Bailey's attacked Poppy

OMG I'm shaking almost as much as Poppy and I feel sick

We were all just sat quietly watching a bit of tv, Bailey was doing his usual prowling bit looking for a comfy spot on the floor and he walked past Poppy who did the usual grumbly growl at him that both Poppy n Kiara do and have done since they worked out his eyesight issues to let him know he's about to step on them and Bailey just turned on her grabbed her around the middle and started shaking her, he was quiet but Poppy was trying her best to get at him after the initail scream she let out at being grabbed. I shot of the sofa and literally jumped on Bailey and pinned him down he still didn't let go so I prised his mouth open enough so Poppy could wiggle out!!

I grabbed Bailey by his collar and took him out of the room as I was pulling him he was still growling I'm not sure if it was at me, the fact I was dragging him or the situation and he's now shut in the kitchen. Poppy is on my knee shaking and quivering and panting!
Luckily he's not broken any skin but she has a 5p piece size bald patch on her back where her furs been ripped out!

He's never shown any aggression to my other two dogs before. She's only a small dog 12" and Baileys so big 34" he could have really hurt her especially if I wasn't there to intervene.

What am I going to do?? I'm scared to let him back now just in case!!!

So sorry to hear this. No suggestions as to what to do but I am sure someone will come along and offer some advice.

Cherry was behaving out of character too recently because of her eyesight problems and it was such a shock so I can empathise.

At least no lasting damage was done to your dog.

ooh bless you.... hope you have calmed down, I know its frightening. Perhaps put them to bed seperatly now and hope its all forgotten in the morning and it was just a one off.Just get up and act as though all is normal tmro . Fingers crossed for you x

So sorry to hear this.

All I can suggest is use a baby gate so you can slowly re-introduce them in a controlled way & see if it was a serious attack or just a 'disagreement' (the fact he could have caused serious damage but didn't might hint at what he wanted to do) but then again she might have just been lucky that he didn't do more damage. Obviously don't leave them alone together, at least untill trust has been earned.

I hope she (& you) recover quickly.

Keep them separated - daft advice I know because you 'll be doing that anyway.Bailey's blindness is apparently more of a problem than you thought.He's stressed out by it and the others are not supporting him.The growling to let him know the boundaries are not helpful.This was a timebomb situation.Now it has blown.
For blind dogs to survive they need one of two scenarios.
1:an only dog household where the people have the time to work with him or 2:a 'seeing eye dog' who will care for him and be his guide.

You have no easy choices ahead of you now

Get him used to a muzzle and be VERY careful if they are together.

Quiet is very serious----he meant it. Noise is less serious.

I would imagine its a confidence issue for him due to the eyesight. Polly will sometimes snap and panic. She is totally blind and has lost a lot of confidence.

You are in a diffficult situation. You will have to manage it really carefully in future.

Can you dog gate areas and crate nice bed areas and keep them together but seperate at all?

There are ways of doing it.

How old are they all?

rune

I have no real suggestions to offer, but just wanted to say how much I feel for you - and I do hope that you manage to find a safe solution to this new problem.

No wonder you are shaking, and it just goes to show that no matter how much we think that we know our dogs, we can never be one hundred percent certain of how they will react at any given time.

The fact that Bailey didn't let go when Poppy squealed, and that he was totally silent himself, does rather indicate that he knew what he was doing, and was not sorry about doing it, so unfortunately you can no longer trust him.

The most stress=free solution that I can think of, which has already been mentioned by Rune, is to muzzle him. If you find a good lightweight comfortable one, then with luck he will soon get used to wearing it. I suppose that there are difficulties here in that he won't be able to have free access to water, but that could be sorted with some planning.

I hope that you are feeling a little less wobbly and that Poppy is okay

He may be too big for the muzzles I have used routinely but they are lightweight black plastic ones made for lurchers etc and I get them from Countrymun which has a website and you can phone an order in.

Dogs can drink in them and seem to find them comfier and get used to them quicker than other muzzles. Titbits can be shoved through the holes easily.

Blind is really hard for some dogs, I never realised how bad it could be.

rune

I am so very sorry
I agree with RUne and HiHo - never thought of it but I guess if you are less confident because you cant see and as you walk about someone is growling at you it could be scary

I hope everyone calms down and you get a handle on the situation, I can imagine how you feel ((hugs))

Keep an eye out for any internal injuries if there was shaking going on

Poppy n Kiz have always made growly noises at him, It's not a full on growl more of a rumble, I thought it was OK as it told him where they were.

Kiara has kind of taken on roll of seeing eye dog and Bailey follows her if I'm not around.

I honestly think (and I've been awake most of the night worrying!!) he propbably would be better off as an only dog, he does demand a huge amount of attention but he's so reliant on me and who's going to want a blind DA dog??

When I spoke to the behaviourist about his DA issues she said a muzzle could add to his stress and make him worse

Poppy's 41/2, Kiara 4 and Bailey 3 1/2. I've been thinking that maybe his DA is getting worse as he's now reaching full maturity.

Poppy is fine this morning but she won't go near Bailey I re-introduced them late last night when everything seemed calmer as mornings are bedlam here! OH gets up at 5am and tbh is pretty useless at that time of the morning Then it's up at 7 for me to get the foster kids out to school so I didn't want to upset the kids as they love him. Poppy is very unsure which is only to be expected, Bailey behaved like nothing happened but when he's had other dogs once he's let go he just acts like normal.

Thanks guys for your support