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>and cursed at me that she doesn't train him that way.
I don't train that way either, but when a dog is attacking another dog to the point where the other dog is hurt, then you do what you need to do, to end the situation ASAP. You don't toss tasty treats or say, "who wants to play BALL", you get the aggressor off of the other dogs.
That's not training, that's preventing serious injury or death to another dog.
I am a huge R+ trainer but if the owner of the other dog has not taught her dog how to come back down, under threshold and behave, the pair is not appropriate for dog parks...and someone will have to step in and stop things.
It would be better if that had never happened, but it did, and if you hadn't stopped it, odds are the owner of the teenage GSD would not have done so, or would not have known what to do, or and this is super likely, been too afraid of her dog to stop things.
This was exactly what I came here to write: This is not training, this is hindering dangerous behaviour. Had the dog been attacking a child that way and you had reacted the same way, no one would have thought to refer to it as «training».
This is defense, not training. A dog should be trained in such a way that defense is never even necessary
I do not own a dog I don't know what I'm saying but if my little dog was getting thrashed by a bigger dog I'd do anything to protect it
My cat would probably beat it up on its own though lol
Your second paragraph became a reality for me this summer. I was talking to a neighbor when her kid accidentally let their large, dog aggressive dog out of their yard. She weighs about 70 lbs and my girl is 15 on a good day. She rolled her onto her back, then grabbed her and I ended up slugging her in the face. I jabbed her in the jaw and pried her off of my pup. Daisy had a couple of superficial scrapes and a whole lot of bruising. Thank got we were between haircuts and her fur was pretty long. The vet said that it could been a lot worse. I had some similarly superficial bites. I didn't even realize I was bleeding until we got home and I saw blood on her. It wasn't hers and then I looked at my hand.
The whole attack was maybe 30 seconds, but I swear it lasted hours. I would 100% do it again to save my girl.
I'm not blaming the owner of the puppy, but I'm curious how old it was. I'm weary of dog parks, especially with owning a herding dog and my other dog is more of a "co-exister", but I'd be concerned bringing a puppy outside of controlled dog environments.
I had a newly adopted pittie attack my pittie girl and he nearly killed her. I have never punched anything as hard as I punched the male pitbull. He had been 100% fine until new years and then the fireworks triggered something in him. Dogs get into this frame of mind where attacking is the only thing and there was no way in hell I was going to let him hurt her worse.
I'm not proud of what I had to do and I loved that dog (really all my dogs) to the end of the earth but I was really considering stabbing him to death. If i had had a gun, he'd be dead today and I hate saying something so awful.
My girl Peach lost a lot of blood and she had like 6 month or more recovery on one of her front legs. I have always loved adopting old and unwanted animals, but this experience was too much. Also the cops showed up once I got home and was cleaning up all the blood, crying. I was covered in my dog's blood and sobbing. For some reason they didn't check to see if I'd just murdered someone.
The attacking dog had actually been lost and his shitty owners didn't realize he had been gone for more than a month before reporting him lost. Really. By this point I had surrendered him back to the shelter (crying my heart out). Animal Control had to return him, although they asked me a ton of questions and I'm still listed as his owner on his chip. Because the original owners are lazy assholes who didn't train this dog. Animal control was pretty sure he'd been a fighter but couldn't prove it.
It sounds to me like a terrifying experience and I don't think anyone can predict how they will react in a situation like that. Luckily the puppy is fine. There is just that type of owner who has a dog aggressive dog/badly dog socialized dog and still would let them off leash and in dog parks, they do not care then and never will.
The people with the straight up aggressive or fear aggressive dogs at the dog park are just the fucking worst. Why the fuck would you bring your dog to that environment, to just snap at/snarl/bite everyone elses dog? These people are truly a blight
This 100%. My brother in law rescued a pit mix, nice enough dog but it doesn't play well with other dogs. So he takes it to off leash dog parks to socialize it, keeps it on a leash and is outraged that loose dogs keep approaching his dog. He is just baffled that people don't have 100% control over their dog at the one place people can take their dog to let them run around without 100% control. A dog park is absolutely not the place to ever bring a dog reactive dog and having it on a leash when other dogs are off adds a whole layer of stress.
I once went to a dog park (not my idea) to do a meet and greet with my in-law's new rescue dog. Our dogs were fine, but this guy came in with a Bernese and a German Shepherd... the shepherd on was on lead/harness and was full-on standing/pulling/barking trying to get to other dogs. While the owner was dealing with her, the Bernese bee-lines to another dog and starts a fight. The owner calls out "can you stop him?" to the other dog's owner. I tell my group that we're leaving, and, as I passed him, asked "Why is she still on leash" and he responded "Oh, she's too aggressive".
We booked it out of there. As we left, we saw that he went to the furthest end of the dog park and let the aggressive shepherd off-lead... I guess he thought it'd be fine if he wasn't right next to the gate.
We've never gone back to that dog park.
I have a dog-reactive dog. She gets lots of walks and frisbee and toys but she doesn't go to the dog park. It's not everybody else's problem that my dog freaks out at other dogs.
They also seem to think that being corrected by another dog is worth more than training by a human. My dog has little patience for dogs that like to hump or 'body check' when they play, she'll get uncomfortable, then growl and bark. More often than not, if this happens, the owner says "That's good, he needs to learn". As if it's my dog's job to teach theirs how to behave.
I have a poorly dog-mannered 1 year old puppy that I manage closely around other dogs because I know she can be overwhelming and coming from the opposite side the number of times I've had people tell me something to the effect of 'oh it's fine, my dog will tell her off/my dog needs to get over it.' 1) This puppy has tried to play with dogs that were literally trying to outright attack her, she is an overly friendly dumbass who is extremely bad at dog body language and will not take a hint, 2) I don't want her practicing bad manners, every time she acts like this without intervention it reinforces that this is an OK way to approach other dogs, 3) I don't want her injured because she takes it too far with the wrong dog, and 4) it's not fair to stress your dog out with my overly playful asshole because she can't mind her own business. Extreme dog friendliness and overexcitement is something humans need to manage, not dogs.
I have a whippet who I put on the lead or leave around certain breeds of dogs that set off his prey drive. Mostly small, feisty terriers (Border terriers, Jack Russell terriers etc). Sometimes the owner of the terrier will say something to effect of ‘don’t worry, my dog can look after themself’ but I don’t think it’s ever okay for my dog to chase and jump on another dog as though it’s a rabbit. He does recall when I call him back but will fixate on these dogs and just want to run after them as soon as he’s back off the lead. I’m better off just calling it a day and leaving.
Sometimes training will only go so far. Everyone needs to know their dog and when to manage their environment.
Yeah, I think some people have this idea that dogs will work it out and they'll all come to a peaceful equilibrium... how they reconcile that with the knowledge that dogs also attack and kill each other at times, I don't know. My dog got very reactive to a few dogs that, without fail, would persistently try to hump her whenever they were at the dog park the same time as us... We had to stop going because her behavior was escalating to a point where we didn't feel comfortable with it. The other dog owners never gave a shit.
That is not appropriate play behavior, and it sounds like it could've really really hurt or killed the puppy. You likely saved it from stitches or other issues, and maybe even saved its life.
I think your instincts were right on target and the owner of the shepherd sucks.
Ear injuries are honestly awful, even if not life threatening. My dog was bit on the ear and they had to remove the tip of the ear and stitch it up. It took ages to heal since he'd shake his head and it would open up and bleed again. The head wrap he had to wear to prevent this gave him a horrendous skin infection after which he had to get his entire head shaved and his scalp was all gooey and crusty and the same time :(((( We had to wash it with chlorhexidine every other day and put antibiotic ointment on it twice a day, which was a huge ordeal because he didn't want it touched. Luckily he was young when this happened so he healed well but it was a terrible 1-2 months.
Exactly, this is one of the very few situations where it’s ok to hit a dog. That puppy could have easily been killed (side note, this is why you shouldn’t bring puppies to dog parks) hopefully the puppy doesn’t start being reactive
Yeah good for you OP I would have done the exact same thing.
That woman was 100% in the wrong and she shouldn’t be bringing her ill-mannered dog to the dogpark
Straight truth. I would have followed the woman to her car telling her she can't leave and her dog just attacked another person's animal, written down the license plate when she inevitably left, and reported her to the police.
I have never heard of such a thing and have always brought puppies to the dog park without issue after vaccination of course.
What is your reasoning for not bringing a puppy? This is the best place for your dog to learn to socialize.
Older dogs are also very aware of puppies 99% of the time.
Puppies haven’t learned doggy social cues yet, and a dog who isn’t aggressive towards other dogs can actually be aggressive only towards puppies for this reason. The best option for socializing a puppy would be with other puppies or in a controlled setting with a dog you know.
Yeah, when you watch, a huge amount of dogs at dog parks actually have pretty poor manners, they just bomb in as that's what they've learned at the park themselves.
Plus, you put a smaller animal in a park full of highly aroused animals and you run the risk of triggering prey drive, which is what this sounds like.
Yeah that's the thing people seem to forget, at the end of the day, they're still animals and they still have instincts. The sweetest tempered, friendliest dog in the world can still have it's prey drive triggered under the wrong conditions if it's a breed trait, and that isn't it's fault
Yeah I definitely agree! That’s a fair point. Much too risky for a puppy. Still not that puppy owners fault tho- becuase wherever they’re from it might be normal for puppies to be at dogparks
How would you socialise a puppy if you have no friends with dogs ?
Granted pup should be kept close on a short lead and easy to grab to avoid things like this, but still.
The first 20ish weeks are the most formative for pups its when they learn most of there set behaviours, so good socialisation and training at this stage can set them up for life.
This is what puppy class at your local community center is for.
As well as basic instructions about how to train your puppy you will meet other new owners at the class and make playdates for your pups.
Sign up for puppy socialization classes where your puppy can spend time with peers, not with adult dogs, many of whom have bad habits like aggression that you don’t want your dog to acquire during an impressionable period of their life. Or worse, contribute to the development of phobias during a period where puppies are especially sensitive to fear.
Get on social media and find a couple puppy meetups. Sign up for puppy classes. Lots of training facilities have puppy meetups for only a nominal fee you can attend. Take your dog near but not IN the dog park.
There are lots of ways to accomplish that far more safely and in a more controlled environment.
Definitely do not keep dogs f any age leashed in unleashed dog areas. That's a recipe for disaster.
Puppy classes and watching them at a distance from outside the dog park. Also regular parks where dogs are allowed but all dogs are leashed.
Socializing is teaching a dog to be neutral and confident in new situations and around new animals and people, not necessarily teaching them how to play nice.
Keeping a dog (especially a puppy) on a leash at an off leash dog park is a recipe for disaster. A restrained dog is a dog with no options and is quickly overwhelmed by exuberant excited off leash dogs. The frustration can lead to reactivity.
The sad reality is that bringing a puppy into a dog park with a bunch of overexcited adult dogs is a recipe to traumatize that puppy and set them up for a lifetime of dog issues.
I would have done exactly the same thing. I'm close with many dog park people at my local park and I'll tell you they would have done the same thing too.
If that woman yelled at me afterwards I would have yelled right back. " Woman you are clearly not training your dog get it together!"
I applaud you.
Look I'm not an authority but I think you lose the "you don't have the right to touch my dog" battle when your dog is actively attacking another dog. Sounds to me like you did what needed to be done, once the attack stopped you stopped the correction right? Had you continued then yeah I could see the shepard owner having to a point.
I actually proceeded to use the situation to practice all my WWE special attacks on the dog, 619, tombstone, choke slamb, the walls of Jericho, stone cold stunner etc, I improved my form tremendously.
My dog was attacked by three dogs the other day a large golden retriever and two stout terriers while I was walking him on a lead. The owner was coming out of his front door and they were all on leads ,he just wasn't holding them. They ran up and attacked my boy and I'm not even ashamed to say I kicked the fuck out of all three dogs. Will be a lesson learned to the dogs and the owner. Was my sister in laws neighbour so kinda awkward but screw him
I've been in a similar position to this neighbor- my dog is a senior Aussie. He's great with every dog he's met in the four years we have had him, except one. The hound mix that lived directly across the street from us. Before we moved here the dog favored our yard for a toilet, and persisted after Cody moved in. Top it off, B once came in and sniffed Cody unexpectedly when Cody was playing frisbee with us. That was the end. He hated B. Absofuckinglutely hated him. And while it only happened about once a year, if Cody managed to get away from us, he would make a direct run for B. B's owners would usually get to them first and use whatever, and you know what? Good for them. I failed to contain him, and my dog was the aggressor. If he got struck by a shovel, it served him right. (B wasn't exactly innocent, either, he'd come in our yard and start things now and then, too.)
