[NAGDU] Dog Attacks

Tracy Carcione carcione at access.net
Fri Oct 14 17:45:15 UTC 2016


Hi Rachel.  I thought someone else would answer, but now I will.
I'm glad Demi was fine.  Sounds like you handled the situation as well as
anyone could.  Try not to let yourself get anxious about loose dogs, as Demi
will pick up on it.  Easier said than done, I know.  
My last 2 dogs were attacked multiple times, though thank Goodness they
didn't get really hurt.  They did become worried about strange dogs, and
would slow down near them and do all they could to avoid them.  Krokus
hasn't been attacked, yet, but, sadly, it's pretty common, and you never
know when it may happen.
Some states have laws with extra penalties for owners who allow their dogs
to attack a service dog.  The trick, of course, as you point out, is to
identify the culprit.  I don't know what state you live in, or what laws it
has.  I don't know if the NAGDU app lists state laws meant to protect
service dogs from attack.  Or you could try Googling something like service
dog laws attack and your state name.
If you're having trouble with loose dogs, you could contact your local
police and ask them to enforce local leash laws, explaining why it's
particularly important to you.
The Seeing Eye has brochures on responsible dog ownership with special
emphasis on the harm a dog attack can do to a guide dog.  If you didn't get
any in your going-home packet, you can call and request some.  I forget if
it's a brochure or a card, but it was something small to hand out around the
neighborhood.
HTH.
Tracy



-----Original Message-----
From: NAGDU [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Rachel Grider via
NAGDU
Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2016 4:56 PM
To: nagdu at nfbnet.org
Cc: Rachel Grider
Subject: [NAGDU] Dog Attacks

Hello, Again:

This is my last post today...

I wanted to talk about something that happened to Demi and I last Saturday
which is still very upsetting to me. As we were walking along a residential
street on Saturday morning, a small dog (my mom, who was with me, said later
it was a Chihuahua) came running across the street to us and began snarling
and snapping at Demi's throat. I could hear the ladies who seemed to be the
dog's owners screaming threats at the dog from across the street, but they
did not make any effort to come over and get their dog. Reflexively, I made
a large shooing gesture with my arm and yelled at it to get away, and my mom
also yelled at it; luckily, it immediantly backed off. I wanted to get away
from that dog as soon as possible, so I gave Demi a quick command, and we
continued down the sidewalk. My mom said somethink to the ladies along the
lines of: "Your dog just attacked this dog," and they didn't even respond
but just simply hustled away with scared looks on their faces (according to
my mom); I didn't trust myself to say anything that wouldn't be full of
anger, and I wanted to get to a place where I could examine my dog more
thoroughly for any wounds. It turned out that she was totally fine, and she
really didn't seem all that bothered by the attack...I think that it upset
me more than it did her...

I am still mad that those women wouldn't take responsibility or even
acknowledge that their dog had not only caused a major distraction to my
service dog but had tried to actually hurt her. I am a bit worried now
because it could happen again, next time with a bigger, more threatening dog
that could really hurt my sweet, little Labrador. We have already had
several encouters with friendly dogs that are off-leash when they are not
supposed to be and with unfriendly dogs that bark and growl from behind
fences...If a dog really were to hurt Demi, how would I go about reporting
it? The owners of the Chihuahua didn't stick around after their dog came bak
to them, so I couldn't have reported them if Demi had indeed been hurt...

I just wanted to vent a bit more about this and to see what some of you have
done in similar situations. I don't know if I handled it the best way, but I
can't realistically think of anything I could have done differently.

Cheers!

Rachel

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