[Sarah Rix]

Hello,

I am a relatively new member of the Pets.ca forum who is looking for advice
from other dog owners about how to handle a recent incident that
involved one of my three dogs. I have a GSD mix who dislikes young
dogs, and whom I have kept away from young dogs. Recently, I made an
error in judgement and let a young dog interact with him over too long
a period of time. As a result, my dog charged the young dog. My dog
was not on a leash at the time of the incident; the other dog was on a
flexi-lead that was too long to meet the bylaw definition of a leash
(2m or less). This incident occurred in a park that is not an off-
leash park in Toronto, Ontario.

When the incident happened, the other owner was really upset
(understandably), packed up her dog without checking him over or
letting me check him. She crossed the street to her home, and sent
her husband out to let me know that his dog was a $2,500 show dog, and
that he would sue me for all of his lost earnings if there was any
impact on his dog's social behaviour. He did not mention any physical
injury to his dog. From the position I was standing in, I cannot
confirm that the dogs did or did not make contact.

The owners of the young dog called Animal Services to register a
complaint. They were visited by an Animal Services officer two days
later, who said that he found a single puncture wound on the dog.
Because all three of my dogs were in the park and off leash at the
time of the incident, he issued muzzle orders to all three dogs.

I have filed an appeal of these muzzle orders, and am trying to figure
out how to deal with this responsibly. I've made a number of changes
since the incident, including not using the park off leash, and
enrolling all three of my dogs in additional obedience training. In
addition, the offending dog with the dislike of young dogs is being
put daily into situations with young dogs and corrected if he reacts
to them (he is on both a muzzle and a leash while this is going on).
The goal of this work is to try to eliminate his reactiveness to young
dogs so that I don't need to always avoid them. He doesn't need to
like them, but I need to be sure he will not hurt them.

While I am trying to make these changes, I also admit to not having
been a perfect dog owner - in particular, I have regularly had my dogs
off leash in our local park. This is a very wide spread practice (I
did a rough count, and approximately 95% of the 75 dogs who regularly
use the park do so off leash), but does not conform to the bylaw. I
have had a complaint lodged with Animal Services about this in the
past when one of my dogs got into the children's wading pool, and this
incident will form part of the history at the appeal. So my past
behaviour may well make this an uphill battle.

I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has been through a similar
experience, and could offer advice.

Thank you - Sarah