Whatcha doin????

We take her there because she loves to play with other dogs and has never had any problems thus far. As I understand, the attacking dog is likely a rescue dog and fairly new to the owner. She was probably rather negligent in allowing it off leash without knowing it well. Plus she had an injured arm and was simply not strong enough to restrain it. If the other people weren't there, it probably would have killed our dog.

Anyway, she's resting and we'll hopefully have her stitched up this morning. Lots of fun carrying around a 65lb dog.

 

One of the places I used to work at had a cat that they fed (we probably weren't the only ones feeding it). Every morning it would come around meowing saying, "Feed me. Feed me. I'm starving to death. Feed me. I'm only 5 pounds over weight. Feed me."

 

Just waiting for it to warm up a bit (dropped into the low 50s overnight) and then going for a walk in the woods.

 

So the dog attack issue is starting to look its going to become a drama. The owner of the dog that attacked ours is suggesting our dog bit theirs first. They claim their dog has facial injuries and possibly eye damage. This, of course, could not have happened after the owner told my wife to do whatever it takes to get her dog off of ours, which including punching and kicking the dog (and not just her, but also a bystander as well). And its an American bulldog versus a labrador-bernese-pyrenese mix. Hmmm.
Anyway, we filed a report with the town and the animal control officer will need to look into the incident.

 

In my area it's accepted (and, I think, assumed) that dogs will be off leads in designated dog parks. Of course the dog is supposed to be adequately trained to not attack others, and owners remain fully responsible.

Hope it sorts itself out Teddy, you really don't need that. Sounds like someone is trying to deflect blame for being irresponsible. She should be thankful it didn't happen in my area, where the law explicitly allows you to shoot a dog that is attacking another animal or a human.

 

I think the owners are worried that they may get their dog classified as an 'aggressive dog' which increases the licencing fees and introduces restrictions on the dog. The animal control officer spoke with me, my wife and the witness of the event. He'll talk next to the owners. He told us he does not go out to slap 'aggressive' dog based on one incident as sometimes there can be one-offs, of course. And we don't have a problem with that, but we certainly don't want to look the other way as there could be potential for future issues on other dogs, or worse, kids. All we really want is them to acknowledge some responsibility for the incident, mainly by covering the vet costs, which are not even going to be that onerous.

 

That would make sense - if it truly was a one-off it's easy to see why the owners of a normally docile dog don't want it tagged as "aggressive", although if it is normally docile you wouldn't expect a dog to need multiple people to pull it away from a dog it's attacking. A neighbor of ours got rid of one of their dogs - it was a friendly dog but got overexcited. Years ago we encountered it in the forest and it jumped up, cutting my wife's arm with a claw. We later learned that it subsequently jumped up at another neighbor's child (who was about 7 at the time) and bit her face. It wasn't aggressive, just hugely excitable, but having had two sets of bills to cover thanks to it being excited they decided the liability wasn't worth it and rehomed the dog.

The cut on my wife's arm wasn't life-threatening or anything but we thought it might require stitches (thankfully it didn't), but having seen what a dog jumping up can do I'm less inclined to be tolerant of unknown dogs, when I can't even be sure that the owner has cut its claws.

 

The whole "if you see something, say something" concept sometimes seems like it needs to be balanced with a heavy dose of "mind your own business".

Got plans to enjoy your retirement?

 

It was quiet for a couple weeks, but it has started up again.

 

It happens. Back in the days I was on staff there we got the occasional troll posting stuff that made me feel physically sick. Thankfully I never had to clean up anything involving children - I think that's something that would need to be taken off the board but logged and referred to law enforcement.

 

From the proud father file: tonight, my son was asked to play on a U12 soccer team (he's U10) as the team was short several players. He then proceeded to score 5 goals and direct assisted on at least two others. He had a lot of fun, not just because of the goals, but because the playing area was so much larger, passing and playmaking was actually possible, and a lot of the other players are good too.

 

Very nice

 

Heard back from the bylaw officer regarding the dog issue. Unsurprisingly (at this point), the owners are unwilling to acknowledge any responsibility and claiming they are not from this area and were only passing through (despite their cel phone number being a local number, registered in town). If they live out of town in the rural district, there is not much he can do. But if they are caught in town with the dog, it will be impounded.

 

I don't suppose you're allowed to shoot aggressive dogs in your part of the world? If they don't accept responsibility and it happens again I'd be inclined to use as lethal a force as is legal to get their dog away from yours.

 

Certainly not in town. Handguns are generally illegal and walking around with a rifle would be looked down upon.