Poor Harvey's Been Attacked!

[Guest PipDG]

I'm not sure if this is the right forum, but I just felt the need to post. Our poor Harvey, who is nearly five and has been with us for just under five months, was attacked by two off-leash dogs today. He was being walked by our neighbour's 17 year old daughter, so was on-leash. She always muzzles him, although we have assured her he's safe around other dogs. They were in the local park when two off-leash dogs suddenly came running down a hill and attacked him, entirely unprovoked. One was a Mastiff cross, and the other was an SPCA special, which around here usually means some kind of Staffie cross. He has a big gash in his side that required stitches, although we are lucky his lung wasn't punctured. He also has another quite large dog bite at the top of one leg that needed stitches, plus several other smaller bites and contusions. Thankfully the owners of the two dogs took complete responsibility, got him into their car and took him to the vet, where they also paid his fairly large bill. He's home now on a big dose of painkillers, with Tramadol on hand should we need it. He's completely zonked out, but lifts his head and whines every now and then. The poor dog walker is terribly upset, and our other greyhound Emmie, who was off leash and stayed well clear, is traumatised and very clingy. We had been working with a greyhound obedience trainer to socialise Harvey, who is like a big puppy. He is not at all aggressive, but his idea of saying hello is to bound up to other dogs and get in their face. In this instance he did absolutely nothing wrong, and this is a big set back. I just hope he doesn't become fear reactive as a result. Just posting because I know you will all sympathise. No need to comment about reporting the dogs and owners etc - they feel absolutely awful and I'm fairly sure they've never had any indication their dogs were at all dangerous. We will be talking to them to ensure that they take appropriate steps so that this doesn't happen again. Ironically there was an infamous incident whereby a greyhound near us attacked a mini-Schnauzer, which later died of shock. We've done so much work to rehabilitate the reputation of greyhounds and then this goes and happens to our poor, sweet, dopey boy.

[Guest normaandburrell]

I am so sorry. Our first grey suffered a very large laceration on his side after a German shepherd cross nipped him playfully. She was really just mouthing him, and he pulled back, causing the tear. The owners also offered to take responsibility and felt awful. Our grey did not become fear reactive and remained social, so I hope Harvey does as well.

[JohnF]

What an awful thing to happen; and it always comes out of the blue.

 

Your dogs will almost certainly now be confused and you may see them sending you their Calming Signals. Most likely 'lick and yawn'.

You can respond with 'lick, yawn and look away'. It will help them know you're still OK and not annoyed with them, and it also helps if you keep the routines going as much as possible.

 

It may help you to read the article in the link. Not so much as to 'read' the minds of random bad dogs, but to make you more aware of the signs your dogs are sending out.

[Guest june]

So sorry you are going through this

[Houndtime]

So awful. Our Paul was attacked by a small dog and sustained over 30 bites and punctures. I hope Harvey recovers well and feels better soon.

Edited September 30, 2014 by Houndtime

[Guest greyhound_in_LA]

It does NOT matter if the owners thought their dogs were OK. If it's a leash-required area, you follow the rules.

 

I've been out near downtown and people's Chihuahuas and other tiny dogs escaped and ran toward us, and I'm the responsible owner who has her dog leashed AND he's wearing a harness. Imagine if I were a total idiot and let my Greyhound offleash, and one of those tiny dogs ran to us.

 

I'm glad your Harvey is OK.

 

People cannot be trusted to control their dogs. I bought pepper spray for this very reason. I don't care if people walk their dog-aggressive dogs on leash, more power to them, but if you have offleash dogs that try to attack my dog and me, I am using that spray to avoid getting attacked!

[Guest 2nsnoe]

Omg, that is soooooo traumatizing! I'm just glad that Harvey is ok. Hoping for a speedy recovery.

[dmdsmoxie]

I wouldn't muzzle him on his walks anymore.

