Today, in a flash, a beautiful day in the garden turned frightful!
My dog is just under 9 mo old. He is a Maltese and weights 4.5lbs. He is sweet and playful, huggable, loveable, and a bit fragile. He lives indoors but spends a little time in the garden with me, enclosed by a 6 foot privacy fence. My other dog was trained to never go out of the gate even if it was open. I'd like to train him the same way. When I walk out of the gate to look at the flowers on that side of the house, I leave the gate open while I am only 10ft away so that I can teach him this. It's going well. He sits at the open gate.
This afternoon as I was taking photos of an iris just outside the gate, my neighbor's mother stopped by to talk with me. Then in an instant the PIT BULL that was tethered - by one of those retractable leashes draped over something it turns out - just 10ft or so from my property line, saw my dog and took off for my dog instantly snapping his tether like a thread. My dog ran inside the garden with the PIT BULL on his heels. That Widget (my dog) ran seemed to only ignite the PIT BULL's prey instinct.
The whole thing was awful. They ran into the cottage garden where I couldn't even see them for all of the plants. I could hear Widget screaming and wailing in pain. I tried to get to him to help him, not knowing if the pit bull would attack me but knowing that I had to help poor little Widget. I rounded a curve to see the pitbull on top of widget, biting him and Widget wailing. I screamed "No" and "Stop" as assertively as I could muster. The pit bull turned to look at me, Widget got away and ran and the whole thing started again.
There was lots of running and screaming and wailing. Most of the time I could hear them but couldn't see them. Once I saw the pit bull (which must weigh between 100-200 lbs) RUN OVER my dog - my dog rolled over and the pit bull trampled him as my dog yelped in pain.
The neighbor's mother called the grandson to get the dog. The grandson WALKED calmly over to get the dog. The owner came out while all of the running and screaming was going on and said, "She (pit bull) won't hurt him (the 4.5lb Maltese that was screaming)".
Thankfully, they retrieved that 200lb set of teeth and my dog still appears to have all of his parts - although now he's afraid to go outside to use the "bathroom" for fear the pit bull will come galloping around the corner at him again. Now my dog is traumatized but lucky to be alive.
I'm concerned. It is clear to me from this and other things that have happened in the past, that these people don't understand dogs. A pit bull is not a dog for this situation. They think the pit bull is playing and just plays rough. He wasn't playing. The pit bull is young still, maybe a year old. I think she is feeling that predator drive and is just learning, wasn't quite sure whether to kill Widget - yet. Don't get me wrong, I don't blame the dog. The owners don't know how to handle her. When they walk her she absolutely drags them and they just think she is strong and playful. They don't understand that she needs to be trained to walk beside them and obey them. They just don't get that dogs must be trained and strong and potentially dangerous dogs need all the more training.
To be honest, I'm traumatized!
