If you have a large dog aggressively charging people(me) in a park-DO NOT TELL ME "He's Friendly"

[Boxerfan]

Because I will do what I have to-to protect myself & my Sheppard mix.

I metal detect for exercise & sanity. I have a very well behaved doggie who is well known by fellow park dog walkers. She is rather passive & has been attacked by aggressive dogs before-they take one look at her & see her as bait.

So today when I see a disabled (walker) lady trying to call her pit bull mix I got my dog behind me.
Sure enough the dog started charging from about 50 yards away. I put my large metal detector coil in front of me & puffed mysled up.

I screamed as loud as I could & made myself as angry appearing as possible. The damn dog kept coming straight at me.

It was a very muscular Pit bull mix.

Luckily about 10 yards away the dog stopped & headed back towards the owner. I was totally amazed he did not stop right away. I grew up on a farm & I know how to read animals. I have never had one continue a charge after my "show" of force. Hell-I stopped a bear in a campsite that way but I digress.

I held up my long sharp digging tool & did something I never did before but I meant it. If your damn dog attacks mine I will take it out. Period end of freakin story.

I love animals dearly but there is a point you have to defend yourself & loved ones. That was way too close.

Here in Portland a Pit bull mix got on a Max train & tore up a small service dog in front of the owner & some kids had to witness it.

Responsible owners DO NOT allow aggressive dogs free reign in public. You are endangering your fellow pet owners & very likely your own dog as Animal Control will euthanize them.

A few minutes later-after watching the owner leave the park with the dog after telling me "He friendly"

I started detecting again & I see a flash of a large dog running behind me-I literally cried out in start-It was just "fast doggie". A local pit bull mix who's owner also has a hard time controlling.

But he's not a problem at all-he's after the squirrels!

So-similar situation with a huge difference-this dog was obviously not aggressive & just out having fun.

Charging straight at me-and not stopping-lady-yer dog aaint "friendly" he's looking for a chewtoy that bleeds.

[orleans]

1. i'm so glad the story ends so well--what a relief

i've had some small doggies (and a medium one) and carried pepper spray on walks with the medium one because she was so gentle and there were a couple of big, aggressive dogs in the neighborhood.

with the last little one i had i thought if anyone ever tried going after her i'd kick them to the moon--i was very protective of her and she was very timid and gentle as well.

dog owners need to realize that when their dog is an aggressive asshole they should muzzle them when they're around other people & other dogs and definitely not let them be running loose. not only do they put other people & animals in danger, they are putting their own pet in harms way as well because of what a person's reaction might be.

[tandot]

3. A couple of years back I took my 2-year old son in a stroller to our park

There was that skinny guy with that big dog and he had a hard time trying to control it ... as the dog was trying to pull aggressively towards my son's stroller, he was saying 'he just hates lawn mowers and your stroller looks like one..." grinning about it ... well, my son was sitting in that stroller, that that asshole dog wanted to attack.

It was the last time that I took my son to that park. I'd rather have my son alive than spending time at a park with asshole dog owners and dogs who'd like to kill him.

We have a 90 pound German Shepard and he'll never ever be out of control like that. If you have a dog, take responsibility and train him/her. It is not our responsibility to guess if your dog is friendly or wants to kill us.

[orleans]

5. thankfully nothing like that happened when i "strollered" my daughter or at any time thereafter

during our walks & little bike rides together. that would have freaked me out to no end.

[HipChick]

2. I got bitten by a dog

as a little girl.. had a phobia ever since..

[Boxerfan]

4. It was a bad experience-too close. And I've had similar incidents.

One time my dog was attacked & I wasn't able to help her soon enough. Of course the owner was the real problem & the cops were called etc...

And my doggie was not the same for over a year. She is the most sensitive dog I've ever had-an example is if left out too long she barks very softly. Once.

Then she does a slightly louder bark if she's not heard. I swear she's "Polite".

She also does Kabuki-or that's my interpretation.

For some reason when she wants out she does a scooch-or long stretch. If I do not "praise" the "schooches" I get a forlorn look & she will not go outside.

Sanity has taken fore & she will go out normally for my wife now but Kabuki is still accepted & the scooches praised when I let her out.

And I'm thankful this turned out well-very thankful.

The "fast doggie" I named when I saw them 1st over a year ago. Dog zooming across the length of a soccer field after a "stewpid squirrel". Dang near got it too. owner calling in vain. Bt the dog like I said was obviously not aggressive and as I saw them more came to know them both. My dog would love to say hello but fast doggie is well-too fast..

The owner is nice & I told her about the encounter afterwards. And I warned a small Dachshund owner to keep an eye out. His doggie was swooped at but not hurt by a small hawk. They actually hunt the crows around here-and of course stewpid squirrels.

Hate to be so angry-but this was that close to having to do something I really don't want to. Probably get hurt trying I knew but damn dog was still coming at me...Had made the decision already to protect myself & her.

[Enrique]

7. i'm angry about this as well

but i'm mad at the owner of fast doggie as well. Even if the dog never attacks anyone, he is certainly scaring people, and that is not cool.

[femmocrat]

6. I totally understand why you are angry.

People who do not take the time to properly train and restrain their dogs are a danger to others.

Glad he stopped, but a disabled woman had no business putting others at risk.

[IDemo]

8. We're a 4 minute walk from the dog park

and I often walk the dogs right by it, but we quit taking them there last year after the aggressive dogs and unconcerned owners got to be a bit much.

[Arugula Latte]

9. I HATE that!

Even if your dog is "friendly" I don't particularly want it jumping up on me with its muddy paws. I don't want that moment of considering "is it going to go for my jugular"?

I consider myself an animal person but really I'm a 100 percent cat person who admires wildlife and wants all animals to be treated well. I've developed a fear of unleashed dogs in adulthood based on a few incidents. Just the other day I was taking a neighborhood walk, saw a dog in a yard (it probably lived there and was just hanging, but still, there was nothing to stop the dog from going after me) and so I turned around and went way out of my way to avoid it.

[Scruffy Rumbler]

10. So glad it turned out well for you!

This reminds me of a time when I lived in DC. I would take my Golden to Congressional Cemetery. They started a dog park there to combat vandalism. There was a rather elderly man that had lost his prior dog and showed up with a pitbull mix he adopted from the pound. The dog was too much for the guy to handle. He attacked my dog, doing that full charge and bit my dog in the tail/rump and drew blood. Luckily I was under an old holly tree and was ablr to break of a dead branch long enough to put between me and the attacking dog. After my dog was bit, he ran back to me and sat between my legs. The other dog charged and the stick was the only thing keeping him from my dog and me.

I heard from many people there that the dog was a problem with everyone! The excuses the old man gave, "your dog was running. your dog had a ball/stick/toy, your dog was barking". Basically it came down to your dog exists, therefor I will attack it. Gladly the cemetery is huge and when we say the guy's station wagon pull in, we headed in the opposite direction.