# Should we report a "problem dog"?



## Tagrenine (Aug 20, 2019)

Yes. If anything it will encourage them to make sure she doesn’t get out and do it again. Two unprovoked attacks are two too many.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Probably depends on the situation + management?

Years ago my Bertie got attacked by somebody's Sharpei.... who generally is outside on invisible fencing and runs the line charging at any dogs that walk past. With Bertie, the dog ran through the invisible fencing to get at him.

In the midst of pulling the dog off my young dog's back (Bert was only a year old back then), the sharpei ended up biting my hand, drawing blood.

I did call animal control because this dog was kept outside on invisible fencing and obviously was a danger to passing dogs.

The fact I got bit was actually a bigger issue for AC than the dog attacking my dog. They sent a cop, but honestly I don't think they did much. Next day, the dog was back outside running the IF line. 

When I called to report the dog, I mainly wanted the owners to get a warning to keep the dog in the house when they were not physically out there with him.

If I knew this dog had previous attacks... I would have still called to report the dog. Considering the damage that a dog attack can do mentally to your dog, let alone PHYSICALLY.... I basically think more should be done about dog aggressive dogs in the hands of stupid owners.

W/R to the situation you describe - they have an aggressive dog who has attacked dogs... and still take it around to play with other dogs? The stupidity is appalling. That's like handing a gun to your kids to play with.


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## ChrisFromOC (Sep 19, 2018)

I probably would not, but if you feel that your dog (or yourself or your wife) or others are in danger there is nothing wrong with doing so. The fact that they met with you and seem to understand the situation is a factor that would lead me to believe or at least hope this will provide some impetus to address the problem. Two incidents that far apart would not be overly concerning to me unless there was a bad outcome such as a serious bite or something of that sort. That being said you don’t really know how often this may have happened before. Glad to hear that everyone appears to be ok.


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## Prism Goldens (May 27, 2011)

I would report. Clearly the owners knew this was an issue, and thankfully, neither time led to blood, but next time might and the handler could be bitten too.. even by their own dog, in a dog fight dogs don't look to see where the pull is coming from, they just react. 
So, your dog has now been impacted by this dog.. what if she starts showing fear behaviors?
The only way I wouldn't report would be if they hired trainer and showed me the receipt and I could see they were actually committing to this.


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## SeaGlassChick (Sep 27, 2020)

When a dog is known to be reactive, and it seems the owners know this of their pup given not just the prior incident but the fact they cross the street when other dogs are walking towards, constant management is required - and proper management includes not leaving doors ajar. Ever. Same deal if a dog is a flight risk. In my opinion the bigger issue is owner mismanagement which they hopefully will take steps to address. Maybe an open door sensor on the front door, etc? Hopefully extra training will help their dog as well but quite frankly they can’t ever allow their dog to be set up for failure again, with or without any additional training. Maybe a report to animal control would help hammer home the message, unless you feel that’s already been received.


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## CCoopz (Jun 2, 2020)

I would report to force their hand to take action with training or putting a child gate across their front door or fencing there front garden. As they didn’t do anything or didn’t do enough after the first attack. I couldn’t bare it if I didn’t report the incident and then a 3rd worse attack happened to harm another dog or human handler.


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## diane0905 (Aug 20, 2010)

I would. We have one in our neighborhood who is now, thankfully, getting older. He bit an elderly neighbor lady enough to rip her pants and draw blood. When the lady told the neighbor, he offered to pay for her pants, but acted like it was no big deal. His dog slunk after Luke and me several times. He would get real low growling behind us. I would turn around on him, as did Luke, and he stood big and broad. For some reason, whatever Luke or my body languages said, he would back off. I have pepper spray just in case. Anyway, his dog kept getting out and bit another neighbor. Police were called then and he did a better job of keeping the dog in for a few years. 

Lately, the dog is out again. Logan saw it before I did and his body language made me look up. I just thought, "no thank you" and walked in the other direction. Logan is too young and I don't want him exposed to the fearful aggressive dog. It seems like he would be too old to still be acting that way.

On a sad note, the same people recently got a beautiful Australian Shepherd puppy -- a red and white puppy. I first saw the puppy about three months ago. It acted like a puppy. I saw it again this past week and it was pulling and growling at us like Cujo. Jeez. I don't know if the mean dog is causing it, if those people are mishandling their dogs, if it's a combination, or something else. Very sad.

If you report, some action may end up being taken and that beats nothing. I don't get people who aren't proactive about problem behaviors of their dogs. I find the owners more annoying and responsible than the dogs.


