[music playing] Kelly:
You're on a leisurely walk with your pet when out of nowhere another dog, unleashed, confronts
you.
This could turn into a terrible scene.
How should you deal with a loose dog whose owner is missing?
That's the question we're going to discuss on today's Paw Report with Dr. Sally Foote
of the Okaw Veterinary Clinic.
Stay with us.
[music playing]
Rameen: The Paw Report on WEIU is supported by Rural
King, America's farm and home store, livestock feed, farm equipment, pet supplies and more.
You can find your store and more information regarding Rural King at ruralking.com.
Rob: Dave's Decorating Center is a proud supporter
of the Paw Report on WEIU.
Dave's Decorating Center features the Mohawk Smartstrand Silk Forever Clean carpet.
Dave's Decorating Center, authorized Mohawk color center in Charleston.
Rameen: Okaw Vet Clinic in Tuscola, and Dr. Sally
Foote remind you to properly take care of your pets.
And are happy to help support The Paw Report on WEIU.
Okaw Vet Clinic, located at 140 West Sale Street in downtown Tuscola.
More information available at okawvetclinic.com.
Kelly: Thanks for joining us for this episode of the Paw Report.
I am your host, Kelly Goodwin, and joining us for this episode is our friend and resident,
Dr. Sally Foote and her partner in crime, Ranger.
Sally: Ranger.
Kelly: Thanks for coming, Ranger.
We love it when you come.
He's going to be scurrying all around the set today as we talk about a very important
topic.
Sally: Yeah.
Kelly: When I reached out to you again to be on the
Paw Report, you said, "I know exactly what topic we should talk about," and that is what
to do when you're walking through your neighborhood, out in the country, on the beach, if that's
where you're at, and you have your pet on a leash, and you encounter a loose dog.
It can be a very grave situation.
You've encountered that with patients and clients you've had-
Sally: Yeah, and myself.
Kelly: ... and yourself.
First, let's talk about most communities do have leash laws.
Sally: Yes, well, really, all states have laws that
require, primarily dogs, but still require the dog to be confined.
Confinement can then be defined as a secure fencing enclosure or a leash, so primarily
a leash.
When the dog is not behind a regular fence, then the dog needs to be on a leash such that
he can be controlled so if he sees a rabbit running across the street, he's not going
to dart out and go chasing out.
This is not only ... Then also, too, if people walk by, because movement, people walking,
especially runners, bicyclists, and now you've got somebody walking with their own dog on
a leash can be what this dog in this yard sees as I want to chase.
Chasing is a normal dog behavior.
Or this dog says I don't like other dogs.
Or in that chasing, the dog also barked or bit at runners and things because the dog
saw those things crossing in front of the territory as a threat.
In other words, that's the behavior of the dog.
How do we reliably control that in a community is that you use a leash.
He's out in your front yard, you've got him on a leash.
Okay, you've got some kind of containment.
That's your responsibility as pet owner and it is required by the state statutes, the
Animal Control Act of Illinois.
Now most cities will then define it maybe even a little bit more to say must be on a
six-foot leash or so on and then add fines if there's a violation of that.
Kelly: I think that's the biggest deterrent if somebody
is punished for-
Sally: Oh yes, once you have to pay for it.
Kelly: Once you have to pay for it, yeah.
Sally: Gosh, better not do it.
Kelly: Being approached by a loose dog, it's happened
to me, it's happened to you, is a very scary, could be a traumatic situation.
Every situation is different going to be different but there are some tactics, some mental things
that you can prepare for in the event of going out.
First is, it seems simple, but try to avoid the situation.
Sally: Right, so if you know, and yes it's a pain,
but sorry, I'm going to keep my dog and myself safe.
It's a pain if I realize, "Okay, it's April now, and the weather's nice, and Mrs. Jones
always lets her Labrador loose in the front yard, who may sniff around and stuff, but
when that Labrador sees, he looks up and he starts staring at my dog, and that's tempting
fate.
