What should I do next time this happens??

The other day I was roller blading with my German Shepherd (She loves this - I roller blade while she jogs right behind me) and when I got to a grassy area in my neighborhood, there were some people there with dogs off the leash. I tightened my grip on my dog%26#039;s leash because sometimes she%26#039;s a bit dog aggressive but I%26#039;ve always been able to handle it, even on roller blades. Well this time, 2 large dogs started charging us, one a Doberman mix and the other a black dog with pointy ears, not sure what. My my dog about started barking at them because she%26#039;s a loyal German Shepherd and of course she%26#039;s going to protect me. I heard one of the men in the grassy area say %26quot;He needs to learn his lesson%26quot; and I THINK he meant that his dog needed to learn its lesson by having the crap bit out of it by my dog. It all happened so fast - next thing I knew the 2 other dogs were on my dog and my dog was lunging at them. I knew I was going to fall (I was gripping her leash like I always do), so I fell in th

What should I do next time this happens??
Those guys are being totally irresponsible. If you find yourself in this situation again (hopefully not) go back to your car or to a safe area in the park (far away from them and their dogs) and call the town’s animal control department. (I keep their number in my cell phone. Its also good to have if you come across an injured animal.) Tell them as much about the owners and the dogs as you can (what they looked like, etc.) and they should send out an animal control officer to meet you, or to look for those guys. Its their duty to respond because those dogs put the public%26#039;s safety at risk. If you had been a little kid rollerblading with your dog the outcome could have been terrible.





If the animal control dept is closed, call the local police’s non-emergency #. (Keep that in your cell phone too.) They should send out an officer.





Don’t go over and talk to the guys by yourself. If they’re willing to let their dog get injured so that it “learns a lesson”, then they are not rational, reasonable people. Keep your distance. (I had a similar situation and when I went to talk to the woman she practically ran me over with her car.)





If you know which car is theirs, write down their license plate #. Also, look around to see if there are any witnesses who can verify that the dogs charged you. (So officers will know that the dogs are a real danger, and that you’re not just exaggerating.) Ask if the witnesses can stick around until an officer comes, or will at least give you their contact info so that an officer can contact them.





If nothing else, the officer can give those guys a fine for having their dogs off-leash.





Also, if your dog is sometimes %26quot;a bit dog aggressive%26quot; towards non-aggressive dogs (obviously not the case this time!) then I would recommend obedience training to remind her that its not allowed. No matter how infrequent or minor the dog aggressiveness is, its important to work on.





I%26#039;m sorry you had to go thru such a terrible experience. It can be quite frightening and traumatic, and no one should have to go thru that.
Reply:While the owners of the other dogs were irresponsible and ignorant I don%26#039;t think roller blading with a dog who is %26quot;a bit dog aggressive is a good idea%26quot; as this incident seems to have demonstrated. With a dog like this you need control at all times and you can%26#039;t have that on blades. When you became aware of the situation you needed to be able to stop your dog, what if she had pulled you into a busy road etc?





I know this roller blading with your dog may seem a good way to excises him/her but it is dangerous as you give up too much control in doing so.
Reply:While the owner may be right in the fact that his dog needed to learn a lesson, he too also needs to learn a lesson.





That dog could have hurt you or your dog badly. You have enough sense to keep your dog controlled on a leash. If this guy can%26#039;t keep his dogs controlled he needs to be reported as it%26#039;s only a matter of time before his dogs cause damage.





I%26#039;d patrol your walk routes ahead of time before taking your dog out again. If you spot unleashed dogs running around in the area, I%26#039;d find a different route. I had this problem with my Jack Russel (she%26#039;s a small thing but had a bit of an attitude with larger dogs) and I found that while I was able to control her, I was also able to control other dogs coming at us.





Just because the dog charging you is someone elses, you still have the right to defend yourself. I have no qualms about rolling someone else%26#039;s dog on it%26#039;s back if it%26#039;s coming at me. Most of the time though, taking a strong stance and shouting no at the oncoming dog can have a good effect. However, if it is a larger dog like the 2 you described, I%26#039;d stick to the %26quot;better be safe than sorry%26quot; motto and just avoid that area.
Reply:I’m not excusing anyone else, but you should NOT be roller-blading while exercising your dog. Both activities require your attention, not just part of it. And being on wheels prevents you from having enough friction against the ground when the pooch decides to deviate from your travel-path.





In other words, NO “next time this happens”.





Despite your response to Veronique, you only THINK you have “total control” over your ******. Voice control %26amp; signal control are great, while they work, but anyone who is less stupid than the people you accuse KNOWS that you don’t have “total control” unless you have PHYSICAL control. You do NOT have physical control while on wheels, whether they be attached to skates, a bike, or a car – an ex-friend used to exercise his dogs by having them run alongside while he drove his beach buggy along the sand. Yep he ran over one.





