I just had a horrifying experience. I was taking my puppy (a 4-month old Maltese...today at the vets she weighed in at 2.6 lbs) on an outing in a local park, let her get into the puppy run for a while, and then put her on leash and took her for a walk around the park's lake. We were about halfway around the lake when a boxer who was off leash :evil: jumped my pup! He picked her up in his mouth and dropped her a couple of times, with my pup yipping in terror. I jumped on the boxer and grabbed his collar, then scooped up Button and stuffed her into her sling (which I was wearing, thank God!-- I had contemplated leaving it in the car because we were, after all, out for a walk!). About that time, the boxer's owner came running up and grabbed his dog, apologizing profusely. I asked why his dog was off leash-- calmly and quietly because I was trying to sooth my terrified puppy and check her for injuries at the same time-- and he said his dog had NEVER done anything like this before. Button wasn't hurt at all, just terrified, and I let the other dog's owner know that she was OK. My intention was to defuse a potentially ugly situation, even though I was ready to clock him one!

I think the boxer was just playing with her. Probably thought Button was a toy. At any rate, since I got her home, I've been watching her carefully, and she's running around and playing normally. It took me several hours to calm down enough to give her a bath because the other dog's slobber got her fur all mucky.

I'm of two minds about this... on one hand she now has positive proof that I'm her protector, and the fact that she wasn't hurt spoke well of the boxer's basic gentleness (he was, after all, about 20 times the size of my dog and could have seriously hurt her if he had actually been aggressive); but on the other hand, several weeks worth of socializing with other dogs has just flown out the window. :-| I stopped by a neighbor's house on the way in and let her down with their dachshunds, just to get her back "up on the horse", and she cowered away from them even though she knows them. We'll visit again tomorrow... maybe she'll be more settled.

I can't begin to tell you how furious I am about this. That man is just darned lucky my pup wasn't hurt! And from the way he was behaving, I think I can be reasonable certain he isn't going to be breaking the city's leash laws any more!

[lil mutt]

Thank God that your pet is ok after that attack... anyway, some people are just too stubborn to follow rules.

Sunday I was walking my dogs... I was with my mother and her 2 dogs, it was so nice out we thought we sould get the dogs out together for a walk. We were down the middle of the street, not on anybodys property and the dogs were on leash at "heel" I saw a woman walking with her Boxer, the dog was off leash and she put the leash on him when we were about 50 feet away. He was walking in front of her on the leash, NOT undercontrol like our dogs. SHe called out to us and asked if our dogs were friendly (which is what people often do when their dogs are nice and they want to come over to play or visit), all of a sudden she dropped the leash and her dog ran at us FULL TEETH showing and grabbed onto the neck/head of my moms larger dog (a spayed female) and started attacking. We were able to get the boxer off my moms dog with the help of the owner. I told the owner to get her dog undercontrol and go get a copy of the dogs vaccinations to show me he had a current rabies vaccine (the boxer had broken my mom's dogs skin). Luckily it had a current vaccine and I got their address, etc. incase we got home and there was more damage then we say on the street (her dog has long hair). They claimed the dog had never done that before... but I am guessing by the way she put the dog on leash when she saw us that it most likely had. The womans father came out and kept saying the dog would "never hurt a person". I told them they need to get a trainer to get their dog undercontrol! Needless to say, I will not we walking in that area again as they live on the street and it is ovbiously a dangerous dog and compleatly untrained and out of control.

I have yet to meet a nice boxer, so it is interesteing that your dog was also attacked by a boxer

ok is this a bad week to walk dogs or what? same thing here. a puppy of unknown breed ( looks a little like pit and rhodesian but could be wrong) the pup never ran for timber went for gizzy girl. this pup was 6 times the size of her. growled at her and went for her neck. gizzy flopped on her back. timber was terrified. got the loose dog away. went around the corner pulling timber. gizzy was unharmed surprising. timber settled once he sniffed gizzy and made sure she was ok. the rest of the walk was fine.

on the trail a guy was almost pulled into a tree by his st bernard. growling and trying to break loose.

