This seems like a never ending story, unfortunately.
Bodhi was attacked by three German Shepherds today on our walk around the wild life area on our road.
It was pretty scary.
I was kicking them in the head while the others circled looking for an opening.
Bodhi is a very playful dog who is friendly to other dogs, but he was in defensive mode.
He knew they weren't playing.
I knew they weren't playing, and because three were involved, it was hard to keep them off him.

The owner did not have leashes and made no effort to corral them.
She just yelled out, "Be nice," did not apologize, and turned and ran the other way.
They eventually left with her and I could hear two of the GSD's getting into it with each other.

I checked Bodhi over for bites and quickly walked him home.
Then I drove back to the trailhead and waited for the owner and dogs to come out.
In the meantime, my neighbor who walks with her goats, drove up with her goatmobile.
My neighbor told me that she had to use her taser on the dogs the day before when they went after her goats.

I quickly walked down to the fork in the trail and caught the woman with the GSD's.
She was completely unapologetic.
She just said, "I know," when I told her the dogs needed to be on leashes or under voice command.
I told her what my neighbor had said about using the taser the day before.
She didn't say she was sorry or would have them under control next time.
She just stared at me.
That fried my circuits and I yelled at her.
I think she was scared because then she said, "You don't have to worry about us, because we are moving."

Tomorrow, I will have Halt on my belt. And probably a metal pole.
I get lulled into feeling safe on our walks, then we run into an idiot, irresponsible owner like this one.
But I will do anything to protect my boy.

So sorry this happened to you, it must of been so scary especially with three of them! I'm not a huge fan of German Shepard, as we have had some problems with them and my boys before. I don't blame you for kicking them in their head, I've had to do that before with a Pit bull at the dog park, but if the owner isn't going to help what are you going to do. Definitely bring whatever is necessary in case it happens again, but hopefully it won't. Not like you didn't give the girl warning about the leashes, so whatever happens next is on her. I can't believe she didn't even say sorry!

Ugh. These things happen way too often!

Last week I was at the house I am moving in to. We didn't have Luci with us, but I took my two daughters for a walk around the block. At the start of our walk I saw a lady walking some little dog on a leash, and I thought to myself "good, people can walk their dogs around here." But then we turned a corner to another street.... Some dog (looked like maybe a GSD mixed with something else) came charging at us. I picked up my 2 year old and stepped toward the dog. It went right around me to my 7 year old and started jumping all over her. Luckily she knew how to react, since Luci does the same thing, but she still had scratches all over her. After what seemed like an eternity, the owner came out and called the dog in. He didn't even apologize but instead looked at me like I was a fool for going out for a walk. Two houses further down there was a really large dog behind a chain link fence that had a "bad dog" sign on it. The dog was *really* aggressive and coming very close to getting over the fence. I have no doubt that would have ended badly.
Shortly after we got home I heard a dog yelping and a woman screaming... I really hope it wasn't that lady walking the little dog.

Poor Bodhi! Irresponsible owners don't seem to understand the repercussions an event like this can have. Even the most well behaved, socialized dogs can become psychologically scarred when events like this keep happening.

In really intense situations Shaqua will jump up into my arms like she is a little lap dog. Luckily she weighs 41 lbs so she isn't that much to carry if I need to, lol.

CavingSiberian wrote:

Poor Bodhi! Irresponsible owners don't seem to understand the repercussions an event like this can have. Even the most well behaved, socialized dogs can become psychologically scarred when events like this keep happening.

In really intense situations Shaqua will jump up into my arms like she is a little lap dog. Luckily she weighs 41 lbs so she isn't that much to carry if I need to, lol.

Thank god I'm not the only one! There was this one german shepard at the dog park that Siku use to be scared of, and when the car would pull up Siku would jump into my arms like a toddler would and I would have to put his leash on and carry him out like that. Everyone else thought it was cute, but I just thought it was the saddest thing ever, he shouldn't have to be that scared. So we just stopped going.

Anubis was attacked at the train station one week ago by the dog of a group of homeless people. As the dog ran up to us the owner yelled that it is no problem becaus ehis is friendly. I told him it is a problem because my dog is working right now and he should take his dog away. From out of nowhere the dog attacked us. Luckily nothing bad happened. I called the police afterwards that they should make sure those idiots keep their dog under control.
I really don´t understand why people that are sitting at the train station all day drinking alcohol are allowed to have a dog.

So sorry this happened. I don't understand why people can't keep their dogs under control. You should probably report her! Glad Bode wasn't hurt!

It seems to be normal that the owners of attacking dogs do nothing to stop their dogs, just watching.

So sorry glad your dog is okay though, rottweiler mix tried to approach us yesterday on our walk (no owner to be found) luckily when I yelled no sternly enough he stopped and stared at me like I was stupid. I need to start carrying a knife or taser with me just in case, I don't want to accidentally mace my dogs lol

Part Two.