When people are running their GSD beside a bike for the AD (Endurance Dog) certificate there is a car in front and a car behind, to offer a warning and a protection if necessary, so that the dog %26amp; cyclist will be stopped before any situation like yours can arise. Yet a bike is much easier to detach oneself from than are roller skates.





Doesn’t matter whether your ****** is aggressive so jerks to get AT the other dogs, or cowardly so jerks to get AWAY from the other dogs - while your feet are strapped onto skates you do NOT have the ability to stop yourself being pulled off balance while trying to stop her. And if you can’t control yourSELF physically, no way can you control both your dog and yourself.








Can you HONESTLY state that you were any less stupid than the other dogs’ owner(s), seeing as YOU saw the dogs off-lead in the distance (off-lead means that the owners do NOT have physical control) yet YOU continued in that direction instead of either heading away from them before they took an interest in you, or at least stopping (movement is attractive to predators) and preferably getting OFF your skates (so that you have full friction available to you for balance %26amp; to act as an anchor holding your pooch back)? Aren’t you merely trying to absolve yourself from the equal blame that you actually deserve?








Your interpretation in:


“I heard one of the men in the grassy area say %26quot;He needs to learn his lesson%26quot; and I THINK he meant that his dog needed to learn its lesson by having the crap bit out of it by my dog.”


might or might not be accurate, but no way does “He needs to learn his lesson” automatically mean that:


“these MORONS in the park PURPOSELY let their dogs go after mine!!!”





My suspicion is that those morons didn’t have the distance-control necessary to call their mutts off.


They might also have believed that their dogs just liked greeting other dogs – which might well have been fact on the other occasions their dogs ran to meet another dog, before they came up against your AGGRESSIVE ******.





So there was quite a meeting of morons on that occasion


- some morons letting their dogs run free despite not having adequate control of them and not knowing the temperament of the pooch their mutts were running towards,


- another moron skating her dog towards their dogs even though that meant that (a) she could NOT have physical control of her own dog, (b) she didn’t know the character of those loose dogs, and (c) she was endangering her own pooch by taking it into “their” territory and a possible 2-onto-1 battle...





One uses experience to avoid making mistakes.


One gains experience by making mistakes – and LEARNING from those mistakes.





At the time you wrote your question you had NOT learned from your mistake. I hope that those of us who showed sense rather than sympathy manage to persuade you to start learning.


From the tone of your message I wouldn’t have thought you were old enough to be married.


Les P, owner of GSD_Friendly: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/GSD_F...


%26quot;In GSDs%26quot; as of 1967
Reply:What you are doing is dangerous for your dog and yourself.. first train the dog not to bark or attack other ones... then you can roller blade with your dog safely. If you are not able to have full control over the dog, then train her... this shouldn%26#039;t happen. I%26#039;m not telling your dog is bad, or you don%26#039;t know how to handle.. only that first you should train her completely... as some people react very stupid with dog who are more aggressive than normal, even if they just want to protect their owner! Good luck
Reply:Some thoughts.





Get a can of Direct Stop. It%26#039;s a citronella spray that will stop a dog in its track and will not hurt them. Keep it with you when you%26#039;re roller blading. Your dog may be protecting you, but it also may be scared of other dogs.Some dogs will act tough, just to keep other dogs away. Also, you communicate a lot with your dog by the way you handle the leash. A tight leash is often a signal to the dog that %26#039;something%26#039;s not right%26#039;.





You should also consider doing lots of obedience work with your dog, using positive reinforcement techniques. You want a dog that will focus on you, even when there are things around that upset or scare him (its triggers).





If you want to help your dog not be dog aggressive there are things you can do, but it takes time and training. You could check out some books





Click To Calm


Feisty Fido





www.fearfuldogs.com/books.html
Reply:Oh I hate this so much. Owners who have their dog off leash when they can%26#039;t control them. I used to have big dogs and it was horrible when out of control dogs would rush at us and my dogs would fight back. The owners of the off-leash dogs would yell at ME when their dogs started it, and mine was under control.





It%26#039;s hard to know what to say next time because you don%26#039;t want to esculate things or put yourself in danger (people are so angry and aggressive these days). I guess you could appeal to their sensible side by saying something like %26quot;I could have been seriously hurt. Would you mind keeping your dogs away from mine?%26quot;. It%26#039;s a tough one.
Reply:Same thing happened to me before so I bought a small device that made a sound that only dogs could hear. Dazzer II, I think that%26#039;s the name. It%26#039;s safe, and not harmful and the sound only warned the dog that was approaching us. Of course the device should be pointed at the approaching dog, and also I taught my dog not to look at other dogs by controlling the leash. Your dog is big and needs a lot of control, mine is only a beagle.


If you want to break a fight try to splash the dogs with cold water (bring a cold bottled water) on their faces, they get startled with that but they might fight again.


For the irresponsible handlers you should have them reported.


Good luck!
Reply:You should have called the police immediately and reported the incident.


I%26#039;m glad you%26#039;re both alright but you just found out the hard way that anything can and will happen at any time.



flower