He's bitten someone

Hi all
Mutley is a Collie cross and about 22 months old. He is a rescue centre dog and I've had him 10 weeks now. This morning on our walk he was off the lead and a jogger came running towards us. Mutley ran towards the jogger but when I called him he came back immediately. I held him by his harness as the jogger ran past us but as the jogger passed (within a couple of feet) Mutley jumped up and bit him on the hip. This took me completely by surprise. The jogger fell down on the floor holding his side. He was pretty good about it and said he wasn't injured but he did feel Mutley's teeth. If he hadn't been wearing extra layers of clothes because of the cold it could have been a lot worse.
He said I should keep the dog on a lead but I did point out that I had hold of him when he attacked and he had never done anything like that before. But even though I had hold of him he wasn't under control!.
The walk ended there and then and we went straight back to the car and went home.
I realise this behaviour is extremely serious as it could have been a child running past who would have been bitten on the face.
I am terribly dissappointed in Mutley and fear that he will now need to be muzzled when out in public as I can't trust him anymore. This will take away a lot of enjoyment such as playing fetch with a ball which we both enjoy.
Any advice on this situation would be appreciated as I feel that a lot of the fun I was looking forward to with Mutley has been snatched away from me.

Dave

edited....

Hi Dave

get the vet to check Mutley over in case it is something health related, and if it isn't, ask your vet to refer you to a qualified behaviourist who will be able to help you.

Hi,
I would recommend enrolling him in a good dog training class in order to address the problem, the fact that he's a collie has no bearing in the matter and is definately not a reasonable excuse (I hate to contradict people who have posted previously but a collie should not nip the sheep while herding and in my mind it is not acceptable to use their "working" job as any kind of justification for bad behaviour, if you dog did nip sheep while working the behaviour would be just as unacceptible and we wouldn't let it anywhere near our sheep - imao), yes he probably was protecting you but as you have said it could have been a child. My oldest dog Henry (a BC) dislikes strangers and can be protective but with good socialisation and training I am now confident that I can control him in ANY situation - i'm sorry to say that unless you are confident in your dog when your out you should muzzle him - but not treat that as an end to the problem - with careful retraining the problem can be solved, half the battle is accepting that, yes, your dog has a problem and to then go on and work it out. There is no reason why you can't keep enjoying things like playing fetch but make sure that you do in a quiet area, if people come past slip him onto his leader and step off the path, or out of the way to avoid them - if they're close or there are young children running about, slip his muzzle on - it's better to be safe than sorry. I hope you get this sorted - it's not an easy thing to solve but is well worth the effort
Tess (Greg's OH)

Also meant to say that by holding his harness you may have put him on the defensive - and so he felt like you were telling him to protect you - with Henry a loose leader is better as he doesn't feel my getting tense as much, I now hand him over to Greg and he's a completely chilled out dog - I still get a little tense thinking "oh god what if he does" - saying that, he might as well be Gregs dog the amount of time he spends sitting on his knee!

Hi there

I agree that a trip to a behaviourist would be a good idea. And it's probably good to note if someone were to prosecute in situation such as this, it may still be considered your fault for not having him on lead regardless if you were holding his harness.

Glad the guy was good about it, alot of people wouldn't have been. Count your lucky stars

Something that a good behaviourist will be able to help fix I'm sure, we've used one for our dog and it has made a great difference in his behaviour

Oh dear,sorry to hear this,it's awful when your trust has gone as ours did when our dog attacked my son.My youngest was also bitten while we were out but the owner wasn't very sympathic at all.my son ended up having stiches in his arm and he was very lucky as the bite was close to a main artery.
The police were involved and asked us what we wanted to do about it,we said we wanted the owner to be aware of his responsibilties when he was out with his dog,and to keep it on a short lead when by shops etc.

I would definatly enroll him in some training classes and also try and get him used to people.I know you don't want to muzzle him but I would just to be on the safe side,or just until you can get him into training classes.

Hope it all works out for you,
Sal

Thanks everyone for your opinions. I will try and get a muzzle for him tomorrow. I'll muzzle him for now when we are in areas where we are likely to meet people and take him to remote areas to play fetch. There is open moorland a short drive away from where I live where walkers or joggers are never seen (not this weather anyway) and the sheep have been taken in for the winter.
I'll also look into training classes. Will normal training classes cover this sort of thing or do I need a behaviourist?
Dave

your'll need to see a behaviourist, normal training doesn't cover dogs that have bitten.
good luck get your vet to refere you to a good one.

Thanks Leo. I'll get in touch with my vet tomorrow.