Unprovoked attack :(

[jodi0553]

Just needed to vent -

Currey was attacked without provocation by a dog that he's known pretty well and played with many times over the past year. It was so surprising, one minute three dogs were running around playing together, the next moment, she was on top of him attacking ferociously. All three owners were trying to get it broken up without getting hurt ourselves. The attacking dog is a 1 yr old mixed breed who weighs about 35 lbs. Before the attack, she was running around with a frisbee, and she had been called back in for another throw. All three came back for the next toss, and she set the frisbee down and just turned on Currey - he wasn't barking, or jumping on her and he didn't go for the frisbee. He was actually nicely sitting waiting for the toss. The only thing I can think is that she perceived that he was too near her toy. Currey didn't fight back and was really terrified. I decided to keep him outside rather than letting him go hide, but sitting on top of a bench surrounded by the people. All three of us gave him lots of attention, but the attacking dog's owner only diciplined her for a minute, and then allowed her to go back to playing , which, if you ask me, was not the correct choice - the dog should not have been allowed to go back to having fun, but I didn't feel it was appropriate for me to tell the owner that (She's one of my former students). I just found some broken skin on him while I was petting him, but it wasn't deep enough to have bled, so I'm very glad for that.

Its been a fun week...So far I've had the dog freak out over grooming and garbage trucks, eat something that caused two days of diarrhea and vomiting, and two indoor pee accidents...all this while I'm alone with him and trying to keep my house clean enough to sell

[pkcrossley]

Currey was behaving well and was victimized. the attacking dogs' owner did not handle this well. i agree that you can't advise the other owner how to handle her dog, but you can certainly decide that it isn't safe for Currey to play with her until she gets some aggression-control training.

the cause for concern now is that Currey may feel that he was a sap for not coming off more aggressively himself. it is very hard, but reinforce his good behavior and hope he doesn't change his philosophy over it. cairns have long memories but they are also forgiving. it's possible he will be willing to play with the dog again (he might not have perceived the attack as being as terrifying as it seemed to all of you) but if i were in your place i might want to be assured that the attacking dog is getting some better training before trying it again. broken skin is a pretty serious sign --it means the other dog wasn't just trying to warn or discipline him, but hurt him. as she sounds much bigger than he, that isn't a good sign. fortunately he was intelligent enough to not provoke her further by fighting back (he couldn't have won, which he probably knew).

you should be proud of Currey, especially as it sounds he has been a trial to you in many other ways this week!