Questions with venting (sorry if long)

[MrsBoats]

Hi Everyone,

Sam has done so well with obedience and has come a million miles from being dog aggressive. I have worked so hard with him to get him to look forward to meeting another dog on the street. :D When we first rescued Sam we had been attacked twice by the same dog in our neighborhood. Sam was on lead and we were across the street from the dog who ran out of her yard to get us. After the second attack (which was over a year ago), Sam became very dog aggressive. But, like I said, we've overcome that aggressive behavior with super success.

In the past 7 days, we've had two different attacks. Sam has been on lead both times (he's never off lead on our walks) The first time was last monday and it involved a mean little cocker spaniel. We were walking on the opposite side of the street and actually had past the house. There was a kid standing in the door with the dog who was barking at us. Then, the spaniel takes off across this big yard at mach 10 and crosses the street barking. He gets to us (the kid has gone inside the house with the door shut at this point )and is snapping and growling at us. I'm loudly telling Sam to "leave it" and "let's go" which he does. There wasn't any growling or retaliation from Sam at all (thank god for obedience classes). We get away from that nasty little dog and it heads back to it's house. The kid appears with a bigger sister and I yell at her to get her dog. She does, puts the dog inside and proceeds to the passenger side of the mini-van in the driveway. The mini-van then drives off! So....there was an ADULT in the mini-van the entire time their dog came after us! What the *%^& is up with that! I was so p*ssed off I could spit. I should have called the animal control people on them. But, an hour later Mr. Boats and I had to leave for Maine. So, I let it slide.

Then last night attack number two! My husband is in the Coast Guard and in this residential area, there are some Coast Guard houses in with the civilian houses. I stopped with Sam and talked with another coastie family who is a couple houses down. Next to them is another coastie couple with two Pit Bulls who haven't been to dog school and are hardly ever socialized from what I can see. I'm talking with the family and the pits get out of the back yard next door. I think they came out under the fence. They start to play with Sam (who is on lead) and Sam starts to play back. The younger pit starts to get rough and starts growling and snapping next to Sam's head. I pull Sam away and try to end it. Well, that pit bull wouldn't stop and came towards Sam again. Then the older Pit starts to circle around. Neither dog has any collars on them so the people I was talking with could grab them. One of the owners comes out and starts yelling at her dogs. At this point I'm starting to get a little bit scared. So, I whip out my pepper spray that I started to carry with me because of the cocker spaniel. I hit the dogs with the pepper spray and they don't stop and keep coming at us. I keep telling Sam to leave it and he does remain really calm through all of this (more so than I was). I start to walk towards my house to get out of the area. The pits follow us up the street and more hits with pepper spray. I don't if my pepper spray sucks or they just could take it. The pits just shook their heads, rubbed their eyes and kept harrassing us. Then the dogs started to nip close to me as I was standing close to Sam to keep him calm. One of the guys I was talking with came up to see if he could protect us because he thought I was going to get bitten. Meanwhile the girl is still yelling at her dogs and trying to grab them but can't since they have no collars on. She runs up and scoops up her snarling dog the instigator out of my front yard. I thought I heard a noise out of the pit which made me think she nipped her owner. I go into the house and load Sam full of treats since he didn't try to fight back and he listened to me. I came out again once the pits were in their house. The husband who owns the pits come out and asks me if Sam was okay which he was. I go on and talk with the family who I was talking with before and they are petting Sam who seems no worse off than he was before the attack.

But get this....I go and continue on my walk. The wife who owns the pit did get bitten and she tells our friend who came up to see if he could help she thought Sam bit her!!!!!!! WHAT THE *&^*)!!!! Sam wasn't even close enough to her to even make contact and he didn't show any aggressive behavior through all of that. But our friend said she finally realized it was her own da*n dog who bit her. I do have three witnesses to all that if that false accusation comes up again.

I'm not going to walk again in our neighborhood. I'm taking Sam to the park where I do walk him sometimes. The dogs up there are friendly and are on lead so this doesn't happen any more.

I am so scared that Sam will revert back to his aggressive ways after this week. We've worked so hard to get him where he is with strange dogs. Do any of you have any advice for me on how to deal with any damage that may have happened as a result of this. I haven't taken Sam for a walk today as I am feeling under the weather. Should I go back to positive reinforcement every time we see a dog as a preventative? That's how we worked through his aggressive behavior before. I would greatly appreciately any suggestions. Thanks in advance!

[ July 31, 2001: Message edited by: MrsBoats ]

[pmgal]

Ms. Boats, I can relate exactly to your experience with others who do not keep their dogs on leash or even with a collar on. I at one time walked Bo, my rott everyday. but it seemed I spent more time watching out for dogs running out to challenge Bo than I did walking him. I always used this time to reinforce his training that he got at his classes. I had thought about pepper spray but had heard it didn't faze dogs too much. I looked for mace, but it seems a product that is not sold at too many places any more. A friend of mine suggested going to one of our local gun shops to see if they still carry it. I really want to resume our daily walks as it was a time that bo and I enjoyed doing together. If you think of anything else besides the mace as an answer please post, I would love to know.
Sandi in Va