My mom has a small 4-year old dog with a behavioural issue. He (Jerry) isn’t “aggressive” or anything of the sort. Rather, he is too playful and wants to “horseplay” with random strangers. It’s always males, strangely. He “attacks” their legs with a playful “bite”. I find it really difficult and unfortunate how there is no other term than “bite” for this kind of action, since that usually has infinitely graver connotations. I mean “bite” as in the way dogs do when you play-wrestle with your/your friend’s dogs, with zero intent to actually use the teeth. It really more accurately is “clamping with your mouth (with the teeth hidden below the lips)”. He also isn’t a breed that is infamous for having sharp teeth, so even in case of an accident, almost certainly there wouldn’t be a risk of significant injury. He is is a Yorkshire Terrier-shaggy Dachshund mutt, the latter a breed that are hunting dogs, which is perhaps why he got this behaviour.
My mom doesn’t go farther than the local (deserted) forest besides Sundays, so it’s not a daily occurrence, but happens like once every 1-3 months. She only unleashes the dogs for part of these Sunday walks in appropriate spots, and it’s (of course) not the main focus of Jerry, but rather some weird urge that randomly, unpredictably pops up. It also happens only with strangers, never guys Jerry knows (it has never happened to me), and he has a preference for joggers (probably because they remind his primeval brain of hunting prey).
[This is him, in all his 3.5kg glory.](https://i.imgur.com/BGc0hPu.jpg) The womens’ boots to the left and the brown chihuahua puppy give a sense of how small he is. We really are talking about a small dog that could never be threatening even to a 10 year old. He is also extremely social, sweet, and plays with puppies super gentle. He could never hurt a fly.
The main issue is that Jerry with this “play-clamping” physically surprises random passerbys. If they see the dog approach or quickly understand the situation, they are usually just weirded out.
But because they often don’t see him coming, they understandably get jumpscared. Most people awkwardly laugh it off, but sometimes people get really indignant or hysterical, making the situation worse. I don’t blame them for being angry, but I fear that one of these days, someone could misinterpret the situation as an actual “attack” and try to report the incident to the authorities, or sue my mom. Does anyone know what could be expected in such a case? Especially if the authorities aren’t aware the dog truly is harmless.
Of course, it would be best if we could get Jerry to just stop. But it’s not feasible. I live separately from my mom and Jerry, which means I can’t intervene to calm such situations down or leash/pick up the dog more rapidly (he only “strikes” once, so leashing/picking up is more to apologize than out of fear he might go for another round). My mom really can’t train/discipline dogs (i.e. sternly recalling them or very lightly smack them with a paper. She just can’t do that), so such behavioural problems aren’t getting resolved. She’s also slow to leash him when this happens. It’s not that she doesn’t want to, she genuinely is just too slow or not aware of her surroundings enough (she has ADHD, and also three even smaller dogs, so it’s like herding cats. Yes, she should have fewer dogs, as well. Sigh. She always goes on Sunday walks with her boyfriend, so the logic would be one pays attention to two, but the BF dislikes dogs and doesn’t help with this task).
Long story short, this is just something that won’t get resolved, dog-side or owner-side. I can only remind my mom so much that she should discipline Jerry, leash him immediately when such things happen, etc. You can’t teach an “old mother” new tricks. So realistically, we are stuck with this and have to deal with consequences if they might pop up.
This was the case last weekend: Jerry “ambushed” a 12 year old boy (he doesn’t go for kids younger than that. Probably because they don’t read as “guys” in his head). The boy was shocked and started crying, and his mother became hysterical and loud, and demanded the dog be leashed. I don’t know what exactly happened, as I wasn’t there.
I am mortified some authority might demand dire action against Jerry, this lovable doofus. A bit less bad but still shitty would be if he’s required to be muzzled, even though it’s rather strange as his problem isn’t actually injuring people (besides there is no guarantee he wouldn’t still jump at people without the clamp part).
Another question is if people could sue privately, and on what grounds.
TL;DR: small 3.5kg dog playfully clamps strangers in the legs. It’s not cute, it’s a behavioural issue, but circumstances are just that we can’t stop this. Could such incidents *without* serious injury have legal consequences?
EDIT: wrote the wrong breed. It’s a half Yorkie. Also changed injury to “significant injury”, as of course there’s always the chance for a nick in the skin. + clarified she isn’t alone, but the BF doesn’t help.
