So Levi and I are working in the retention basis in front of my house today when we stopped to take a break, Levi's lying down behind me on the grass, when I look out and see two ladies and two black dogs coming down the farmers road. I keep an eye on them hoping that they don't notice us. Their dogs are roaming all over the place, in the cotton field, down the road way out in front and then much to my horror, one of them decides to go down into the ditch that leads strait to where we are sitting! So I immediately stand up and yell, I have my dog out!! The ladies stop and start smoochy smoochy calling their dogs back to them. Well, you can guess what didn't happen! They didn't go back they just ran as fast as they could towards us. So I get out my pepper spray and have it ready to spray, doing my best to keep Levi behind me! What do you know if my dog didn't just loose a nut! I mean, even in protection training he has never shown so much power! He tore that leash right through my hands (yes I have rope burns)and was out in front of me three feet before I was able to get control of the line! Talk about digging my heels in the dirt! I'm yelling at the dogs NO! GO! Aiming my spray but there is no way I can spray it without getting Levi too. Then the little female braves up and comes straight up to Levi's face, he doesn't hesitate, he bites her nose! She yipes, looks at him then goes running back to the ladies leaving the male looking dominant back with us. Levi is ready for round two. (Yes, I'm trying to get control of him!!) the male looks at Levi and thinks, "um..yea, I think I'll just mind my business and runs back to the ladies. Meanwhile, my neighbor has come running out of his house ready to kick some dog butt! LOL The entire time the ladies didn't move from the road they just stood there watching!! I would have been running!! Guess some people just freeze, leaving other people to protect their dog and themselves! Once the dogs are under control, I yell to the lady is your dog okay? She says yea, she just keeps licking her nose. I say, well I'm sorry but your dogs weren't leashed, MINE was! Oh I know, says she, we are working on her coming back to me when I call her. I say, well keep working! Then she says, you look familiar to me...turns out she is a friend of mine from church! I'm going to be having a talk with her later on! Then after we came in the house for about 1/2 hour, we saw them walking back down the road, both dogs on leash! Just goes to show ya, it can happen in your own front yard! Even then, never underestimate the power of your dog! That was the very first time I was unable to control him. Guess the way the dogs ran at us, no charged us is a better way of putting it, made him go bonkers! Like Ed always says, never underestimate a dogs natural drive to go against another pack! Today I saw a side of my dog I had never seen before. Oh sure, I'd seen him cop an attitude with other dogs but this was not the same! He meant serious business! Wow, I'm still shaking! Think I'll go have a quiet moment.

It just occured to me...didn't someone say that when your dog turns 18 months you will see major changes in them? Levi will be 16 months in 3 days...hmmm...he's starting to bark at stuff alot now too, my gosh, I think my dog is starting to go through the change, lol!

Glad everythings okay.
I loved reading your post Robbin, for one thing, you described everything in colourful detail (ever consider becoming a writer? ) and another thing is, you are talking about green grass, and cotton fields, and here it is -18C windchill factor and snow everywhere!
Thanks for telling us your story, a good lesson for all of us, enjoy your lovely weather!

 Quote: Janet Koehler

Glad everythings okay.
I loved reading your post Robbin, for one thing, you described everything in colourful detail (ever consider becoming a writer? ) and another thing is, you are talking about green grass, and cotton fields, and here it is -18C windchill factor and snow everywhere!
Thanks for telling us your story, a good lesson for all of us, enjoy your lovely weather!

Thanks Jennifer, not the first time and most likely not the last. Where we live there are alot of dog owners and very few of them have any sense when it comes to walking their dogs. They all seem to assume that if they call the dog back that it will obey them. I most often see young kids, say around 9-10 yrs of age, walking their gigantic great dane or their pit bulls. If I can barely hold onto my dog how on earth are they going to be able to handle an issue in such an instance? ONe thing for sure, I'm going to be ordering a new leash! Long flat lines are really hard on the hands and very difficult to hold on to!

As far as writing, lol, yes, I have been told a time or two that a have a slight flair for the dramatic. Problem is, I don't have enough imagination to come up with something to write about. Got any ideas?

