I wrote this about an hour ago...lots a mistakes cause I was very shaken up, after reading it, please let me know if I should go to the police???

If this is full of mistakes it cuz my hands are shakin so bad....just got back from the lake, i go early to run buddy and back at night to run lilly. We park the car and run a couplr of miles. i wear a weighted back pack for a work out, keep my break stick in a strap i added that goes around my waist so the weights dont bang on my back while i run. so were runnin, and i see a woman and her dog...looks like a big grey AmStf..ears are show cropped. he sees us and breaks out in a full run in our direction, i guess we were bout 100 feet apart, this bimbo has this dog on a ZIP...he gets to the end of that thing and breaks and now he is comin at me and buddy, ya think ya know what to do but i just freaked, i thought i better let buddy go i didn't want him to be defensless, but i didnt know whos this dog was chargin...we were bout half mile from my truck, i hope i did right i let bud go, now the two dogs are runnin at each other i grab my break stick and follow, gonna try and hit this grey dog bout 80 lbs on the nose if gets my buddy....buddy is really stocky gotta a thick neck he just puts his head down and rams this dog right in the chest, this dog goes back legs over his head, bud then grabs him by the side of the neck and starts shakin , dog is on his back tryin to get up and bud just got him...this lady is screamin but this dog has NO LEAD. so I give her my waist strap from my back pack and tell her to put it thru the dogs collar, and I will break buddy off of him but not till she can restrain her dog. so she gets the strap thru his collar and I ,break buddy off a him, the dog trys to get away from us, hes growlin at all of us.....the dogs got some puncture wounds, and a few gashes, this lady says she is sorry, she says it was her fault and all, but SHOULD I GO TO THE POLICE AND MAKE A REPORT/COMPLAINT...just in case she trys to make it buddys fault???? I feel like I hosed this all up, should I have held onto buddys leash...sh*t tell me what I should do now? I dont know her she dont know me.....i feel so BAD!!!!!!! Should i find her and offer to pay for her vet...oh my gawd. Im afraid the police wont understand cause he is a pit...


Recommendations are welcome...I live in southern NJ

First, glad to hear your boy did his job. Second, a few questions: Were there any witnesses? Did you get the other parties contact info? I would probably contact the police department in the jurisdiction where this occured, just to get something on paper. Let the PD know that you don't want to have it followed-up on necessarily, but you just want it documented to CYA.

If the other party doesn't know your name/info either, there's a very small chance that anything could be pursued by that party anyway. It's her word against yours (assuming no witnesses). And if you and your dog have no marks from the fight, good luck to the other party trying to prove it was you and your dog.

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Let the PD know that you don't want to have it followed-up on necessarily, but you just want it documented to CYA.

this is one of the most common mis-conceptions that the general public has. i'll tell you what i tell people who request reports of this type. the police department documents crimes for prosecution. we don't document incidents for civil immunity. if you had gotten the lady's name and address and wanted to pursue a dog at large violation, by all means we/they would investigate the crime.

as any judge or lawyer would tell you, just because it's in a police report, does not make it true. all the police officer in a report such as you suggest (to "CYA") would write would be what you told them. as a matter of fact, a report of that nature holds less value in court than if you yourself wrote down the incident, because that police report is 2nd hand or heresay.

i wouldn't worry about it...

Yea, he did his job if his job is dog fighting. That makes no sense to say he did his job.

Anyways I know around here (NY) the police would not do any type of report for that unless a human was bitten. Even dog at large/no leash would not fit as it was on a leash but it broke. Some dog fights are documented by our city animal control if they are called. Either way here you would be in the clear as the other dog was at large and yours was under control by being on a leash initially.

Did you do the right thing?
Thats a tough one. Is your pitbull dog aggressive? How was the dog running towards you guys, ie growling, barking, etc???
These are all things to consider but are hard to put together all at once when a situation happens. I have never had a problem staying calm and clear in any situation but some of that stems from my past job as a police officer.

