I have a dog with me almost everywhere I go. The few places I don't have him (court, the gym, sterile areas in hospitals.MRIs/X-Ray rooms, etc), I generally have a person with me to replace him. He's a highly trained, well-behaved service dog.
Being with a dog practically everywhere I go, I get to see a lot of people behaving inappropriately towards dogs. Since Itzl is such a well-trained dog, their bad behavior isn't a matter for serious concern with us, but it makes me wonder about how they behave around dogs who are not so well trained and well-behaved.
So I put together a quickie list of the various situations people might find themselves in around dogs and how to handle the situation. In every single case, it is up to the human to modify their behavior. Dogs are responsive, but you need to know what they respond to and what will calm them and what will set them off. And the problem with abused dogs is that practically anything can set them off. It's not the dog's fault - 99.9% of the time, it's the fault of a human. The other 1% of the time accounts for dogs that are injured or desperate for reasons other than those provided by humans.
Friendly Dog with Owner:
1. Always ask the owner for permission to pet the dog.
2. Obey the owner’s answer.
a. No means No – don’t pet the dog or talk to it.
b. "Yes" means approach cautiously.
3. Hold out the back of your hand for the dog to sniff.
4. If the dog permits it, stroke the dog on the chest or shoulder or under the chin.
5. Never pet a strange dog on the top of the head.
6. Never try to pet a dog who’s sleeping, eating, behind a fence, or in a vehicle.
7. Never run up to a dog and try to pet it, especially from behind or above.
8. Never crowd a dog or make it feel cornered.
9. Teach these to your children early and often.
Stray dog that still has an owner but hasn’t gone feral:
1. Look to see if the dog has a collar and tags.
2. If the dog approaches you, stop and stand still, arms down by your sides.
3. Do not make eye contact.
4. If it sniffs you and seems friendly, you can command it to sit.
5. If it does sit, you can check its collar ad return it to its owner.
6. If it doesn’t sit, wait until the dog loses interest and leaves or
7. Start backing slowly away from the dog, hands down, head turned away from the dog.
8. If the dog appears aggressive, blink slowly and yawn.
9. Call for help once you are far enough away from the dog that it isn’t likely to jump on you or chase you.
Injured Dog:
1. Assess the situation and respond accordingly
2. If the dog is in the middle of the street, check traffic and see if you can put traffic hazard cones up to direct traffic around the injured dog.
3. Call the local animal control officer, animal shelter, a veterinarian, or the police to take care of it. Why? Because in many places, it's illegal for you to stop traffic to rescue the dog/animal. Putting up hazard cones is not illegal, put standing in the middle of traffic is. If you don't mind risking being ticketed and paying a hefty fine, go for it, though. Poor dog.
4. If this is a remote location with no professional help to call, you have three choices:
a. Walk away
b. Contact a ranger or a local resident and walk away
c. Get the dog to help yourself
5. If you choose to help the dog, you will need to have a muzzle, heavy plastic sheets with you, thick gloves, and a thick jacket or heavy blanket to avoid bites and being contaminated with toxic substances or blood and to protect you from being bitten. If you don't have this, get help. You may need a board for dogs with back injuries.
6. Muzzle the dog first to prevent being bitten.
7. Wrap the dog in heavy plastic. Leave the nose free for breathing.
8. If you’re taking the dog in the car, I hope you have a crate large enough for it, or you could put it in the trunk or back of a pick up.
9. Get it to someone who can help it – a vet, usually.
Dog Attack, Single Dog:
1. If you are attacked by a single dog, your chances of survival are much higher than being attacked by a pack of dogs.
2. Slow down and stop, stand still, hands by your side.
3. Avoid eye contact.
4. Blink slowly and yawn.
5. Start backing or sidling slowly away.
6. Put a barricade between you and the dog – a fence or a door, or get in a closed car with the windows rolled up, or climb a tree if you are physically able.
7. If the dog bites you:
a. Try not to scream, this may provoke the dog into biting more and harder
b. Try not to jerk away, this triggers a chase mode in the dog, who will attack harder
c. Try to stay as still as possible, movement could trigger another attack
d. If you have a cell phone, slowly take it out and call for help
e. If the dog has backed off because you aren’t screaming or moving, try slowly backing away
8. Call for help as soon as you can.
Dog Attack, Pack:
1. Avoidance is your best survival strategy:
a. Don’t jog, walk, or run alone at down, dusk, or in the dark, when feral dogs are most likely to be out.
b. Don’t go down alleyways or places where trash is stored.
c. Don’t go out alone if you know there’s a pack of feral dogs around.
2. Avoid prey behaviors if you must go out:
a. Don’t go out alone.
b. Appear bigger than you are, particularly if you are small – wear a tall hat and bulky jacket.
c. Avoid running if you see a pack of dogs running loose. Slow down and stop until they are past or have lost interest in you.
d. Avoid jerky motions, especially ones that look as if they are pulling away from the dogs or taking something away from them
e. Avoid screaming or talking in a high-pitched voice – prey squeals and this excites dogs.
f. Avoid loud noises like shouting – this can frighten dogs and some frightened dogs attack what they fear, especially fight-trained dogs.
g. Don’t turn your back – dogs perceive this as running away and will chase and attack you.
h. Don’t show fear – blink slowly and yawn, dogs see this as a calming signal, speak softly in a monotone
3. Avoid aggressive behavior:
a. Avoid direct eye contact – this is a dog challenge.
b. Avoid raising your arms – this is perceived as the start of an attack.
c. Don’t move towards the dogs, especially not the alpha dog leading the attack.
d. Don’t make shooing motions towards them, again, this is seen as attacking.
e. Don’t throw things at them to scare them away – it may work for wild dogs, but for abandoned pet dogs and attack trained fight dogs gone feral, this is seen as an aggressive move and they’ll attack.
f. Don’t get between a pack and any food, they see this as a threat to them and their hungry tummies.
g. Avoid entering their territory if you can.
