My friend, a fellow IPO club member's doberman was viciously attacked by an 80lb Pit Bull.
My friend was walking her dog, on leash down the street when a Pit Bull who was off leash came running at her dog. The pit owner fruitlessly called the dog - who would not come. The dog proceeded to attack my friend's dog, grabbing onto him and holding on. My friend with the doberman is a doberman owner through and through. She kicked the crap out of the dog trying to get it off but couldn't. The Pit Bull's owner could not get her own dog off initially. She did pull the dog off once and he re-grabbed the doberman.
It's not clear to me how they finally separated the dogs, but they did get them apart. The pit bull owner was just in shock because, you know, "her dog goes to the dog park
and he's never done this before".
The first mistake here is taking your "dog friendly" pit bull for granted. I don't care how low your dog's drive is. It is still a pit bull. You cannot determine if your dog will ever 'turn on'. As a pit bull owner it is your responsibility to be cautious with your dog. Be careful with introductions, don't go to dog parks, and to always have control over your dog. For ANY dog owner this should be basic information, but when you own a powerful breed capable of killing another dog you need to take these things even more seriously.
To top it off, if you own a pit bull, regardless of how nice the dog is - you should know that choking a pit bull off of another dog is your best course of action for getting your dog off of another dog. Again, owning this breed it is OUR responsibility to know how to care for our dogs. To know what to do if a fight does happen to break out!
My friend's dog is okay, but they had to place a drain in his shoulder. It's funny because my friend was like "Well, maybe my dog set the dog off."
It doesn't matter! My friend had complete control over her dog on a leash.
My friend's dog is her pet, but he's also her sport dog. She has spent thousands of dollars to have this dog and he could have been killed last night. It isn't about the money, but we are talking about the dog's career being ended before it even began. Simply because one person failed to be responsible for their powerful breed of dog.
I am not a perfect pit bull owner but I have spent a lot of time learning about the breed. I try not to put my dog in situations for him to fail and I don't go out of my way to let him socialize with other dogs. When I do, I make sure I am completely in control of my dog. I've spent a lot of time working on obedience and I also try to be extremely vigilant of our surroundings when we are out and about. While Seppel is okay with some dogs, I am always aware that he has a side to him which is very intolerant. I have seen a few instances where he would gladly go after another dog. How far he would take things, I have no idea. But I have no desire to see.
I hope my friend's dog recovers okay and doesn't become super dog reactive because of this incident. I hope that the pit bull owner stops going to the dog park and makes an effort to keep their dog on leash in the future. It only takes ONCE for something horrible like this to happen. The whole idea is to not have it happen at all. The pit bull owner DID offer to cover vet bill's for my friend's dog and at this point seems to be cooperative, so that's a good thing. However the situation is still really a scary one, and one that happens all too often.
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