I don't want that temptation for that dog to be like, oh, this is the day I want to
now come running after you and your dog because maybe this is the day that another bunny scurried
behind my dog and that was a double temptation for the dog, so I'm going to avoid walking
past that dog's home.
You get zig-zaggy routes.
I've talked to some clients who are like, "I just wish I could just walk a nice path
around my neighborhood, but if I do that, then there's this chance, or it agitates my
dog, or this other dog will come barreling out and it's scary as you-know-what."
I'm like, "You're right," but you're going to go to being safe first.
Then, secondly, if you know this dog is always out loose, you're going to call this person
and say, "Hey, look, your dog, you may not realize this," be kind, right, "You may not
realize this, but when your dog is outside without you, he will get up and be staring
at my dog."
Staring is the first level right before lunge, chase, and possibly bite.
It's on the ladder of aggression.
You can go to my website at the vet clinic and publish it.
Anyway, that is how a dog, and some dogs see other dogs as a threat.
There's nothing I'm doing about it.
It's up to this dog, whatever, but this is the reality of what's happening, "So either
can you put your dog on a leash or at least, let's make a deal?
I'm going to walk my dog at 10:00 AM.
Can you make sure your dog is put up at 10:00 AM?"
The end result is, we just don't want these loose dogs that could then, also, get hit
by a car.
I've seen that happen.
Kelly: You know, I think the classic line, and I've
heard it is, "Oh, my dog's friendly.
It won't hurt your dog."
How many times have you heard that?
Sally: All the time.
And yes, your dog may be friendly in many of these various situations like if I'm just
walking without my dog, if you're standing outside with your dog because how you are
friendly to me is telling your dog I'm friendly and so, therefore, he's friendly to me.
But your dog may not like other dogs, and now when I walk by with another dog, it changes
the meaning of me.
So now, to your dog, I'm no longer that friendly.
You see?
This is what perplexes people.
Like, "Well he's always friendly all the other times."
Sure he is.
It's all about these specific scenarios.
It's not like they, if they're unfriendly about everything.
They're unfriendly about certain situations or certain scenarios like, oh, another dog
walking by and I'm going to bark and lunge after it.
If your dog is standing there barking and hasn't gone chasing out of the road, it doesn't
mean he won't.
It's just that he just hasn't crossed that fine line yet, but it's coming.
It's coming.
Kelly: Do dogs have certain body language?
How do you read, how do you know when a dog that's coming at you is going to be aggressive
versus friendly, and lick-y, and oh hi, I'm just here to greet your pet?
Sally: Right, so that's what I call the dangerous
dance.
Right?
There's what's called reactive, or I like to call it rough and rowdy play.
Some dogs have always been allowed, and while it's a little bit of puppy growing up, but
they need to learn to calm down from the two dogs who body slam on each other, and run
up on each other, and roll, and roughhouse, and play, because it's actually the skirting
over of play to aggression, because quickly, these two dogs, if one bites a little hard
on the other one too hard, then you've got a dogfight on your hand, because it's just
that running gets them amped-up.
Any dog running, go with what could happen the worst.
That dog may aggress, because why would he suddenly want to just run?
Even though the tail is wagging, there's a lot of different meanings to the wagging of
a dog's tail.
When, say this dog, when his tail is up like this, straight up, that's not happy dog.
That is a dog alerting danger's here, danger's here.
Everybody see it?
You see it?
I'm going to go after it now, and I'm going to defend the territory, and I'm going to
get him out of here.
That's what that kind of a tail wag means.
The dog is zooming at ... The first thing is, if you're zooming at me, this could be
trouble, so I need to stop, stand in front of my dog or get my dog behind a parked car,
get my dog behind a bush, stop where I'm going.
Don't keep proceeding in the direction of this dog coming at us or keep going because
it's that movement that's getting this dog to come, so stop where you're at or even if
you can go backward, but don't turn your back on this dog because he may jump on you.
Then secondly, if you notice any of the hair rising on the back, now it might be hard to
see.
You know?
Lastly, the dog's head position because most dogs that are on that I-see-you it's like,
seriously, their head lowers, and it's straight down, and they're staring at the target they
want to go at, which is usually your dog.
