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Wow last night could have went soooooo bad for us

PrinceLorde13

Well-Known Member
So we all went on our nightly walk around our neighborhood last night, my girlfriend, her daughter, Lorde, Prince, and myself. Started out great, Prince by my GFs side, Lorde by mine. As we are walking I look up and notice a dog on the other side of the van we are about to walk past, no collar no leash, I tell everyone to stop, I didn't want to come around the corner of the van to have the other dog waiting right there. My first reaction was to link my guys together and have them turn back so I could gauge the dog and attempt to leash it so it didn't get hit by a car. Well before I could even vocalize my thoughts to the group it immediately began to approach us quickly and a second dog was right on his heals again no collar or leash before I could blink they were both in Prince's face hair down their backs standing on end beginning aggressive posture. My dogs are not aggressive at all, but they are 110% defensive especially with my gf and her daughter present, my female immediately turned towards them, she's very protective of her younger brother. I didn't want to call my dogs back because I didn't want them to move suddenly or turn their backs to the dogs. So I gave their hold command, which to my dogs means freeze, no step forward or back and if whatever I told them to hold attempts to move forward they will stop it, until I could get myself between the dogs and have mine back away. As I moved forward the strange dogs began to growl and crouch which made my dogs do the same but louder, so I yelled as loud as I could at the other dogs,"hey" then "no". They backed right down and then two of the trashiest people I've seen around here with a toddler behind them came running out and basically tackled the dogs, they were theirs they apologized half-heartedly and said to the dogs, "we let you out for two minuets and you can't behave." So they had just let these dogs out with no tags knowing they are aggressive, I was so pissed but we just kept on our way and finished our walk and man was Prince hyped up for a good 10min after. They were both pit/mixes, and I'm not pit biased at all I've owned a few and love the breed, just not a lot of the owners I've come across. First time I've had to deal with something exactly like this and not sure if I handled it the best possible way. I would appreciate any advise on what I may have done wrong or could do in a future situation like this
 

tmricciuto

Well-Known Member
I think you did an amazing job. The owners should not let their dogs out u attended. What if it were a child who approached. Just stupid of them. Owning a dog is a responsibility 100% of the time.


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PrinceLorde13

Well-Known Member
Thank you guys very much, I was just happy no blood was shed, seemed like forever in just a few min. My gf and her daughter were terrified, then after my gf told me she was more scared of what I would have done to the owner if something happened!
 

jessicadawnnn

Well-Known Member
Sounds like you handled it the best way possible! Also - is there a number you can call? I had a dog attack Moose on a late night walk. This dog has no fenced yard and is never wearing a collar or leash. After the attack I called animal services to do a check up and they sent someone over the next day. The usually open a file and give you a number to call if you run into any problems again with the same people. When they're at the house they do a quick check and give a warning unless something is completely wrong- then they take the dogs and I'm pretty sure the owners are not allowed to adopt another anymore. So glad no one was hurt!!
 

Ginurse

Well-Known Member
Wow, you showed some serious, precise restraint. I don't know that I would have been able to be so wise in that particular situation? Good for you PrinceLorde, and I am so happy to hear that you and yours got through such a potentially horrific situation, intact. Those owners (in a perfect world) would never be able to own a dog? Yeah, such a world doesn't exist, and I am sad to hear about all of these near-tragic circumstances because dog owners don't take their job's as pup owner's seriously? Sigh.

At the end of the day, I think your instincts were spot on? Every situation is different, and somehow, your survival instincts (for family) worked out. I am sorry that you experienced this with your loved ones present. I always hope that if this happens to me, I am alone, and not having to worry about my kids or pups. What a nightmare.
 

NYDDB

Well-Known Member
I agree-- well done on your part, as well as your dogs. The training you have done with them has paid off, which is a very cool thing.

I can't imagine what might have happened with 4 dogs getting into a street fight- and all it takes are some lone, unleashed, untrained, aggressive dogs to spark a horrific fight...
 

glen

Super Moderator
Staff member
I think you and your pups did amazing, you kept your cool and it paid off, why oh why do idioms own dogs its why the uk has so many banned breeds.I would report the owners those dogs could seriously hurt someone.
 

Nik

Well-Known Member
You did exactly right. In the moment I doubt I would have had the presence of mind and forethought to not call my dogs to me immediately. That was some amazing thinking in a crisis situation to remember not to let them turn their backs on strange dogs.

And I have to say in all my lessons and research I haven't learned or heard of the "hold" command yet but now that you mention it that sounds like one of the more useful ones. I am definitely going to be searching for how to train that one! :)

Also I have run into a similar situation in my neighborhood once but luckily it wasn't during a walk and my dogs were safely inside. Instead it was when I was unloading groceries in my driveway and two pit mixes come trotting up to within a few feet of me with no collar and no leash and no owner in site. Like you I thought to leash them for their own safety immediately and as I always have an extra leash in my car I grabbed it and went to approach them.

Sean came out of the house just then saw what I was doing and yelled at me to stop. I've never been one to be fearful of any animal and I wasn't about to leave them to get run over if I could help it but as it turns out he was right in this situation because as I got closer the fur went up and growling.

From friendly posture to aggressive in a heart beat so I froze and tried to figure out what to do. Torn between self preservation and wanting to help the animals. And while I was trying to figure it out they turned tail and ran away. So I know for a fact I am not a quick thinker under threat.

Yes you did amazing :)



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PrinceLorde13

Well-Known Member
Sounds like you handled it the best way possible! Also - is there a number you can call? !!
So funny, the night prior on the same road almost at the same place a white van slowed down going by as and on the side of it said "dog patrol" we had never seen this before. So we found the number and reported what happened, and while they would give us any info on the people it absolutely sounded like this wasn't the first call they had received about these people.
 

PrinceLorde13

Well-Known Member
And I have to say in all my lessons and research I haven't learned or heard of the "hold" command yet but now that you mention it that sounds like one of the more useful ones. I am definitely going to be searching for how to train that one! :)

Yes it's a great one to have in our bag of tricks, if you like PM me and I will do my best to step by step tell you how I trained for that. I used a menacing stuffed animal attached to the top of a remote controlled car for most of the training for it!
 

PrinceLorde13

Well-Known Member
Again thank you all so so very much for your kind words and reassurance in how I handled this situation, I was so very proud of my guys and their adherence to their training. Now after hearing from all of you I'll admit I'm pretty proud of myself now. Just a scary situation when you feel like everyone you care about the most are all in danger at once.