Apparently, the owner of the GSD's took her dogs home, then returned to the trail to find me.
I was long gone by that time.
She encountered my neighbor and asked my name and where I lived.
The woman said that no one owned the property (untrue- it's owned by the county) and she had a right to run her dogs there off leash.
My neighbor told her that the law was, "On the leash or under voice control."
She told the woman, "Apologize, leash the dogs next time and move on."
The GSD owner wasn't buying it.
I don't think this is over.

Even if she is allowed to, she shouldn't because neither her nor her dogs can handle it. It drives me crazy when people take personal liberty to be more important than social ethics. Ugh. I hope Bodhi
and you are okay.

jalepeno wrote:

Part Two.

Apparently, the owner of the GSD's took her dogs home, then returned to the trail to find me.
I was long gone by that time.
She encountered my neighbor and asked my name and where I lived.
The woman said that no one owned the property (untrue- it's owned by the county) and she had a right to run her dogs there off leash.
My neighbor told her that the law was, "On the leash or under voice control."
She told the woman, "Apologize, leash the dogs next time and move on."
The GSD owner wasn't buying it.
I don't think this is over.

If this person isn't letting it go, I would suggest being proactive and reporting the incident to animal control (before this person does it first with some horrible lie) I'm not sure how the law is worded where you are, but where I live the leash laws apply to any time the dog is off the owner's property. If your law is worded similar, then you have the law on your side.

Wow! I can't believe some people! I usually try to give dogs some benefit of the doubt but if the owner doesn't seem to care it's pretty clear that they have behavioral problems that aren't going to change. I'd call animal control and at least put in a complaint! Just in case it does happen again and god forbid it doesn't end as well for one side, it'll help to have that on record. Or if the dogs do this to another dog in the future and succeed...
It's not that hard to leash your dog, I don't understand why she makes it a problem!

Its creepy that she wants to know where you live, I'd watch my back if I were you. I'm sorry this happened, good dogs become poor ones when unproperly trained. Makes me feel bad for all the dogs and you in that situation.

cinnamonbits wrote:

Its creepy that she wants to know where you live, I'd watch my back if I were you. I'm sorry this happened, good dogs become poor ones when unproperly trained. Makes me feel bad for all the dogs and you in that situation.

definitely, regularly check your yard to make sure nothing has been thrown over your fence

amora wrote:

cinnamonbits wrote:

Its creepy that she wants to know where you live, I'd watch my back if I were you. I'm sorry this happened, good dogs become poor ones when unproperly trained. Makes me feel bad for all the dogs and you in that situation.

 definitely, regularly check your yard to make sure nothing has been thrown over your fence

+1

My Airedale Terrier was poisoned on Halloween. Someone threw rat poison in our yard. Sadly he is no longer with us, but I would definitely check your yard (did your neighbor give your address out?). Or invest in security cameras (I know that seems far, but it wouldn't hurt).

Keep us updated. Do everything you can to be prepared for another dog attack. :l

She might has just wanted to make sure that your dog was okay, but I would double check to make sure she's not up to anything. It might be good to get her info as well. That way you can report them the next time they are off leash and uncontrollable.

First thing please remember that these are cases of bad owners and don't take it out on how you feel about the dog breeds. I have a pit bull and it's really sad when people can't see past the one bad experance they had with a breed.
Secondly I had a suggestion for a dog deterrent.
I just pulled a goodle search for it because I can not remember what kind I have but its Citronella Spray. Dogs are supposed to hate it and it works really well to repell them. But the best thing is that it doesn't hurt them they just don't like it. Just a suggestion but it should work to protect your dog.

https://www.google.com/search?q=dog+deterrent+citronella&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a#bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&fp=5e763e608ea81d6c&q=dog+deterrent+citronella&rls=org.mozilla:en-US%3Aofficial&tbm=shop

Sorry to hear about Bodhi and I hope he was okay. When we first moved to Germany we had to stay in town before we moved onto base and while I was out walking Zeus some of the locals were not paying attention and allowed one of their dogs to attack Zeus. It was completely scary as heck and I was yelling.

As far as the German Shepherd, it sounds like it was the owners fault and not the breed. It always seems to work out that way with any dog. Growing up I had a German Shepherd that was a stray and was the sweetest dog I ever had. We only had him for 1 week when he got an open cut on his ear. Not knowing any better, I used alcohol to clean it. I was face to face with him and he could have ripped my face off but he didn't. He was a great dog

Honestly, I would contact animal control and possibly even make a police incident report with all of the information you have. If you and you dog don't feel safe on county land, that's their arena. Further more attacks could harm your dog mentally. I'd bring either a friend or a Paintball gun with frozen paintballs (those things hurt! but will not injure the dogs) with you.