[Simone's Mom]

Hello Basset friends. People dump dogs in the farm fields that surround our subdivision. Simone was attacked by a stray pit bull yesterday. He stopped when Simone fought back & I screamed "no" like a crazed banshee; he ran away when I yelled "no, go home". Simone is fine, no injury. She continued on her merry way & greeted the neighbor's dog with a happy wagging tail. We also have coyotes coming into the neighborhood from the fields, two dogs have been killed. How do you protect your dogs from attack? Should I drop her leash so she can get away? I thought of mace/pepper spray or baseball bat but I could end up getting Simone. Thanks, Sherry.

 

[MollyMcFrecklesMom]

Oh poor Simone! Glad she was unhurt, but that's such a scary thing to have happen. I've been on the receiving end of a neighbor's dog attack and honestly don't know how to prevent it. It's one of my biggest fears when I am out with my dogs.

There was a thread a while back when one of the beloved bassets was attacked (I want to say it was Worm, but I could be mistaken). Members were weighing in on the very question you asked, so maybe do a search and find the thread.

 

[Mikey T]

Prevention of any type pf attack is being vigilent and know what is going on in the suroundings. prevent is adjusting before a threat occurs once a threat has occured you are responding to the treat not preventing it. Peper spray, arms bat etc are all means of resisting a threat not means of preventing one

So Preventing a threat would be not walking at dawn or dusk when the coyotes are about. Preventing a pit bull attack is noticing the dog before he noteces you abd adjusting you corsue path accordingly Prevention is all about being diligent and focus on the surounding. Attack and threats occur when we are not paying attention.

 

[CatherineM]

I had that happen once. The elevator door opened, and the pit bull was right there, so there was no way to avoid it. I screamed really loudly, and jumped in between them. My basset was scared to death. The apartment manager evicted the pit bull. She loved my dog and was afraid if the pit bull would attack him, it might attack a child.

 

[Annie714]

I'm glad Simone and you are ok. We have yet to encounter this type of thing. (Knock on wood!) Many many many years ago, like maybe 4-5 lol, we were on a walk near a local dog park and I noticed we were being followed by a coyote. I had no idea what to do so we backed away slowly while facing the coyote. It disappeared and we found our way out of the area. That's about the scariest thing we have faced. We also had a dalmation get a bit aggressive at a gross dog park a few weeks ago, had the owner not intervened when he did I was more than ready to stick my hands in start pushing. I know that isn't recommended but I'd lay in traffic for Annie if I needed to.

 

[Boomer's Mom]

Yes, it was Worm that was attacked at a dog park. Here's the thread:

http://www.basset.net/boards/general-basset-hound-discussion/13491-poor-guy.html

 

[Wworm]

Yeah, it was me. If you wanna see what happened and what everyone had to say, ya can take a look at the link in Boomah's post.

Simone, glad to hear you are ok and even fought back!

my person told me to pass on a couple things. after thinking about it a lot, will be getting pepper spray and a small foghorn. Pepper spray mainly for prevention, to use on a dog that is charging towards us. if the fight's already happening, she doesn't want to use pepper spray as much, first because she might pepper spray me, and second because it might not be effective in stopping the other dog, and then it would really be difficult to intervene w/pepper spray in the air.

Foghorn to try to make sudden loud noise so the attacking dog/coyote will stop for a moment, then my owner can pull me away.

A weapon of mass destruction, like a bat or pool cue. Woulda been helpful in the attack i was in, because i was lying there and the other dogs were chewin' on me. my person says that she coulda used something on the big dog's backs or kicked them (tho someone told us how they got bit by an attacking dog like that). but WMD (weap.m.destruc) not so useful if it is a frenzy and the dogs are running/jumping around. ie. hard to know where to strike.

my person has learned that dogfights can really happen anywhere, anytime when there are 2 dogs. even at my evening playgroup with super responsible owners and nice dogs who are overall not aggressive. the other day, Maggie, a nice lab retriever, and an Australian shepherd were not getting along and they got into a scuffle. my person wasn't going to intervene because it wasn't me. but she says even if she wanted to, it happened so fast and there was so much jumping and changing positions, it was impossible to know where to strike a dog with a WMD. the Australian shepherd's owner's a vet tech and went in and pulled her big dog away and into her arms. that stopped the fight. but risky methinks.

so these days, in addition to prevention, we are planning to deal w/potential dog attacks w/4 things to carry: 1. pepper spray 2. small foghorn 3. WMD 4. break stick (it's what you can use when a pit bull bites... i think Mikey put the links in the 'Poor Guy' thread).

dunno if this is helpful info, but this is what we decided on...
--your pal, Worm

ps. my leash was dropped and I couldn't get away from the 2 dogs even tho i tried running away from them...

 

[Soundtrack]

I agree that vigilance is the main "weapon" - prevent strange dogs from approaching in the first place using whatever means necessary.

 

[Simone's Mom]

I understand vigilance is best but this dog charged from between two houses with teeth bared, it was only 20 feet to us, he was on us in a split second. I don't know if you've ever seen a coyote come out of a corn field but you cannot see it until it's head sticks out. It is super Stephen King creepy. Thanks for your understanding and compassion "Mom of Wworm", I'm glad both of you are ok too. I just hate feeling helpless.

 

[duder]

I understand vigilance is best but this dog charged from between two houses with teeth bared, it was only 20 feet to us, he was on us in a split second. I don't know if you've ever seen a coyote come out of a corn field but you cannot see it until it's head sticks out. It is super Stephen King creepy. Thanks for your understanding and compassion "Mom of Wworm", I'm glad both of you are ok too. I just hate feeling helpless.

Sounds like there are quite a few threats around you. Being vigilant is great, but I would carry a baseball bat with me.

There are quite a few coyotes where I live and I always carry a bat with me when I walk the dogs in the morning or at night when the coyotes are most active. Any dog or animal that is dumb enough to come after my boys wont live too long to regret it.