My neighbors have two beautiful brown Doberman dogs that are about 80 pounds each. They are rarely walked, and use the enclosed concrete staircase next to their home as toilets. They both bark aggressively at the staircase gate or in the house at the window when my dog and I walk pass. I feel badly for the dogs because they deserve better lives with hikes and walks.
Today, both of them were loose on my street, as I was walking my dog.
While taking our afternoon walk, my dog Nikko, who is a 90 pound German Shepherd, suddenly freezes. I get that split second “something is going on” feel, and as I turn around I notice one of said Dobermans running at us, full speed, five yards and closing. Just as the fight instinct of my “fight or flight” options kicks in, I notice that the second Doberman is also charging at us, at our three ‘o clock position, about 10 yards and closing fast.
This is not the first time the dogs are loose. My neighbors are not superhuman, and they will make mistakes. They also have four tween to teen children, and they will make mistakes. Unfortunately, a forgotten latch or an open door with them means two very, very vicious dogs on the loose. Many of my neighbors have made many complaints to the Pasadena Humane Society, but their hands are tied with nothing more serious than a warning. When confronted, they claim that their Dobermans are totally friendly. These are the big dog owners that give the rest of us a bad name.
Back to the action: I yelled “back off!” as loud as I could at the first charging Doberman, and am holding onto my dog’s harness to my right. The Doberman veers right to both of us and takes a bite at my dog’s right hip. I see a tuff of hair fly away from Nikko.
By this time the second Doberman is on us, and I pull out my California legal 2 ounce pepper spray and hit him right between the eyes. That gave us about a two second pause. Doberman 2 picks up his front right leg to wipe at his face, and then comes right back at us. As I fend him off with my left hand with a half circle clockwise swipe at his head, his bites the inside of my palm and leaves a incisor-sized, superficial puncture wound.
I learned today that the misting pepper spray is pretty much useless against a large dog. Thanks to California legislation, as a law-abiding citizen I’m not allowed to carry anything to defend myself. Not a gun, not an extendable baton, not a knife bigger than an exacto blade.
As this is happening, Doberman 1 is on our six ‘o clock and circling back to charge. I turn to spray Doberman 1, but the mist does not have the distance to cover him. It does give him pause, allowing me three more steps to position both Dobermans in front of me. I’m not far from my house at this point, and all I can think of is how to get my back to something solid (like a car or a house), so that I’m not being constantly flanked by these two dogs.
The Doberman’s owners are not home, but another neighbor sees this taking place, and drives his truck into the street to provide a shield for me and my dog. I’ve since thanked him numerous times for saving my life, because he did. I told his wife and two young boys that their husband/father was a superhero today, and that made the family very happy.
He honks his horn and positions his car back and forth to try and block the two dogs, but one of them always manages a flanking maneuver around the vehicle at me. However, with enough yelling and violent kicking I manage to back myself to the house and got back inside.
To be honest, I was absolutely livid and my first thought was to grab my shotgun and put the two dogs down. My friend very wisely suggested that I get animal control involved first, and I'm glad I listened to her. I grabbed another pepper spray and headed out, but by this time a group of neighbors had corralled the Dobermans back into their gate.
I get back into the house and contact Pasadena Humane Society. The officer arrives, checks my wound, and takes a report. He’s a very nice man, and I try to speak as clearly as I can while trying to control the remaining adrenaline in my system. We then walk to my (truck-driving) neighbor’s home and take his report, and he says the Dobermans had been out for a while, but he just didn’t know who owned them. When he saw me walking with my dog, he knew trouble was going to occur, and he drove towards us.
I am going to remind myself constantly to pass his kindness forward. Today would have been much, much worse without his help. Right now I have puncture wounds on my left hand, and Nikko is very tender at his right hip/low rib area. With these two Dobermans, there could have been body parts flying.
I am known amongst my friends as one of those crazy dog lovers, so even at this point I don’t blame the Dobermans. They are dogs behaving like mistreated dogs. However, I do blame the owners for their irresponsibility. My big dog doesn’t possess pent-up anger because he is walked and hiked all the time. He plays with other dogs. My neighbors clearly lack the parenting skills to possess two Dobermans, and it is a matter of statistical probability before the two of them chews down one of the several mother-child combos that walk these hills on a daily basis. And there’s nothing we neighbors can do, because we are law-abiding citizens.
