I found a dog that tried to take my hand off

allen levine

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new york city burbs
I was staining up a batch of kitchen doors earlier this afternoon, and I have both windows open for ventilation, and I have the oldies on the radio.
Im singing along, (I have no shame,) and all of the sudden as Im standing in front of my window, a small solid looking pit bull is barking at me. Waving its tail, but standing on my driveway barking at me.
Ok, not being a dog person, I started to calmly speak to the doggie and told it to go back home, go home, go home.The dog started to get all excited and barked more, but it seemed like a happy little dog.
Im not sure if it was a pure bit bull, but it looked like one, and it had a pink collar on with an id tag on.
I stood there a few minutes, but the dog just kept barking at me, so I went to the screen door, was opening the door, taking off the gloves, and was kneeling down to look at the collar and the powerful little doggie immediately stopped, stood stiff, and then lunged at me like he wanted to take my hand off.
He stood there growling, its teeth(it was a she) in full view and I had no doubt in my mind that little dog,I could see it was just a mass of muscles, fully intended on ripping me apart, so I closed the door quickly, and yelled at it to go home again.
A mother and child was walking down my street across the street, and the dog darted straight towards them and I panicked.
First, a car just missed running over the dog, then I thought, Oh boy, this kid is about to get attacked.
Thankfully, the dog just ran around the kid and mother in circles, playfully, not looking too viscious.
Im guessing me taking off the gloves, she realized I wasnt the right house and as I started to go towards her neck, she must have viewed me as a threat.
A minute later, the dog darted back to my lawn, then across the street, and a few minutes later, a water delivery truck just missed her again. Stupid dog. I mean just missed her.
A neighbor of mine was leaving his home, and he called the dog over after seeing the truck almost ran her over, and she layed on her back playfully,. and we noticed she had fresh stitches in her abdomen.
The stitches were still in and the wound looked pretty fresh.
Now the dog was near me and waving her tail, but I wasnt about to go look at her collar again.
I walked down the street, the dog followed me, saw another neighbor and asked if he knew whos dog it was.
He has a huge husky, more like a wolf, and his dog went beserk and looked like he was trying to rip down a 6 foot chain link fence to get to the little pit bull who was on the other side going ballistic also.

Now, I was in socks, and I said to myself, why did you get invovled?
Why? but I couldnt stand by and watch a dog get ran over by a car, obviously, this dog has not been free too often, because it was just fearless of a 25 thousand pound truck.

The guy with the husky, his son came out, with a leash, walked into another yard and came back with the dog on a leash.Still thinking, why am I here, why did I get invovled.

after a bit, with the dog relaxed and on her back, we got a phone number off her collar tag.

sure enough, the person had no clue the dog was loose, and got the dog in 3 minutes, someone who lived a few houses down from me on the other side.

Im only bringing this up, because I tried to do the right thing, but I think if I didnt pull back at first, that pit bull was going to rip my hand off or worse, go for my juglar.
I figure the dog saw some huge person he wasnt sure of and that made her panick.

I look at it as I saved that dogs life, because it was only a matter of time before the dog got run over, I live on a busy street, where people cut through and drive fast.

this has nothing to do with woodworking, but would you dog people be leary of a pit bull if it was loose in your yard or on your lawn?
 
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I was staining up a batch of kitchen doors earlier this afternoon, and I have both windows open for ventilation, and I have the oldies on the radio.
Im singing along, (I have no shame,) and all of the sudden as Im standing in front of my window, a small solid looking pit bull is barking at me...

Apparently your singing does not do much in soothing the savage beast.:)
 
I'm not anymore afraid of pitts than any other large dog. As a matter of fact they are really good with kids if brought up right. Like you said, you may have just spooked her, and having stitches she may be just that much more spooked (having some bad memories from whatever caused it).

I'd be more concerned if it was more than one, packs can instinctively turn and be more aggressive based on what others in the pack are doing.
 
i had something similar happen to me allen. when my brother and his wife came up here after he got out of the corps, he brought his pit bull with him too. at that point, they were living with pop until they got thier house, and the dog had a house between the garage and the fence. i was going to get something from the garage, when without provocation, this full grown pit bull lunged at me, dragging his house with him. needless to say, i backed away real quick, walked into the house, woke my brother up, and calmly told him that if his dog lunged at me again like that, i will (not might, not would, but will) go home, load up the 54 cal. hawken with 110 grains of black powder, point the muzzle between it's eyes, and pull the trigger, as it had used up it's once in a lifetime chance to attack me.
 
I'm a dog lover, and big dogs don't intimidate me. I've only met one dog in my life that I couldn't get along with*. But I don't trust pit bulls ever since a small one attacked my dog at the park a few months ago. Just about any dog might bite you, but a pit hangs on like no other I've seen. It took a dozen or so HARD blows to the head to get the dog at the park to let go of mine. For that reason, I now carry a 5 million volt stun gun/flashlight when Sasha and I go for our nightly walks. I know that pits can be wonderful, friendly dogs, but if I come across one running loose, I'm very leery of it.



