'd rap the bat on the ground and the loud noise was enough to scare most dogs away.

 

[ThoseWordsAtBest]

Loose dogs are probably area dependent, but I'm going to say it's probably a mix of crazy, paranoia, and the internet, where crazy and paranoia likes to live and is often born and bred.

I could maybe count on two hands over the last 10 years the times I have been rushed by a loose dog. I can think of three times where they were actually coming with a purpose and I had to physically intervene. I'm not counting the repeated times our idiot neighbor let her aggressive dog hang out loose in the front yard and he'd fly at us the second he saw us.

All last year we were at the same hiking preserve nearly every day and other than my own I can't say I ever saw a dog on a leash and we were never bothered. I've never met another dog owner carrying a weapon, either. I suppose I technically carry pepper spray, but I always carry pepper spray and it ain't for loose dogs.

 

[Paige]

I have in the past but bandit and his brother were scrappers back in the day so it was for everyone's safety.

Now no. The only time I ever encounter off leash dogs is when mine are also off leash. I always call my dogs back k when I see other dogs on leash and they listeb and let the people pass. Same goes for hikers or people on horse back.

 

[Shakou]

As a traveler, I find it varies from area to area in the U.S. and the mindset of the people in that area. In general, it's simply off leash dogs I worry about, friendly or not, given how my dogs handle strange dogs. There have only ever been a handful of experiences where we've encountered really aggressive off leash dogs, usually disgruntled farm dogs that weren't use to seeing others pass by their property, or in large poverish areas where people just don't seem to care. I do carry mace and occasionally pocket tazors, but I've rarely ever been forced to use either. Usually either I or my dogs can get the dog to back off without anyone getting seriously hurt.

 

[Fran101]

People intense enough to spend hours posting about their pets on forums tend to be crazy.

I don't carry anything more than a leash, a bait pouch and a cell phone when I go out. I've never had reason to be concerned with loose dogs, and don't expect to.

This.
Loose dogs aren't something I worry about, there's a leash law and people tend to follow it.

I carry a leash, my cell phone and some treats.

That said, yea, dog forum people on average are more likely to overthink/over prepare

 

[Torch]

I have a concealed carry permit and usually carry a gun. I don't live in a bad area, but I am a woman alone walking dogs in the evenings and after dark. I'm considering carrying mace for loose dogs; it's getting a bit worse for me. I have a couple of neighbors who HABITUALLY leave their dogs out, and my Amstaff is DA, so the mace is more to protect the other dogs from him.

I also carry a break stick in case I have to stop a serious dog fight. My Amstaff is always strongly leashed and contained (back up methods used) but **** happens.

 

[Romy]

I'm glad you (OP) haven't had that issue with loose dogs. It's a horrible thing to deal with .

My borzoi has a huge scar on his face from a "friendly" dane that was technically leashed and literally dragged its owner over and proceeded to attack my dog. Not fun.

I've also had to beat and kick the snot out of loose dogs. Most notable was a cattle dog that flew out of the forest in the middle of nowhere and attacked the stroller my daughter and her friend were in. Strider tried (successfully) to protect them and between me kicking the crap out of it and him biting the crap out of it, it finally ran away.

Around here I don't carry a weapon for loose dogs because my current neighbors are responsible people, but in other areas I definitely would. The only not responsible neighbor has an angry boston that bit the crap out of Kaia's legs, and I kinda kicked at it and it ran away.