Operation Sow's Ear to Purse 8: apparently not a purse but a gunpowder pouch?

[bunn]

 Yesterday I had a scary walk with Duke.  He knocked another dog (a medium sized collie spaniel type) over and went for its stomach.  I had to drag him off the other dog, who was squealing and distressed.  There was some blood, though the other dog's owner was definite that he wasn't hurt, so I think Duke must have bitten his own lip or tongue in the excitement.   Thankfully the other owner was very sensible and didn't panic. 

This freaked me out somewhat.  It's outside of my experience and I was really worried about it.  Also, it felt like a single attack that happened in a flash, and it alarmed me how powerful Duke is suddenly.

In the light of the next morning -  and having had an email chat with Fee, who has owned loads of lurchers,(and is also one of those people that has a real knack for asking exactly the right question at the right time to make you think)  this is what I think happened:

Other dog was standing standing still, tail waving and relaxed stance.  As it was a medium-larger dog and seemed confident, I didn't put Duke on the lead before we got to him, but decided to let him greet off lead. 

Duke suddenly went into a sort of border collie style crouch, then in a split second, he launched himself like a missile at the other dog.

Az (the little toad) was running nearby at the same moment.

Az sheered off at once when I shouted, but to the other dog it must have seemed as though both dogs were going for him.

As Duke ran at him, the other dog's stance changed: he was clearly scared.  At the point when Duke got to him, the other dog started to run and Duke ran past, then turned and went after him.  At that point Duke looked like a hare coursing dog going after a hare. 

He caught the other dog, knocked him over, and grabbed at his stomach.  This happened behind where I was standing,  so they must have run maybe10-20 yards and come past me before Duke knocked him over.

So, I THINK what Duke did was rush up far too fast and really in-your-face, all excited because he was joining in with Az - the other dog, seeing two dogs apparently attacking, understandably bolted, then Duke chased him down, getting frantically excited by the chase so when it ended he behaved as though he had caught a rabbit.  

It seemed like all one action because it was so quick and at first my mind blurred the whole incident together.

This is the second such incident.  The first occurred on Sunday, when I went for a group walk with some other sighthounds.   An offlead collie ran right past three large sighthounds that were on lead.  All three of the sighthounds grabbed for her (she was being very rude and provocative) and Duke managed to yank the lead right out of my hand and connected with her.  I thought he was just joining in with the gang that time, but maybe it was a bit more than that.  


Things learned  and things to be done: 

1) I need to be much more careful about where and when Duke goes offlead 

2) Duke really needs better recall and I'd better start working on that seriously 

3) Az and Duke never offlead at the same time unless there are really NO other dogs about at all (except Mollydog who is too old and sensible to get involved in all this lurcher laddish bad behaviour)

4) Duke must wear his muzzle to greet unfamiliar dogs.  

5) Duke can't be trusted around dogs that may run away from him: he is too excitable (and getting very strong now!)

6) I have made an appointment for Duke to see a dog behaviour expert next week to get some help with recall training and to make sure that I'm not misreading this.

7) possibly I should get a no-pull style collar on Duke to stop him being able to pull the lead out of my hand.  I'm thinking maybe the Canny Collar. 

Comments

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Ouch! Well, I suppose a problem had to come up sooner or later. I agree that you really need a muzzle for the time being. Dogs do knock each other over (our ETT once ran at full tilt directly into the head of a pitbull but seemed none the worse, and as for the three Dogue de Bordeaux who send him flying every time...) but teeth are another matter. Duke is suddenly feeling his strength - you might also consider whether he is protecting you.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

If he'd just knocked it over, I'd have thought he was a clumsy lout and been mildly embarrassed (had that before!), but this was much more predatory.

I don't *think* it was protective but the big guy hasn't had much to protect in his previous life, so it's always a possibility.

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

Maybe the combination of Az as 'pack' and chasing are just a little too much for Duke's lurcher brain... and poof! That's understandable, particularly if he's not been around smaller dogs a lot.

I was thinking a training class with a mixture of different sized dogs might help, but if the dogs aren't running around, Duke's instincts probably won't kick in...

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think now I went far too fast for Dukes little lurcher-brain. Will be taking things much more carefully from now on.

The behaviour counsellor person runs classes and if she decides Duke is up to it, we may be able to join them.

We went out with my mother's dogs this evening, two collie terriers and a whippet, and no problems, but Duke was on lead.

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

I can see how that would be very scary. Your strategies for dealing with this all sound very sensible to me.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Although it's tempting to think I overreacted a bit, I know that if a dog had done that to one of mine I'd have been terrified. I was lucky it was a tough sort of dog with a tough sort of owner!