4. If you are attacked and bitten:
a. Don’t scream. No matter how bad it hurts, a scream is a prey behavior that will excite the dogs and make them more aggressive.
b. Don’t move fast, especially don’t jerk away. It’s prey behavior and they will attack more vigorously.
c. Keep calm and back slowly away to safety – behind a fence, inside a car or building, or up a tree.
d. Do not look directly at any of the dogs, especially not the alpha. Turn your head away and sidle away from the dogs slowly.
e. Every instinct tells you to run. Don’t.
5. Report feral packs as soon as possible.
Feral Packs of Former Fighting Dogs:
1. Avoidance is your only survival strategy. These dogs are trained to attack and fight and to be aggressive.
2. If you can’t avoid them and are attacked, I hope you’re wearing thick, heavy clothes – heavier than biker leathers.
3. The tricks that work with pet dogs gone feral and wild dogs won’t work with fighting dogs as effectively, but try them anyway. You may get lucky.
How to recognize feral pet dogs and feral fighting dogs:
1. Feral pet dogs:
a. These dogs approach with a shy, hopeful demeanor.
b. They often obey dog commands like “sit”.
c. They will be dirty, thin, and may have a torn ear or mange.
d. They will watch you for your lead.
e. They may ask for pets by rolling over or turning a shoulder to you.
2. Feral fighting dogs:
a. These dogs will have lots of scars and battered ears and often have bobbed tails.
b. They will not obey any commands because you are not their handler.
c. They will be cleaner than a feral pet dog, thin but muscular, and aggressive.
d. Most often, there will only be one or two feral fighting dogs in a pack, they will be the alpha and beta dogs.
e. They will exhibit aggression immediately and often.
f. They have never been pets, so they won’t trust people, only their handler – and you’re not him.
g. They cannot be rehabilitated into pets.
3. Bait Dogs:
a. These dogs were used as bait to train other dogs to fight. They will be frightened and aggressive
b. They will have missing limbs, ears, tails, eyes, broken teeth.
c. They will have wire and bite scars.
d. They will be dirty, mangy, thin, and very protective of food and territory.
e. They have not only never been pets, they have been severely abused by people and other dogs.
e. They will not obey anyone, they have never obeyed a human, only fought for their lives.
f. They will be aggressive towards larger dogs and any dog not in their pack.
g. They cannot be rehabilitated into pets (except by professionals, and then only if they are young and escaped before they were too abused).
If the dog does any one of the following: snarling with teeth exposed and hair standing up along its spine, staring intensely, lunges towards you with snapping teeth, this is an aggressive dog. Avoid it if you can.
If the dog is growling, the tail is tucked between its legs and the ears are either straight forward or laid back, you may be able to soothe it and escape without injury. Proceed with extreme caution.
If you are in a car and see a pack of dogs attacking someone:
1. Don’t get out of the car.
2. If you have a cell phone, call for back-up – the police are a good choice, the fire department or animal control will also do.
3. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to run over any dogs that get far enough away from the person being attacked.
4. Honk the car’s horn, this may startle them enough to break off the attack.
5. Drive as close to the person as you can get and open the door for them to get in. 6. If they are unconscious and there’s someone in the car with you, have them haul the person in.
7. If you’re alone in the car, keep the engine idling and rev it if any dogs come close. 8. Honk the horn if they don’t back off.
9. Run over or hit any dog that gets too close.
10. These are vicious strays, they’ve just attacked a person. Show them no mercy. 11. Let the ones who run away go.
12. Alert the neighbors and authorities about the vicious attacks dogs.
13. If emergency services are on their way, wait for them.
14. If you lack a cell phone and no emergency services people are coming, drive the victim to the nearest hospital. The second person in the car can bind bleeding wounds to slow the bleeding, or you can take a bit of time to pull over once you are away from the dogs to assess the victim’s condition and bind the bites and tears, then go to the hospital.
Report the stray dogs and dog packs as soon as possible.
Children and dogs:
1. Never leave an infant or toddler or young child alone with a dog. Any dog. Even your sweet, well-behaved beloved pet dog. Children don't intend to trigger hunt and kill instincts in the dog, but their size and their play can still do it even to the mildest dog.
2. Always supervise any interactions between child and dog.
3. Make sure the child never enters the dog's safe place (crate, bed, doghouse) - while a well behaved mild pet dog might allow the child in, there's an equal chance the dog will defend its territory - to the injury of the child.
4. If you child is playing outside, and there are stray dogs in the neighborhood, or a neighbor's dog is known to dig under fences or jump them, never leave your child outside unsupervised.
5. Teach your child how to behave around dogs. See "Friendly Dog with Owner" for proper dog interaction behavior.
I'm sure there are plenty of other situations where you might be attacked by a dog. In most cases, it's not the dog's fault. Some can be rehabilitated if caught. Some, especially feral fighting and bait dogs, can never be rehabilitated. Don't let your tenderness get you or someone with you seriously hurt.
And so I did forget something. Added this at Geenius at Wrok's suggestion:
Dog with Bad Owner would be:
1. Stay as far from the dog as poosible
2. Report the dog if it exhibits aggression
a. If it growls or bares its teeth at you
b. If it approaches you with its head level with its shoulders (this is an attack stance)
c. If it runs at you, especially if it snaps its teeth
3. Report the dog if it is off-leash and you're not in an off-leash park.
4. Treat the dog the same as Dog Attack, Single Dog