[Guest PipDG]

We don't muzzle him but the neighbour's daughter, who was walking him, usually does because for whatever reason it makes her feel safer (not anymore). He had an ok night - quite a bit of crying when we were trying to get him comfortable last night, and he woke up twice during the night. However we all got a reasonable amount of sleep. He woke feeling much chirpier, and the Tramadol is obviously doing the trick as he's been up and about and wanting to get on with things. He has stitches on his left ribcage, and his right front leg also has stitches and a lot of bruising. He's also got quite a bit of bruising under his chest. The vet has taken off his bandages so I'm just hanging around making sure he doesn't fuss too much over his stitches. There doesn't seem to be any torn muscles. The owners of the two dogs have reported themselves to the council, so we shall see what happens. The dog walker has just been round and brought her Westie terrier with her and the pair were fine together. We shall take things slowly introducing him to other dogs again. Feeling a lot more positive than I was last night!

[Batmom]

What an awful thing to happen. Hugs and hopes your darling boy makes a great recovery.

[galgrey]

I'm so sorry to see this. Sending good thoughts for a speedy recovery.

[Guest Johberry]

I also want to say sorry that you're going through this. We live in an apartment complex with plenty of fear-aggressive and/or straight-up aggressive dogs and try to avoid them (and their owners) like the plague. It pisses me off when owners don't correct or even attempt to control their dogs. Our boy didn't care at first but now reacts with fear and tries to bolt when the other dog barks incessantly and lunges. I obviously get the hell out of dodge and loudly say to our hound (for the other dog owner to hear) not to worry because I will kick the other dog in the face before letting it near him. ::sigh:: I don't understand why people allow their dogs to act that way...as if they enjoy the fact their dogs are aggressive towards other dogs.

 

I hope your hound feels better and again I totally empathize. ::HUGS::

[KickReturn]

I second not using the muzzle. Sorry to hear about Harvey's injuries. I hope he has a speedy recovery with no lasting effects.

 

Sounds like so many of our Greys are such passive creatures. I guess if they are, we owners need to be ready to fight off the attackers ourselves. All of these attacks seem to happen with the Grey on a leash. I wonder if that is a factor. My Hester has only ever been attacked to the point of contact when he was on a leash. There have been multiple attempts since but he has always been off leash and frightens the other dogs off before contact can occur. But he is not a passive Greyhound. He is, in the jargon of the day, "the one who knocks".

[racindog]

I second not using the muzzle. Sorry to hear about Harvey's injuries. I hope he has a speedy recovery with no lasting effects.

 

Sounds like so many of our Greys are such passive creatures. I guess if they are, we owners need to be ready to fight off the attackers ourselves. All of these attacks seem to happen with the Grey on a leash. I wonder if that is a factor. My Hester has only ever been attacked to the point of contact when he was on a leash. There have been multiple attempts since but he has always been off leash and frightens the other dogs off before contact can occur. But he is not a passive Greyhound. He is, in the jargon of the day, "the one who knocks".

Hester sounds like my kind of guy Slim was like that too-and then some.

[4My2Greys]

We don't muzzle him but the neighbour's daughter, who was walking him, usually does because for whatever reason it makes her feel safer (not anymore).

Not sure what you meant by not anymore, but I certainly hope you will not allow this girl to ever walk him again. Your lucky he's not dead, being muzzled he had no way to even attempt to protect himself.

[dmdsmoxie]

I took the, not anymore, to mean the dog won't have a muzzle on while being walked.

[4My2Greys]

I hope that is the case.

[EllenEveBaz]

Poor Harvey (and Emmie, and your neighbor, and you). I'm so sorry this happened to your sweet boy. And glad that he seems to be doing well.

 

My Eve was attacked by a dog while we were walking in our neighborhood. For several years, she would refuse to walk on that block. The attacking dog lived there, although his humans evidently finally fixed their fence. Then, suddenly, Eve didn't "statue" at the corners of that block anymore. It turned out the people had moved. Eve knew before I did.

 

Other than the refusal to walk by the attacking dog's house (which I thought was very smart), Eve continued to be friendly to other dogs.