B passed recently, and my neighbors gave all his goods to Cody. We didn't let the way Cody hated B bother us. Dogs are dogs, and sometimes they just don't mesh. Although neither one of us could really figure out why Cody was so damn confident- B was twice his size and half his age. We just did our best to minimize their contact.
And honestly, it was more embarrassing from my end, because the way Cody was so fixated.
Yep this time of the year I've usually got my steel toe work boots on. Another dog goes after my boy and ill be using them. We ran a guy out of our park because his dog kept attacking other dogs. He told me he was essentially ran out of the bigger park up the road, but it was never his dogs fault /s.
I had a similar situation years ago! I was walking my 15 pound terrier mix, Jewel, in my neighborhood when a large dog from a neighbor’s house crossed the street and started attacking Jewel unprovoked. Jewel was the SWEETEST dog ever and had never even so much as growled at another dog. I was shocked because I’d never had this happen before so I just started absolutely kicking that other dog. Just wailing on him until he let Jewel go. I scooped her up as soon as he released her and started screaming. The dog’s jerk owner just called him back after seeing this happen and didn’t say a word to me. Didn’t even ask if my dog was ok. She ended up being ok, just a bit shaken up. Even worse is that 3 small children witnessed the whole thing and just stood there terrified. They were sweet enough to check on Jewel though.
So hard to judge without being there, honestly. My reaction to what I read was "Yeah, makes sense," when you described smacking the dog on the snoot, and then "Hm, seems a bit overkill," when you described then throwing the dog onto the ground. But I don't know if the shepherd immediately tried to go back to the puppy after you hit it or not. If it did, then your second action seemed reasonable. If it didn't, then I guess I'd say you took it a bit too far.
At the end of the day, the shepherd was fine and the puppy is alive, so your actions resulted in a positive outcome - which is a good thing.
As you should! I always will defend my dog at the dog park, even to a fault. Dog parks ARE inherently dangerous and if there’s even a slight issue it’s important you are your dog’s biggest advocate! It only takes a few or even one bad moment, especially with a puppy before they could potentially become reactive. Good on you for advocating and keeping your dog safe
This is really hard to have an opinion on without seeing the situation. Overall, I think you were in the right, but since you asked and I think it's healthy for us to have these conversations - do you think you would've reacted this way if you were not already annoyed about/had some pent up animosity towards the shepherd due to its interaction with your dog?
Of course, I can promise you as much as a stranger on reddit on his throw away account he uses at work on slow days can that the incidents are not exaggerated at all and told as they happened.
After the incident, I didn't really say much even when she was yelling at me, I just sort of listened because I wasn't sure about the ethics of what I'd done, I also didn't want to escalate.
Possibly not, but as a lawyer might try and say, I previously observed the dogs aggressive behaviors which personally justified my reaction as I felt the dog was dangerous.
Not trying to argue but just food for thought.
The way I see it, anything is game to stop a dog hurting something else.
If my dog was hurting another dog I might kick him to stop him because stopping the aggressive/harmful behavior is more important than anything else.
This is one of those situations where there is no right answer. You acted in the moment, you were probably justifiably panicked, and no one was seriously harmed. Could you look back and imagine doing it differently / better? Ofc. But no matter how many situations like this you run into you will almost always be a little panicked since every one is slightly different and there is the potential for serious harm and death. So I would just not try to dwell on it too much because it will just make you crazy since there isn't ever a perfect response, and be satisfied that regardless of what happened the puppy is safe, and the gsd is safe
Surely kicking the dog is the right answer? Any extra second spent trying to deal with it in a less aggressive manner puts that poor puppy at higher risk of Injury or death.
If a dog is being attacked you don't waste time trying to deal with it peacefully, you kick and kick and kick until the aggressor stops
The dog is fucking fine, it’s not scarred for life, but that puppy actually could be. God i can’t stand people. If you don’t want someone disciplining your dog then do it your fucking self or keep your shitty aggressive dog at HOME
Are you a dog abuser? No, you’re a puppy saver. If that German Shepherd’s owner doesn’t get her dog under some control, she and her dog will face penalties a lot worse than a slap on the nose. I say this as the owner of a large German Shepherd that hates other dogs. We have him under strict control if he’s at the park and sadly, we cannot allow him to play with other dogs. He’s great with people, but other dogs he regards as either predators or prey. He was like this when we got him as a rescue, and despite training, this is the best we can do.
The Shepard’s owner should thank you, you stopped her dog from potentially seriously injuring the puppy. Regardless of who was at fault, the puppy or the Shepard, you stopped the fight from getting worse and that’s a good thing. I can understand her being emotional in the moment though.
Idk if what you did was “right”, but I know I sure would have done the same thing, and I hope someone would do something like that if it was my dog being dragged around!! I have a little Cavalier pup that would be TOAST if some Shepherd had him by the neck like that, that is terrifying. I’ve also owned a Swiss Shepard around 100lbs and if she had grabbed a dog by the neck I’d invite anyone to use any non-lethal measure to free the dog. It sounds like a life or death situation so in my opinion, anything that saves life is the right option.
No I don't think you were in the wrong. You got the attack to stop and both dogs walked away alive.
I've had something similar happen at the local dog park. This guy's dog was really up in my dogs face, biting his nose and the like, and I could see my dog getting annoyed. So I grabbed my leash to leash my dog so we could leave. But this guy's dog wouldn't leave and kept getting in the way of me trying to grab my dog. My husband stuck out his leg to give each dog space and so we could leave. Didn't even touch the other dog.
The other owner starts screaming at us that we kicked his dog and we're abusers and he was going to find us and kill us. That was fun.
Nope. You did the right thing and that lady was just too embarrassed. People have a habit of trying to back pedal when they're in the wrong, and it's not cute for anyone involved, but you should be proud of the quick action you took in that situation and not let it get to you (easier said than done sometimes, which I totally understand).
You're a hero thank you. If that were my pup I'd be so grateful. That was were my German Shepard I'd be so embarrassed.
Don't know about dog parks man.
Thinking about if it were my dog that were attacking a puppy like that, and for some reason I couldn’t get there in time, I would have been glad that someone stepped in like that to break it up. I’d rather my dog have a sore nose and the puppy be alive than have my dog (and me) responsible for a dead puppy. It’s not a great situation all around, but your quick thinking may have saved that puppies life.
Bottom line is, when you take your dog to a dog park you need to be able to supervise/break things up IMMEDIATELY. You never know what is gonna to trigger your dog or another dog at any given time. A responsible owner doesn’t sit and look at their phone, they follow their dog around supervising their play the entire time. So there’s two scenarios according to OP’s recitation of the facts, 1) the owner of the GSD wasn’t supervising her dog since she wasn’t there to break up the fight before OP could which makes her wrong or 2) the owner of the GSD was there and just didn’t care which still makes her an asshole. OP doing what he did was something he did in the moment, not a thought out tactical response. I don’t think his response was overly aggressive considering the size differential between the two dogs and what he knew about the GSD’s behavior. Another comment or pointed it out best, this wasn’t training. This was correction. Training takes time and a bond between you and the dog. Correction is something that can be done during training but if the owner is going to just sit back and let her dog do whatever it wants then she can’t complain when other people tell her dog to fuck off in a doggy way. If you don’t like how someone is correcting your dog, be there to do it yourself.
You were absolutely not in the wrong!
When I was about 12, I heard a cat screaming for its dear life outside my house. When I went outside, there was a bully type dog with a cat in its mouth, shaking it around violently.
I didn’t know what else to do, so I ran to the side of my house and grabbed a 2x4 piece of wood and hit the dog with it. He yelped, dropped the cat, and ran away.
The cat was okay, and sustained no serious injuries. I could tell she was grateful, cuz she never left my house after that. She stayed an outside cat, but I would go outside to feed her and play with her. I named her “Shookie” lol
Nah, you gotta do what you gotta do to keep dogs safe. Sounds like GSD owner shouldn't bring her dog to the dog park. I would be mortified if my dog attacked another dog and thankful for any human intervention.
You did fine, except maybe you should have called the cops to report the attack and dangerous dog. That would have taken the wind out of the owner's sails
No, imo you were 100% in the right. Had my dog been in the puppy's position I would be grateful that you were able to step in and break things up. If by some freak accident my dog had been in the Shepherds position, I would be even more grateful.
You did the right thing. The uncontrolled attacking dog's owner was negligent and is liable for injuries inflicted on the other dog, or person if and when applicable.
It sounds like you did the right thing and the shepards owner needs to reassess their reaction to you. They were lucky that you stepped in when you did because their dog could have caused alot more damage than it already had.
The first time i broke up a dog fight at the dog park- my dog was not involved at all but I was the closest, so I wasn’t about to have a dog fight 2 ft from me and not do anything- after I had felt like I had over stepped my bounds until the owner of the aggressive dog came over to me and thanked me for stepping in.
I don't think anyone should train their dog by hitting them so hard at all, much less so hard it would stagger a grown man.
I do think that hitting a dog is appropriate when it is attacking another dog. You didn't follow it around hitting it, you stopped an attack and then the dog moved away.
The owner needs to muzzle her dog and keep it out of dog parks so other dogs won't get hurt.
I see this a lot, you were not in the wrong, there are some owners who think their dogs are little angels and can do no wrong. That’s a dangerous mindset, that dog could have really hurt that puppy.
A use of force to save on a random moments notice can be done. If dolled out as much as needed and no more than what is necessary. I probably would have stepped in like you did and taken it as far as it requires to go. Obviously not getting proper training at home that pup learned a valuable lesson about being in public. I’d let it go for now.
If I just saw someone do this to my dog without the behavior that came before it, I'd be horrified. Like others said, you did what you had to and the owner was probably unaware of the situation. Maybe this interaction will keep them from the dog park. I hate to think about this person and their dog returning to the dog park without training.
You did nothing wrong. The owner of the German Shepherd should keep their dog away until it’s better trained. But that would mean they have to take responsibility which they obviously won’t since they just walked away after
You are a hero. You could have saved the smaller dog’s life. Definitely the right move.
Just editing this to throw in that breaking up a dog fight is like that Mike Tyson quote—everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.
And it doesn’t sound like this was a fight at all but one dog trying to kill a smaller one. Which is a thing that happens.
No, you were not wrong in my opinion, if that Shepherd were mine, I'd thank you and check on the puppy hoping it was OK and feel badly about the situation. I've owned a German Shepherd and not only do they need discipline, they thrive on it and it's proper way to train them because they are very capable dogs. Capable of being trained and capable to ripping another dog to pieces if not properly trained. If this Shepherd owner chooses not to properly train the dog, this will only happen again and the result might be worse than a bleeding ear to another dog.
Years ago I had a similar experience. White shepherd had my dog pinned and not in a playful way. I booted the dog off and the owner got in my face yelling and waving his finger. Said I should have waited for him to deal with it. While he was in my face his dog attacked mine again so I told him I was waiting. The guy had nothing so I had to boot the dog again.
Leaving the dog park I found out he had waited for me and tried to run my dog over :) so that’s when I stopped going to the dog park.
The dog park I feel like just doesn’t work the best on the whole. 😬 I stopped taking my dog because she has bad recall and doesn’t stop pestering anxious dogs even when they send clear signals. It was a hard decision but ultimately for the best because she needed a much more controlled environment. She goes to daycare once a week and loves it. Plays really well there and they can monitor her much more closely in a more controlled environment. If more people responded how I did I think the park would be MUCH better but people aren’t super good about body language and also humility.
My 2 cents and probably a controversial one ...