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## Hildae (Aug 15, 2012)

I would 100% report it, absolutely. I understand your concern for them, but the dog hasn't bitten a human (yet) so I don't think it's overly likely that they'd require the dog be seized or anything. But even so, the dog needs to be handled now, because the next time, the dog could go after a kid or could really hurt someone else's dog, or your dog. The owners need to do something NOW, like fence the yard and train the dog, and police involvement could force that, finally. This dog has been an issue for more than 2 years now.


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## Lovin'Goldens (Feb 17, 2021)

Best to give them a warning and report it. There are a few reactive dogs here and even though I don't have a dog yet, I still felt a little unsafe. Most people with these dogs have to do some good training, my local shelters/rescues have a few events about reactive dogs and there are training classes specifically for them. I would make sure they are aware they need to fix the problem, if you wait too long, it will only get worse.


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## Pytheis (Mar 17, 2016)

Definitely report it, at minimum so there’s a paper trail in case it happens again or it gets worse.

Down the road from me lived two bully mixes. I was walking my golden retriever past their house when one of the dogs _broke the fence_ to chase us. I put my dog behind me, yelled at it, stepped toward it aggressively, whatever I could think to do. It stopped coming toward us and eventually took off back to its yard. I didn’t think too much of it because it didn’t even get all the way up to us, much less attack.

Then I got a new puppy. When that puppy was 13 weeks old, we were on a walk doing some training and the owners of the same bully mixes opened their front door to let their dogs out into their unfenced front yard. The dogs immediately sprinted toward us, and I did the same things I did the last time they charged me with my golden. This time, however, there was no stopping them and they took me to the ground. I still have the scars. An ambulance was called. The owner of the dogs that witnessed the whole thing? Threw his dogs in the car and left me laying in the middle of the road with a terrified puppy and bleeding from my face, arm, hands, and knee. When the police went to his house, he denied it was his dogs. I seriously regretted not reporting the first incident.


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## Emmdenn (Jun 5, 2018)

I would report. We reported the GSD that attacked Denver in November. The GSD was off leash, I was walking denver along the sidewalk on a leash at about 10:30 pm, late night potty walk. The GSD came charging out of the shadows at Denver and attacked. I’ve seen the dog twice since I reported it. Both times the dog has been on a leash (albeit a retractable) but a leash nonetheless. And this attack has left Denver with some mental “things” we’ve had to address and work though. It sucks. Report it so it doesn’t happen again.


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## goldens9 (Apr 7, 2020)

My dog was attacked by an aggressive pit a few months ago. The garage door was left open and the woman in the garage refused to call off her attacking dog that grabbed my Golden by the throat. I was yelling at it and hitting it but it refused to let go. Fortunately a vet tech heard the commotion, as neighbors just stood around watching, not attempting to chase off the pit. The vet tech charged the pit yelling at it, and it let go and ran back into the open garage with the owner that refused to call off her aggressive very muscular large pit. The vet tech told me to get out of sight and she would make sure the owner locked up the pit in the house. I knew they rented, due to the recent rental sign, so I looked up the owners name and mailed the owners of the house, an anonymous letter from the neighbors, that their renters had a very aggressive attacking large muscular pit bull that was running loose in the neighborhood threatening walkers, kids, dogs, etc. Hoping the owners made it clear that the dog must be locked inside the house at all times, not left in an open garage and the renters refusing to call off their aggressive attacking dog. Maybe the woman dog owner was scared of the pit, as she told the vet tech, that the dog was her husbands and was for sale to the highest bidder and the dog was not her responsibility, so therefore she did not have to call off the attacking dog. She could have grabbed big metal fry pans and ran at the dog with the pans, and most likely the dog would leave, as the vet tech had nothing in her hands, charged the dog, yelling at it, and it returned to the open garage. I now carry either a stun flashlight, stun stick or stun walking stick or long umbrella to have some way to fight off an attacking dog. I no longer walk on the street with the pit, so I don't know if the dog is still there or not. I think I will drive by, knock on the door, to see if I hear a dog barking in the house. Hopefully it has been sold out of the area.


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## StarBright (Nov 11, 2015)

I agree, report it. All my dogs have been charged/attacked by loose aggressive dogs. Thankfully my current youngster has not and none of my others were hurt, other than some bruising. I always carry pepper spray. During some of the attacks I was able to keep the charging dogs from grabbing my dog, other times not. The people need to be reported from allowing their dog to attack, for the protection of other responsible dog owners.


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## DevWind (Nov 7, 2016)

It would depend on the situation, severity and owner reaction. Pilot has had 2 dogs go after him. 
First was a Shiloh Shepherd. From research it seems to be a designer breed, GSD people definitely don't like them! Anyway, this dog took off across the training building and through a fence to specifically attack him. Owner claimed he was "herding". It was an actual attack by a bully. Once Pilot stood up for himself, he immediately stopped.Owner did apologize but made excuses. - Reported
Second was an Akita. It was walking through a small area when Pilot decided to pop his head out of the top of his crate. The Akita basically just told him off for startling him. The owner took swift action and immediately corrected his dog. Owner apologized and made no excuses for the behavior. - Unreported 

Maybe it's just me but I feel like some breeds see Goldens as big pushovers. Almost every time I've seen it happen, the target had been a Golden.


