Has anyone ever been bit by a dog?

[Theresa]

I work at an animal hospital who boards dogs also, and I have been bit and lunged at by dogs. I don't show fear, and I know that it's mainly because they are in another place and their nervous enough. But one night I was all alone and letting the dogs out one at a time and their were 2 welsh terriers that hated each other, and one of them got away from me and went to the other kennel and she grabbed the other dogs foot and wouldn't let go, and I was screaming and the other dog was wining, and sometime in all that, I got bit, and it was pretty ugly. And they tell you not to get involved in a dog fight, but their is no way I could just let them go at each other. But instead of putting your hand in there, put your foot or leg in between, the doctors were impressed, because most people quit after being bit like that, but i'm in my third year worknig there. And both dogs were o.k., the dog that was having her paw bit was bleeding but nothing too bad, and the other dog had to be in rabies quarantine for 10 days for biting me. And the two pictures are two dogs that were very aggressive where I work.

[Julie Padilla]

yes i have been bitten by a dog once; when i was little; it was by my cousin's doberman. i don't remember doing anything to him, it was so long ago but i must have gotten too close in his space and he jumped and bit me in the back of the head. i was bleeding for a while but nothing serious, i didn't need stitches or anything like that. i was never mad at the dog or blamed him for anything but for a while after that i was afraid of dogs...

[Dennis]

I am a prefessional dog trainer and deal with a lot of so called agressive dogs daily at our local shelter. most agression usually happens when the human factor gets in the way. ogs left to their own will rarely fight if they have a chioce. My wife and I have 4 pit bulls, a Wolf, A german Shepherd and a border coillie. We have had a few scrapes in the last few years but 100% of the time it has been when we were involved. In your case the dog dod not set out top bite you. His or her adrenillin was pretty high at that moment and the dog just reasted to your touch. Imagine if you were in a bar fight or a Girl fight that was pretty nasty and someone got between you and your other fighter well the person trying to seperate you will oprobably get hit. it's no different in humans we just loose control and don't really care what happens. Next time you are with these dogs and it happens grab one of them behind the back legs they will turn to see what they heck is going on and you can hopefully seperate them. with pit bulls we have a different set of rules. break stick are for the follish of hearts. If you think you can stand behind the legs of a pit bull in the throws of battle and put a little wodden stick in their mouth then you are braver than most. I bought a 500,000 volt stun gun for mine which i will never use on them unless i Absoloutely have too. the noise alone will stop most pits from starting the fight to begin with. If as a last resort you have to use it on them then it is the most humane way to stop them from killing eachother. the guns sell for about 39.00 and are a cheap way to keep the fighting under control. Also know that terrriers are prone to fighting especially the small ones, WESTIES, JACK RUSSELS< Etc, etc. Watch body language very carefully when working around all dogs and always have confidence when waling into the kennels or pens which ever you are working with. Fear will get you bit more than anything. Dogs need leadership and will take on a leadership role if need be. i hope this helps and am glad that you were not seriously hurt.

Dennis

[Theresa]

Dennis,
Thanks for the info, and I know it wasn't on purpose that she bit me, I actually don't remember being bitten, I don't even know which dog it was for sure. And I was trying everything to get her to let go of the other dogs paw, trust me. And I know a lot about dog behavior now, I never show fear. And did you say you have a wolf????

[Dennis]

Yes his name Is Tuka, he is 8 years old. he is my third one. you can see him on my page i just added a new photo of him. Take Care.

Dennis

[Susan Sadeghian]

read my other post. When we had gizmo who lived near a shelter close to pitty awarenessday we had to go to the shelter and play with pittys to help us concentrate and think of how to approach this situation and the calm pittys helped us come up with solutions. We thought of calling our friend the trainer whos bday party we were going to anyway and she really wanted us to come so we were honest and said only if she helps us. I wasnt going to let my daughter go in the lions den by herself. Now I am actually relieved when my daughters clients are pittys. She has one fam of four where one of the formerly dog aggressive blue heeler is not showing her aggression on humans but the pitty is the friendliest of the group. Having theeth on her arm or elbow while also starting to train the dog to stop it is totally worth being able to play with the pitty and get pitty kisses after wards and her pitty friend will start theraphy classes nov 11th. A group started near us that only wants to use pittys as theraphy dogs like in www.forpitssake.com I may have misspelled it. I am relieved when I hear her new client is not a chiauua,or bijon freese but a pitty. I know then she is safe. After meeting the 4th bijon frees I told her I did not want to be her backup for little dogs any more. I know there are nice ones too, I just feel safer with pittys. I think I could have probably used that stunt gun on our chiauau doxi. We use spray bottles on most dogs but I didnt know that at the time. This is mostly for Dennis.I started volunteering at the shelter too and since my kid has been there for almost 6 years she is my superior and she keeps giving me small breed dogs to take out to help me learn not all are biters or attackers and she even makes me hold some nice or almost nice chiauaus and bijon freeses. I guess I am still a work in progress,not the dogs,but me the human. Like Ceassar says the only really dangerous animal is the human.

