Rocky was attacked but he’s ok
Rocky scary day
Rocky got attacked last week by another dog. Working in the dog training world I’ve dealt with dog fights before but I got to admit it shook me up to see it happen to my boy when out for a nice afternoon walk for my dog. I took the big dogs (Lucy and Bowie) out earlier hiking, which Rocky being an English bulldog is not built for the strenuous hills in the heat so he gets a special walk of just us two and is able to go to his favorite places and smell all the good stuff.
As we were leaving the park, I saw the two golden retrievers with their owners talking, one was off leash and as we were getting closer the owner leashed her golden. Neither dog was reacting, Rocky was walking nicely next to me moving along as he was smelling bushes that we passed. As we got closer to the sidewalk to exit, Rocky switched sides on me so he was further away from the dogs and pulling to move further away, which I followed to give him the space he was asking for. One golden was relaxed, next to his owner and the other golden (previous off-leashed) was not moving but crouching and fixated on Rocky. As I started noticing this behavior along with Rocky signaling that he was uncomfortable I kept talking with Rocky in my normal voice to help him keep him focus on me as we go by about staying 40 feet away from the golden’s. We pass them and start to exit the park and I hear the noise. The golden has broke free from her owner, dragging her leash and proceeds to jump on Rocky’s back. I immediately grabbed the dog and was able to pull her off and keep her away by yelling and using my body to block her. She backs away from me but then keeps trying to go around me. Eventually the owner is able to make it to her dog and grab the leash. This could of been so much worse, Rocky just has some slobber on him after I check him. We continue to walk away, talking to him , telling him what a good boy he is and as soon as I mentioned the magical word of treats, his stressed face starts to relax and he starts trotting down the sidewalk to get home for his yum yum’s. I am thankful it wasn’t worse and this is why it so important to watch signals , listen to your dog and the others and to take appropriate action.
Let me break it down.
Owner leashing their dog. I read it at first as the owner was being polite and leashing their dog since my dog was on leash. Most likely now that I saw the dog’s intent, it was her trying to stop her dog. There was no barking, lunging or large reaction from the dog before hand. The leash was attached to a prong collar. This style of training is punishment based. Most likely the dog has learned that barking, growling, any reaction will get the dog punished so instead she has become a quiet, stalking dog which often owners will see as a well behaved dog and the “training is working” but in reality she has become a silent threat that gives no warning before she reacts, exploding when they have reached their threshold.
When we were walking closer, Rocky had moved to the other side, putting me in between him and the dog, which I did pick up on and gave him more space because he wasn’t feeling comfortable being near the dogs. If your dog is saying they don’t feel safe or are uncomfortable then you must listen and give them more space. Rocky trusted me to give him that and I did, the dog still got loose but we were able to make it a less scary event and he was able to recover fast, looking to me afterwards for guidance because of our bond.
Today when we went for our walk Rocky saw dogs out, he stayed relaxed and had great experiences with the dogs going by and one was a lovely golden that he passed without a thought. I didn’t force him to be near the dogs today, I watched him and let him set the pace on how close he wanted to walk by.
If I force him to interact with another dog and he’s not ready then I am just reinforcing his fear and can make him reactive. By letting him set the pace he can be comfortable, not stress or worry and continue to build his confidence to remain a well balanced dog.