Hi all
My dad has a 2 year old dalmation dog. My little sister takes him for his afternoon walk and today another dog who was off lead attacked him. My dad's dog was on the lead.
My dad's dog didnt try to protect himself at all, he just laid on his back crying as this other dog mauled him. He has a nasty puncture hole in his back.

The owner of the other dog pulled it off.

Is it normal for a dog not to protect it self.

My little sis said that the other dog looked like a husky.

Thanks Debbie

The dog was trying to protect it's self by submitting. In normal confrontation between dogs one rolling onto it's back and exposing it's throat and stomach will normally stop a serious attack. In this case it may have been the humans that interfered in the normal course of events or that the attack would have been much worse if your dog had stood his ground, as the aggressor was pulled off we don't know if it would have given up or not. Anyway IMO you dogs response was normal, the reaction of the other may not have been as some dogs who have either not had siblings to play with or have not been socialised properly do not learn how to react to normal doggy language.

Thanks for the reply Jackie.
My dad Is at the vet with Merlin now as  the hole in his back is a bit big.

It's good to know that he acted normally tho and we are all so glad that it wasn't more serious.

Again thank you

Debbie

HI Debbie, how is Merlin? and how is your sister feeling? When you said it was your little sister I imagined a little girl about the age of my daughters ( 9 and 12). Im showing them this to expalin why they cant walk a dog without an adult.  Hoep everyone recovers soon.

Hope everything is going to be OK.

ah your poor sister and merlin, hope they are ok, Toby does this he never fights back, the other dog should have been on a lead, if you find out who the owner is then i would give them the vets bill.

Heidi

My Lab behaves this way, if a dog starts to growl or go for her she will instantly lay down and submit. It's only happened a couple of times and indeed, the other dogs have never got real nasty, then she'll run and hide behind me with her ears back and tail between her legs! She also has a habit of laying down as soon as we see a dog she doesn't know. She looks like she is going to pounce, but she doesn't, she just lays very still and lets other dogs come to her as if she is sussing them out and if they are friendly she'll then try to play. Is this the same sort of thing, submissive I mean? She will also do this with one particular man we meet every day near where I walk her, she drops straight to the floor when she sees him and is really calm and nice to him when he strokes her. I always think this is a bit odd because normally she bounces around and gets really excited when people say hello to her, but with him she is really submissive. The only thing I can think of (and I know this is going to sound a bit odd!) is that he has a really long beard and that may be she is a bit nervous of him? Then again she won't budge when she sees him, just lays down and waits for him to say hello, so I'm sure she really likes him.

I had the same thing happen with Nanuk.  Last year my husband and I was out walking her when another dog approached (on a leash).  Nanuk walked up to him to say 'hello' but the dog turned around and pinned her to the floor.  Nanuk just fell to the floor screaming.  She made no attempt to protect herself.  The other dog was an Akita type and had Nanuk's head in his mouth.  My husband jumped on the Akita and pulled his jaws apart to get Nanuk's head out.  The owner of the Akita did not say a word but literally punched his dog in the face.  She was left with large puncture wounds in her ear, jaw and just above her eye.  She learnt her lesson for a few months later.....she would never approach black dogs!  But unfortunately, she has forgotten all about it and now goes bounding up to them!  Luckily my husband was able to seperate them otherwise I don't think the Akita would of let go.

Hi all
Yep my little sis is 9, my dad and i have had a few disagreements about her walking Merlin on her own. My eldest son is also 9 and i won't let him walk our lab by himself, i tell him if he really needs to walk her then he can put her lead on and walk around the garden, for some strange reason he then sulks :) . My sis is fine, i think that she was just scared by it all. My dad has spoken to the owner of the dog, who was in fact a really nice guy. He said that he had wanted to walk my sister and Merlin home but was worried about stranger danger stuff. He also said that it was very out of character for his dog to attack. The reason the dog was off the lead was because they were in the park.

As for Merlin he's fine. The wound got a little infected so the vet was unable to stich it but gave him some antibotics and told my dad to wash a few time a day with salt water. It is starting to heal up nicely.

Thank you all for your replys

Debbie