* Before we were married, my wife had a very large German Shepherd who was vicious around anyone but her and her family. She finally had to put the dog down because he was dangerous and more than the family could handle.
 
you done good to close the door allen i too am a dog lover but have seen dogs go bad in what would seem like no good reason to do so .. just this spring a dog bit my dad two times and drew blood majorly and then he got infection and was hospitalized for 3 days and had to go back to get more meds be checked on for the following week.. this dog that bit him was on the porch of a neighbor which was 1/2 mile from where he belonged and was a dog petted every day for over two years.. it belonged to a neighbor lady that he goes to get the paper at and had done some handyman work for over the years.. no clue why it got aggressive but it did.. so if its not your dog, beware and be cautious if your not comfortable around dogs. dad healed up well and the dog warden put the dog under quaruteen for one week..
 
Like others have said, I'm leery of any dog running loose in my yard, and yes, reaching too quickly for the collar probably induced the snap. One thing I will mention is something my wife often quotes from one of her animal behavior professor in Vet school. "When a dog snaps and you pull your hand back, the dog didn't miss because of your great reflexes. It missed because it meant to miss." You just have to respect any dog. In response to your question, if the Pitt Bull (or any dog) comes up to me when I call it over I will try to pet it after I let it sniff my closed fist. (if it decides to bite my hand, I'd rather it bite my closed fist than my open hand.) If it sniffs me and seems to like me I'll pet it for a while before trying to check it's collar. If it acts leery of me and shies away, I'll leave it alone. If it acts aggressive, I'll call animal control and arm myself with whatever is handy.
 
you done good to close the door allen i too am a dog lover but have seen dogs go bad in what would seem like no good reason to do so .. just this spring a dog bit my dad two times and drew blood majorly and then he got infection and was hospitalized for 3 days and had to go back to get more meds be checked on for the following week.. this dog that bit him was on the porch of a neighbor which was 1/2 mile from where he belonged and was a dog petted every day for over two years.. it belonged to a neighbor lady that he goes to get the paper at and had done some handyman work for over the years.. no clue why it got aggressive but it did.. so if its not your dog, beware and be cautious if your not comfortable around dogs. dad healed up well and the dog warden put the dog under quaruteen for one week..


a bite with an infection for me, would probably be a near death experience for me since Im on strong immunosuppressants.
Id never think of such things when I saw the little dog, figuring it just wanted to get home and was lost, and ofcourse, Id hate myself it the thing got ran over by a car.
but, it is the last time Ill approach any dog anymore and try to be friendly with it.
Next time, Ill call the local authorities and let then contact animal control.
If anything happens to a dog, that is loose, its completely the owners fault I realized.
Having dogs is like having children,(to me) and you always have to be aware that they are secure or watched after.
 
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Yeah, I tried to help a little pup I saw get hit by a car in the middle of the road a few years ago. Poor thing was in a lot of pain and probably dying, but I had to get it out of the road. It clamped down pretty good on the meaty part of my hand... Learned a good lesson that day.

Did get it to the side of the road. Should have gone to the doctor.
 
Some of the meanest, most unpredictable dogs I've met were Chihuahuas. I'm guessing the employee must have put his face close to the dog's. Either that, or the dog was one heck of a jumper. :D

Interesting stats in this article about the dogs most likely to bite:

http://indigorescue.org/?page_id=83

I'm not too worried about being bitten by a dog I could punt 25 yards. :rofl:
 
Well those stats explain a lot Vaughn. We had three Dachshunds when i was a youngster. They fitted the bill perfectly. I think they must have had "small dog syndrome" they took on all commers.


Is a Chihuahua actually considered a dog? :rofl: I thought it was part of the wild critter family like a RAT. :D
 
You can punt my daughter's mini long haired jack russell, but she has killed a pit bull, many groundhogs, squirrels, moles, voles and other things. She will move 50 feeder pigs from a trailer to a pen or vice versa. She would load and hold 700# sows into farrowing crates. Ask Larry, she tried to tear the jugular out of his yellow lab, thankfully she nicked the buckle on his collar. You might be able to punt her 50 yards, but she will bite you numerous times between a few punts!
Whenever anyone asks if my dogs bite I say, "they have teeth". Just like any horse, does he kick? He has hooves. Anything is possible at a given instance. Our boxer thought our son in law was doing something bad to the new baby this winter when my wife, daughter and SIL were giving her a bath in the kitchen sink. Lilly decided he was the least known so must be the guilty one, wife stopped her verbally in time.
All strange dogs on my farm in my barns are dealt with utilizing the 3 S rule.
 
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