Robbin,

I have a Dogtra 1700. In most situations around the house and in the yard I keep the stim in the low 20's. When we are walking Hans, I turn it up into the 60's. He is dog aggressive to dogs around the neighborhood where we walk (not so much outside of the neighborhood, interestingly) and like your dog is very strong (I once watched him drag my wife across the street). If I catch him early enough a nick or two in the low 60's gets him under control. If, however, he gets to where your dog was, I have to hit him with continuous for 1/4 second or so, just long enough to hit the button and let it up. That will get him under control.

Usually I can see the trouble coming. But if we walk around a corner, and suddenly see another dog, or if the Lab at he corner comes from behind cover and charges her fence (she always charges her fence) and takes Hans by surprise (she always takes him by surprise), I have to use the continuous as described above.

So ... you might think of putting an e-collar on him as a backup measure.

Hans turned 2 on January 1. He always alarm barks (is that the term?) at the front door when he hears something going on outside. Once day my son and I were in other rooms, at opposite ends of the house when we heard the scariest sound we had ever heard coming from Hans at the front door. It was a deep, loud, scary growl. My son described it as something you'd hear in a werewolf movie. I PM'd Ed about it, he said it is a sign of Hans maturing.

There was a thread about something similar happening to another member on a beach....my question or advice is the same.....

Why wait and see what is going to happen? If there is potential for a altercation, why not just hook up the dog and attempt to leave the area before it happens.

I know we all want to see our dogs totally behave when there are other dogs, but when there are loose dogs that we do not know and we have an opportunity to leave, I for one would take it.

I think you did okay Robbin, I really do, but I would have attempted to leave the area. If it were to have escalated into a dog fight or two dogs on one, it may have been bad.

As far as being able to control him when he tries to tear the lead out of your hand you could use a dominant dog collar or even just a small linked choke chain(temporary) tight behind his ears. If he acts like he's thinking of charging set him up so that he's at your hip with the leash taut but not really tight. If he charges just lift up. You can also just keep your hand tight against your hip if that's enough. I can control two great danes or crazy dogs with no manners using a slip lead with this method. The loop of the lead goes in your other hand or anchor it under a foot. This should keep him close enough and your other arm free to use the pepper spray. Just an idea but I thought it might help.

 Quote: carol boche

There was a thread about something similar happening to another member on a beach....my question or advice is the same.....

Why wait and see what is going to happen? If there is potential for a altercation, why not just hook up the dog and attempt to leave the area before it happens.

I know we all want to see our dogs totally behave when there are other dogs, but when there are loose dogs that we do not know and we have an opportunity to leave, I for one would take it.

I think you did okay Robbin, I really do, but I would have attempted to leave the area. If it were to have escalated into a dog fight or two dogs on one, it may have been bad.

Yea, yea, for sure, for sure!! I agree totally.

Here's the thing, I was laying low in a sitting position with Levi. Had I gotten up to bail outa there we would have been spotted for sure and no way would have had a chance to get out of there in time. I was hoping that since we were down under the edge of the basin that we would not have been seen. So I chose to lay low and hope we were hidden well enough. The dogs had been staying on the road the entire time. It wasn't until they got right up on us that the one dog broke away from everyone else and came right up at us outa the ditch. I don't know why he chose to do that right when he did but at that point I knew I had better alert the women on the road that something might happen. My alert only served to increase the dogs curiousity though and they ran full bore at us at that point. If I thought I could have tucked tail and gotten out of there fast enough I would have! Sometimes, things like this are surreal you know? I looked back on it several times and wondered if I could have done something different and in this case the answer keeps coming up, no. Hopefully, I will have better options the next time this happens (oh yea, you almost know there will be a next time). We were just driving into the neighborhood and saw a young boy about 13 walking his very full grown and dominant looking rottweiler. Now, if we were to meet in the street, that dog would have drug that boy right out into the street and that would have been the end of it! This is why I don't want to walk my dog around here! I don't Levi would fare very well against a full grown, beefy, male rotty. The little border collie the went up against today was one thing, even the other dog which looked like a great dane,black lab mix, he would have had a chance with but not that rotty! I need a place out in the country! No dogs running around! I didn't tell you guys, either, after all that happened I waited for them to be long gone and then proceeded to work Levi on his obedience. Granted, he was on the long line as before and we played for quite some time. Without our knowledge, a couple walked right by us on the dirt road with their dogs. We didn't even see them we were so engrossed in our game! I only saw them after they had gotten a ways past us on the road. I thought, when the heck did they pass us by???! Levi never noticed them but I continued to watch them. All dogs were on leashes, there were five of them. The lady kept looking back at me also. Then before I could think to myself "now there are some responsible pet owners" they stopped took the leashes off all the dogs and let them go free on the road!!!! They must have seen us, leashed the dogs to go by and then when they felt they were far enough down, let them off their leashes. THIS, my friends, is what I deal with in my neighborhood! Guess, I need to just give it up, huh?