So I am back to basics with timber meeting dogs on a calm state. gizzy isn't wanting to walk far anymore. so it is going to be another few weeks before I can get them back to security with other dogs.

had a neighbors dog charge timber on our property. showing teeth and the elderly lady said not to worry" the dog is friendly" he got a few pieces of timbers loose hair in his mouth. haven't seen her walk by since. just a bad week.

glad everyone's dog is doing well though and no one suffered injuries.

[UnderDog]

Heck yeah its a bad week!
We went to our local dog rescue that we foster and volunteer for and took 4 of the dogs (lab, staffy x whippet, rhodesian ridgeback and a boxer x staffy) out walking, we got onto OUR land, for those of you who dont know, we brought 6 surrounding acres of our house so we could walk all or alot of the dogs at the same time and so we can build bigger, better kennels, so we hopped over the gate, dogs went to the side through the missing piece of fence and all was good, dogs went off to play together and so on then out of know where a small pack of dogs (labradour, chihuahua, yorkie terrier and a bull mastiff) started charging at my dogs, on MY land so I shouted out to the owner who was now running after his dogs "MATE! GET YOUR DOGS ON A LEASH! THIS IS PRIVATE PROPERTY! ONE OF THE DOGS HERE IS SLIGHTLY DOG AGRESSIVE AND WILL ATTACK OR KILL LITTLE DOGS!" (he wont, he has all his tempermant test papers to prove his is ok with dogs). So, after calling the rescue dogs back to heel and getting them leashed up my OH got hold of their leashes whilst I took the spare leashes and went and got the guys dog, I had hold of them and had them sit with me whilst I waited for the owner to catch up, no "thanks for getting my dogs back, sorry I was on your land" was "what are you doing with such an aggressive dog out in public? he should be put down!" before I interupted and reminded him it was MY land and 'my' dog was under control, his however were running into the distance after scaring the sh!! out of my dogs (Something I missed in their...the chihuahua was biting up at the dogs necks and chewing their feet).

Grr! lol.

underdog, you showed good self control. I would of leashed the owner.gave him training tips. then walked him off my property. people are ridiculous these days.

[UnderDog]

Haha, you have no idea how much I wanted to put his dogs choke chains around his neck and drag him off the land. Hehehee :P

Understand your feelings. That sounds really scary. But keep it real people...

Originally Posted by purdue512

Understand your feelings. That sounds really scary. But keep it real people...

What does, "keep it real" mean?

I've had large dogs all my life-- and at 60 that's a lot of dogs!-- and in fact, Button is my FIRST toy-sized dog. I KNOW that a properly handled boxer is a very gentle dog.

But a dog running loose in a public park is NOT being properly handled. Start there.

Add in the fact that we were near a playground. Suppose the boxer had decided to play with one of the toddlers running around there? Even a gentle boxer is still a big dog. After an encouter with a boxer, even if unhurt, a small child might fear dogs forever, and that would be tragic. Further, the child's parents might issue a "dangerous dog" complaint, and that would be the end of the dog, no matter how friendly or playful.

The fact is that dogs are dogs, not people. We can't predict what even the most gentle of dogs will do from one minute to the next if they aren't kept in control in public. I had my 4-month-old, 2.6 lb. Maltie on a freakin' leash, fer cryin' out loud! The boxer couldn't say, "Hey, Dad... I want to go play with that fuzzy tennis ball that lady has on her leash!" and actually wait for "Dad" to decide whether or not the fuzzy thing is actually a tennis ball. A dog is going to do what he does.

Heck... we can't predict what our OWN species is going to do from one minute to the next, never mind a different species.

THAT is the reason leash laws exist. They exist for your own dog's protection as much as mine, and the protection of innocent bystanders, like kids and little old ladies like me.

To those who expressed their concern, thank you. Today Button is running around playing normally, seems unhurt, and has even adjusted back to playing with her dachshund friends.

I'm getting ready to take her back out to the park to continue her leash training... and to make sure she hasn't developed any "location" fears. The way she's behaving today, she'll undoubtedly be fine.