[Krisztina]

great that you did not quit, i wouldn't have the more they are like that the more i try. You are great for not giving up and you are also right they are just scared of a strange place and people.

[Amanda]

Yes volunteering at an animal shelter i have been bitten my a dog before. I was not thinking about how the animal felt on its first time there and it bit my hand. Thankfully it wasnt any big deal just a little mark. A little later once i let the poor dog relax i took him out and he was perfectly fine.
I also have an aggressive dog, she only aggressive towards other dogs not humans. She loves people but she assumes everyone loves her and wants to meet her. Sadly not everyone wants to meet her especially when they find out she's part pitbull.

[Kendra]

I have been bit by a dog before. I am the DCO for my town and there was a GSD/Husky mix that I had met before, but this time he was loose. I was talking to his owner and he was circleing us and out of nowhere he came up behind us and bit me in the back of the leg. In all of the cayoss I couldn't think so I yelled NO and limped to my van to leave and he came up to me again and bit the back of my other leg. I got in the van and drove away. When I got a little ways down the road I looked at my legs and he didn't brake the skin but they were all brused I found out a little later that he damaged a nerve and I limped for about a month. I do not know why he did that so if anyone has any ideas could you let me know? Thanks

[Susan Sadeghian]

I was bitten a whole lot of times by my families best friends doxi when I was a child. She always made my tummy bleed. It got to the point that they had to lock her in the restroom everytime our family came over to visit. Later my daughter when she first volunteered at an animal shelter was attacked by a pomeranian.She usually goes alone to get the dogs out to walk but she didnt know who Murphy was since he was rather new, so a staff member went with her and good thing too. The staff member was able to pull Murphy off of her,but not before Murphy ripped off her jacket and the entire arm in the Jacket and put quite a few holes in the tummy area but only a few bite marks in the actuall body. Sabrina my daughter helped with murphys behaviour training the next day and everyday after that. Now they are best friends. Murphy got nice after 2 mos and was adopted out to a couple in their 30s. Now when Murphy comes to visit he seeks out Sabrina and still jumps on her but kisses her.
Last year my daughter started petsitting and her second client was a chiauaudoxi mix.There were a lot of redflag signs at our initial meeting but I thought maybe inwardly I wasnt over my fear of doxis and the dog sensed that. I left them alone and from what she told me there were still red flagg signs but the family said she only acts that way when the fam is around,the last petsitter did not have any problems and she never bites. I should have asked what happend to the last pet sitter.Long story short it took 3 of us to try to controll the dog,my daughter,me and a friend who used to rehabilitate aggressive small breed dogs. The dog went after all 3 of us and the blood on the wall was not her or from anyones ankles. My daughter just now shared with me that she was terrified to go to work every day during those 4 days which seemed like 4 mos. We also found out that was NOT Gizmos first offense.drs have to report bites and our friend who got it the worst did not want to seek medical attension to avoid getting the dog in trouble but the family told us to go ahead and report it since nothing happened last time this happened. Sabrina is still not comfy enough to sit for gizmo even though she promised she would get to know her in the summer but this summer she was too scarred to contact them. She is taking dogtraining classes so eventually she will be able to do this. I go with her on initial meetings and I get scarred of some of the dogs because to me they remind me of Gizmos action but she tells me they are different and shows me why.Their body language is slightly different. After gizmo we were both terrified of chis and doxis and esp the mixes theroff for the longest time,but we knew blaming an entire breed was stupid but even though we knew it was stupid,we could not help how we felt. Now she sits for 2 ankle biting chis and 2 very friendly doxis.
We started watching Ceasar Millan when we watched something before and the preview said " demon chiaua" We wanted to see how we should have handled our demon chiauau or if we ever get it again. We saw what he did and went "no way we are doing that",but kept watching and found out about calm energy. So my daughter has been able to be around dogaggressive dogs in the presence of other dogs and they dont attack eachother and slightly human aggressive dogs who dont attack her because she has calm energy. We found out even Ceassar is human. There was one lab mix that was so aggressive even Ceassar admitted to being nervous. So he sat down on a couch for a while and started breathing deep and relaxing and finally saying "ok,now I am ready". We have petted chidoxi mixes a year after gizmo. I do agree a bite and attack always have a reason. Murphy was new,thats scarry. Gizmo had just lost his packmate who was the pack leader and being forced to be the pack leader caused her stress,the fam had just moved and then they leave her for a while,thats stressfull. What our low kill shelter does for dogfights is they use a spray bottle with water to squirt both dogs so they both stop for a few sec enough for two people to each put a leash on one dog and pull away.
After Gizmo we actually prayed for God to sent us some nice doxis to get over our fear and at the same time a doxi mommy who just moved in the area and had too many business meetings when she just moved in was praying for a responsible sitter and stepped out on her welcome matt and found my daughters flyer and called and told us about this prayer. She said one of her doxis was not so nice, oohoh,we thought another gizmo but it turnes out he just doesnt like being fussed over and held a lot. My daughter touched his collar while mom was still there to make sure he would let her put a leash on. He just didnt like getting petted but asked her or if I saw him on a walk asked both of us to pet him.