Kelly: Right.
Now what about, and you're a behavioral specialist, the collar has a lot to do with how a dog
behaves, too.
If you tighten or clench the collar, does that have some technique to it, or is that
some reasoning behind not only your dog, the way that you treat your dog on the collar,
does that have some end results in these situations?
Sally: Right, so yeah.
It's a little bit of the finesse of learning leash-handling skills, and when you're walking
with your dog, and leading your dog, and how your dog on leash follows with you.
Point being, a lot of the old, traditional training of to get a dog to stop jumping up
et cetera, would be taking a choke collar and yanking it hard to punish the dog to stop
doing that.
Sure, the dog would stop doing that, but what the dog learns is any kind of yank is painful.
It's painful.
It's difficult.
It means that punishment is coming, and so pulling and yanking on the collar ... Let's
say the dog is loose, and suddenly you grab the collar, then the dog maybe flips his head
and tries to bite you.
Okay?
If your dog is loose, you really want to avoid suddenly grabbing the collar, but secondly,
when your dog is on-leash and you really tighten up on the collar, now it's like saying.
"Bad things are happening, bad things are happening."
It may actually agitate your dog more.
That's why actually when a dog come ... It happened to me just the other day in my neighborhood.
I didn't know this dog'd be loose in a front yard, but he was.
Here comes this yellow Labrador mix, barreling at me and Bella with his hackles up.
I'm like, "Holy cow."
I just, and she's on a Gentle Leader head halter, but still, I just, I didn't drop the
leash, but I'm like, "I'm going to let you stand here relaxed," because first of all,
if I'm pulling her closer to me, that means that dog's going to come to me too, and I
may get jumped on and attacked.
Secondly, if I'm not pulling on her, like saying, "Bad stuff, bad stuff," then she may
be a little less apt to now jump around and be like pulling back on me, increasing her
agitation.
If she's less jumping around, it may help this dog be less agitated on her.
All this stuff happens in, literally, one to two seconds.
Kelly: Yeah, I was going to say it's a lot to think
about-
Sally: Absolutely.
Kelly: ... you know, what's your game plan when it's
happening.
Sally: Right.
When that dog was barrelling at me, the first thing I did, being on a walk, was took her
bag of stool and threw it at the dog.
It's a startle technique.
It's like, woo, what's that?
That was the point.
If you get the dog to go the running, the charging dog, woo, what's that, that's a little
second for you to now maybe backup, increase the distance between the two dogs, and of
course, me and my mouth, I started yelling at the top of my lungs, "Get your dog," because
the people are in their front dog.
I don't know if it was their dog or not, and then saying, "Go," in a very deep voice to
the dog.
"Get," and I stomped my foot because I didn't have an umbrella.
I didn't have any projectile stream spray with me.
I wasn't expecting this, but anyway, so the dog kind of was now going that dance-around
maybe 10 feet away, barking with his hackles up because ... I kept yelling, "Get your dog,"
at the top of my voice.
I don't know where an owner may be around here, and hopefully somebody would be, or
"Get the dog."
I just stood in my place because if I moved back or forward, I knew that could have this
dog-
Kelly: There's that movement.
Sally: ... the movement, right.
Then this man started coming and calling for his dog, which, of course, the dog is ignoring
him.
Most dogs will.
There is a ... I don't care how well-trained your dog is off-leash, when they're like I
want after this, their focus on you has gone out the windows.
So at least the dog now wanted to avoid the owner.
He started meandering around further away from us, and I just waited for the dog to
get behind a bush, as he was avoiding his owner, got behind a bush or a parked car,
and then I could back away with Bella to get back further down the street and make a turn
so the dog couldn't see us, but the whole time, I did not turn my back on the dog.
We kind of walked backward, or if I took a few steps forward, I was looking constantly
behind me because it's happened where now this movement or if this dog's like I see
the ability to go after that dog again, they may come after you again.
So then I just chart it off.
I'm not going down that street in Tuscola.
