Jam can be bitchy with other dogs. I tend to keep her away from dogs with whom she's had "words." One of those dogs is in my group at agility class. It's a very sweet GSD who is a good girl. Long ago, her and Jam locked eyes and neither one of them liked what they saw. Since then, I keep Jam away from her.
While I walk the sets, my instructor holds Jam since she doesn't have the best down-stay. Tonight was no differnt...I was off walking a set and my instructor had Jam. During the walkthrough, Jam's littermate broke her down-stay, so my instructor grabbed her. No problem...Jam respects her sister. But then the GSD came over to see what was going on. My instructor said Jam gave her a warning growl, but she continued to move in on Jam. More growling ensued, but the GSD kept sniffing at her. I saw this happening from about 30 feet away. I started to walk over there cuz I could sense that this wasn't good. Just as I started to say that she should keep the two of them apart, the fight started. I just screamed. I didn't know what else to do. I DO know that you shouldn't reach in to break up a dog fight, but I didn't realize you shouldn't scream...and I screamed loud.
The other instructor came over and grabbed Jam (there was a slight lull in the fight) and pulled me into a hug. I was crying and shaking. I was worried about and mad at Jam...all in the same moment. I apologized profusely to the owner of the GSD, packed up and left. On my drive home, I was bawling so bad, I had to pull over. I pulled Jam onto my lap and hugged her. My emotions were all over the map.
Jam is fine. She has a scratch on her left hind leg. I'll give her a Traumeel before bed tonight.
I'll be fine too. I hate that my dog will now have a bad reputation. Up until now, I've always told people to keep their distance...that Jam does have a bitchy side. I guess something like this was bound to happen. :(
3 comments:
My Remington used to be iffy with other big dogs. I remember being in tears over some aggression thing or other, but I think the worst reactions I got were for the tiniest things from people I didn't know. Most people I knew understood that I made an effort to keep the situation under control and that my dog wasn't a killer.
And, really, if the GSD's owner knew that they had already "had words", and if she already knew that Jam could be a bit of a pill, what on earth was the GSD doing wandering around loose? It sounds like the blame goes more on that end than on your end--you did have the instructor hold your dog! But after years of classes, I've come to believe that the best solution is not to rely on down stays or dogs staying away from each other, that tie-downs or crates or xpens are the least stressful way of dealing with all that. Slightly more of a pain than being off-leash, but I think everyone's much more relaxed in class and can focus better when they know that their dogs are under control.
Oh, here I am providing advice--when what I wanted to say was, I've been there, I understand you feeling awful, it's not your fault, and unless the other lady is a real ditz, she'd probably already "forgiven you" (maybe being thankful that you didn't yell at her for letting her dog have access to Jam) before you even left.
-ellen
Oh, and something I learned somewhere years ago was that, if you can figure out who the main aggressor is, or if you have 2 people, you can sometimes safely grab their back legs and just pull them apart--just have to keep the dog moving till calms a little so he doesn't twist around and grab at you. I did this with a Rottie in a dog park once and it worked very nicely, but there was only one of him and the other was a cocker spaniel, so there was n o issue with trying to get 2 big dogs apart.
-ellen
Thanks for the feedback...and for the empathy.
Class went much, much better last night. The other owner (a male) doesn't hold a grudge (ever I don't think...he's actually quite nice) and we had a nice chat. I brought my lite-weight collapsable crate and put her in it whenever I walked a set. It worked out really well!
Interesting about the grabbing of the back legs! If ever (and I hope NEVER) I have to break up a fight again, I'll have to remember that!
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