At least you are taking preventive measures for it not to happen again, dogs can slip collars unfortunately.

Having had this happen to one of my dogs where she was attacked, I can understand the lady's reaction in telling you to go.
Hopefully being a bearded collie (if not clipped short) your dog would of got hold of mainly fur rather than skin

Sorry to read about this

It sounds as if the beardie owner reacted incredibly well under the cirumstances. I've had a standard poodle race to my dog on lead to attack, thankfully not badly, and I am afraid I was furious (protective over my dog, instinct takes over esp. as my dog is arthriticy a bit now and very friendly).

Do you know if your dog did any damage?

It's good that you got her off and away as soon as you were able to. Do you know the cause of her reactivity?

Wys
x

Thank you all for your support and advice. I will be taking it all on board and shall buy the BAT book. Muzzle is on its way and I will use her damn harness in future. The collar wasn't faulty, I'd just stupidly fitted it incorrectly.

I have only had Gracie three weeks and I just had no idea she would try anything like this. She has been brilliant with my other dog from the start and is good with the cats too. Obviously she has issues I didn't know about. I couldn't bear to look at her last night after what happened if I'm honest but the poor dog doesn't know what she's done. I've softened towards her now, it wasn't her fault after all. I still love her, I'm just heartbroken this has happened.

I know the beardie and owner by sight, she lives on the same estate as me but I don't know where, however I will try to find out so I can grovel and see if the poor dog is ok. Otherwise I guess I can try the park (minus the dogs). From how it looked, he shouldn't be seriously injured but that of course does not make it ok. If someone's dog had attacked Gelert like that I would be fuming, not to mention really upset. Poor Gelert, btw, was just stood there baffled on his lead while all this was going on.

These things happen sometimes - and you are doing all you can to try and make sure it dosent happen again

I know the lady was mad at the time - but that was just a reaction to being scared I am sure, at the end of the day it was an accident - you didnt know your dog would act like that and you didnt know she could get out of her collar

Trust me, I would forgive you way eaiser than all the GSD's round here that the owners know they are DA, let them offlead and just try calling them back when their dogs charge at my onlead dog (and of course they have no recal)

often dog fights do look much worse than they are. i know my 2 dogs usually get on really well but every now & then tiger will turn on poppy. it looks & sounds awful but neither of them have ever been hurt badly enough to go to the vets. i think worst injuries have been a cut above tigers eye that i didn't actually notice until the next day, if i had taken her to the vets they may have stitched it but i decided it wasn't necessary, i just cleaned it until it healed & it's healed up fine. the one time i were really worried was when i saw blood dripping out of tigers mouth! i thought she must be really badly hurt, idiot had bitten her own tongue several times it was obviously sore for a few days but again i just kept an eye on it incase it was looking worse but she healed up fine

i think with all the fights i've witnessed it's been more scary for me & anyone else who sees it than anything else. once you calm down & check the dogs over you think well i hope that doesn't happen again but no one seems to have much more than scratches on them & the dogs may well be friends again very quickly actually licking each others wounds

Sorry to hear you went through such a bad experience, and glad to hear you're getting on top of it now with the harness and a muzzle maybe. These things happen, I've had dogs slip their collars in the past and run off (Georgie!) but nothing like you went through, coz he just wanted to race over to say hello to another dog. Makes you feel sick doesn't it, and I can't blame you for blaming your dog, I felt like that when Zena bit another dog, I felt she'd let me down terribly and I suppose that's just how you're feeling now with Gracie.

To put the boot on the other foot, Zena got accosted this morning by some collie, but I wasn't there coz Dave was walking her. He said he was coming down the steps to the stream with her ONlead, and this collie just sprang out of the stream, zoomed over to her and started an attack on her I would have been livid, but he said, he let her defend herself, she bit it on the neck, and it ran off somewhere. The woman who had a jrt as well, came over and apologised to him profusely saying her collie doesn't like gsd's (do any of them like gsd's????!!!). He didn't stop to see if her dog was ok, but the speed it shot off at, he said it must have been ok and he just went on with his walk.

So I've been on both ends now, you can only do what you can do, and you seem to be going the right way as far as I'm concerned, same as I'm trying to.

There's a good video here of how to muzzle train so the dog accepts it; the key is to go very slowly and ensure the dog is happy with each step - don't go too fast, or it will be a cas of "more haste, less speed" sort of thing .

Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FABgZTFvHo

hth a bit

Wys
x

Thanks again, everyone. You've been nicer than I deserve. I am feeling extremely foolish and ashamed.

Sorry to hear of your trouble this morning, Helena, hope Zena didn't take it too badly.

Thanks for that, have watched and bookmarked x

I'm not taking either of them out today, I just haven't got the (emotional) strength. Not fair on Gelert I know but tomorrow I will just have to face the music. And the glares and muttered comments of the dog walking mafia, who will no doubt have heard. Woe.

Aw sorry to hear about this.

I struggle to see how you were really at fault if you thought the collar was fitted fine and did not realise that she was reactive Accidents happen sadly, and now you know what she is capable of you can take every step to prevent it.

Hugs, it's not easy Hope you are feeling better.
When did the reactivity begin? I take it you didn't expect it when you adopted her?

Yes collies and GSD's seem to be quite a problem - Mia has been attacked by so many GSD's I guess they just have such different styles they wind each other up the wrong way - then you get so many collies have a go at a GSD it starts hating collies and goes for them then starts another collie hating GSD's - a neverending circle