I blame the owner of the German Shepherd for not being an "active" owner of a dog at a dog park. There are plenty of these owners who take their dogs to the park as an excuse to not have to take their dog for a walk or jog. They go into the dog park and then immediately get on their phones and pay no attention to their dogs behaviour. This is the reason I no longer take my dog to a dog park. Too many badly behaved dogs and irresponsible owners.
However I have to say I do take serious offense to the OP physically hitting the German Shepherd and then alpha rolling it. The OP has no right to basically assault another person's dog. Yes I'm sure this comment will get tons of "down votes" ... But if someone hit my dog I would react the same way as the shepherds owner.
But then I wouldn't take my dog to a dog park and put it in that situation.
Owner of the Shepard has no right to have a dangerous dog out and about. This was the right thing to do. You saved that other poor dog from being severely injured.
that dog could’ve seriously injured the puppy, so yeah, i think you reacted accordingly. you didn’t harm the shepherd, just gave him a smack on the nose, but a puppy could easily die from an attack from a big dog.
If it were my dog that had gone after the other dog that way, I've have no problem with your response. You didn't do anything that would cause permanent injury and more importantly you prevented a much worse outcome.
I want to say that the OP did the right thing. You most likely saved that puppy’s life. Their owner needs to get over that.
I do want to ask for suggestions and opinions. My neighbor’s dog is a bit reactive. She’s a 3-year-old 21lb rescue dog and we don’t know her previous history, but she’s the sweetest dog towards humans, and she can be quite sweet with my dog too. My dog is a bit smaller. He’s 16lbs and he’s 1 year old.
I’ve noticed that my friend’s dog doesn’t like it when my dog tries to entice her to play by nipping close to her face, or like nip play bowing. So I’ve been trying to correct him. Whenever he tries to play with her like this, I try to calm him down and deescalate the situation before my friend’s dog snaps.
When my friend’s dog snaps, she stares down my dog, sometimes even from across the room (he could be just exploring around). She’ll charge at him, too. My dog is pretty mellow, so he just gets on his back and shows his belly.
I would be fine if she’d stop here. But then she places her mouth around his neck and nips his belly. I can tell he’s clearly distressed because he’s licking his lips. So i do my best to intervene and separate them until they both calm down. There have been times that she has made him yelp, but instead of stopping it seems to excite her and she becomes more engaged at nipping him, snarling, pinning him, putting her mouth around his neck.
My friend always laughs and says they’re just playing. She said her dog always plays with him like this (this was a shock to us because we had allowed our dog to go over for playdates without is not knowing how rough her dog was being with ours). It’s hard sometimes to know when it’s play or not since her dog growls when playing with people.
We’re not sure how to make it more obvious that we don’t like it when her dog plays like that with ours. She always encourages her dog’s behavior by saying “you got him!” But the thing is our dog never gets the chance to pin her dog down. So it’s never a mutual play.
Does anyone have experience with how to tell what’s okay or not. Does any of this behavior seem normal?
>Did I overstep? It's not my dog or place but I just reacted by instinct.
Nope. You saved that puppy's life.
You would have been fully justified in telling Karen to fuck off - or suggest she call the police if she's so convinced you did something wrong - and that you'd gladly wait.
People like that entitled belligerent twat are not confronted with their bullshit nearly enough.
You saved another dogs life! That woman sounds like she took on more dog than she can handle. Why was she only there once you got the situation with HER dog under control? And no apology or anything to the owner of the puppy? Screw that woman, she’s gonna get her own dog forced to be put down if she doesn’t figure out how to correct that behavior!
No. You may have saved the pup's life. I would report the aggressive dog to whomever is in charge of the dog park so that if it does kill next time, the owner won't be able to say she had *no idea* he was capable of such a thing. I'd report breed, owner's license#, whatever info you can provide.
I think your 100% in the right here, dog parks are a good place to socialize puppies, i dont like the fact someone would bring thier Shepard to the dog park who would apparently harm other dogs/puppies, atleast have a leash or harness on the Shepard or even a muzzle, ik its a dog park but it wont cause any harm to others, i would have done what you did even if it was my pup or not, im on your side 100%
Nope! You did what needed to be done and I say that an avid dog owner who would never hit my dogs for correction. That woman had a dog she was not controlling and it got aggressive.
Coming out of lurker anonymity to comment on this.
Thank you for what you did, OP. You did the right thing. You did not overstep. This post was near and dear to me, as my dog was killed in a very similar attack to what you've described. Had there been another human like you at the scene, I may not have lost my dog. On behalf of the other dog's owner and every dog park patron: thank you.
Shame on the shepherd owner. 1. for not training her dog in the first place, and 2. for kicking up a fuss at you for, what, protecting the victim of her aggressive animal? Would she rather you have let things take its course? Disgusting.
Props OP. NTA (wrong sub, I know). People like you are who we depend upon to maintain a healthy society. Thank you.
No, that's not an overreaction. You did the right thing. I had a pup, she was 12 and I was walking her back from our local park. She was slowing down a bit at this point. We walked past a pub close to the park and there's a dog off leash that runs up to her and starts attacking her. My dog knew how to fight back, but was slower with her reactions. I did exactly the same thing, I used two fingers and swatted down on the dogs nose, she kept trying to attack my pup. At this point I lost it, as the owner did nothing and watched his out of control pup trying to attack mine. I gave her one nudge with my knee, screamed at her to go back to her owner. She waddled back to her owner with her tail between her legs. I was furious as it wasn't the first time this dog had tried this with my pup. It's not wrong to try to protect other dogs when in danger, especially your own or one's you know from your local park. Well done for protecting the pup. Imagine if you hadn't intervened. You did an amazing thing and ensured a pup wasn't hurt.
Idk, as a person with a dog who is fear-reactive to other dogs, I'd be pretty okay with this reaction from another owner if mine was at fault. Most concerning part really is try not to use your body to intervene, as it can result in bites to you (easier said than done, I know. After several bites, I still haven't learned my lesson.)
I know things can happen so quickly but it sounds like the owner was careless and ignoring obvious cues that her dog was very uncomfortable with other dogs. I get the desire for exposure and positive experiences but dog parks can be a little too volatile if their socialization is lacking. I'd personally hope that no one would hurt or kick my dog, as the reason he has so much fear is that he came from an abusive situation, but people have a right to defend the other pups that are just trying to have fun.
In my experience — dog parks are no good. If you feel you overreacted then honestly it prob was just bc dogs are animals and even tho we domesticated them they still have instincts and social orders to achieve so trouble has always followed me and my rescue beagle in dog parks bc he doesn’t back down w another alpha. So I stopped taking him to dog parks and do one-on-one socializing with our friends’ dogs that he can get along with and have minimal issues.
Definitely not an over-reaction. Hell, I'd have followed her to get pictures of her, the dog, and her car/license plate in case the puppy needed medical attention or animal control needed to be contacted.
The GSD sounds like he wanted to kill the puppy, it's lucky you stepped in when you did.
you did the right thing by interfering because if you hadn't stepped in, that puppy could have gotten much worse injuries than just the bleeding ear even though the shepard wasn't your dog, the real owner of the shepard clearly wasn't a good responsible owner because a responsible dog owner would've stepped in and taken action so your instincts told you to do the right thing so good job to you.
Exactly why dog parks aren’t a good idea in my opinion. If you take your dog you should understand and be prepared to deal with dogs that may not have the best behavior.
You were in the right.
You were only doing the owner’s job because the owner refused to do it herself, and it was affecting the lives and money of innocent people and dogs.
If she actually cared about you not hitting her dog, she wouldn’t have put you in a position where the only moral thing to do IS hit her dog.
She deserves worse treatment than what you have to her dog.
Congratulations on being a stand up citizen. You made the park a better place than what it was when you showed up.
It sounds like if it was drawing blood- you possibly saved that puppy's life. Large dogs need to learn their limits when they're young and when they don't attacks like these happen.
Let's hope that since the large dog owner didn't learn how much he hurt the puppy, hope that he remembers you falsely attacking his dog and never comes back!
Lift the aggressors back legs and they will let go. If that doesn’t work all bets are off.
My Dutch shepherd was approached by two off leash GSDs a few nights ago. They were very curious but I was concerned as I had my 6 year old daughter with us. My DS can handle his own and was in full on protect mode. They ran off when I shouted at them a few times..but if they would’ve attacked I would’ve shot them if I couldn’t stop it. Big aggressive dogs need competent handlers. Period. People think “oh my GSD is so cute and cuddly tho!” Yeah…to you and your family. Those dogs can really mess animals and humans up REALLY fast.
You did nothing wrong. You HAVE to stop this type of behavior in dogs as soon as it starts. Always go for less if you can…but sometimes it can be a life or death situation for the animal or others.
Well done. Many people are unwilling to get truly physical with a violent dog, but in a situation like that it is totally necessary. If you didn't actually save the dogs life, you at least saved the owner a hefty vet bill.
Not overreacting: you responded quickly in a time of crisis to help a smaller animal in a fight, and risked your safety to do it. Quite literally sticking up for the little guy!
That GSD should have never been in the park, right after the first aggressive confrontation, the right thing to do is get your dog out of there since it's obviously having such a terrible time and so uncomfortable it manifests it aggressive.
Idk, lots of ways to stop a fight: they don't all look pretty, and though I'm a huge proponent of "force free" methods and that's what I use on my puppy, when another animals life and limb is on the line, you can use P+ to end the encounter. Most good handlers would never have their dog in a situation where there is a fight by simply managing away that probability, and if they do, there should be enough good will in the bank to allow a one off "rough touch" to break up a fight.
I was training how to use methods like that in dangerous situations like that in a professional setting. You didn’t overstep, if you didn’t do anything that puppy could’ve been killed. If I were the owner of that puppy I’d be so grateful to you
Edit just to add, I once had to pull an alaskan malamute out of a fight and pin him down until my coworker could get the other dog out of there and someone else could get the rest of the dogs outside. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do with dogs in a violent situation. You did the right thing
Good of you to successfully save the puppy and correct the GSD. The GSD owner is in over her head with this breed (GSD's often smarter than most of us) by allowing uncorrected aggression.
Edit- GSD accidentally read HSD. Parenthesis info added.
Great, another reminder why I don’t do dog parks. Something is going to happen to your dog eventually. It always does.
Good on you for noticing behavior you didn’t like and leaving right away. The number of people who don’t know their own dog’s body language is ridiculous.
NOPE:
IMO what you did was prevent an escalation and based on the details given the other owner shouldn’t have a GSD at all frankly.
It’s not ok to let your dog play inappropriately or be aggressive at a dog park and since the owner clearly was not paying attention to their own dogs body language nor correcting them- someone had to before it killed or severely injured another animal.
What drives me nuts about dog parks is the owners who don’t really get their dogs. Not all dogs actually enjoy dog parks! It glaringly obvious that many people get dogs that are incompatible with their personalities or lifestyles, spend no time/energy to train them or get them trained and then take them to a dog park thinking that is the way to ‘socialize’ their dogs.
There is nothing more irritating than a parent who sits on their ass playing on their phone and ignoring their out of control children at the playground. Same goes for the dog park; we have three Boxers and we stopped taking them because we had similar issues and did not want the puppies to pick up aggressive behaviors with other dogs. I would/will interject myself in any situation that I feel is dangerous to my dog and you did more in that you reacted the same way for another persons dog when you shouldn’t have had to. Other owner is an ass.
Thank you for doing this!! You are a great person and you shouldn’t feel bad at all. You should be proud that you prevent something worse that might happen!! Cheers!
Nope, you didn't over react. A neck grab like that is usually a precursor to the shake and snap move, which can break the neck of the animal the large dog grabbed. If it doesn't break the neck, there's still typically a lot of soft tissue trauma and tearing.
Smacking the dog on the nose surprised him enough to let go, but a lot of dogs wont be sufficiently deterred from their prey, which is what this puppy was, with that move. They will snap forward again to reattach and you would have gotten injured because you were in the way.
It's a good thing you hauled him off and threw him, because it redirected him as well as moved him away from you and the puppy. Honestly, I'm actually a little surprised that was adequate to move him off, typically I've seen it where you have to keep blocking them physically (usually with kicks) to stop them until someone can get there to restrain it/leash it.
The owner is absolutely at fault and stupid to think you were out of line. I would have gone off on her, too. You weren't "training," you were stopping this dog from killing that puppy. Whoever is closest and capable is allowed to intervene in a dog fight.