Kelly: There's your alternative.
Sally: Right, that's my route and I just want to-
Kelly: You hit a really good point and one I wanted
to ask you about because I think probably a lot of pet owners encounter this, is how
do you deal with the owner of the dog that's loose?
I mean, I think your instinct is to, "Get your dog," and be really aggressive-
Sally: Yes, yes.
Kelly: ... but sometimes that might not be the best
tactic.
Sally: In the moment, in the moment when this loose
dog is there, be as aggressive, be just like, "Get your ..." I don't care what language
you use.
You got to let this other person know this is not okay.
This is really scary for me.
It's scary for my dog.
As a veterinarian, I've had plenty of dogs come in with their ear ripped in half.
I have one dog where it bitten in the back.
Half the skin was pulled backward, and that happened in one second on this little poodle
from a German shepherd dog that was off lead and came into their yard with their dog on
a little stakeout chain.
I've had it where people have rushed in with animals dead, so this is not oh, just a little
inconvenient, or oh, just one little fluke.
This is serious stuff.
One of my clients ... I've republished this article I'd written a few years ago because
he came in and said with his little dog he was walking, and a large, muscular dog came
charging out the same way.
Luckily, it didn't erupt in an actually biting fight on the dogs.
The owner of the large, muscular dog came out quickly and got the dog, but for the man,
he said, "I couldn't sleep for three nights."
It was like a nightmare to him because of how scared he felt that this big dog might
jump on him and bite him and his little melee.
You know?
Barking, and his dog barking, and like, "Holy poop, what do we do now."
Then also feeling like I need and like to walk my dog.
Now where do I go?
Thirdly, well, that was totally unfair.
I was doing ... I have my pet on a leash.
I have my pet responsibly kept.
Why is this dog allowed to run loose?
What do I do now?
That was some of the things he shared with me, which is part I published the article,
and I gave the man some tips on what to do, but it affects the humans heavily.
Kelly: Sure, sure.
It's a mental drain.
It's disturbing, really.
In the day and age of cell phones, another thing you could do is, if you're walking along,
and a dog lunges, and you're yelling A, for the dog to get back or for an owner, and you
see some standbys or witnesses, have them record it.
Sally: Exactly.
Yeah.
Whip out your phone.
Take a video.
Seriously, because to an owner, again, they walk out and the dog looks happy and fine,
like, "What are you talking about?
He's a fine dog."
Right?
They didn't see it happen so they may not believe it happened till they see it.
The dog may act completely differently when the owner is present versus when the owner's
not present.
Kelly: That's right.
It's like kids in a classroom.
Sally: Yes, exactly.
Kelly: When the teacher's there, it's a whole different
story.
Sally: Right.
Kelly: Another tactic, you can pay attention to your
surroundings.
That's a big one.
Sally: Yes, yeah.
Yes, yes.
I like to say, "When you walk your dog, you cannot wear flip-flops.
You cannot have your earbuds in, and you should always be looking ahead of your, kind of like
driving a car.
Right?
You should be looking ahead of yourself by at least 20 to 30 feet and kind of around,
what's coming up and what's going around, so you're always kind of predicting and scanning
the environment, the horizon as we say."
You know?
Kelly: Remain calm, too.
Sally: Yes.
You remain calm.
Kelly: I mean, if there is a situation of aggression,
does our body language and our feelings translate into our pet?
Do they know?
Sally: Oh yes.
Oh yes, they do.
They definitely can tell.
Kelly: So remaining calm is important.
Sally: Yeah, it's tough.
I will admit, it's very tough.
It's not easy, but do the best you can.
That's where your instinct is to just go run.
Well, the dog's going to chase you down, but it's not easy.
When you're in that situation, it is a very difficult situation.
Kelly: How do dogs develop the behavior to want to
confront you.
You know what I mean?
You were talking-
Sally: Why do some lunge, why do some-
Kelly: Yeah, why do some lunge?
How is that a behavior that's learned?
Sally: Well, okay, so learning on that behavior typically
comes from, first of all, as a puppy.
