Two Police horses attacked by dog and one horse injured

Rowreach said:
Since my dogs were attacked in the road by 2 loose GSDs, and only saved by a passing motorist who grabbed a wheel wrench out of his boot and beat the lead GSD over the head with it, I have carried a heavy handled walking stick with me and have used it. But the majority of people don't leave home expecting to have to break up a fight or stop an attack, and doing it bare handed is not a great idea. If dog owners actually understood what "under control" means, it would be the best place to start.
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Agree with you that dog owners are the place to start with preventing dog attacks - interview with the owner here makes it clear that he lacks an understanding of dog behaviour, and on when the appropriate time to get a lead out is.

Realistically though, there will always be an out of control dog somewhere, and part of having a dog-savvy society is surely having people who can handle situations like these. It came up in a thread on a dog attack on a horse that many of us didn’t know what we’d do in the rider’s situation. Plus, in the case of a dog fight, are all owners going to be happy to beat their own dog to try break the fight up?

You can’t always trust dogs and dog owners to do the right thing, so there needs to be opportunities available to learn what to do if a dog is hanging off your horse’s leg, if your family pet has done for your kid, etc. People need to be prepared for the worst.
 
If my dog was attacking and hanging on like that one I would have beat it off, no question. I could feel myself getting more and more angry as I watched that video . If it was someone else’s dog attacking mine I’m afraid I would get involved . I have done before when my lurcher was attacked by a ridgeback cross , my dog got bitten badly and my arm was bruised from top to bottom and was pretty sore for a while but I couldn’t stand by and watch my dog being killed as he had her on the ground and bit her throat so he could have killed her … In an ideal world all dogs should be registered and owners punished in severe cases. That owner should be also made to pay for the horses vet bills and the dog should be taken away and PTS. It could be a child or an elderly person next time and judging by the way the owner just stood there for ages he would be too late to save anyone
 
This is my local park, and my local police horses (their stables are not far from me) - I love seeing them out and about on the roads, and it’s horrible to think of this happening to them (as for any horse and rider).

I don’t even take my own dog (who is always on a lead) to Vicky Park any more - there are just so many dogs off the lead with no owners in sight, and no recall when the owners are actually around. So sadly, I’m not surprised that this has happened.
 
That was hard to watch.......

Blimmin owner was about as useless as a bog that won't flush; can't help thinking he was more aiding the dog to attack than trying to stop it tbh. That's the way I was beginning to see it.

What an awful thing to happen; and as it as a police horse involved we must hope that the proverbial book will be thrown hard, very hard.
 
A muzzle would have stopped the damage to the horse but would not have stopped the attack. A dog like that having a go whether or not it could bite is extremely scary and can do damage in other ways.
These idiots with their status dogs are going to end up getting all dogs having to be on leads etc. So unfair on the ones that are properly trained and would never do this.
 
As I said above, something will have to be done. We can't carry on like this.

Personally I'd rather see dogs muzzled in public places but still allowed to run around and exercise off the lead. This would protect humans, children, other dogs and horses from being bitten or killed.

The alternative of no muzzles but having to keep all dogs in public places on leads and never allowed to run around I feel is unfair to the dogs and does not provide as much protection to others. Not all dogs have gardens to run around in off lead - and many modern houses have little more than a few feet of garden sadly.

The option of doing nothing is coming to the end of the road I think with these repeated attacks happening.
 
reynold said:
Personally I'd rather see dogs muzzled in public places but still allowed to run around and exercise off the lead. This would protect humans, children, other dogs and horses from being bitten or killed.
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I disagree with this. I have known dogs injured by a heavier dog jumping on them and people can be badly hurt too by a big dog knocking them over. Control is what is needed either by training or by being kept on lead. A dog charging at a horse can scare it into panicking and bolting. My mum often used to see a large labrador when she was walking her little dog, perfectly friendly but would come charging up to say hallo and she was always scared it would knock her over. It's brakes weren't up to much.
 