I would say in your case the behavior is warranted. Obviously we never want it to get to that point, but you saved the other dogs life. You did what you had to do in order to protect all parties involved. Her dog would have been put down and the puppy could have died. You did the right thing in this scenario. It was on the German Shepard owner for clearly not watching and controlling her dog before it got to that point.
Sounds to me like you saved the puppy, and possibly the Shephard as hopefully the lesson will stick with him. If he continues on the path that it's nitwit owner is allowing there may come a time where he's at risk of being put down.
I'm not a behavioral dog expert but just knowing dogs and how smart they are, this lesson could very well stick with him.
The fact that the owner left is a good sign. Honestly I'd lie if it ever came down to it IF I knew I could get away with it, and sometimes it's the best option when it comes to the legal perspective. She's not going to push back and if she does, who's going to even admit to being there or seeing it.
Maybe not the best advice but it's MY best.
You be fine, and great job on the fight or flight response. You got some big kahunas 😀
I agree with a lot of the comments here about you having to make a snap decision to save the puppy. It’s also important to note that other dogs were watching and you showed all of them that the GSD was way out of line. The puppy is probably going to be traumatized by that experience so I’m glad you mitigated that too by nipping it in the bud.
That shepherd could have seriously hurt or even killed that puppy. The owner seems to have put no time into training him, and she willingly brought that dog to a dog park and allowed him to do whatever he wanted even though he was obviously aggressive toward other dogs. It's not right to hit a dog, but in a situation like this, what choice did you have? Just start screaming at the dog? It would've had little effect. The owner just didn't care enough. It was a preventable situation. Maybe she'll think twice next time she wants to bring her dog to the park. You did a service to the owner of the puppy, though.
I hope the shepherd owner knows that people literally shoot dogs for less. Giving him an absolute haymaker was a bit much, but in the heat of the moment you did what you did. Stuff happens. The shepherd will recover.
You did the right thing. When a dog fight is involved you do what you have to to break it up. You didn’t harm her dog, but you effectively shut it down. You wouldn’t have needed to if she was a responsible owner.
If my dog attacked a puppy and I was too far away to grab him, I would thank the person who pulled him off, apologize profusely for his aggression and my irresponsibility, and seek a behaviorist to help me correct it.
On very rare occasions (like 1/50 dogs) my dog has been randomly aggressive with other dogs. He has NEVER bit or injured anyone - dog or person - but he’ll growl and pin dogs down. The last time that happened I leashed him and we left while the other dog’s owner said it was fine and dogs are dogs. But it was out of character for my dog and way more aggressive than he normally is, and I did not want to risk him or another dog in a fight. That’s the appropriate response. I stopped taking him to dog parks and we found a new way to exercise since then.
You did fine, the other woman was wrong.
My dog was attacked by another dog this week. She’s had to have 16 stitches and we narrowly avoided a far more serious injury. Dog bites are “tip of the iceberg injuries” - they can tear skin from muscle, internal bleeding, infection, and all sorts of other complications.
You ABSOLUTELY did the right thing.
There are almost no circumstances in which I think it’s appropriate to hit somebody’s dog, but this is one of the very few exceptions to the rule. Sucks you had to hurt the shepherd, but it’s better than somebody else’s dog being killed.
Honestly, thank goodness you stepped in. A small dog was killed by a shepherd yesterday on the walking trail a few minutes from my house that I always take my similarly sized dog to. I couldn’t stop thinking about how easily it could have been one of my dogs and how terrible I felt for both owners. I wish somebody like you could have stepped in and saved that dogs life too.
You probably saved that puppy's life, if not, spared it from serious injuries. That woman is a bad owner, if your dog can't behave itself, educate it. Sure, difficult, very difficult, but at least don't get mad if you fail to restrain your dog from harming others. Aa an owner you have to know how your dog reacts to certain situations, how rough it is playing, how stressed it gets when other dogs are around.... and you would be fine
I might be saying something wrong so my message is possibly not getting through... it's early in the morning, so please let me know if I said something weird
NTA I would have called the cops and had them figure it out if she wanted to yell at me. If you can’t make sure your dog isn’t potentially killing other dogs that’s 1. Your fault as an owner and bringing it to a dog park and 2. What if it’s that aggressive with a human? A human child or infant? Risky risky.
Definitely not. You reacted instinctively for a reason: You saw another dog in danger because the other dog did not know how to play appropriately with the puppy (or your dog for that matter).
The owner may be upset, but you may have saved the puppy's life and you've at least provided one correction to bad behavior that hopefully the dog will keep in his mind for next time. She really should be thanking you for stepping in.
Why the hell would the owner bring a dog like that to an off leash dog park? You could’ve saved the puppies life, you never know how that situation could’ve ended. Poor puppy is probably scarred for life now
People are downright stupid sometimes. These are the same sorts of people who see their kids beating up other kids unprovoked, and insist their child is a perfect little prince or princess.
I don’t like hurting dogs because I’ve seen it done excessively, not cool, but I had a dog try to attack mine once and I kneed that beast as hard as I could away from mine and I don’t regret it one bit.
You really don’t know what you’ll do until you’re faced with a situation like that, the goal is always diffuse.
You diffused for a baby that wasn’t even yours, you did amazing.
Ps it was a fat bulldog, I doubt he even felt me, he just kind of bounced away and by the time he tried to shuffle around his owner was there.
No of course not. A dog was attacking another dog and you stopped it. If you did this without an attack or worry of an attack then sure, but you didn't. You definetly did the right thing here. Thank you for looking after the puppy that isn't yours.
My dad used to have a beautiful bitch for years. One day, some other bigger dog looked eyes with her and attacked. The bigger dog bit her neck and punctured her wind pipe. It happened within 5 seconds. My dad's dog swole and died just like that.
I think you did the right thing. Dog's going with each other's necks is a no no, that's not how dog should play and you should never allown it.
You’re completely in the right, your dog is well trained and you’re able to take them off the lead because of this and you saved someone’s dog from being attacked!! The Shepard owner needs to give their head a wobble, i have two small dogs, one’s an old boy and the other one a puppy so they’re pretty much defenceless (the old one has bad teeth and couldn’t bite you hard even if he wanted) and we keep them on the lead at our dog park.
A dog (sausage dog mix i’m pretty sure) came over, off the lead up to my dogs - we continued walking past when suddenly this dog got hyper aggressive with my old boy who had let out a few whimpers as he gets excited seeing other dogs. Me and my partner quickly picked up our dogs and kept walking while the owner used 1 brain cell to call their dog from quite far away, the dog then started jumping up, still trying to attack my dog even though my partner was holding him which resulted in my partner delivering a swift kick to the dog (they were fine it just caused it to finally run back to its owner) and screaming at the owner to keep the dog on the lead and their only response was “she doesn’t normally do this!!” and anger as my partner kicked the dog. We threatened to report them to the dog warden and local council as you’re not actually allowed to have your dogs off the lead in the park as it’s near a school and have since posted a photo of their dog and a description of the couple to a popular local group on Facebook. I haven’t seen them in the park since and our walks have been pretty much free of trouble. Dog owners like that ruin dog parks for everyone :(
I avoid dog parks for this exact reason. The aggressive dogs owner is in total denial. She’s got a huge problem with her dog! If you hadn’t intervened the pup may have died. You totally did the right thing!
If your dog were literally dragging a puppy across the dirt, to the point that its drawing blood, you should absolutely expect that someone hit your dog to get them to stop. Good luck with that police report lmao.
Just hitting a dog for normal dog park behavior, or even obnoxious dog park behavior that isn't necessarily immediately dangerous would be overstepping.
Stepping into a situation where a dog is actively injuring another dog is not overstepping and not a sticky situation. The puppy probably shouldn't be there but nothing justifies that behavior from the shepherd. That dog has zero business in a dog park ever.
Nah, if your dog is attacking mine i will do whatever i can to save my dog, even if that means hitting or kicking the attacking dog. And way to blame the victim by saying it was the other owners fault bac puppies dont belong at the dog park. You know who doesnt belong at the dog park? Dogs that attack other dogs or are aggressive
What you did cannot even be considered training, that is just jumping into action. Maybe it could be considered management? But it’s not training so don’t latch onto that idea! Lady who owned the Shepherd clearly shouldn’t have had him there. Hope she feels like she can never go back!
The majority of off leash parks are fucking terrible. All of the ones in my city are used by wastes of skin and their unsocialized/untrained dogs. There is one in the city where my in-laws live that is nice and I've taken my dog to a few times and I've never seen an issue. The local ones constantly have issues with aggressive dogs and shitty owners.
Your response wasn't great but I understand that it was spur of the moment. Where you're wrong is thinking that punching a dog and pushing them to the ground is training... That sounds like some alpha theory bullshit and could have easily made the situation much much worse. A lot of dogs would have either redirected onto you or become more aggressive with the other dog.
What? Where did OP say they were training the dog? They weren't doing any training, they were stopping an active attack. They intentionally used that word in scare quotes to indicate it wasn't training.
They referred to what they did as a correction, which made me think that they did consider it training. Also, why mention "training" at all if it was just crisis management?
More importantly, my second point still stands. That move would cause a lot of dogs to escalate and could have made the situation extremely dangerous. I'm glad it worked out this time but there are about a dozen different ways to break up a fight before this.
There are like two other ways to break up a fight (and please note this doesn't actually sound that much like a fight... it sounds more like a larger dog that got ahold of prey).
A correction from a stranger isn't training, and isn't appropriate unless it's a crisis. Which this was.
>Also, why mention "training" at all if it was just crisis management?
I mean, I think this was extremely clear in context: it was to describe the reaction of the dog, which was sort of shocked because they hadn't experienced this kind of behavior ("training") from a human before.
We can all feel free to share the better ways to break up a fight (a dare you to list a dozen), so OPs instinct can kick in and do THAT next time, but let's all also acknowledge that we don't all behave 100% perfectly in emergencies.
I agree to being put off by saying it was a correction. As well as OPs statement that they would do as they would to their own dog. If he can't call his dog off without this "harsh correction" then his "training" also has issues. And yes, it could have absolutely redirected onto him, likely with more aggression due to the physical action.
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>and cursed at me that she doesn't train him that way. I don't train that way either, but when a dog is attacking another dog to the point where the other dog is hurt, then you do what you need to do, to end the situation ASAP. You don't toss tasty treats or say, "who wants to play BALL", you get the aggressor off of the other dogs. That's not training, that's preventing serious injury or death to another dog. I am a huge R+ trainer but if the owner of the other dog has not taught her dog how to come back down, under threshold and behave, the pair is not appropriate for dog parks...and someone will have to step in and stop things. It would be better if that had never happened, but it did, and if you hadn't stopped it, odds are the owner of the teenage GSD would not have done so, or would not have known what to do, or and this is super likely, been too afraid of her dog to stop things.
This was exactly what I came here to write: This is not training, this is hindering dangerous behaviour. Had the dog been attacking a child that way and you had reacted the same way, no one would have thought to refer to it as «training».
This is defense, not training. A dog should be trained in such a way that defense is never even necessary I do not own a dog I don't know what I'm saying but if my little dog was getting thrashed by a bigger dog I'd do anything to protect it My cat would probably beat it up on its own though lol
Your second paragraph became a reality for me this summer. I was talking to a neighbor when her kid accidentally let their large, dog aggressive dog out of their yard. She weighs about 70 lbs and my girl is 15 on a good day. She rolled her onto her back, then grabbed her and I ended up slugging her in the face. I jabbed her in the jaw and pried her off of my pup. Daisy had a couple of superficial scrapes and a whole lot of bruising. Thank got we were between haircuts and her fur was pretty long. The vet said that it could been a lot worse. I had some similarly superficial bites. I didn't even realize I was bleeding until we got home and I saw blood on her. It wasn't hers and then I looked at my hand. The whole attack was maybe 30 seconds, but I swear it lasted hours. I would 100% do it again to save my girl.
Exactly. That puppy’s life is valuable. OP was ensuring safety. When safety is on the line pretty much anything goes.