When I say a puppy, ages eight weeks to about 16 weeks of age, they were not around bicycles
passing by, joggers passing by, UPS trucks coming, FedEx trucks coming, these things
that move, and come, and go, and receive a reward for not barking, not lunging because
the first inclination is, it moves, I should want to chase it.
Okay, so that's a little bit of their normal response, if you will, but we're wanting to
train them for a different response which is ignore it.
It's not a big deal.
It's a part of your everyday world.
Okay?
But you, dog, need to learn this when you're young, when it's easy because then when you
get over to four months of age, then this is called the fear period, which is normal
in dogs, to now look at the world like what are you.
I don't know about you.
If I don't know about you, I should want you to stay a little bit away, which then is the
barking.
If barking keeps you away and the dog never received anything still good when seeing you
walk by or the neighbor dog walking by, then that dog, and you keep on leaving, now the
dog goes, oh, barking works.
That's what I'm supposed to do when you go by, so I bark.
Then it may even be like you're not moving, you're not moving, well, I've got to make
my bark bigger, my body bigger, so now I got to jump on you or lunge on you because, of
course, if I'm jumping.
Then the physical agitation of jumping is what leads to I'm going to grab you with my
mouth.
Then that leads to the bite.
Each step like that can be as short as .2 seconds.
Now, certain breeds are more likely to want to chase, pay more attention to motion -- okay
-- and have more of this, we'll call the word vigilance, or looking out for that, and those
tend to be our guarding dogs and our shepherd dogs.
It just tends to be a more common breed trait that you have to then work harder on with
training, like with your Australian shepherds, or your German shepherds, or your border collies,
or your corgis, or your shelties.
If you look at the history, say, of bite scenarios, I betcha if you asked any runner or marathoner,
"What was the breed of dog that was chasing you down on that country road?"
"German shepherd.
Ugh, collie."
Those breeds will come up frequently and, yes, they may be more common breeds on a farm,
but also why?
Because they're going to chase off the coyote.
And they're going to chase off the other wildlife ... Part of guarding that property, that's
what their job is.
Kelly: Another technique you mentioned the biting,
and I thought other ways that pet owners can protect themselves is body blocking.
Some other alternatives you've talked about, and you've brought a demonstration of an umbrella
with you.
I'm going to have you talk about those as we wrap up our last few minutes.
Sally: Okay.
Let's just talk about the really, really scary, so like that poor man.
He had a really scary situation like a near really-true injury and it's going to happen.
We're going to do a quick demo here.
Let's pretend I have a dog, and I'm on a walk, and this is our dog who's loose in the front
yard, just like the other day for me.
Kelly: He's cute, by the way.
Sally: Sure, this dog was cute, too, until he was
... bark.
Now when I go on a walk, I'm going to bring an umbrella.
I don't care how sunny it is, you're going to bring an umbrella.
Why?
Because now when I'm on a walk, and here is the dog, and all the ... When the dog first
sees me and my dog, and he's like, "Bark, bark," and he starts running, I'm going to
pop this umbrella open and it's my shield.
Right?
It's a shield.
Where I, actually, what I want to do now is, when the dog is far away, I can maybe put
it in front of me and my dog, because if he doesn't see my dog it may stop him from running.
But let's say, in a holy poop moment, and I pop it open, now you're like here.
Right?
You're really pretty close.
I'm going to keep this umbrella in front of the dog because that's what's shielding this
dog from being able to get to me or my dog.
Now, remember, I'm also screaming at the top of my lungs, "Get your dog out of here."
Then when I need to back away, I can keep this in front of me and back away with my
dog and move it around.
That protects me and my dog.
Then when we're done, I can fold this up.
I can tell my dog, "You're so wonderful for not flipping out too," and then go home, and
call animal control, and report on the people.
But this is something everybody has, an umbrella.
Kelly: Take it.
Sally: Take it with you on the walk.
Even one older woman, when I published this, said, "Well, you know I can use it as a little
walking stick."
Kelly: There you go, and a walking stick is another
deterrent.