[Guest PipDG]

When I made the not any more comment I meant she wouldn't feel safe any more walking him with a muzzle. I don't blame her at all for the incident, and I'm not going to stop her walking them again if she's not too traumatised. Thankfully Harvey is bouncing back with a super-human resilience. His wounds are all looking great and he's trotting around the house, jumping up and down off the sofa, with no issues. I capitulated and let him have a walk this morning, though he won't be allowed to run till he gets his stitches out. My main issue is that he has now developed separation anxiety, and my husband saw him howling on the dog cam about an hour after we left this morning. We don't normally leave together, which probably didn't help, and he's still on Tramadol, which is probably messing with him. We're going to go back to basic techniques for anxiety and hopefully he will start to relax. He did roach on the sofa this afternoon, so he's obviously feeling better!

[3greys2cats]

Glad to hear that Harvey is bouncing back from his attack. Lots of Greyhounds have a negative reaction to Tramadol, nervous, anxiety, pacing, maybe Harvey is one of them, Flower had bad reaction and stayed up 24 hours, we had her put on Gabapentin instead. My girl Flower was attacked by a German Shepard in our neighborhood and she is hesitant a year later to walk by that house. It was random, they have a Down Syndrome child who let the dog out front door at exactly the moment we walked by and I was even more traumatized than her emotionally. Flower wore 2 tube cones for over a month to keep her from licking, biting, pajamas to cover and protect her stitches, lots of fun there, her stitches were removed 2 weeks after attack and within an hour we were back getting re-stitched, they opened up, she also had necrotic tissue that needed to be removed, it was in corner of huge L shaped wound. Hoping Harvey, your neighbor and Emmie have an easier time getting past this incident. We continued to walk every day twice as always and get on like it hadn't happened. Roaching is a great sign!!!

[CharlieRhea]

So sorry this happened to Harvey. I've had the same experience but luckily Charlie defended himself. I get so angry @ dog owners who have unleashed dogs. I used to walk Charlie around the neighborhood quite happily, he loved it! Down by the Charles River etc. He was attacked in front of our home about a year ago by an un leashed aggressive dog. Charlie defended himself but unfortunately he gets a little reactive with seeing strange dogs now, I don't blame him. He gets overly excited and nips at the closest thing which has been me so I bought a muzzle. I walked him around the neighborhood with his new muzzle and he seemed calm and it was good to be able to do that again. Then about 3 weeks ago I was walking him, luckily unmuzzled, as my neighbors dog who is tied up outside a lot, snapped his tie out and attacked Charlie. Charlie defended himself again but now it has reinforced his reactivity to strange dogs. I'm considering a Greyhound only class to help his confidence and mine. Other than my fear of confronting a strange dog all is well. He and my German Shepherd get a long wonderfully.

I agree with the poster that suggested you don't allow the girl to walk Harvey anymore even if it wasn't her fault.

I think also I will start carrying pepper spray or lemon juice in a squirt gun. I need MY confidence back to help him.

Edited October 10, 2014 by CharlieRhea

[Guest PipDG]

Harvey got his stitches out on Wednesday (it's Saturday afternoon here in New Zealand). He's healed beautifully! We'd encountered a few dogs one-on-one, but today his greyhound obedience trainer was coming to town for a competition and was keen to see him. She lives a couple of hours from us. So we took him along and he behaved impeccably around the other dogs, and even coped with a Husky puppy. We feel like we really dodged a bullet this time around. We're going to continue with his training and socialisation the way we were before the attack, and in the meantime avoid poorly trained off leash dogs! I will have no hesitation in defending my boy if need be ...

[4My2Greys]

With your continued support and work it sounds like Harvey is going to come through that episode just fine.

[PatricksMom]

I don't have any advice to add, but I'm sorry this happened and it's good to hear that Harvey is doing so well.

[kronckew]

glad to hear he's getting better.

 

to paraphrase teddy rooseveldt: "Walk softly and carry a big taiaha!".