drjellyjoe
New member
UPDATE (MORNING AFTER INCIDENT)
I just talked to the vet that initially treated the Border Collie and she said she 100% does NOT believe my dog was involved in the dog attack at all and that the dog sitter was trying to use my dog to cover up what actually happened yesterday. The vet said upon intake of my dog, she took numerous photos of him and despite having half of his fur white, there wasn't a single drop of blood, no visible wounds, he wasn't wet from being washed, absolutely no evidence that he was involved. She sat in the cage with him and he showed no signs or aggression - no growling or anything - but was clearly upset and traumatized. The vet strongly believes that my dog witnessed something horrific. She also said the sitter and her husband were in the vet practice lobby talking and the wife told him to "shut up because people were around" and could hear them. She was very pushy about labeling my dog as the "sole aggressor" and asked the vet practice to "eat the bill." Immediately after insisting the vet practice pay, she asked to make an appointment to get her own dog checked up on his vaccines. The vet strongly believes that the sitter is covering up what truly happened and using my dog as a scapegoat.
Unfortunately, I'll never know what happened that day. Despite that, I have read through all your comments and will NEVER put my dog in daycare again. Even if he wasn't involved yesterday, he still needs more training and I appreciate everyone's advice in what actions I should consider. We've already been connected with a certified dog behavioralist and want to muzzle train him and work on reactivity - really understand his body language and triggers. If anything about this situation has taught me anything, it's that I want to do everything in my power to give my dog the best training and life he could possibly have. Thank you for everyone's insights and I have learned SO much from your comments. I cannot put into words how much I value the information I gained through this situation. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
ORIGINAL POST STARTS HERE:
I've been sobbing my eyes out for the past few hours so this read will probably be a bumpy ride.
We adopted our dog (American Staffie) over two years ago. He was abandoned at a young age and we adopted him around six months old. We've been slowly trying to socialize him more and more with other dogs. We have two cats and he's always been SO gentle with them. Watching him play with the cats was always so sweet - he'd always play bow and paw the air in front of them. Our dog is so sweet and has never shown any aggression with toys, food, or his other belongings. He even let's the cats sleep in his bed and smell his food.
Over the past year, we had a dog sitter that would watch two to three dogs at all time, including ours with no concerns. We also had regular doggie dates with a friend who also owned a dog similar in size. He was doing great!
We thought it was a good time to go the next level up. We decided to start looking for dog events and into doggie daycare. As of last week he'd been attending a doggie daycare at least once a week for almost two months. Other than calming breaks for just getting too riled up, no concerns from the staff. They said they loved him.
Then, last week he got into it with another dog and bit the dog's ear at daycare. Just moments before, he was playing with other dogs and having fun, but then they let this other dog into the play area and said our dog seemed to have attacked completely unprovoked and banned us. I also thought this particularly daycare was way over crowded (usually 20 large dogs to one staff member) with little supervision so I thought my dog was just way overstimulated so probably for the best that he was banned. I thought maybe it was just a weird one-off incident since he'd been doing so well so we gave him a two week break and then decided to do a small "daycare day" through Rover.
I informed the Rover contact of the incident saying that our dog 9/10 times does wonderfully, but has had some reactivity, although it's highly selective so please watch him to make sure he's okay. She assurred me that everything would be fine. We met up with her this morning and we stayed while she introduced our dog slowly to the other five or six dogs she was watching that day. We had our dog on leash before letting the other dogs out and the Rover contact told us not to do that because he's going to feel more threatened. We let him off leash to meet the other dogs. Our dog was super happy, playful, and seemed to be doing great with all the other dogs attending that day. We did notice one of the dogs kind of snapped (it was a border collie) at our dog upon us leaving and the Rover contact said that this particular dog likes her space. We, again, wanted reassurance and we told her that our dog is still just two years old learning social cues. Again, she assured us she and her husband had everything under control and that particular dog doesn't like to be around other dogs. Ugh - I wish I saw the red flag then but we took her word for it that she had everything under control. We left and went about our day.
Through the next six hours, she sent multiple pictures and updates. She said everything was going fine and our dog appears to be having a great time playing.
Then, everything went to shit. She texted and said that our dog attacked and dragged the dog that had snapped at him earlier that morning. She said her husband was in the yard supervising and that our dog entered the other dog's bubble and she snapped and him, then something about our dog trying to jump over the fence to escape or something, and then he attacked and wouldn't let go. After letting the dog go from his jaw, they said our dog was absolutely terrified trembling in a corner obviously traumatized. She also informed me that she had already spoken to the owner and that owner was going to make her liable but that she didn't think she should be. She also kind of made it sound like we needed to be liable although we release our dog into her care for the day.
They rushed the dog to the local vet and it was in and out of consciousness during surgery. When they transported the other dog to the emergency vet, it coded on the table.
Upon talking to the vet who performed the initial surgery on the dog, she informed us that the Rover contacts were acting strangely. The vet said that they brought our dog in later claiming that it was lost and were trying to get our information to contact us - not revealing that our dog attacked the other dog.
The vet also spoke to the owner of the border collie and the owner said she was told that her dog was the only one staying with the Rover contact and did not mention the other five or six dogs at all. If I had to assume, it's because the owner knew and communicated that her dog didn't enjoy being around other dogs, but I don't know... Just an assumption based on how the vet made it sound. The vet was extremely understanding, told us that it's so much more common than we think.
Despite the vet's kind words, I feel absolutely devastated. I'm heartbroken, I feel awful beyond words... Don't know when I'll stop crying. I feel for the other owner and I feel terrible that our dog reacted the way he did.
I'm assuming animal control will contact us tomorrow. What should I expect?
Please only constructive comments as I emotionally cannot handle any verbal attacks today. Thank you in advance.