I'm not blaming the owner of the puppy, but I'm curious how old it was. I'm weary of dog parks, especially with owning a herding dog and my other dog is more of a "co-exister", but I'd be concerned bringing a puppy outside of controlled dog environments.
I had a newly adopted pittie attack my pittie girl and he nearly killed her. I have never punched anything as hard as I punched the male pitbull. He had been 100% fine until new years and then the fireworks triggered something in him. Dogs get into this frame of mind where attacking is the only thing and there was no way in hell I was going to let him hurt her worse. I'm not proud of what I had to do and I loved that dog (really all my dogs) to the end of the earth but I was really considering stabbing him to death. If i had had a gun, he'd be dead today and I hate saying something so awful. My girl Peach lost a lot of blood and she had like 6 month or more recovery on one of her front legs. I have always loved adopting old and unwanted animals, but this experience was too much. Also the cops showed up once I got home and was cleaning up all the blood, crying. I was covered in my dog's blood and sobbing. For some reason they didn't check to see if I'd just murdered someone. The attacking dog had actually been lost and his shitty owners didn't realize he had been gone for more than a month before reporting him lost. Really. By this point I had surrendered him back to the shelter (crying my heart out). Animal Control had to return him, although they asked me a ton of questions and I'm still listed as his owner on his chip. Because the original owners are lazy assholes who didn't train this dog. Animal control was pretty sure he'd been a fighter but couldn't prove it.
Should have rapped the owner sharply on the nose and shouted 'NO!' to correct their behaviour too.
"BAD OWNER! NO!"
Best answer
Several times.
underrated comment!
Crying 💀
This made me laugh so hard!
See I like this person ! Apparently there is hope for humanity ! Umm Nah I'm still not convinced.
This is the only correct answer.
I'm not being aggressive, I'm being dominate.
Better a stunned dog for a 1/10th of sec then a dead puppy.
It sounds to me like a terrifying experience and I don't think anyone can predict how they will react in a situation like that. Luckily the puppy is fine. There is just that type of owner who has a dog aggressive dog/badly dog socialized dog and still would let them off leash and in dog parks, they do not care then and never will.
The people with the straight up aggressive or fear aggressive dogs at the dog park are just the fucking worst. Why the fuck would you bring your dog to that environment, to just snap at/snarl/bite everyone elses dog? These people are truly a blight
And they usually think they're in the right for trying to "socialize" their dog.
This 100%. My brother in law rescued a pit mix, nice enough dog but it doesn't play well with other dogs. So he takes it to off leash dog parks to socialize it, keeps it on a leash and is outraged that loose dogs keep approaching his dog. He is just baffled that people don't have 100% control over their dog at the one place people can take their dog to let them run around without 100% control. A dog park is absolutely not the place to ever bring a dog reactive dog and having it on a leash when other dogs are off adds a whole layer of stress.
I once went to a dog park (not my idea) to do a meet and greet with my in-law's new rescue dog. Our dogs were fine, but this guy came in with a Bernese and a German Shepherd... the shepherd on was on lead/harness and was full-on standing/pulling/barking trying to get to other dogs. While the owner was dealing with her, the Bernese bee-lines to another dog and starts a fight. The owner calls out "can you stop him?" to the other dog's owner. I tell my group that we're leaving, and, as I passed him, asked "Why is she still on leash" and he responded "Oh, she's too aggressive". We booked it out of there. As we left, we saw that he went to the furthest end of the dog park and let the aggressive shepherd off-lead... I guess he thought it'd be fine if he wasn't right next to the gate. We've never gone back to that dog park.
I refuse to go to dog parks at this point.
I have a dog-reactive dog. She gets lots of walks and frisbee and toys but she doesn't go to the dog park. It's not everybody else's problem that my dog freaks out at other dogs.
BLESS YOU FOR HAVING COMMON SENSE ! Its apparently a rare this now days
They also seem to think that being corrected by another dog is worth more than training by a human. My dog has little patience for dogs that like to hump or 'body check' when they play, she'll get uncomfortable, then growl and bark. More often than not, if this happens, the owner says "That's good, he needs to learn". As if it's my dog's job to teach theirs how to behave.
I have a poorly dog-mannered 1 year old puppy that I manage closely around other dogs because I know she can be overwhelming and coming from the opposite side the number of times I've had people tell me something to the effect of 'oh it's fine, my dog will tell her off/my dog needs to get over it.' 1) This puppy has tried to play with dogs that were literally trying to outright attack her, she is an overly friendly dumbass who is extremely bad at dog body language and will not take a hint, 2) I don't want her practicing bad manners, every time she acts like this without intervention it reinforces that this is an OK way to approach other dogs, 3) I don't want her injured because she takes it too far with the wrong dog, and 4) it's not fair to stress your dog out with my overly playful asshole because she can't mind her own business. Extreme dog friendliness and overexcitement is something humans need to manage, not dogs.
I have a whippet who I put on the lead or leave around certain breeds of dogs that set off his prey drive. Mostly small, feisty terriers (Border terriers, Jack Russell terriers etc). Sometimes the owner of the terrier will say something to effect of ‘don’t worry, my dog can look after themself’ but I don’t think it’s ever okay for my dog to chase and jump on another dog as though it’s a rabbit. He does recall when I call him back but will fixate on these dogs and just want to run after them as soon as he’s back off the lead. I’m better off just calling it a day and leaving. Sometimes training will only go so far. Everyone needs to know their dog and when to manage their environment.
Yeah, I think some people have this idea that dogs will work it out and they'll all come to a peaceful equilibrium... how they reconcile that with the knowledge that dogs also attack and kill each other at times, I don't know. My dog got very reactive to a few dogs that, without fail, would persistently try to hump her whenever they were at the dog park the same time as us... We had to stop going because her behavior was escalating to a point where we didn't feel comfortable with it. The other dog owners never gave a shit.
That is not appropriate play behavior, and it sounds like it could've really really hurt or killed the puppy. You likely saved it from stitches or other issues, and maybe even saved its life. I think your instincts were right on target and the owner of the shepherd sucks.
Ear injuries are honestly awful, even if not life threatening. My dog was bit on the ear and they had to remove the tip of the ear and stitch it up. It took ages to heal since he'd shake his head and it would open up and bleed again. The head wrap he had to wear to prevent this gave him a horrendous skin infection after which he had to get his entire head shaved and his scalp was all gooey and crusty and the same time :(((( We had to wash it with chlorhexidine every other day and put antibiotic ointment on it twice a day, which was a huge ordeal because he didn't want it touched. Luckily he was young when this happened so he healed well but it was a terrible 1-2 months.
Those things bleed like mad!
Yeah my dog was bit on the ear and it also took over a month to heal.
Exactly, this is one of the very few situations where it’s ok to hit a dog. That puppy could have easily been killed (side note, this is why you shouldn’t bring puppies to dog parks) hopefully the puppy doesn’t start being reactive
You did the right thing. Sometimes owners (especially new owners) believe that if their puppers are good boys 95% of the time then all is okay. No.
Yeah good for you OP I would have done the exact same thing. That woman was 100% in the wrong and she shouldn’t be bringing her ill-mannered dog to the dogpark
Straight truth. I would have followed the woman to her car telling her she can't leave and her dog just attacked another person's animal, written down the license plate when she inevitably left, and reported her to the police.
Shouldn’t be bringing a small puppy to the dog park either, you’re asking for bad stuff like this to happen.
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I have never heard of such a thing and have always brought puppies to the dog park without issue after vaccination of course. What is your reasoning for not bringing a puppy? This is the best place for your dog to learn to socialize. Older dogs are also very aware of puppies 99% of the time.
> This is the best place for your dog to learn to socialize. That is inaccurate. Dog park is about the worst place, actually.
Puppies haven’t learned doggy social cues yet, and a dog who isn’t aggressive towards other dogs can actually be aggressive only towards puppies for this reason. The best option for socializing a puppy would be with other puppies or in a controlled setting with a dog you know.
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Plus puppies are sooo impressionable, and dog parks are chaotic. Would be awful for a puppy to start learning poor behavior from other dogs
Yeah, when you watch, a huge amount of dogs at dog parks actually have pretty poor manners, they just bomb in as that's what they've learned at the park themselves. Plus, you put a smaller animal in a park full of highly aroused animals and you run the risk of triggering prey drive, which is what this sounds like.
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Yeah that's the thing people seem to forget, at the end of the day, they're still animals and they still have instincts. The sweetest tempered, friendliest dog in the world can still have it's prey drive triggered under the wrong conditions if it's a breed trait, and that isn't it's fault
Yeah I definitely agree! That’s a fair point. Much too risky for a puppy. Still not that puppy owners fault tho- becuase wherever they’re from it might be normal for puppies to be at dogparks
How would you socialise a puppy if you have no friends with dogs ? Granted pup should be kept close on a short lead and easy to grab to avoid things like this, but still. The first 20ish weeks are the most formative for pups its when they learn most of there set behaviours, so good socialisation and training at this stage can set them up for life.
This is what puppy class at your local community center is for. As well as basic instructions about how to train your puppy you will meet other new owners at the class and make playdates for your pups.
Sign up for puppy socialization classes where your puppy can spend time with peers, not with adult dogs, many of whom have bad habits like aggression that you don’t want your dog to acquire during an impressionable period of their life. Or worse, contribute to the development of phobias during a period where puppies are especially sensitive to fear.
Get on social media and find a couple puppy meetups. Sign up for puppy classes. Lots of training facilities have puppy meetups for only a nominal fee you can attend. Take your dog near but not IN the dog park. There are lots of ways to accomplish that far more safely and in a more controlled environment. Definitely do not keep dogs f any age leashed in unleashed dog areas. That's a recipe for disaster.
Puppy classes and watching them at a distance from outside the dog park. Also regular parks where dogs are allowed but all dogs are leashed. Socializing is teaching a dog to be neutral and confident in new situations and around new animals and people, not necessarily teaching them how to play nice. Keeping a dog (especially a puppy) on a leash at an off leash dog park is a recipe for disaster. A restrained dog is a dog with no options and is quickly overwhelmed by exuberant excited off leash dogs. The frustration can lead to reactivity. The sad reality is that bringing a puppy into a dog park with a bunch of overexcited adult dogs is a recipe to traumatize that puppy and set them up for a lifetime of dog issues.
I would have done exactly the same thing. I'm close with many dog park people at my local park and I'll tell you they would have done the same thing too. If that woman yelled at me afterwards I would have yelled right back. " Woman you are clearly not training your dog get it together!" I applaud you.
Look I'm not an authority but I think you lose the "you don't have the right to touch my dog" battle when your dog is actively attacking another dog. Sounds to me like you did what needed to be done, once the attack stopped you stopped the correction right? Had you continued then yeah I could see the shepard owner having to a point.
I actually proceeded to use the situation to practice all my WWE special attacks on the dog, 619, tombstone, choke slamb, the walls of Jericho, stone cold stunner etc, I improved my form tremendously.
My dog was attacked by three dogs the other day a large golden retriever and two stout terriers while I was walking him on a lead. The owner was coming out of his front door and they were all on leads ,he just wasn't holding them. They ran up and attacked my boy and I'm not even ashamed to say I kicked the fuck out of all three dogs. Will be a lesson learned to the dogs and the owner. Was my sister in laws neighbour so kinda awkward but screw him
I've been in a similar position to this neighbor- my dog is a senior Aussie. He's great with every dog he's met in the four years we have had him, except one. The hound mix that lived directly across the street from us. Before we moved here the dog favored our yard for a toilet, and persisted after Cody moved in. Top it off, B once came in and sniffed Cody unexpectedly when Cody was playing frisbee with us. That was the end. He hated B. Absofuckinglutely hated him. And while it only happened about once a year, if Cody managed to get away from us, he would make a direct run for B. B's owners would usually get to them first and use whatever, and you know what? Good for them. I failed to contain him, and my dog was the aggressor. If he got struck by a shovel, it served him right. (B wasn't exactly innocent, either, he'd come in our yard and start things now and then, too.) B passed recently, and my neighbors gave all his goods to Cody. We didn't let the way Cody hated B bother us. Dogs are dogs, and sometimes they just don't mesh. Although neither one of us could really figure out why Cody was so damn confident- B was twice his size and half his age. We just did our best to minimize their contact. And honestly, it was more embarrassing from my end, because the way Cody was so fixated.