10 comments
Leash your dog. If you don’t care about other people, care about your dog who might fly a few meters if it attacks someone.
It may if a jumpscared passerby would fall and get injured. Or a very büzli person claims about their stained clothes. What I think will happen rather is that your mom will get a bad reputation in the neighborhood.
Wouldn’t dog school be an approach?
Surely a playful bite can get a playful kick in exchange. Leash ur dog if it can not behave or you deserve everything you get. And no, I’m far from bünzlig.
Honestly, behavioral issues like that are really difficult. And I do understand that it’s nice to let him off the leash, if you don’t think anyone is around, but…sometimes you get surprised.
We have a similar issue with our dog, only he’s a lot larger. Mostly, he really wants to lick people’s ears (no idea, but ears are the best). However, a 20kg dog jumping in someone’s face is…not ideal. At the moment, we have to keep him on the leash unless we are certain there are no other people around. We hope that, with continued training, and with him getting older, the problem will improve.
Time, patience and consistency in your training. Or else a leash. There is no easy answer.
What the fuck ?
So the dog attacked a kid and you call the mother “hysterical” ?
You and your mom know that the dog do this and you don’t use a leash ?
What’s wrong with you people ?
I would personally not hesitate a second to call the authority on your dog if it happened to me or my kid.
Also, you should probably start caring a bit more about others and the impact you and your family and dog have on them.
EDIT: to be constructive: go to a dog therapist and to a professional trainer. The behaviour you describe is not normal. By the way, I do have a dog, before you call me a dog hater 😉
>He “attacks” their legs with a playful “bite”. I find it really difficult and unfortunate how there is no other term than “bite” for this kind of action, since that usually has infinitely graver connotations.
Snap? “Nip”`?
You either train the dog, or your mother. Or take the dog yourself. Or stop caring.
I don’t see other options.
Because yes, it’s probably just a matter of time when ‘higher ups’ will get involved. And then you might not have the option anymore to get the dog out of the equation. I’m not familiar with the process here.
It’s great that in this story there is one adult. Unfortunately, that one isn’t your mother. Even if you manage to get the dog out, as long as she’s legally sound to make her own decisions, that won’t solve anything, she can get another dog which can show same issues since she obviously doesn’t train the dog.
So basically, you here don’t have a dog problem, you have a mother problem.
And your own empathy problem because you’re the only one who really cares about dog’s wellbeing and sees potential consequences.
It’s hard to be surrounded by ignorant fools.
I don’t have a recipe for resolving that. I usually go either full ballistic or guilt tripping the other side ‘to do the right thing’. And I train myself to care less about their things and decisions.
It’s really hard when the ‘thing’ is actually a living creature, especially if you like him.
Maaaaybe solution might be to convince her that she’s obliged by law to go to dog school since law changed now? Afaik that goes only for new owners and is not yet enforced but hey, once she pays for course, she might complete it.
I guess only way around is through guilt tripping her and in meantime keep repeating yourself to not feel like shit for doing so, because you’re doing it for the dog, and not yourself.
I’d contact dog trainer / school for advice about how to effectively cheat someone into attending 🙂
Or check with them, to see if there’s a way that you train the dog and then just transfer the ‘ownership’ of commands. I saw that dog school sessions are just once a week. But I guess you have to work with dog in between the sessions.
Or, maybe dog behaviorst / trainer directly in your home can give few tricks that could immediately / quickly help. I’d (try to) send the bill to your mother though 😀
I don’t know much about dogs, I focus on training my cats and learning about cats behavioural issues and challenges, but I know there’s also a ton of stuff about dogs around. Because you can’t find cat advice without stumbling on dog advice along the way 😀
Good luck!
Sorry, but this sounds like an excuse to me:
> but circumstances are just that we can’t stop this.
There’s plenty of dog training courses and professional dog trainers available.
And if you know a dog does this, you simply don’t let him off the leash when there’s any chance that other people are around.
It always seems to be small dogs that are the badly behaved ones- jumping up, biting, barking etc. They seem to get a free pass just because they’re small.
Train your dog and keep him on a lead- as others have said, if only for his sake.
Didnt read it all but really, control your goddam dog, if he “playfully” attacks peoples legs he should always be on a leash. There are plenty of people who are scared of dogs, even small ones. Next time someone might kick him out of reaction.