Dog Walk Gone Wrong

If you know anything about me, you know that I am crazy about my dogs. Almost as crazy as I am about my husband! I do my best to do everything I can for them. We walk just about every morning and most evenings as well. I am hyper aware of what their strengths and their weaknesses are. I try to keep them away from situations and people where I think they will act out. All-in-all, I do my best to be a good "parent."

Lately, my neighbors have become more and more complacent about their animals. I do my best to avoid their dogs when they are out in the front lawn or roaming the streets; which is what happened tonight.

I started out on my usual route. I saw a bunch of kids on their bikes followed closely by a loose dog. Not wanting to deal with the dog, I turned around and decided to do my route in reverse. The rest of the walk was going fine. My dogs went nuts after passing a pomeranian, but we were able to use it as a learning experience. I felt like I was making progress on how to act when passing an unfamilliar dog on a leash.

Soon, we came to the area where I had seen the loose dog. I looked around for it. When I didn't see it, I thought to myself, "Good, they took it inside where it belongs." Then, out of nowhere, the miniature pincher and lab mix looking dog comes running out of an open garage. His hackles are riased. His teeth are barred and their is absolutely no where for me to go.

My two 70+ pound dogs are going nuts. They are very protective of me and are not about to let anything happen to me. The dogs start circling around me. The little one jumps in and snips at Cocoa. Riley will have nothing of that and wedges himself inbetween Cocoa and me and the little dog. In the mean time, Riley and the little dog are growling and snarling on my right. Cocoa, on my left gets tangled in her leash as she tries to reenter the fight and falls onto her bad leg. Riley is so strong, he pulls me and Cocoa, dragging her on her bad leg. She screams. I scream.

Finnaly, the loose dog's owner gets over to the scene and grabs his dog. He takes the dog and walks back across the street to his house. I am angry and scared but trying to keep my cool.

"Is she bleeding?"

"No, she has an ACL tear," I retort.

"Oh, so she was already injured," he said.

"No, her injury was repaired. It was very expensive." I said.

"Do you think she's OK?"

"I don't know. I'm taking her home."

I gave Cocoa a hug and we were on our way. She was able to put some weight on it, as we walked home; which did ease my fears some. When I got home, Adam helped me clean up the puncture wound on her right (good) leg and wrap it. She spent the rest of the evening in her crate resting and chewing on a rawhide.

We'll see how she feels in the morning.

This would be one thing if it was the first time it happened. But, this is the second time! The first time another one of his dogs came after Riley while we were running. The owner rode up on his riding lawnmower - I'm not even kidding - to retrieve his dog and said absolutely nothing that time.

Please, please keep your dog on a leash, in your fence or in the house! It's not fair to you, your dog, your neighbor or your neighbor's dog.

I'll let you know how she is feeling in the next couple of days.