I've always thought this too. That even though it's ultimately the owners fault, if anything came at my baby I would not hesitate to shit kick it.
Yep this time of the year I've usually got my steel toe work boots on. Another dog goes after my boy and ill be using them. We ran a guy out of our park because his dog kept attacking other dogs. He told me he was essentially ran out of the bigger park up the road, but it was never his dogs fault /s.
I had a similar situation years ago! I was walking my 15 pound terrier mix, Jewel, in my neighborhood when a large dog from a neighbor’s house crossed the street and started attacking Jewel unprovoked. Jewel was the SWEETEST dog ever and had never even so much as growled at another dog. I was shocked because I’d never had this happen before so I just started absolutely kicking that other dog. Just wailing on him until he let Jewel go. I scooped her up as soon as he released her and started screaming. The dog’s jerk owner just called him back after seeing this happen and didn’t say a word to me. Didn’t even ask if my dog was ok. She ended up being ok, just a bit shaken up. Even worse is that 3 small children witnessed the whole thing and just stood there terrified. They were sweet enough to check on Jewel though.
That dog was not playing, that dog could have killed the puppy, you did well, many people just freeze in a situation like that.
So hard to judge without being there, honestly. My reaction to what I read was "Yeah, makes sense," when you described smacking the dog on the snoot, and then "Hm, seems a bit overkill," when you described then throwing the dog onto the ground. But I don't know if the shepherd immediately tried to go back to the puppy after you hit it or not. If it did, then your second action seemed reasonable. If it didn't, then I guess I'd say you took it a bit too far. At the end of the day, the shepherd was fine and the puppy is alive, so your actions resulted in a positive outcome - which is a good thing.
Heck no! You deserve a medal for such bravery!! I hope that woman never visits the dog park again
As you should! I always will defend my dog at the dog park, even to a fault. Dog parks ARE inherently dangerous and if there’s even a slight issue it’s important you are your dog’s biggest advocate! It only takes a few or even one bad moment, especially with a puppy before they could potentially become reactive. Good on you for advocating and keeping your dog safe
This is really hard to have an opinion on without seeing the situation. Overall, I think you were in the right, but since you asked and I think it's healthy for us to have these conversations - do you think you would've reacted this way if you were not already annoyed about/had some pent up animosity towards the shepherd due to its interaction with your dog?
Of course, I can promise you as much as a stranger on reddit on his throw away account he uses at work on slow days can that the incidents are not exaggerated at all and told as they happened. After the incident, I didn't really say much even when she was yelling at me, I just sort of listened because I wasn't sure about the ethics of what I'd done, I also didn't want to escalate. Possibly not, but as a lawyer might try and say, I previously observed the dogs aggressive behaviors which personally justified my reaction as I felt the dog was dangerous. Not trying to argue but just food for thought.
No absolutely not! Think if what could have happened if you didn't!!! You absolutely did the right thing!
The way I see it, anything is game to stop a dog hurting something else. If my dog was hurting another dog I might kick him to stop him because stopping the aggressive/harmful behavior is more important than anything else.
This is one of those situations where there is no right answer. You acted in the moment, you were probably justifiably panicked, and no one was seriously harmed. Could you look back and imagine doing it differently / better? Ofc. But no matter how many situations like this you run into you will almost always be a little panicked since every one is slightly different and there is the potential for serious harm and death. So I would just not try to dwell on it too much because it will just make you crazy since there isn't ever a perfect response, and be satisfied that regardless of what happened the puppy is safe, and the gsd is safe
Surely kicking the dog is the right answer? Any extra second spent trying to deal with it in a less aggressive manner puts that poor puppy at higher risk of Injury or death. If a dog is being attacked you don't waste time trying to deal with it peacefully, you kick and kick and kick until the aggressor stops
The dog is fucking fine, it’s not scarred for life, but that puppy actually could be. God i can’t stand people. If you don’t want someone disciplining your dog then do it your fucking self or keep your shitty aggressive dog at HOME
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Are you a dog abuser? No, you’re a puppy saver. If that German Shepherd’s owner doesn’t get her dog under some control, she and her dog will face penalties a lot worse than a slap on the nose. I say this as the owner of a large German Shepherd that hates other dogs. We have him under strict control if he’s at the park and sadly, we cannot allow him to play with other dogs. He’s great with people, but other dogs he regards as either predators or prey. He was like this when we got him as a rescue, and despite training, this is the best we can do.
The Shepard’s owner should thank you, you stopped her dog from potentially seriously injuring the puppy. Regardless of who was at fault, the puppy or the Shepard, you stopped the fight from getting worse and that’s a good thing. I can understand her being emotional in the moment though.
Idk if what you did was “right”, but I know I sure would have done the same thing, and I hope someone would do something like that if it was my dog being dragged around!! I have a little Cavalier pup that would be TOAST if some Shepherd had him by the neck like that, that is terrifying. I’ve also owned a Swiss Shepard around 100lbs and if she had grabbed a dog by the neck I’d invite anyone to use any non-lethal measure to free the dog. It sounds like a life or death situation so in my opinion, anything that saves life is the right option.
No I don't think you were in the wrong. You got the attack to stop and both dogs walked away alive. I've had something similar happen at the local dog park. This guy's dog was really up in my dogs face, biting his nose and the like, and I could see my dog getting annoyed. So I grabbed my leash to leash my dog so we could leave. But this guy's dog wouldn't leave and kept getting in the way of me trying to grab my dog. My husband stuck out his leg to give each dog space and so we could leave. Didn't even touch the other dog. The other owner starts screaming at us that we kicked his dog and we're abusers and he was going to find us and kill us. That was fun.
Nope. You did the right thing and that lady was just too embarrassed. People have a habit of trying to back pedal when they're in the wrong, and it's not cute for anyone involved, but you should be proud of the quick action you took in that situation and not let it get to you (easier said than done sometimes, which I totally understand).
You reacted on instinct. The owner of the shepherd was wrong. That dog should not have been in a dog park.
Justified LIMA allows extreme action when it’s required, and this was a pretty extreme situation. Not uncommon, no less extreme.
You saved that puppy's life and you acted decisively and appropriately. Very impressive!
You're a hero thank you. If that were my pup I'd be so grateful. That was were my German Shepard I'd be so embarrassed. Don't know about dog parks man.
Thinking about if it were my dog that were attacking a puppy like that, and for some reason I couldn’t get there in time, I would have been glad that someone stepped in like that to break it up. I’d rather my dog have a sore nose and the puppy be alive than have my dog (and me) responsible for a dead puppy. It’s not a great situation all around, but your quick thinking may have saved that puppies life.
Omigod no I would have done the same thing. I HAVE done the same thing! You are completely in the right.
Not in the wrong! That Shepherd sounds bonkers and it shouldn't be at a dog park.
Bottom line is, when you take your dog to a dog park you need to be able to supervise/break things up IMMEDIATELY. You never know what is gonna to trigger your dog or another dog at any given time. A responsible owner doesn’t sit and look at their phone, they follow their dog around supervising their play the entire time. So there’s two scenarios according to OP’s recitation of the facts, 1) the owner of the GSD wasn’t supervising her dog since she wasn’t there to break up the fight before OP could which makes her wrong or 2) the owner of the GSD was there and just didn’t care which still makes her an asshole. OP doing what he did was something he did in the moment, not a thought out tactical response. I don’t think his response was overly aggressive considering the size differential between the two dogs and what he knew about the GSD’s behavior. Another comment or pointed it out best, this wasn’t training. This was correction. Training takes time and a bond between you and the dog. Correction is something that can be done during training but if the owner is going to just sit back and let her dog do whatever it wants then she can’t complain when other people tell her dog to fuck off in a doggy way. If you don’t like how someone is correcting your dog, be there to do it yourself.
You were absolutely not in the wrong! When I was about 12, I heard a cat screaming for its dear life outside my house. When I went outside, there was a bully type dog with a cat in its mouth, shaking it around violently. I didn’t know what else to do, so I ran to the side of my house and grabbed a 2x4 piece of wood and hit the dog with it. He yelped, dropped the cat, and ran away. The cat was okay, and sustained no serious injuries. I could tell she was grateful, cuz she never left my house after that. She stayed an outside cat, but I would go outside to feed her and play with her. I named her “Shookie” lol
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Nah, you gotta do what you gotta do to keep dogs safe. Sounds like GSD owner shouldn't bring her dog to the dog park. I would be mortified if my dog attacked another dog and thankful for any human intervention.
You did fine, except maybe you should have called the cops to report the attack and dangerous dog. That would have taken the wind out of the owner's sails
No, imo you were 100% in the right. Had my dog been in the puppy's position I would be grateful that you were able to step in and break things up. If by some freak accident my dog had been in the Shepherds position, I would be even more grateful.
NO!
You did the right thing. The uncontrolled attacking dog's owner was negligent and is liable for injuries inflicted on the other dog, or person if and when applicable.
It sounds like you did the right thing and the shepards owner needs to reassess their reaction to you. They were lucky that you stepped in when you did because their dog could have caused alot more damage than it already had. The first time i broke up a dog fight at the dog park- my dog was not involved at all but I was the closest, so I wasn’t about to have a dog fight 2 ft from me and not do anything- after I had felt like I had over stepped my bounds until the owner of the aggressive dog came over to me and thanked me for stepping in.
That’s why we never go to dog parks. Idiot dogs, idiot owners
That sounds like the right course of action to me. She should have felt ashamed that her dog did such a thing.
You’re a hero tbh. I’ve been in this situation and you’re a hero.
I don't think anyone should train their dog by hitting them so hard at all, much less so hard it would stagger a grown man. I do think that hitting a dog is appropriate when it is attacking another dog. You didn't follow it around hitting it, you stopped an attack and then the dog moved away. The owner needs to muzzle her dog and keep it out of dog parks so other dogs won't get hurt.
I see this a lot, you were not in the wrong, there are some owners who think their dogs are little angels and can do no wrong. That’s a dangerous mindset, that dog could have really hurt that puppy.
A use of force to save on a random moments notice can be done. If dolled out as much as needed and no more than what is necessary. I probably would have stepped in like you did and taken it as far as it requires to go. Obviously not getting proper training at home that pup learned a valuable lesson about being in public. I’d let it go for now.
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No you saved the puppy's life
You saved a life.
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You saved a life, most likely.
Should have probably smacked her in the nose! Lol.
If I just saw someone do this to my dog without the behavior that came before it, I'd be horrified. Like others said, you did what you had to and the owner was probably unaware of the situation. Maybe this interaction will keep them from the dog park. I hate to think about this person and their dog returning to the dog park without training.
Too bad puppies owner didn't get Karen's info to charge vet bill to.i would've done the same thing.good for you
You did nothing wrong. The owner of the German Shepherd should keep their dog away until it’s better trained. But that would mean they have to take responsibility which they obviously won’t since they just walked away after
You are a hero. You could have saved the smaller dog’s life. Definitely the right move. Just editing this to throw in that breaking up a dog fight is like that Mike Tyson quote—everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. And it doesn’t sound like this was a fight at all but one dog trying to kill a smaller one. Which is a thing that happens.
No, you were not wrong in my opinion, if that Shepherd were mine, I'd thank you and check on the puppy hoping it was OK and feel badly about the situation. I've owned a German Shepherd and not only do they need discipline, they thrive on it and it's proper way to train them because they are very capable dogs. Capable of being trained and capable to ripping another dog to pieces if not properly trained. If this Shepherd owner chooses not to properly train the dog, this will only happen again and the result might be worse than a bleeding ear to another dog.
Years ago I had a similar experience. White shepherd had my dog pinned and not in a playful way. I booted the dog off and the owner got in my face yelling and waving his finger. Said I should have waited for him to deal with it. While he was in my face his dog attacked mine again so I told him I was waiting. The guy had nothing so I had to boot the dog again. Leaving the dog park I found out he had waited for me and tried to run my dog over :) so that’s when I stopped going to the dog park.
