Roxy I’m trying that on any dog that goes for mine! What a great move! I don’t know why her dog refused to go with her? Maybe it was fired up and wanted to keep on at Dageus. Some people are weird - when a dog attacked mine, the woman just sauntered over and said “oh he does that sometimes” and wandered off. Meanwhile, Diva Dog (who was only 10 months old) was screaming as her leg was bitten, and I was (ashamed to say) screaming and swearing like a common fishwife at the dog AND her, while trying to kick her dog off mine.
This is exactly the procedure I use when there is a dog fight, Roxy. It not only throws the dog off kilter, it keeps your hands from accidentally being bitten.
The other bit of advice I offer to people taking their dogs to dog parks or in a dog-busy area is to carry a squeezable bottle of ice-cold water. A heavy dousing in the face of the attacking dog usually shocks them into backing off.
Oh Dear Yes, Surfer I can’t stop laughing as what you say about the water apart from being true, also brought back a childhood memory. I was sat on the seat in garden watching two of my mum’s Old English Sheepdogs playing, suddenly it turned and became a fight. My gran heard the commotion and came out to the garden she had been peeling potatoes and she had grabbed the bowl and chucked the lot, all over my mother who had just bent over to stop the dogs, the water had stopped the fight but the vision of my mother who never had a hair out of place, was priceless. Dripping wet with potato peelings in her hair. She was not a happy bunny.
I thought they had to be on a lead walking along pavements beside a public road, Muddy?
Rare perhaps, but it does happen.
You’ve perhaps seen me write in the past about my beloved Izzy, who was heavily pregnant and enjoying a gentle stroll in the sunshine down the park with me, when a bloody evil Staffy - off lead - rushed at her and attacked her for no reason whatsoever. She didn’t even see it coming up behind her.
Iz hadn’t got a bad bone in her body, but that viscious dog fully intended to kill her and her puppies.
Only thing to be careful of is it doesn’t try to turn round and grab your ankles! 