My 4yo ex racing greyhound was in our front yard and a small chihuahua mix crawled under our gate and well, my dog got the best of him.
He had it in its mouth and I had to pry his jaws apart to get the dog free.
we have no idea who this dog belongs to. It had no collar and we have seen him wandering around before. Other neighbors remarked that they have seen this dog in their own yards, in the alleyway, etc. I don’t get the sense that it’s a stray, it had nicely maintained long hair.
we called animal control and they gave us the run around. Ultimately we dropped off the deceased dog at their facility. A report was filed and they told us that was all we could do.
I feel so so awful for this dog. I know my dog was only acting on instinct. He of course has a high prey drive having only retired several months ago. He was unmoved by the situation, nearly prideful. I place no blame on either dog and I accept that I could have been monitoring him better in the yard given my knowledge of his prey drive. My roommate is worried about legal repercussions but even animal control said it was not our fault because this dog entered our yard.
he walks on a leash at all times and we muzzle him when there are other dogs nearby. But in our own yard we just let him go about his business.
I have a trainer that he works with but we had such success with him meeting another dog his size that I thought it was not so pressing to continue with that training. We still worked on his leash pulling and crate training. I have another session scheduled with this trainer who now knows the extent of his prey drive with small animals.
I am devastated. I am frustrated and I am beside myself. We were told by animal control that they would reach out if they got any information on the owner - today I was told it had no microchip. they advised me to look on Facebook groups for people who report missing dogs…
I guess I’m just venting at this point but I would love to hear any thoughts or advice or similar situations. Moving forward he will not be allowed outside without supervision. But even that feels futile because he is obviously faster than us and could get to another animal before anyone could stop him.
Would training be hopeless? He is ok with other dogs that he meets, I believe the dog coming into our yard was a different trigger but I am now worried about any and all encounters(more so than I already was)
