What would you have done
 

I will try to keep this short.
Today I took my dog to the dog park. I really love this park, the people are great and the dogs are nice, which is not always the case at other parks.

Now, I have a small dog, she weighs 13 lbs. And I don't let her play with certain types of dogs, for her own safety, because you never know how they were raised. So, i had her on the other side of the park where the small dogs were, and we were playing with a new friend and an old one,little charley, he is a 2 lb mix of something. As I am talking to the new friends owner I notice a large dog coming our way, no big deal the big dogs like to play too, but it was of questionable breed, if you get my drift. I didn't do anything at this point, I usually move Ruby away..he seemed alright...but then he started growling and he is looking at little charley, so as I am reaching for charley to get him away the big dog grabs him and starts beating him on the ground like a rag doll. I of course jump on top of the dog and try to wrestle charley from his jaws...it was the most horrible thing I have ever seen...all you could see was his little head and back feet coming out of his mouth...and he was screaming..I have never heard a sound like it..so, I am wrestling a huge dog screaming and beating it...and then out of nowhere, charleys brother jumps in the mix(another big dog) and is tearing the bad dog to shreads so he drops charley...so ...it gets broken up as charleys owner realizes what happened...and charley is ok..just very stunned and has some small puncture wounds

but, here is the bad part. The owner of the bad dog, just stood there watching. Made no move to help, offered no apologies...she in fact said "you are lucky my dog didn't kill yours" in a very nasty voice...her dog had no collar, which is a huge no-no in the park, so I had nothing to grab onto to pull him back...and then she just walked him to the other side of the park and let him go....I wanted to call the police, but charley's owner didn't..so we didn't.
If it had been my Ruby(who was right next to charley), I know what I would have done. I would be in jail right now, for beating her to a bloody pulp.And if she ever shows up again, we are going to have words.

what would you do? even as just a bystander I didn't know what to do after..

pepper spray, or a squirt bottle of ammonia

even though a big dog may not be wearing a collar, there are still ways to hang on to it. I would have held the dog while my friend found a cop. If the stupid bitch wants to watch her monster attack/maim/kill little dogs, lets see how she feels about paying the fine for not having her dog collared and possibly put down for being vicious.(I might have also said the dog tried attacking me as well)

Definitely bring pepper spray and a cell phone to the park next time. If the dog attacks, spray it and immediately call the cops. Maybe even bring a rope to lynch around the dogs throat/neck in order to restain it since it's not wearing a collar.

Definately confront the other woman... let her know what she is doing is wrong. Then, based on her response decide if calling the police is neccessary.

Pepperspray isn't a bad idea either.

The dog bit the other girl twice when she reached in to help me..I think we were just in shock..and were so worried about charley we didn't know what to do

Wait - The dog bit the other GIRL? Not just the dog? You really need to call the cops on this one. Even if this happened the other day, you should call.

I don't have her info, but if I see her again, I think I will call and at least talk to the police and see if there is anything they can do.The people who go to this park, go everyday, so I know that about 15 regulars saw the whole thing, and would be there to back me up...Ruby plays with Charley everytime we go..it was almost like watching my own little puppy

My dog is on the other side of the size spectrum, but she get's attacked from time to time by smaller dogs that see her as a threat. She is extremely docile, but she can take care of herself for the most part. She is getting old and I do step in if it escalates to anything more than growling or wrestling. Pepper spray works well, but be carefull to get pepper spray rather than Mace. Mace just pisses dogs off. Aim for the eyes, it won't do any permanent damage, but stops them cold. In your case, I would have saved a squirt or two for the owner. I'd also call the police or animal control. I'd cut her some slack if she made an effort to control her dog, but that kind of attitude just sucks. A few trips to court is in her future, the sooner the better.

I think you should call the police. A large violent dog that is allowed to go free and unrestrained is dangerous. It went after a small dog this time but who knows whats next? The police need to get this dog under control if the woman wont.

Call the cops anyway. Now. Call them, tell them what happened, what day and give a description of the dog and the owner. Don't just sit back and chat on an internet message board about it. Do something.


Who knows how many other times this dog has done it? And people just didn't do a damn thing about it. Here's your chance to do something.

yes, well my outdoor office is a nearby puppy park,m and su tong the wonder huskly is really really fond of running around there--one of the things that keeps it cool is screening processes that try to weed out dogs who are inclined to attack others and, obviously, people. they tend to err on the side of caution sometimes (they do not let pitbulls in for the most part, though obviously not all are raised for fighting) but in the main it seems to work.

there is a real difference between the sort of normal dog hierarchy behaviours and what you describe above.

if the park is private, i would definitely let the folk who run the show know about this. it sucks for the other dog to be barred, but at the same time, since it is not the owners personal backyard, and since the dog has evident behaviour problems, there we are.

if the park is public i would follow averetts advice.

Report the incident to the police, and give a description of the owner and the dog. If you know anyone else who witnessed the incident, have them do the same. If this happened once, it could happen again. And the next time it may be a small child. It would help the authorities if there was a previous report against the owner. Too bad that none of the witnesses pulled out their camera phones to shoot a picture of the dog and the owner. My husband and I are the owners of two small dogs, and if that had been my dogs and the owner reacted in that manner.......something would have happened. And the next time you go to this park....carry a big stick. Sounds like you may need it.

The incident needs to be reported. Even if the police can do nothing at this time there will be a file on the dog/owner and if reported again can prove an aggressive pattern of behavior giving the authorities more impetus to handle the situation.

Gee, that sounds like a threat to me...

What goes thru the minds of a dog owner that doesn't train their dog to not attack littler dogs. God help this woman's children.

Call the police, at least have it on record that an attack happened, especially an attack on a person.

report her as her attitude is just inviiting her dog to re-offend She probably sees it as her dog having fun,but as stated it could be a kid next time

Two Words............Anti-Freeze

my sister lost her childhood shitzu dog that way by a neighbor's german shepard who "got out of the house"

our dog was protecting the female dog and got grabbed by the neck and tossed about...

they tried the legal route, but the owner of the other dog was a lawyer and spent a lot of time delaying etc.

I was no longer living there at the time... had I been there.. that lawyer would have had some serious issues to contend with.

reading your story makes me sad, distraught etc. etc. as a fellow small dog owner (my guy is 11 pounds) i feel your pain.

by your account, i think you were totally in the right. i'm not sure what else you could have done.
shame on the owner of that dog. as others have already stated, her attitude is just inviting another situation, possibly of larger magnitude.

as far as the law goes, my friend's dog (mini pinscher) was attacked by another dog (pit bull). animal control was called the day after the attack, they investigated, confiscated the dog for a quarantine period to determine whether or not it had rabies (since the dog did not have a collar and was not registered in atlanta), issued a citation/ticket to the dog owner. the police were not involved, as the bad dog's owner was pretty receptive and apologetic (since the dog "got out" of the house).

at the very least, it would seem to me that you should contact your local animal control/services to have something done about that particular incident.

for what you can do in the future... keep your wits about you as you did. you seemed to do exactly what was called for - enough force for the dog to stop, but didn't injure it. hell, you didn't even injure that dog's owner!

I'm with the others. Carry the K-9 equivilent of mace to protect your dog next time this happens.

I only have a couple words for you. Ty Cobb autographed baseball bat and a switch blade. :)

Yeah but how the hell would she get Ty Cobb to sign the bat?