Sally: Right.
Even if I just, if I couldn't pop it open and I just did this right in front of the
dog's face, it still would be a block, a body block or a deterrent.
Of course, if I can get my dog behind me, but sometimes in that moment everything's
wound up, it could be hard to do, or you're just like ... I'll just say it, finally, too.
If in a moment, who's going to take the bite?
Me or my dog?
Frankly, dogs get injured far less than we do in these moments.
My dog, all dogs, have loose skin around the neck here, and the reason why is because when
a dog goes and grabs this, that loose skin is protecting their jugular vein, and their
trachea, and vital organs.
If this dog jumps up on my shoulder or on my face, I don't have that much loose skin.
Or my arm, he's going to really get me bad.
Secondly, sometimes in that moment it's like, "This isn't working."
Frankly, if you drop your dog's leash and this dog's like oh, now he's off leash.
Now he-
Kelly: Now we get to play or fight.
Sally: Play, or oh, he could really come back on
me.
Sometimes the other dog just slinks away because this dog may see the other dog on a leash
as like you, now, are handicapped.
You can't come after me, so it can embolden this dog.
So that's just a last, final Hail Mary tip.
Kelly: Well, and also the deterrent sprays.
Sally: Yes, deterrent sprays.
Kelly: Let's talk about that really quick.
Sally: Any kind of an insect spray, or there are
some that spray actual water that are going to shoot out in a straight stream -- right
-- because you want something that ... I can shoot right at this dog.
You don't have to necessarily try to aim for the face.
Just aim at the dog if you're in the front, the chest.
The point is the dog, the stream is coming at them, and the dog wants to avoid the stream.
Now I can be like ... like this, and keep this dog away.
I had one client with a little Yorkshire terrier where, in their neighborhood, a husky had
killed another Yorkshire terrier.
For her to be able to feel safe walking her Yorkshire terrier, she asked me about using
a insect spray that would project a strong stream because that was immediately available
in her garage, and it was the next day, and I said, "Yeah.
Use it."
You have to be ready in case the other party, the other family, is not going to be responsible
with this dog while some things were pending on a case and such.
You're not going to hurt, dramatically, the other dog who might be attacking, and it's
enough to startle that dog and keep you and your dog safe if this husky comes flying at
you and your little dog when you just try to walk around your own property.
Kelly: Right.
Sally: Yeah.
Kelly: Well, some excellent points today, as always,
Dr. Foote.
If anybody out there has any other questions or maybe you want some more information about
the topic that we talked to today, Dr. Foote has information on her website at the Okaw
Vet Clinic.
They can just log on, and they can also sign up for your newsletter, which is a great thing.
Sally: Right, we have a newsletter there, and we
put articles like this in there every month.
Then, of course, you can always email us, and we have a Facebook page as well.
Okaw Vet Clinic in Tuscola.
Kelly: Excellent.
Well, thank you Dr. Foote.
Thanks, Ranger.
He's roaming around somewhere in the studio.
Sally: He's here somewhere.
I don't know, he's probably ...
Kelly: We also thank you, our viewers, for joining
us on this episode of the Paw Report.
Thanks for joining us, and, of course, we'll see you next time.
Rameen: Okaw Vet Clinic in Tuscola, and Dr. Sally
Foote remind you to properly take care of your pets.
And are happy to help support The Paw Report on WEIU.
Okaw Vet Clinic, located at 140 West Sale Street in downtown Tuscola.
More information available at okawvetclinic.com.
Rob: Dave's Decorating Center is a proud supporter
of the Paw Report on WEIU.
Dave's Decorating Center features the Mohawk Smartstrand Silk Forever Clean carpet.
Dave's Decorating Center, authorized Mohawk color center in Charleston.
Rameen: The Paw Report on WEIU is supported by Rural
King, America's farm and home store, livestock feed, farm equipment, pet supplies and more.
You can find your store and more information regarding Rural King at ruralking.com.
Additional support for The Paw Report on WEIU, is brought to you by viewers like you.
Thank you.
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