I had a similar situation with my last male Justice. Now he was not dog aggressive but he would fight if he was challenged by a dog coming at him in an aggressive manner. One day I was walking him through the parking lot to the vet's office when a tiny little lady with 2 medium/large mutts came out the door. Well she couldnt hold onto the leads and they came a running towards us and when they got close they growled and barked and kept coming so I dropped the lead. Justice took the lead dog down by the neck and the other one just kinda stood back and was barking. The lady got to her leads and get her dogs and I was able to out Justy with no further incident. She apologized up and down and I just continued walking into the vet's as I made my feelings on the situation clear. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
I guess my point is I wouldnt drop the lead until you know the dogs intentions. Some dogs will run up in excitment and sniff each other. I am definatley not going to handicap my dog by holding him back if there IS going to be a fight but I also wouldnt want to do anything to help instigate a fight when one could have been prevented.

So it depends on the situation I think.....have to know all of the variables to see if it was a good choice or not.


Pat

My Buddy is game bred, but very stable. Dogs do not seem to bother him much at all. As a matter of point he only really postures if some one is behaving badly AT me. The charging dog now that I think about it B-lined for him once I released him, my point being it appeared he was charging my dog and not me, he was barking and ears at attention. I may have released too soon, but I was afraid. Buddy backed off very easily once I secured him. I consulted my attorney and he voiced a lot of what was said here. There were no witnesses, and no exchange of info as we were both concerned for her dogs injuries and getting him to a vet...we both just wanted to get away from one another.

I wouldnt worry about it Valerie. Especially if no info was exchanged. It sounds like she knows the lead broke on her end and her dog became at large.

My apologies, as I was possibly not clear with my previous post. By "doing his job" I meant defending her from a possibly aggressive dog (though, I'm sure he wasn't trained to and it was NOT intentional on his part).

As far as public misconceptions of what to report/not report, my agency documents things like this often. We don't necessarily do a report on it, in fact most of the time we WON'T do a report on it because no crime has been committed. But (if requested) we WILL log it in the dispatch log, so there is SOME documentation about what occurred and so future shifts have an idea of what happened if it becomes an issue later.

However, as has been mentioned above, if there were no witnesses and no information was exchanged, there is very little chance that anything will come of it.

To prevent a lawsuit materializing later, I would find another place to run for a few months. If this person suddenly loses her sense of right and wrong, and wants to sue you..the only way to find out who you are is if you go back to the area where it occurred and she gets your license plate number. With that she can get some personal info on you then sue you.

Does your dog know an out command? You say he is game bred. What game? We do hog dogs here. I assume you have the break stick to force him to release. That would look bad for you if he actually bit a person. He would probably be destroyed if he attacked a person and witnesses saw you using a break stick. My .02

Howard

By game bred I mean his blood line is from proven performance dogs, not conformation. He however is just a pet bull. He knows basic obedience and I always carry a break stick because he is game, it is the responsible thing to do as a pit bull owner IMHO. Game bred dogs tend to be very stable in temperment and very human passive, however once their aggresion is triggered they will follow thru, very typical of the breed. I have taken the incident to a friend who is a local police officer that is a personal friend of mine. An incident report has been put on file....I feel comfortable with this action as he knows my dog personally and knows he is not animal aggressive, he has put in my opinion the proper perspective in reporting the incident. As many have said here it really does nothing for me in a criminal matter, he just felt it might be useful if this womans dog was involved in another incident, his feeling is that is the dog that behaved in a dangerous manner and the owner needs to understand how to handle the breed of dog she has decided to own.

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By game bred I mean his blood line is from proven performance dogs, not conformation. He however is just a pet bull. He knows basic obedience and I always carry a break stick because he is game, it is the responsible thing to do as a pit bull owner IMHO. Game bred dogs tend to be very stable in temperment and very human passive, however once their aggresion is triggered they will follow thru, very typical of the breed. I have taken the incident to a friend who is a local police officer that is a personal friend of mine. An incident report has been put on file....I feel comfortable with this action as he knows my dog personally and knows he is not animal aggressive, he has put in my opinion the proper perspective in reporting the incident. As many have said here it really does nothing for me in a criminal matter, he just felt it might be useful if this womans dog was involved in another incident, his feeling is that her dog is the dog that behaved in a dangerous manner and the owner needs to understand how to handle the breed of dog she has decided to own.

Sorry for the double post, correction was needed