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[RC] Dogs that Attack - WRSINOSKYTruman wrote,"Dog confrontations can be dangerous - depending on the dog.? Most of the time you can face down a dog with a horse, but it is not 100 percent. I alway take any dog confronting my horse very seriously - it may be a game to them but it is not to me. I will chase it yelling and might even throw a water bottle at it. I do not want another confrontation and I will take take a permeative approach and go after the dog chasing it away even before he shows any aggressive behavior to prevent one. If he shows no sign of backing off, I'll quickly (a human can deal with a dog much better on the ground than a horse's back) dismount and go after him - that usually does it. If your horse gets attack by a dog - my advice is to have no mercy either on the dog or owner. It really gets down to a people problem." I'm in total agreement...right up to the part about dismounting. At that point you can become the target. I lived thru a horrifying experience with my best friend six years ago. Two of us were ponying horses. Yes, Doimas was a baby at the time and I was ponying him with his moma. The third girl, my best friend, was riding her mare with us. We had stopped to talk with a neighbor when a pit bull cruised thru, dragging his chain. He walked past the horses, went over to our neighbor, then came back around me, the other girl with her two horses and over to the opposite side of my friend. Suddenly, my friend's eyes got huge and she said, "Oh my God! He's biting me!" The next thing we knew, the dog had drug her to the ground and was mauling her. I had a .38, but couldn't take a shot for fear of hitting my friend. All the while this woman is screaming for us to help her. It was the most horrible experience of my life. The neighbor ran indoors, got a shotgun and went over to the dog. He buttstroked the dog several times until it released her leg and took off. He shot and hit it once, but the dog continued around his house and came back up on us. This time he went for my friend ponying her horse. Her horses bolted and the dog was running between her horses, jumping up and trying to grab her leg. Eventually, she got ahead of the dog, but not before he tore up the back legs of both her horses. The pitbull came around for a third time and attacked the neighbor's stallion. The horse kicked and stepped on that dog several times before it finally climbed out from under the fence and the neighbor got a clear shot and killed it. A week later, I was confronted by another pitbull on a different road. Once again I was ponying Doimas. I emptied an entire can of pepper spray (the type the State Police use) into that dog's face. I mean, it was dripping off his muzzle. What did the dog do? It sneezed and backed off about four feet, then started to come at us again. I pulled my .38, had him dead in my sights and was about to fire, when the owner finally came outside. Told her she had better get her dog NOW or I was going to kill it. It would have probably be a wild ride had I shot next to my horse's head, but having lived thru my friend's ordeal, I was ready to take the ride and kill the damn dog. Incidentally, my friend had 17 stitches in her leg and nerve damage. She got nothing from the owners. They were "from Mexico" and renting the house. They are still here, six years later and raising pitbulls. Do I really want to shoot someone's dog? Heck, no! I love dogs...and cats and all sorts of animals. But it isn't my responsibility to ensure the safety of someone else's pet. I have had far more incidents with loose dogs than I care to count. Many of them were while Doimas was still a baby. He has been frightened and hurt by loose dogs and now that he's a big guy, he will intentionally set them up and try to kick their heads off. That's fine with me. So far the tally is Doimas 4; dogs zero. About the best thing I've found to do is face the dog down and move my horse toward them. Most will back off. The others? Well....you are kind of on your own. I have found mace and pepper spray do not work on pitbulls; don't know if it works on other dogs or not. I will yell and scream at the dog to "stay" or "go home"; and find that usually works because I sound like I'm going to rip their heads off with my bare hands. Fortunately, I haven't had the "pleasure" of shooting one yet, but I have been taking all my riding horses around to places where people target shoot to get them used to gunfire. Like I said, I don't want to hurt someone's pet. But I will, if it comes down to him or me and my horse. Bottom line? My horse and I are far more precious to me than your dog. cindy edwards buckeye, az
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