Let's Talk About Doggies

Okay, I was "intemperate" in yesterday's post about bad doggies because I was pissed off, and for that I apologize (and I have removed said intemperate comment on my part). But since there is an issue here, I thought I'd talk about it in a new post rather than just in the comments.

You know, we've lived in the high country for more than a decade, and the only time I've had a lot of problems with unleashed aggressive dogs is over the last 6 months...some of it I think is new people moving up here and part of the local "mythology" is that now the dogs should have the "freedom to roam." Most of those free-roaming dogs will eventually end up in some other free-roaming animal's stomach, joining all those outdoor kitties who "deserved" some "free" time outdoors.

One of the big issues in this area are "rescue dogs." Quite admirably, this is a huge area for rescue dogs. Unfortunately, part of the problem is that there are people who get rescue dogs not out of altruistic reasons but because they are cheap, or simply out of ignorance, overlooking the fact that often rescue dogs often require a greater degree care, discipline and training. A few years back a neighbor rescued a huge German shepherd who hated cars, of all things. Early on, it slipped its lead and literally crashed into the side of my (moving) Honda Element, snarling and trying to bite the rear view mirror. Luckily, neither the dog nor the car were hurt, and the owner spent a huge amount of time over the next year or so gentling the big dog and making it a fine companion.

Alf the Wonder Beagle, bravely recovering from her assault and dreaming of bacon...

We are responsible pet owners. Granted, Alf is a beagle, originally trained as a show dog...as such, she may be the least aggressive animal I have ever seen. And yet she is always on lead, because she is our responsibility. I agree there are lots of off-lead dog up here, but they are overwhelmingly working dogs, and they represent zero problem...and are truly under "voice control." What voice control means is that the dog responds to the owner's command immediately...and the most important command is, "STOP!"

A large dog is a deadly weapon and clearly defined as such in the law. I say that as a person who has owned and raised malamutes, huskies and chows and spent vast amounts of time socializing and gentling those big, intelligent dogs. I also UNDERSTAND the kind of damage a big, or even a medium-sized dog can do. My chows were taught "STOP!" from the time they were puppies, with the specific purpose of being able to command them to break off an attack. Most people have no idea how fast a dog attack can happen and how amazingly violent it can be.

I was once walking my big male chow, Truffles, on lead when an alley cat I didn't see launched itself off a 5-foot stack of shipping crates straight at the dog's face. Before I could even respond in any way, I swear the chow simply "levitated," snatched the cat out of the air, snapped the cat's neck, then dropped it and kept right on walking as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

I once made the incredibly stupid mistake of stepping into a dogfight to break it up and ended up with the aggressor dog completely biting through my left hand. And it wouldn't turn loose, shaking and tearing. I was lucky enough to get a hold on the dog's neck and throat and choke it down until it broke off the attack, but it was a close thing. Amazingly, the bite didn't tear anything irreparable, but the hand took a long time to heal, and it scared the heck out of me about dog attacks.

Normally, we carry dog spray, but yesterday was a "walk of opportunity" in a public place; Alf was with us, the sun came out and the wind stopped for about 10 minutes, so we decided to give her a nice walk. Accordingly, yesterday I ordered additional spray cans of "enhanced" pepper spray for animals to carry in the vehicles so we'll have it when we do one of the spontaneous walks.

Most of our dog walks are on trails in the back country...that means if the dog is injured, as Alf was last year, it's a much longer transit to medical care. Even more importantly, if the person is injured, that delay can be fatal. A big dog (and by that I mean 50 pounds or heavier) can bring a person to the ground very quickly...ask Marshal Halloway, who was a military dog trainer. A huge part of the problem for us is that my Sweetie or I are going to move to protect Alf. That generally means scooping her up, which creates several additional problems — to grab her one of us has to put our hands and face into the middle of a dog attack...we then have a squirming, enraged or panic-stricken (and in the case of last year's attack, bloody) beagle in hand. If the other dog continues the attack, as it did last year, you're now off balance and can be brought to the ground, where you can quite literally be savaged.

The several attacks that have happened on the trail are even more dangerous because the aggressor dogs are already in motion, running full-tilt. If the dog decides to launch itself, you have virtually no time to react. It helps to "know" dogs...a growl, for instance, isn't an attack. In fact, my chows and my malamute went dead-silent when they were "serious." Growls and barks were warnings. In general, when we're approached by a strange dog off-lead in the back country, we watch Alf. Through scent and canine "body language," a dog will already know the "intentions" of an approaching dog. If the dog looks like Cujo, but Alf is bounding around like a puppy wanting to play, we're pretty sure it's A-okay. But if Alf darts behind our back, drops her tail or even urinates in fear, that's a whole different story...she's clearly gotten a message we need to pay attention to.

Obviously, laws regarding dangerous dogs vary from state to state and location to location. As a self-defense instructor, I'm going to come down on the same standards I would apply to an attacking human...am I or someone in my care "in the gravest extreme," that is, at risk for potentially massive or life-threatening injury? And size matters...a large aggressive dog, especially if I'm miles up a trail in the middle of nowhere, has the potential to do massive and fatal damage to me. A savage Pomeranian, not so much. I consider multiple off-lead dogs to be a proportionally much greater threat than a single dog, because I have seen a "pack response" — a single aggressive member of the pack triggers an aggressive response in all members of the pack.

Interestingly enough, in much of the West any dog "running, worrying or injuring" livestock can be killed, and the dog's owner is liable for all damages done by that dog (§ 35-43-126. Dog worrying stock). Colorado also has extensive "dangerous dogs" statutes.

Nobody wants to kill or injure someone's pet, however flawed that pet is. But here's the cold, hard fact...the second-to-the-last thing in the world I want to do is kill a dog, because I understand it's the owner's, not the dog's, failure. The last thing I want to is frantically try to get my Sweetie to a doctor before she bleeds out because I was too slow to respond to a clear threat.