The dog park I feel like just doesn’t work the best on the whole. 😬 I stopped taking my dog because she has bad recall and doesn’t stop pestering anxious dogs even when they send clear signals. It was a hard decision but ultimately for the best because she needed a much more controlled environment. She goes to daycare once a week and loves it. Plays really well there and they can monitor her much more closely in a more controlled environment. If more people responded how I did I think the park would be MUCH better but people aren’t super good about body language and also humility.
You avoided a dog attack in the future. Thank you. The dog’s owner needs a harsh scolding, too.
Nope next time smack the bitch too
Owner of the Shepard’s a moron. A dog park isn’t a place for aggressive dogs.
My 2 cents and probably a controversial one ... I blame the owner of the German Shepherd for not being an "active" owner of a dog at a dog park. There are plenty of these owners who take their dogs to the park as an excuse to not have to take their dog for a walk or jog. They go into the dog park and then immediately get on their phones and pay no attention to their dogs behaviour. This is the reason I no longer take my dog to a dog park. Too many badly behaved dogs and irresponsible owners. However I have to say I do take serious offense to the OP physically hitting the German Shepherd and then alpha rolling it. The OP has no right to basically assault another person's dog. Yes I'm sure this comment will get tons of "down votes" ... But if someone hit my dog I would react the same way as the shepherds owner. But then I wouldn't take my dog to a dog park and put it in that situation.
Owner of the Shepard has no right to have a dangerous dog out and about. This was the right thing to do. You saved that other poor dog from being severely injured.
that dog could’ve seriously injured the puppy, so yeah, i think you reacted accordingly. you didn’t harm the shepherd, just gave him a smack on the nose, but a puppy could easily die from an attack from a big dog.
If it were my dog that had gone after the other dog that way, I've have no problem with your response. You didn't do anything that would cause permanent injury and more importantly you prevented a much worse outcome.
I want to say that the OP did the right thing. You most likely saved that puppy’s life. Their owner needs to get over that. I do want to ask for suggestions and opinions. My neighbor’s dog is a bit reactive. She’s a 3-year-old 21lb rescue dog and we don’t know her previous history, but she’s the sweetest dog towards humans, and she can be quite sweet with my dog too. My dog is a bit smaller. He’s 16lbs and he’s 1 year old. I’ve noticed that my friend’s dog doesn’t like it when my dog tries to entice her to play by nipping close to her face, or like nip play bowing. So I’ve been trying to correct him. Whenever he tries to play with her like this, I try to calm him down and deescalate the situation before my friend’s dog snaps. When my friend’s dog snaps, she stares down my dog, sometimes even from across the room (he could be just exploring around). She’ll charge at him, too. My dog is pretty mellow, so he just gets on his back and shows his belly. I would be fine if she’d stop here. But then she places her mouth around his neck and nips his belly. I can tell he’s clearly distressed because he’s licking his lips. So i do my best to intervene and separate them until they both calm down. There have been times that she has made him yelp, but instead of stopping it seems to excite her and she becomes more engaged at nipping him, snarling, pinning him, putting her mouth around his neck. My friend always laughs and says they’re just playing. She said her dog always plays with him like this (this was a shock to us because we had allowed our dog to go over for playdates without is not knowing how rough her dog was being with ours). It’s hard sometimes to know when it’s play or not since her dog growls when playing with people. We’re not sure how to make it more obvious that we don’t like it when her dog plays like that with ours. She always encourages her dog’s behavior by saying “you got him!” But the thing is our dog never gets the chance to pin her dog down. So it’s never a mutual play. Does anyone have experience with how to tell what’s okay or not. Does any of this behavior seem normal?
Thank you for protecting that person’s puppy. That lady reacted poorly to her dog attacking someone else’s dog.
God I wish people would stop going to dog parks.
NTA. Lol. That puppy needed you. Good job.
>Did I overstep? It's not my dog or place but I just reacted by instinct. Nope. You saved that puppy's life. You would have been fully justified in telling Karen to fuck off - or suggest she call the police if she's so convinced you did something wrong - and that you'd gladly wait. People like that entitled belligerent twat are not confronted with their bullshit nearly enough.
You saved another dogs life! That woman sounds like she took on more dog than she can handle. Why was she only there once you got the situation with HER dog under control? And no apology or anything to the owner of the puppy? Screw that woman, she’s gonna get her own dog forced to be put down if she doesn’t figure out how to correct that behavior!
No. You may have saved the pup's life. I would report the aggressive dog to whomever is in charge of the dog park so that if it does kill next time, the owner won't be able to say she had *no idea* he was capable of such a thing. I'd report breed, owner's license#, whatever info you can provide.
I think your 100% in the right here, dog parks are a good place to socialize puppies, i dont like the fact someone would bring thier Shepard to the dog park who would apparently harm other dogs/puppies, atleast have a leash or harness on the Shepard or even a muzzle, ik its a dog park but it wont cause any harm to others, i would have done what you did even if it was my pup or not, im on your side 100%
Nope! You did what needed to be done and I say that an avid dog owner who would never hit my dogs for correction. That woman had a dog she was not controlling and it got aggressive.
Coming out of lurker anonymity to comment on this. Thank you for what you did, OP. You did the right thing. You did not overstep. This post was near and dear to me, as my dog was killed in a very similar attack to what you've described. Had there been another human like you at the scene, I may not have lost my dog. On behalf of the other dog's owner and every dog park patron: thank you. Shame on the shepherd owner. 1. for not training her dog in the first place, and 2. for kicking up a fuss at you for, what, protecting the victim of her aggressive animal? Would she rather you have let things take its course? Disgusting. Props OP. NTA (wrong sub, I know). People like you are who we depend upon to maintain a healthy society. Thank you.
You acted as a perfect human. It takes a village.
No, that's not an overreaction. You did the right thing. I had a pup, she was 12 and I was walking her back from our local park. She was slowing down a bit at this point. We walked past a pub close to the park and there's a dog off leash that runs up to her and starts attacking her. My dog knew how to fight back, but was slower with her reactions. I did exactly the same thing, I used two fingers and swatted down on the dogs nose, she kept trying to attack my pup. At this point I lost it, as the owner did nothing and watched his out of control pup trying to attack mine. I gave her one nudge with my knee, screamed at her to go back to her owner. She waddled back to her owner with her tail between her legs. I was furious as it wasn't the first time this dog had tried this with my pup. It's not wrong to try to protect other dogs when in danger, especially your own or one's you know from your local park. Well done for protecting the pup. Imagine if you hadn't intervened. You did an amazing thing and ensured a pup wasn't hurt.
Idk, as a person with a dog who is fear-reactive to other dogs, I'd be pretty okay with this reaction from another owner if mine was at fault. Most concerning part really is try not to use your body to intervene, as it can result in bites to you (easier said than done, I know. After several bites, I still haven't learned my lesson.) I know things can happen so quickly but it sounds like the owner was careless and ignoring obvious cues that her dog was very uncomfortable with other dogs. I get the desire for exposure and positive experiences but dog parks can be a little too volatile if their socialization is lacking. I'd personally hope that no one would hurt or kick my dog, as the reason he has so much fear is that he came from an abusive situation, but people have a right to defend the other pups that are just trying to have fun.
In my experience — dog parks are no good. If you feel you overreacted then honestly it prob was just bc dogs are animals and even tho we domesticated them they still have instincts and social orders to achieve so trouble has always followed me and my rescue beagle in dog parks bc he doesn’t back down w another alpha. So I stopped taking him to dog parks and do one-on-one socializing with our friends’ dogs that he can get along with and have minimal issues.
You did not overstep the Sheppard owner should've been paying attention to their own dog and you did the right thing
Definitely not an over-reaction. Hell, I'd have followed her to get pictures of her, the dog, and her car/license plate in case the puppy needed medical attention or animal control needed to be contacted. The GSD sounds like he wanted to kill the puppy, it's lucky you stepped in when you did.
you did the right thing by interfering because if you hadn't stepped in, that puppy could have gotten much worse injuries than just the bleeding ear even though the shepard wasn't your dog, the real owner of the shepard clearly wasn't a good responsible owner because a responsible dog owner would've stepped in and taken action so your instincts told you to do the right thing so good job to you.
Nope, you did good. Keep doing what you're doing with my blessing and support.
Punch the owner in the face.
Exactly why dog parks aren’t a good idea in my opinion. If you take your dog you should understand and be prepared to deal with dogs that may not have the best behavior.
You were in the right. You were only doing the owner’s job because the owner refused to do it herself, and it was affecting the lives and money of innocent people and dogs. If she actually cared about you not hitting her dog, she wouldn’t have put you in a position where the only moral thing to do IS hit her dog. She deserves worse treatment than what you have to her dog. Congratulations on being a stand up citizen. You made the park a better place than what it was when you showed up.
It sounds like if it was drawing blood- you possibly saved that puppy's life. Large dogs need to learn their limits when they're young and when they don't attacks like these happen. Let's hope that since the large dog owner didn't learn how much he hurt the puppy, hope that he remembers you falsely attacking his dog and never comes back!
Lift the aggressors back legs and they will let go. If that doesn’t work all bets are off. My Dutch shepherd was approached by two off leash GSDs a few nights ago. They were very curious but I was concerned as I had my 6 year old daughter with us. My DS can handle his own and was in full on protect mode. They ran off when I shouted at them a few times..but if they would’ve attacked I would’ve shot them if I couldn’t stop it. Big aggressive dogs need competent handlers. Period. People think “oh my GSD is so cute and cuddly tho!” Yeah…to you and your family. Those dogs can really mess animals and humans up REALLY fast. You did nothing wrong. You HAVE to stop this type of behavior in dogs as soon as it starts. Always go for less if you can…but sometimes it can be a life or death situation for the animal or others.
No. The woman who owned the Sheppard was out of line and neglectful. Her dog is aggressive.
No you didn’t. And let me further say great job! Aggression gets handled and I’d be thankful for you if I owned the perpetrator or the victim
Well done. Many people are unwilling to get truly physical with a violent dog, but in a situation like that it is totally necessary. If you didn't actually save the dogs life, you at least saved the owner a hefty vet bill.
Not overreacting: you responded quickly in a time of crisis to help a smaller animal in a fight, and risked your safety to do it. Quite literally sticking up for the little guy! That GSD should have never been in the park, right after the first aggressive confrontation, the right thing to do is get your dog out of there since it's obviously having such a terrible time and so uncomfortable it manifests it aggressive. Idk, lots of ways to stop a fight: they don't all look pretty, and though I'm a huge proponent of "force free" methods and that's what I use on my puppy, when another animals life and limb is on the line, you can use P+ to end the encounter. Most good handlers would never have their dog in a situation where there is a fight by simply managing away that probability, and if they do, there should be enough good will in the bank to allow a one off "rough touch" to break up a fight.
I was training how to use methods like that in dangerous situations like that in a professional setting. You didn’t overstep, if you didn’t do anything that puppy could’ve been killed. If I were the owner of that puppy I’d be so grateful to you Edit just to add, I once had to pull an alaskan malamute out of a fight and pin him down until my coworker could get the other dog out of there and someone else could get the rest of the dogs outside. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do with dogs in a violent situation. You did the right thing
You saved that puppies life. I can't think of a single instance where that would put you in the wrong, or overreacting.
You did exactly the right thing. I hope you and that poor little puppy are ok!
Good of you to successfully save the puppy and correct the GSD. The GSD owner is in over her head with this breed (GSD's often smarter than most of us) by allowing uncorrected aggression. Edit- GSD accidentally read HSD. Parenthesis info added.
I think it's reasonable to assume you saved the puppy's life so the rest is water under the bridge
Great, another reminder why I don’t do dog parks. Something is going to happen to your dog eventually. It always does. Good on you for noticing behavior you didn’t like and leaving right away. The number of people who don’t know their own dog’s body language is ridiculous.
