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A stranger let my dog out by accident, he scratched someone and I’m scared he’ll be labelled as ‘dangerous’
1 year ago · 3 · Stress, +2
252
So…yeah.
Last night some neighbours had a party in one of the outbuildings next to the dogs yard. Wasn’t our party, don’t really know them, we just provided the space. We told them that one of our rescues has anxiety & can be reactive when stressed, and the other dog is friendly but a real escape artist - ‘so don’t go into the yard, there’s no reason to open this gate, you can get into the barn from the road and miss the yard completely’.
This morning, some people were here cleaning up cans etc, and apparently someone opened the gate to the dogs yard and didn’t shut it fully. The dogs had been outside all morning enjoying the sun, I was in the house and had no reason to think the gate was open because it’d been locked shut when I checked first thing.
The rescues got out, the anxious one jumped up at someone who was going past, ripped her shirt and scratched her chest with his nails before both my dogs ran off. He didn’t bite, her dog was on a lead & is ok (she’d picked it up, it was barking at my dog which is why he jumped), but I just feel sick about what happened.
After catching the dogs (nervous one came back straight away, other one not so much), I came back to the yard where the person’s mum was yelling at my parents. I get it, that shouldn’t have happened and must’ve been really scary, but at the same time it was a complete accident.
My nervous dog’s had scary interactions with offlead dogs before, when they ran up and crashed into him, one time at a socialising class when they were young an offlead dog picked up his brother and shook him, so he’s scared of other dogs and does everything he can to chase them away. He’s never bitten, although I have a muzzle for him anyway just because I know what it looks like when he’s trying to look scary. They’re never offlead unless it’s in a purpose-built place with no one else. The yard has 7ft wire on the gates and tall walls all around, as secure as you can get. We’ve now changed the combination lock on the gate.
I’m not gonna walk him this evening, so those other people can walk their dog without risking seeing us.
I don’t know what else to do. This kind of thing just makes me want to live somewhere completely secluded, where no one will ever walk past, there’s no parties and no risk of anyone else opening doors/gates without permission. I’ve spoken to trainers and behaviourists as well as vets several times in the past, and the vet doesn’t want to medicate him. One trainer said he’ll never be good with strangers, another said to keep doing counter-conditioning work (which makes most sense, but it’s been 3 years with no improvement), another said just avoid wherever possible, and then there’s all the alpha-show-it-who’s-boss people who recommend aversive tools and creating a state of learned helplessness…
I‘m worried that the person’s mum is going to report to police or something. I honestly don’t know where we stand with this, because it was a complete accident and I don’t know who opened the gate. The dog’s an absolute sweetheart with people he knows. Right now he’s asleep on the sofa, snoring away, no idea anything’s wrong. I love him to bits and would literally just go somewhere completely isolated if that was an option I could afford.
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If the dog only ripped the person's shirt and scratched them you should hear nothing more about this. I was once out when a person walking their dog came passed me and as they passed the dog came close enough to me to bite a hole in my pants and they were ones I really liked. I didn't do anything even though the dog may have been trying to bite me.
ReplyThat’s kind of reassuring, although I think this person (well, their mum particularly. Person was maybe 20s) was really freaked out. Scary that’s happened to you though - they really shouldn’t have been that close! Hope you weren’t hurt & were able to get the pants fixed.
I guess it literally just depends on whether they report it or not, and then how persistent they are. Gotta keep doing my best to keep the silly creatures out of trouble from now on…
ReplyPut a lock on the gate.
Reply