Poor poor horse and disgusting owner with no clue 😡 my dog has been attacked 3 time by other dogs off lead when she has been on the lead with useless owners. The first dog who attacked her then attacked a small child and was pts. I truly hope the horse is ok, something has to change 😞
 
reynold said:
As I said above, something will have to be done. We can't carry on like this.

Personally I'd rather see dogs muzzled in public places but still allowed to run around and exercise off the lead. This would protect humans, children, other dogs and horses from being bitten or killed
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I disagree.
An off lead hefty labrador bounced at my friend last autumn when we were out walking (no dog with us) and knocked my friend over, she broke her hip! We were only doing a short walk as she was rehabbing from having a hip replacement on the other side. She fell awkwardly. The hefty lump continued to jump on her when she was on the ground screaming, the owner (older woman) did nothing to help, didn't call the dog off.
Fortunately, another person I vaguely knew followed her and called police, dog now has to be on a lead in public places and the info was plastered across the next door media.

So no, imho all dogs should be on lead in public places.
 
I agree that a large dog can do a lot of damage merely by jumping but muzzled would probably prevent the ripping things to shreds that seems to happen more or less daily now. Also a lot of large dogs on leads seem to tow their owners around at will, so I don't think that is huge preventative.

I think blanket muzzling is sadly going to have to be the way to go. I am in favour of it means people and animals can have a degree of safety.
 
what's the best thing to do if caught in that kind of situation?

I think in the situation I would have done the opposite of what the police did - I would have tried to get away as fast as I could I think? but that probably wouldn't have been the right thing to do. at least that way the dog would be at the hind end and more likely to get kicked?
 
paddi22 said:
what's the best thing to do if caught in that kind of situation?

I think in the situation I would have done the opposite of what the police did - I would have tried to get away as fast as I could I think? but that probably wouldn't have been the right thing to do. at least that way the dog would be at the hind end and more likely to get kicked?
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I'm surprised the other police officer didn't lob their pepper spray over to the member of the public who was valiantly trying to get the dog off.
 
Orangehorse said:
I said something on a DG about "that type" of dog and was immediately told that it isn't the dog, its the owner, could be any breed, etc. etc. Well I know it COULD be any breed, but the chances are it isn't.

Hope they throw the book at the owner.
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Of course it's the owner! I've had two "dog on horse" attacks, one was a JRT and the other was two Weimeraners. It's always owners when dogs are out of control.
 
Rowreach said:
I'm surprised the other police officer didn't lob their pepper spray over to the member of the public who was valiantly trying to get the dog off.
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yeah I couldn't get my head around the whole situation, and why the other policeman didn't get involved with either a stick or spray. if someone had a stick and some cloth you'd make a tourniquet and get it around the dogs neck and twist. or as you say, spray it. I don't think I could sit on my horse and have it stay in the same place while being attacked, but that's very easy to say behind a keyboard!
 
paddi22 said:
yeah I couldn't get my head around the whole situation, and why the other policeman didn't get involved with either a stick or spray. if someone had a stick and some cloth you'd make a tourniquet and get it around the dogs neck and twist. or as you say, spray it. I don't think I could sit on my horse and have it stay in the same place while being attacked, but that's very easy to say behind a keyboard!
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I don't think they would have been able to get away fast in that situation as the park probably isn't that big in terms of a galloping horse and also there looked like there were a lot of pedestrians around and so there would have been a huge risk of injuring someone. If you were in an open field you could try it but even then I think you might be hard pushed to outrun it if it was determined to follow you and possibly just making it more likely for the rider to fall off.
 
I am amazed more of the larger American Bullies aren't classed as Pitbull type, because thats what they basically are. They generally tend to be owned by dodgy types too. At least that's the case near me.

I don't agree with muzzling all dogs in public, but maybe owners should be licenced if they want to own certain breeds, or dogs over a specific weight. I don't know how it would work, but the one thing you can guarantee is that the thugs will break the law anyway😡
 
And there is a photo of the owner smirking over his shoulder as he is brought in for questioning so little remorse there. Not to mention the blaming of the police horse for 'intimidating' the dog.
 
I didn't watch because I didn't want to, but that poor police horse, who has been trained not to kick - or have I got that right?
 
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