 Quote: Cathy Goessman

As far as being able to control him when he tries to tear the lead out of your hand you could use a dominant dog collar or even just a small linked choke chain(temporary) tight behind his ears. If he acts like he's thinking of charging set him up so that he's at your hip with the leash taut but not really tight. If he charges just lift up. You can also just keep your hand tight against your hip if that's enough. I can control two great danes or crazy dogs with no manners using a slip lead with this method. The loop of the lead goes in your other hand or anchor it under a foot. This should keep him close enough and your other arm free to use the pepper spray. Just an idea but I thought it might help.

Good thoughts, Cathy. I actually do have a dominant dog collar but it's too big. I'm going to be ordering some other things so I will return it for the right size when I do that. I am going to order a leash from Leerburg too. The long line just doesn't cut it, not enough to grab onto. He was on a choke when it happened, I was actually choking the snot out of him...didn't stop him! Those dogs just came up too fast and too dominant for him to feel like he had any choice but to come on as strong as he could! I will be better prepared next time! Like they say, it's the owners that are stupid, not the dogs! Here I thought I was completely prepared. Had my brand new fanny pack on with the pepper spray in it. Had my long lead on so I could handled him if need be, had my choke on the live ring...like I said, just goes to show...I still need to tweak my game.

 Quote: robbinmann

All dogs were on leashes, there were five of them. The lady kept looking back at me also. Then before I could think to myself "now there are some responsible pet owners" they stopped took the leashes off all the dogs and let them go free on the road!!!! They must have seen us, leashed the dogs to go by and then when they felt they were far enough down, let them off their leashes. THIS, my friends, is what I deal with in my neighborhood!

Robbin, I'm sorry you had to deal with a situation like this - I know the times that it's happened to me the adrenaline sure gets going and it takes me HOURS to calm down and process everything - I'm feelin' for ya!

It also sounds like you live in a pretty difficult area to be safely walking your dog without constantly worrying about loose dogs, or dogs that could easily GET loose. Unfortunately, save moving, there's little you can do about everyone else and THEIR untrained animals - but not to give up! You just have to stick to your OWN guns, learn where you can and can't go, TAKE PRECAUTIONS, and make sure you and Levi don't end up anything like them! (which of course will never happen! )

I just want to comment about the people who leashed their dogs only to pass you, then let them off... I think these people deserve some credit for respecting you and your space and seeing that you obviously were in the middle of working your dog (who WAS on a leash). I don't know if it was a busy road, nor do we know if they would have done the same upon passing that 13 year old with the rott - but they did it for you presumably because they didn't want anything to interrupt you, and for that, they did good. Now, if that WAS a busy road and traffic safety was an issue, they were morons to let the dogs back off, but at least they could get hit by cars without bothering you!

~Natalya

Robbin,

Sorry to hear about what you went through. Went through something similar today. Had Sasha up at the park, on a flat collar and a flexi leash. The park is essentially wide open, about 6 football fields big. Just wanted to let her run and get some exercise but in a controlled manner. Didn't put the prong on since didn't want her to get corrected by accident.

Well walked to pretty much the other end and there was a guy with a dog (only other person in the park). You guessed it, the dog was off leash. We were about 1,000 feet away, and here comes the dog. He didn't even call after it. Was yelling for him to get his dog (will not post the exact words used). At this point, Sasha is on her hind legs, hackles up, growling, barking. I had her by the flat collar and was doing everything I could to control her. The dog wasn't aggressive, just curious, but could have been an ugly issue. I was yelling at the dog to get out of here and he finally did.

The guy casually when the dog got back to him, put a lead on him and walked away through a wooded trail. Started heading back to the car and guess what, the dog was off leash again. Unbelievable.

This hasn't been the first time, nor do I believe it will be the last. Was thinking about pepper spray, but with the wind, I think it would have done more harm then good. What I have noticed is that people who walk their dogs in the neighborhood are carrying sticks. Just wondering what other people use.

Still shaking my head wondering what is wrong with people.

Dave