Today, both of them were loose on my street, as I was walking my dog.
While taking our afternoon walk, my dog Nikko, who is a 90 pound German Shepherd, suddenly freezes. I get that split second “something is going on” feel, and as I turn around I notice one of said Dobermans running at us, full speed, five yards and closing. Just as the fight instinct of my “fight or flight” options kicks in, I notice that the second Doberman is also charging at us, at our three ‘o clock position, about 10 yards and closing fast.
This is not the first time the dogs are loose. My neighbors are not superhuman, and they will make mistakes. They also have four tween to teen children, and they will make mistakes. Unfortunately, a forgotten latch or an open door with them means two very, very vicious dogs on the loose. Many of my neighbors have made many complaints to the Pasadena Humane Society, but their hands are tied with nothing more serious than a warning. When confronted, they claim that their Dobermans are totally friendly. These are the big dog owners that give the rest of us a bad name.
Back to the action: I yelled “back off!” as loud as I could at the first charging Doberman, and am holding onto my dog’s harness to my right. The Doberman veers right to both of us and takes a bite at my dog’s right hip. I see a tuff of hair fly away from Nikko.
By this time the second Doberman is on us, and I pull out my California legal 2 ounce pepper spray and hit him right between the eyes. That gave us about a two second pause. Doberman 2 picks up his front right leg to wipe at his face, and then comes right back at us. As I fend him off with my left hand with a half circle clockwise swipe at his head, his bites the inside of my palm and leaves a incisor-sized, superficial puncture wound.
I learned today that the misting pepper spray is pretty much useless against a large dog. Thanks to California legislation, as a law-abiding citizen I’m not allowed to carry anything to defend myself. Not a gun, not an extendable baton, not a knife bigger than an exacto blade.
As this is happening, Doberman 1 is on our six ‘o clock and circling back to charge. I turn to spray Doberman 1, but the mist does not have the distance to cover him. It does give him pause, allowing me three more steps to position both Dobermans in front of me. I’m not far from my house at this point, and all I can think of is how to get my back to something solid (like a car or a house), so that I’m not being constantly flanked by these two dogs.
The Doberman’s owners are not home, but another neighbor sees this taking place, and drives his truck into the street to provide a shield for me and my dog. I’ve since thanked him numerous times for saving my life, because he did. I told his wife and two young boys that their husband/father was a superhero today, and that made the family very happy.
He honks his horn and positions his car back and forth to try and block the two dogs, but one of them always manages a flanking maneuver around the vehicle at me. However, with enough yelling and violent kicking I manage to back myself to the house and got back inside.
To be honest, I was absolutely livid and my first thought was to grab my shotgun and put the two dogs down. My friend very wisely suggested that I get animal control involved first, and I'm glad I listened to her. I grabbed another pepper spray and headed out, but by this time a group of neighbors had corralled the Dobermans back into their gate.
I get back into the house and contact Pasadena Humane Society. The officer arrives, checks my wound, and takes a report. He’s a very nice man, and I try to speak as clearly as I can while trying to control the remaining adrenaline in my system. We then walk to my (truck-driving) neighbor’s home and take his report, and he says the Dobermans had been out for a while, but he just didn’t know who owned them. When he saw me walking with my dog, he knew trouble was going to occur, and he drove towards us.
I am going to remind myself constantly to pass his kindness forward. Today would have been much, much worse without his help. Right now I have puncture wounds on my left hand, and Nikko is very tender at his right hip/low rib area. With these two Dobermans, there could have been body parts flying.
I am known amongst my friends as one of those crazy dog lovers, so even at this point I don’t blame the Dobermans. They are dogs behaving like mistreated dogs. However, I do blame the owners for their irresponsibility. My big dog doesn’t possess pent-up anger because he is walked and hiked all the time. He plays with other dogs. My neighbors clearly lack the parenting skills to possess two Dobermans, and it is a matter of statistical probability before the two of them chews down one of the several mother-child combos that walk these hills on a daily basis. And there’s nothing we neighbors can do, because we are law-abiding citizens.
