Attacked whilst on the lead again

[brucey doodle]

Hi there not had a great day today whilst walking Bruce this evening before going out to work we were heading home up the lane when further up the lane was a man with a small dog on a lead and a large terrier x off it's lead the terrier turned and noticed me and Bruce ( Bruce was on his lead) and ran full pelt towards us and jumped on Bruce really viciously and bit and hung on to Bruces back I was shouting the man to help me whist tring my best to get the dog off mine. when the man eventually came and helped he struggled to get the dog off but eventually did and just said sorry and walked off Bruce had this happen once before when he was 7 months old whilst on his lead but was bit on the face and it changed his behaviour towards other dogs only when on his lead he would be aggressive if a dog got to close,off lead he was fine Bruce is now nearly two and his behaviour on his lead has improved so much but I'm so angry that today's events could have knocked him right back.
Also I don't know weather I did the right thing by not letting Bruce go my
OH said I should have let go of his lead and let Bruce defend himself
But I had visions of the other dog getting Bruces neck and I was trying to keep him away from his face I was also screaming at the man which
probally made everything worse poor Bruce I really feel I've let him down
As you can see it's the small hours of the morning whilst I'm typing this but I'm still so worked up about it I felt I had to have a rant.


Emma and Bruce

[MrsAdmin]

Oh dear, what a lousy thing to happen. If you see the man again then give him a piece of your mind about controlling his dog and facing vet bills.

Did you check Bruce wasn't bitten? Dog bites can go nasty very quickly and he might need a vet check and some antibiotics if the skin is punctured.

It's always difficult to know what to do in such a situation. If you had let Bruce go then things might have escalated and got far worse. At least you could try to keep the dogs in one place whilst you got the other one off.

Was it a Bull Terrier type? I think you should report this to your local dog warden, with a description of the man, so he can be kept an eye on or warned. What if this dog had a go at a smaller dog or a child?

Best to try to get Bruce straight back out with a load of friendly dogs so he doesn't get wary and aggressive on his lead. Try to get to a Doodle Meet soon. Doodles always seem to recognise and love each other

[brucey doodle]

I'm not sure what type of terrier x it was it had wirey hair and like a staffs body. I've checked Bruces body over and can't see puncture wounds I'm hoping it just got mostly Bruces hair as its quite long at the moment and there was hair everywhere once the guy got hold of it .
The dog warden is a good idea I never thought of that it's strange though as he had another dog with him and they seemed fine together
I know where the man lives and I might ask a few neighbours if they have had any incidents with the dog and maybe your right a call is needed
Thanks for the reply

Emma and Bruce

[Liz!]

Report him immediately. His whole reaction shows that this has happened before.

and don't blame yourself - Lola's been attacked and each time id different and you are panicking and it's just not clear what to do for the best.

[JeanG]

Poor Bruce! Things like this make me so angry and sad.
This was one of the things that put us off getting a doodle. Our previous dog was a rottie bitch, a lovely, gentle well bred and well trained girl who was attacked by another rottie (large, aggressive, obviously badly reared and untrained ). This changed her behaviour on the lead and she never fully recovered. We were worried that the same thing might happen again but this time to a doodle who would be unable to defend itself against a bigger, vicious dog. We've been lucky so far, no problems. Bella is very fast and can outrun most dogs as long as she's off the lead. I agree with the others - please report this idiot!!! Why wasn't the dog on a lead?????? It's got away with it and it could be worse next time, it could seriously injure another dog or a child. you'll feel better for taking some positive action. promise!
Do hope Bruce is ok.

[Bolster]

I agree with the others - please do report the incident. It's quite possible the idiot with this dog doesn't realise that what happened could be an offence under the current Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, as many people don't appreciate that is is quite wide ranging.

The Act provides that a dog is dangerously out of control if;

it injures a person, or

it behaves in a way that makes a person worried that it might injure them

The DEFRA guidance states that if your dog injures another person’s animal, or an owner of an animal
reasonably believes that they could be injured if they intervened to protect their animal from your dog, then an offence may be committed.

This wasn't serious enough for a likely prosecution, but having the dog warden point out the potential seriousness might be enough for a wake up call.

[jools74]

I totally understand how you feel. Barney has been jumped on by the same dog twice now and only now has the woman started avoiding us. The first time her response was " I dont know whats wrong with her this morning, she is having a go at everyone"- My response to that was "why is she off the lead then?" It didn't go down well, she looked very snooty, like I had done something wrong!
I noticed this week, that Barney saw this dog approaching on the other side of the road and moved round to have me between this dog and him. They are not daft our doodles!
I'm not sure if there is a "right" way to behave when this happens but I think you are totally within your rights to report him to the dog warden.

Its so awful that a small number of owners with no control of their untrained dogs can spoil our lovely walks!

Jools&Barney

[brucey doodle]

Thanks for all the advice we've been out for a good walk to our local nature park Bruce running through the streams in the rain and had a play with a lovely chocolate Doberman I'm going to go the beach tomorrow where there's always lots of dogs so hopefully he can put yesterday behind him and remember there's nice dogs to play with

Emma and Bruce

[nutttymutts]

So pleased to read that you are not going to let this get to you and Bruce, It is frightening sending you Big Doodley hugs