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## goldens9 (Apr 7, 2020)

I do agree, Goldens are generally easy going more gentle dogs, so more aggressive powerful breeds see Goldens as an easy target. All the more reason to be armed to protect your dog from attacks.
I use to carry pepper spray but if you get even a whiff of pepper spray in your throat nose or eyes, one can barely function to protect your dog. No telling which way the breeze will be going when you pump pepper spray. So that is concerning, as I can barely breathe with just a few droplets of pepper spray in the air, I am gagging, coughing, trying to breathe. So decided on either a Stun gun, stun stick, or stun walking stick. There is also a protective steel umbrella that can be opened to be a shield, as well as, the steel pole cannot be crushed by an attacking large dog so it makes for a strong weapon that is long to keep the attacker hopefully away from your arm. I was just lucky the aggressive pit did not bite my arm or attack my face. We do what we have to do to protect our dogs from being injured or killed by attacking aggressive dogs.


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## pawsnpaca (Nov 11, 2014)

I've been on the other side of something like this so just to give another perspective...

My first Golden was "practically perfect in every way." She was sweet, well-socialized, (usually) great with other dogs, spent her life going to obedience and agility classes and trials, regularly went on off-leash walks in the woods with our neighbors' dogs. She was outwardly so stable that people who had "iffy" dogs in our classes often chose to sit next to us in class and we never had an issue. On leash, I trusted her _almost _100%.

BUT, when she was about 2 years old we were out in our (unfenced) yard with her off-leash while we were hosting a baby shower. Someone jogged by the house with a lab and without warning Molly barked once, tore off across the road, flattened the poor lab, and then immediately broke off and trotted back to me. The lab wasn't hurt but I was shocked and appalled and apologized profusely and after that she was never off leash in sight of the road. Over the course of her lifetime (13 years) we had a smattering of similar incidents -- A spaniel we encountered unexpectedly on a walk in our back woods, another spaniel who appeared barking at the edge of a frozen lake when we were on a group, off-leash dog-walk on the lake (both dogs and humans were in our group and we'd had no problems all day), a German Shepherd who arrived unexpectedly with a friend when we were swimming at a secluded beach... there may have been one or two others that I've since forgotten. Every time the event was the same... she spied the dog, took off, flattened the dog, and came right back. None of the dogs were ever hurt... just surprised (and of course I'll never know if any of them experienced long term issues from the attacks).

Although I certainly wouldn't have blamed any of the other dogs' owners for reporting my dog, I greatly appreciated their forbearance. Since Molly never actually hurt the other dog, and the events were rare and largely unpredictable, I'm not sure what I could have done to prevent them other than never letting her be off-leash, even when I thought we were alone. With 20+ years of experience, keeping her leashed at all times outside is exactly what I would do now, but back then...

I think in the end only you can decide if the incident is worth reporting. If the attack wasn't against a human and didn't draw blood, I kind of doubt that the "authorities" will do much of anything even if you do report it. 

I think it says a lot that the owners were upset about the incident. I think if it were me I might offer some training or management advice, or encourage them to bring in a trainer, but they should also be made aware of the potential consequences of not addressing the behavior (up to and including losing or having to euthanize their dog if a serious fight or human bite every occurs). Hopefully they now recognize a pattern of behavior as opposed to an isolated incident and will be motivated to DO something about it.


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## rockcp21 (Dec 29, 2011)

diane0905 said:


> I would. We have one in our neighborhood who is now, thankfully, getting older. He bit an elderly neighbor lady enough to rip her pants and draw blood. When the lady told the neighbor, he offered to pay for her pants, but acted like it was no big deal. His dog slunk after Luke and me several times. He would get real low growling behind us. I would turn around on him, as did Luke, and he stood big and broad. For some reason, whatever Luke or my body languages said, he would back off. I have pepper spray just in case. Anyway, his dog kept getting out and bit another neighbor. Police were called then and he did a better job of keeping the dog in for a few years.
> 
> Lately, the dog is out again. Logan saw it before I did and his body language made me look up. I just thought, "no thank you" and walked in the other direction. Logan is too young and I don't want him exposed to the fearful aggressive dog. It seems like he would be too old to still be acting that way.
> 
> ...


Dogs will learn behavior from dogs they live with, such as this growling unless owner puts a stop to it, obviously they don't care, poor pup.


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