I just talked to the vet that initially treated the Border Collie and she said she 100% does NOT believe my dog was involved in the dog attack at all and that the dog sitter was trying to use my dog to cover up what actually happened yesterday. The vet said upon intake of my dog, she took numerous photos of him and despite having half of his fur white, there wasn't a single drop of blood, no visible wounds, he wasn't wet from being washed, absolutely no evidence that he was involved. She sat in the cage with him and he showed no signs or aggression - no growling or anything - but was clearly upset and traumatized. The vet strongly believes that my dog witnessed something horrific. She also said the sitter and her husband were in the vet practice lobby talking and the wife told him to "shut up because people were around" and could hear them. She was very pushy about labeling my dog as the "sole aggressor" and asked the vet practice to "eat the bill." Immediately after insisting the vet practice pay, she asked to make an appointment to get her own dog checked up on his vaccines. The vet strongly believes that the sitter is covering up what truly happened and using my dog as a scapegoat.
Unfortunately, I'll never know what happened that day. Despite that, I have read through all your comments and will NEVER put my dog in daycare again. Even if he wasn't involved yesterday, he still needs more training and I appreciate everyone's advice in what actions I should consider. We've already been connected with a certified dog behavioralist and want to muzzle train him and work on reactivity - really understand his body language and triggers. If anything about this situation has taught me anything, it's that I want to do everything in my power to give my dog the best training and life he could possibly have. Thank you for everyone's insights and I have learned SO much from your comments. I cannot put into words how much I value the information I gained through this situation. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
ORIGINAL POST STARTS HERE:
I've been sobbing my eyes out for the past few hours so this read will probably be a bumpy ride.
We adopted our dog (American Staffie) over two years ago. He was abandoned at a young age and we adopted him around six months old. We've been slowly trying to socialize him more and more with other dogs. We have two cats and he's always been SO gentle with them. Watching him play with the cats was always so sweet - he'd always play bow and paw the air in front of them. Our dog is so sweet and has never shown any aggression with toys, food, or his other belongings. He even let's the cats sleep in his bed and smell his food.
Over the past year, we had a dog sitter that would watch two to three dogs at all time, including ours with no concerns. We also had regular doggie dates with a friend who also owned a dog similar in size. He was doing great!
We thought it was a good time to go the next level up. We decided to start looking for dog events and into doggie daycare. As of last week he'd been attending a doggie daycare at least once a week for almost two months. Other than calming breaks for just getting too riled up, no concerns from the staff. They said they loved him.
Then, last week he got into it with another dog and bit the dog's ear at daycare. Just moments before, he was playing with other dogs and having fun, but then they let this other dog into the play area and said our dog seemed to have attacked completely unprovoked and banned us. I also thought this particularly daycare was way over crowded (usually 20 large dogs to one staff member) with little supervision so I thought my dog was just way overstimulated so probably for the best that he was banned. I thought maybe it was just a weird one-off incident since he'd been doing so well so we gave him a two week break and then decided to do a small "daycare day" through Rover.
I informed the Rover contact of the incident saying that our dog 9/10 times does wonderfully, but has had some reactivity, although it's highly selective so please watch him to make sure he's okay. She assurred me that everything would be fine. We met up with her this morning and we stayed while she introduced our dog slowly to the other five or six dogs she was watching that day. We had our dog on leash before letting the other dogs out and the Rover contact told us not to do that because he's going to feel more threatened. We let him off leash to meet the other dogs. Our dog was super happy, playful, and seemed to be doing great with all the other dogs attending that day. We did notice one of the dogs kind of snapped (it was a border collie) at our dog upon us leaving and the Rover contact said that this particular dog likes her space. We, again, wanted reassurance and we told her that our dog is still just two years old learning social cues. Again, she assured us she and her husband had everything under control and that particular dog doesn't like to be around other dogs. Ugh - I wish I saw the red flag then but we took her word for it that she had everything under control. We left and went about our day.
Through the next six hours, she sent multiple pictures and updates. She said everything was going fine and our dog appears to be having a great time playing.
Then, everything went to shit. She texted and said that our dog attacked and dragged the dog that had snapped at him earlier that morning. She said her husband was in the yard supervising and that our dog entered the other dog's bubble and she snapped and him, then something about our dog trying to jump over the fence to escape or something, and then he attacked and wouldn't let go. After letting the dog go from his jaw, they said our dog was absolutely terrified trembling in a corner obviously traumatized. She also informed me that she had already spoken to the owner and that owner was going to make her liable but that she didn't think she should be. She also kind of made it sound like we needed to be liable although we release our dog into her care for the day.
They rushed the dog to the local vet and it was in and out of consciousness during surgery. When they transported the other dog to the emergency vet, it coded on the table.
Upon talking to the vet who performed the initial surgery on the dog, she informed us that the Rover contacts were acting strangely. The vet said that they brought our dog in later claiming that it was lost and were trying to get our information to contact us - not revealing that our dog attacked the other dog.
The vet also spoke to the owner of the border collie and the owner said she was told that her dog was the only one staying with the Rover contact and did not mention the other five or six dogs at all. If I had to assume, it's because the owner knew and communicated that her dog didn't enjoy being around other dogs, but I don't know... Just an assumption based on how the vet made it sound. The vet was extremely understanding, told us that it's so much more common than we think.
Despite the vet's kind words, I feel absolutely devastated. I'm heartbroken, I feel awful beyond words... Don't know when I'll stop crying. I feel for the other owner and I feel terrible that our dog reacted the way he did.
I'm assuming animal control will contact us tomorrow. What should I expect?
Please only constructive comments as I emotionally cannot handle any verbal attacks today. Thank you in advance.