For me it was the same... my dogs were on leash compleatly under control when the woman's boxer attacked after she DROPPED THE LEASH. It felt like she was turning the dog loose on us to attack! I have been a groomer for almost 13 years and a dog owner since I was 6. I also know dogs are unpredictable but this is WHY there is a leash law... but some people are just to stupid. This woman obviously did not bother to train her dog and did not socialize it so she could not control!!!

yup, both of mine are on leashes all the time when out in public and Timber is on leash going potty. he is a natural runner then add the fact he pulled sleds.

I wish more towns and places would enforce leash laws. but where I am so many don't.
some guy had a boxer scare a mentally disabled person at the park. the girl fell on the ground crying and screaming. the owner came got the dog, and then let it loose again. I told her to put the dog on a leash as the lady was afraid of it. she never did and the lady left with her care worker frightened out of her wits. I gave her a hug and she asked to pat gizzy and then she was a bit better. the ignorance of some dog owners. it helped the lady but she thought she was a cat cause she was so small. haven't seen her since and it has been a few months.

Mama glad you malti is feeling good.

[UnderDog]

Originally Posted by mamapajamas

To those who expressed their concern, thank you. Today Button is running around playing normally, seems unhurt, and has even adjusted back to playing with her dachshund friends.

I'm getting ready to take her back out to the park to continue her leash training... and to make sure she hasn't developed any "location" fears. The way she's behaving today, she'll undoubtedly be fine.

So glad she is back playing and happy. No doubt she will be ok, malti's are smart, confident little dogs.

Hi there.
I hope all your dogs have a better week next week. Poor things.
This is a very BIG issue for me. I have a 1 year old Husky and the amount of dogs who just run up to us without the owner in sight is unreal. We have been on many walks when dogs have "gone" for my dog. Big dogs and small. My dog is always on a lead as she is a typical Husky and will run off after anything and not come back! (some people are lucky with their huskys but not me) I will always say that she is friendly and playfull if i see anyone with a dog but it makes me mad when other people just let their dogs do whatever they want with out any control. good luck everyone x

Originally Posted by UnderDog

So glad she is back playing and happy. No doubt she will be ok, malti's are smart, confident little dogs.

Yup... she's smart. I took her back out to the park two days in a row, and she wouldn't go anywhere near the walkway around the lake! :???:

I set her down in the grass near where we parked, and she was fine there. We played in the grass for a while, and when I was sure she was confident about where we were, I tried to lead her to the walkway. She put on the brakes, plopped her fuzzy butt down on the ground, and gave me an, "Are you freakin' CRAZY?" look.

So I picked her up and took her closer to the walkway, put her down again, and she tried to climb up my leg. So I put her into her sling and at least got MY walk around the lake.

So we DO have a location fear problem. That is too nice a park to abandon, so I'm going to continue taking her out there and try to recondition her to walking properly around the lake. My intention is to set her down in various placed along the lake and play with her for a few minutes, and let her see for herself that it's OK. Maybe she'll eventually forget why she's worried about it, or see for herself that most of the time it's OK.

And after the park yesterday, I took her out to the beach, so she doesn't associate going in the car to a place she's afraid of. She had a grand time playing in the sand and chasing minnows.

oh mama, just have some patience. perhaps taking her anyway and putting her in the sling will help. I am sure in time she will realize it is nice and calm and decide to give it a try again. sorry to hear about her fear.

makes me upset when people do this to timber, worse when it happens to such a small dog. I once again chewed a couple out this morning for letting their growling dog charge timber. it wasn't long before they had the dog leashed. I threatened to report them. it was the same couple as last year that let the dog charge me and tried pulling gizzy out of the front pouch she was in. It was one of the ones that are all solid on bottom like a sling but carry like a back pack so only her head sticks out. I was not happy this morning. if it weren't for the 3 miles you can walk on it, I would find a new spot to take timber. but this trail is so convenient where I don't drive and it is right behind my house.

I hope your malti recovers quickly.

timber and gizzy

I may be late, but thank God Button is fine after the attack. If I was in your place, i would be terrified by what happened.