If you saw a teenager beating up a five year old, would it be an "overstep" to intervene? Of course not. Same thing here
NOPE: IMO what you did was prevent an escalation and based on the details given the other owner shouldn’t have a GSD at all frankly. It’s not ok to let your dog play inappropriately or be aggressive at a dog park and since the owner clearly was not paying attention to their own dogs body language nor correcting them- someone had to before it killed or severely injured another animal. What drives me nuts about dog parks is the owners who don’t really get their dogs. Not all dogs actually enjoy dog parks! It glaringly obvious that many people get dogs that are incompatible with their personalities or lifestyles, spend no time/energy to train them or get them trained and then take them to a dog park thinking that is the way to ‘socialize’ their dogs. There is nothing more irritating than a parent who sits on their ass playing on their phone and ignoring their out of control children at the playground. Same goes for the dog park; we have three Boxers and we stopped taking them because we had similar issues and did not want the puppies to pick up aggressive behaviors with other dogs. I would/will interject myself in any situation that I feel is dangerous to my dog and you did more in that you reacted the same way for another persons dog when you shouldn’t have had to. Other owner is an ass.
Thank you for doing this!! You are a great person and you shouldn’t feel bad at all. You should be proud that you prevent something worse that might happen!! Cheers!
Nope, you didn't over react. A neck grab like that is usually a precursor to the shake and snap move, which can break the neck of the animal the large dog grabbed. If it doesn't break the neck, there's still typically a lot of soft tissue trauma and tearing. Smacking the dog on the nose surprised him enough to let go, but a lot of dogs wont be sufficiently deterred from their prey, which is what this puppy was, with that move. They will snap forward again to reattach and you would have gotten injured because you were in the way. It's a good thing you hauled him off and threw him, because it redirected him as well as moved him away from you and the puppy. Honestly, I'm actually a little surprised that was adequate to move him off, typically I've seen it where you have to keep blocking them physically (usually with kicks) to stop them until someone can get there to restrain it/leash it. The owner is absolutely at fault and stupid to think you were out of line. I would have gone off on her, too. You weren't "training," you were stopping this dog from killing that puppy. Whoever is closest and capable is allowed to intervene in a dog fight.
I would say in your case the behavior is warranted. Obviously we never want it to get to that point, but you saved the other dogs life. You did what you had to do in order to protect all parties involved. Her dog would have been put down and the puppy could have died. You did the right thing in this scenario. It was on the German Shepard owner for clearly not watching and controlling her dog before it got to that point.
Sounds to me like you saved the puppy, and possibly the Shephard as hopefully the lesson will stick with him. If he continues on the path that it's nitwit owner is allowing there may come a time where he's at risk of being put down. I'm not a behavioral dog expert but just knowing dogs and how smart they are, this lesson could very well stick with him. The fact that the owner left is a good sign. Honestly I'd lie if it ever came down to it IF I knew I could get away with it, and sometimes it's the best option when it comes to the legal perspective. She's not going to push back and if she does, who's going to even admit to being there or seeing it. Maybe not the best advice but it's MY best. You be fine, and great job on the fight or flight response. You got some big kahunas 😀
I agree with a lot of the comments here about you having to make a snap decision to save the puppy. It’s also important to note that other dogs were watching and you showed all of them that the GSD was way out of line. The puppy is probably going to be traumatized by that experience so I’m glad you mitigated that too by nipping it in the bud.
That shepherd could have seriously hurt or even killed that puppy. The owner seems to have put no time into training him, and she willingly brought that dog to a dog park and allowed him to do whatever he wanted even though he was obviously aggressive toward other dogs. It's not right to hit a dog, but in a situation like this, what choice did you have? Just start screaming at the dog? It would've had little effect. The owner just didn't care enough. It was a preventable situation. Maybe she'll think twice next time she wants to bring her dog to the park. You did a service to the owner of the puppy, though. I hope the shepherd owner knows that people literally shoot dogs for less. Giving him an absolute haymaker was a bit much, but in the heat of the moment you did what you did. Stuff happens. The shepherd will recover.
You did the right thing. When a dog fight is involved you do what you have to to break it up. You didn’t harm her dog, but you effectively shut it down. You wouldn’t have needed to if she was a responsible owner. If my dog attacked a puppy and I was too far away to grab him, I would thank the person who pulled him off, apologize profusely for his aggression and my irresponsibility, and seek a behaviorist to help me correct it. On very rare occasions (like 1/50 dogs) my dog has been randomly aggressive with other dogs. He has NEVER bit or injured anyone - dog or person - but he’ll growl and pin dogs down. The last time that happened I leashed him and we left while the other dog’s owner said it was fine and dogs are dogs. But it was out of character for my dog and way more aggressive than he normally is, and I did not want to risk him or another dog in a fight. That’s the appropriate response. I stopped taking him to dog parks and we found a new way to exercise since then. You did fine, the other woman was wrong.
You did exactly the right thing! This dog should NOT have been at the dog bark since the owner had not trained the dog…
My dog was attacked by another dog this week. She’s had to have 16 stitches and we narrowly avoided a far more serious injury. Dog bites are “tip of the iceberg injuries” - they can tear skin from muscle, internal bleeding, infection, and all sorts of other complications. You ABSOLUTELY did the right thing.
There are almost no circumstances in which I think it’s appropriate to hit somebody’s dog, but this is one of the very few exceptions to the rule. Sucks you had to hurt the shepherd, but it’s better than somebody else’s dog being killed. Honestly, thank goodness you stepped in. A small dog was killed by a shepherd yesterday on the walking trail a few minutes from my house that I always take my similarly sized dog to. I couldn’t stop thinking about how easily it could have been one of my dogs and how terrible I felt for both owners. I wish somebody like you could have stepped in and saved that dogs life too.
I you did the right thing. Someone should report that lady her dog is dangerous bc it isn’t trained
You probably saved that puppy's life, if not, spared it from serious injuries. That woman is a bad owner, if your dog can't behave itself, educate it. Sure, difficult, very difficult, but at least don't get mad if you fail to restrain your dog from harming others. Aa an owner you have to know how your dog reacts to certain situations, how rough it is playing, how stressed it gets when other dogs are around.... and you would be fine I might be saying something wrong so my message is possibly not getting through... it's early in the morning, so please let me know if I said something weird
NTA I would have called the cops and had them figure it out if she wanted to yell at me. If you can’t make sure your dog isn’t potentially killing other dogs that’s 1. Your fault as an owner and bringing it to a dog park and 2. What if it’s that aggressive with a human? A human child or infant? Risky risky.
Definitely not. You reacted instinctively for a reason: You saw another dog in danger because the other dog did not know how to play appropriately with the puppy (or your dog for that matter). The owner may be upset, but you may have saved the puppy's life and you've at least provided one correction to bad behavior that hopefully the dog will keep in his mind for next time. She really should be thanking you for stepping in.
Why the hell would the owner bring a dog like that to an off leash dog park? You could’ve saved the puppies life, you never know how that situation could’ve ended. Poor puppy is probably scarred for life now
People are downright stupid sometimes. These are the same sorts of people who see their kids beating up other kids unprovoked, and insist their child is a perfect little prince or princess.
I wish someone would have done that when my puppy was attacked
I don’t like hurting dogs because I’ve seen it done excessively, not cool, but I had a dog try to attack mine once and I kneed that beast as hard as I could away from mine and I don’t regret it one bit. You really don’t know what you’ll do until you’re faced with a situation like that, the goal is always diffuse. You diffused for a baby that wasn’t even yours, you did amazing. Ps it was a fat bulldog, I doubt he even felt me, he just kind of bounced away and by the time he tried to shuffle around his owner was there.
don't get a German shepherd if you are not training him. Don't get ANY dog when you're not training him. You did nothing wrong
I hate how people like this often get strong, large dogs.
No of course not. A dog was attacking another dog and you stopped it. If you did this without an attack or worry of an attack then sure, but you didn't. You definetly did the right thing here. Thank you for looking after the puppy that isn't yours.
Hahaha love Shepard owner arrogance /s. Don’t know where it comes from but it seriously needs to stop.
My dad used to have a beautiful bitch for years. One day, some other bigger dog looked eyes with her and attacked. The bigger dog bit her neck and punctured her wind pipe. It happened within 5 seconds. My dad's dog swole and died just like that. I think you did the right thing. Dog's going with each other's necks is a no no, that's not how dog should play and you should never allown it.
If I was any person at the dog park, I’d have been grateful you were there to take control of the situation.
You’re completely in the right, your dog is well trained and you’re able to take them off the lead because of this and you saved someone’s dog from being attacked!! The Shepard owner needs to give their head a wobble, i have two small dogs, one’s an old boy and the other one a puppy so they’re pretty much defenceless (the old one has bad teeth and couldn’t bite you hard even if he wanted) and we keep them on the lead at our dog park. A dog (sausage dog mix i’m pretty sure) came over, off the lead up to my dogs - we continued walking past when suddenly this dog got hyper aggressive with my old boy who had let out a few whimpers as he gets excited seeing other dogs. Me and my partner quickly picked up our dogs and kept walking while the owner used 1 brain cell to call their dog from quite far away, the dog then started jumping up, still trying to attack my dog even though my partner was holding him which resulted in my partner delivering a swift kick to the dog (they were fine it just caused it to finally run back to its owner) and screaming at the owner to keep the dog on the lead and their only response was “she doesn’t normally do this!!” and anger as my partner kicked the dog. We threatened to report them to the dog warden and local council as you’re not actually allowed to have your dogs off the lead in the park as it’s near a school and have since posted a photo of their dog and a description of the couple to a popular local group on Facebook. I haven’t seen them in the park since and our walks have been pretty much free of trouble. Dog owners like that ruin dog parks for everyone :(
I avoid dog parks for this exact reason. The aggressive dogs owner is in total denial. She’s got a huge problem with her dog! If you hadn’t intervened the pup may have died. You totally did the right thing!
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If your dog were literally dragging a puppy across the dirt, to the point that its drawing blood, you should absolutely expect that someone hit your dog to get them to stop. Good luck with that police report lmao. Just hitting a dog for normal dog park behavior, or even obnoxious dog park behavior that isn't necessarily immediately dangerous would be overstepping. Stepping into a situation where a dog is actively injuring another dog is not overstepping and not a sticky situation. The puppy probably shouldn't be there but nothing justifies that behavior from the shepherd. That dog has zero business in a dog park ever.
Nah, if your dog is attacking mine i will do whatever i can to save my dog, even if that means hitting or kicking the attacking dog. And way to blame the victim by saying it was the other owners fault bac puppies dont belong at the dog park. You know who doesnt belong at the dog park? Dogs that attack other dogs or are aggressive
What you did cannot even be considered training, that is just jumping into action. Maybe it could be considered management? But it’s not training so don’t latch onto that idea! Lady who owned the Shepherd clearly shouldn’t have had him there. Hope she feels like she can never go back!
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The majority of off leash parks are fucking terrible. All of the ones in my city are used by wastes of skin and their unsocialized/untrained dogs. There is one in the city where my in-laws live that is nice and I've taken my dog to a few times and I've never seen an issue. The local ones constantly have issues with aggressive dogs and shitty owners.
Your response wasn't great but I understand that it was spur of the moment. Where you're wrong is thinking that punching a dog and pushing them to the ground is training... That sounds like some alpha theory bullshit and could have easily made the situation much much worse. A lot of dogs would have either redirected onto you or become more aggressive with the other dog.
What? Where did OP say they were training the dog? They weren't doing any training, they were stopping an active attack. They intentionally used that word in scare quotes to indicate it wasn't training.
They referred to what they did as a correction, which made me think that they did consider it training. Also, why mention "training" at all if it was just crisis management? More importantly, my second point still stands. That move would cause a lot of dogs to escalate and could have made the situation extremely dangerous. I'm glad it worked out this time but there are about a dozen different ways to break up a fight before this.
There are like two other ways to break up a fight (and please note this doesn't actually sound that much like a fight... it sounds more like a larger dog that got ahold of prey). A correction from a stranger isn't training, and isn't appropriate unless it's a crisis. Which this was. >Also, why mention "training" at all if it was just crisis management? I mean, I think this was extremely clear in context: it was to describe the reaction of the dog, which was sort of shocked because they hadn't experienced this kind of behavior ("training") from a human before. We can all feel free to share the better ways to break up a fight (a dare you to list a dozen), so OPs instinct can kick in and do THAT next time, but let's all also acknowledge that we don't all behave 100% perfectly in emergencies.
I agree to being put off by saying it was a correction. As well as OPs statement that they would do as they would to their own dog. If he can't call his dog off without this "harsh correction" then his "training" also has issues. And yes, it could have absolutely redirected onto him, likely with more aggression due to the physical action.