[pistons58]

I had to reply to this one and had to sign up to do so.......it happens but you must move on. I had my cheek bit off by a beagle when I was 6.....all I saw was a cute dog - had to go pet it - I remember my poor mother yelling for me to stop but NOPE, not me......he was sitting in his driveway looking at his yard. I scared him and he lunged. I jumped back but he didn't. My poor mom (lol) had to gather me up and my cheek and get me to a hospital. I eneded up having plastic surgery and a 1 inch scar below my eye. My folks were so cool and I thank them for my love of animals.At holidays my mom still brings up the doggie line up....she actually had to go down and identify the poor thing out of a line up of 6.

My thoughts on this - I could have given up and been fearful of dogs (as the dr had said) but I didn't.....He was in HIS yard minding his own business and I startled him....he did what dogs do----defend their territory.

I was at the humane society a few weeks back and was looking in all the cgaes and there was one dog just howling like crazy - I felt so bad for him - so I had to seek him out. When I found the howler it was a beagle. For the 1st time in 42 yrs I actually felt an ounce of fear (it was a beagle that bit me) but about 5 mins later after talking to him I reached out to pet him (as best you can thru those darn cage bars) and the little stinker was head butting my hand and then licking it. And I proceed to scratch his little head.

Animals sense fear and if they feel they can get the upper hand and dominate the situation - they will. Now that's not to say if I were out for a walk and a dog charged at me - I'd have a hard time with calmness

I took in a stray cat (abandoned actually) that was a love machine almost to being irritating......and was like that until I got her spayed. After that she turned into the cat from hell (hence her nickname "Little Miss Pissy) but I never backed down from her. I wouldn't let her make mincemeat out of my hand like she had done once but I'd keep petting her and talking to her and eventually she would come around. Sure there were times she wouldn't back down (testing the waters as I thought) but neither would I. 6 months later she is back to sleeping on my bed with me - more annoyingly on my pillow. She sleeps but OMG her tail doesn't.
I just looked at the photo's you posted......and yes, Miko looks quite angry. But who wouldn't be in a cage. And I was shocked to see the other picture....gee a beagle????? They are absolutely adorable dogs but I have learned first hand, looks can be deceiving.
I truely believe that if more people respected dogs, aggression would not be an issue. I am not saying you don't, but many do. That cute puppy can grow up to be a vicious dog if not raised properly. And I am not implying pit bulls - ANY dog. We as responsible pet owners need to be aware of that and remember that. We also need to be careful with ANY animal.
Thank you for posting this blog - it raises a lot of awareness.

[Keith Cole]

I also work at a vet clinic.. and I have been bit, scratched, pee'd on, anal gland excretion has burst on my face (that was the worse lol), and almost everything imaginable.

I learned not to put my hands near the dogs that fight.. after about 3 times.. That was when I was still working in the kennels... the vets told me, not to ever put my hand near them when they are fighting. I learned that quickly.. and don't ever poke your head near a cat's cage either... they will tear you up. I had a cat grab a hold of my nose and scratch it open.. it was a post-op and it wasn't doing good, so I didn't think it would go ape on me.. but before I could jump back... ouch.. that's I could say..

And I was just thinking.. Ppl are going to wonder why I was so close to the dog, for his anal glands to burst on my face.. (lol) The dog had about 3 ticks near it's butt.. I was trying to get the one by the "anal entrance" and the assistant thought she saw something by his butt so she pushed in .. and I guess it was full or something (idk) and it went on my face.. I am just glad that I have learned to keep my mouth shut when around them.. that smell was with me all day long... it is was baaaaad =)

keith

[Gloria]

Yes, I was bitten once... by my aunt's dog. She & my uncle were visiting, I walked in after school and the little bugger bit my ankle. I kicked him without thinking. He left me alone after that... he'd also caught a glimpse of my collie who wanted him for lunch. BIG attitude adjustment. LOL