Hi, I dont post on here very often, but I thought some people would understand how upsetting this was:- I was out walking my dog and a friends dog this morning, and my friends dog (who is a bit yappy) had a go at a passing labrador. The lab turned on the little fella and was really laying into him. I screamed and ran over to break it up, but there was no way the lab would let go. When it did, my friends dog ran off a few feet, and then turned and looked at me and his left eye was sat on his cheek.

The owner of the lab offered to take us to the vet, but i had my own car there anyway. He gave me his number and name though. Sadly the vet took the immediate decision to remove the eye. I'm going to give my friend a lift over to pick him up later this evening. My own dog was very upset so he is coming to the vet to collect the other one so that he'll know he's ok.

The owner of the lab called the vet twice today to see how the dog was, which was nice of him. It really has been a very upsetting day. Poor little fella, just cant get the image out of my mind.

How awful for the poor little dog, and a shocking experience for you to witness too :( Thinking of all concerned.

At least the owner of the Lab was good enough to give a genuine name and details as so many wouldnt bother.He must be concerned to phone the vets to see how the poor dog is faring.Its sad when these things do happen and very upsetting not only to the dogs owners but also the other people that wittness it.I dont know what else to say apart from the person who owns the lab at least shows some sort of responsibility in owning up and paying up.

Sad as the outcome was it really wasn't an attack by the lab as the little dog instigated it. 

Unfortunately dogs, small ones especially don't really take size into account, and a feisty small dog starting a fight will often come off the worst.

I think it very good of the Lab owner to be so concerned, and hope that the little dog recovers well.

Unfortunately some quite horrific facial injuries can occur quickly in a dog fight because of puncture wounds by the canine teeth, and these are usually because the fighting dogs are fencing.  The fact that the eye was caught is very sad but unintentional as such.

I agree Brainless, my Mums litle rescue dog is a prime example, how the little s*d has lived as long as he has without injury is beyond me
I imagine the labs owner must be very distressed by the whole thing too :(

I completely accept that the little dog started it, but was still an over the top response. Hope he decides not to do it again. My friend will keep him on his lead now I think

I don't think dogs understand the concept of going 'over the top'......its most likely instinct kicking in. Wishing the little critter a speedy recovery and suggest you pour yourself a large brandy, its been a nasty shock or you :)

I agree, I think it is over the top.  Little dogs yapping and getting big for their boots is one thing, making physical contact that can cause damage like this is another.  Personally if the labrador was mine I would now walk him muzzled, who can say when he might feel a bit challanged again and I don't think I could sleep at night to ever see something like this happen again, maybe even worse next time.
Having said that, although a very distressing event all round, I would think he should recover very well from this injury and the loss will mean very little to him.

As no other injuries apart from the eye are mentioned I would think that injury was not the labs aim. 

Completely bloodless spats can look and sound horendous, where the dog is being made to submit.  It is more than possible that the eye injury was a very sad accident.

Having had a pucture wound in the cheek from my Belgian merely turning her head sharply when when her mouth was open it is quite possible. 

Yes I agree that is entirely possible but just in case......... I know in my heart I could never bear to see something like that again having had it happen even the once so, personally, I would get the dog used to having a muzzle on and then I could relax and enjoy going out and about with him again.

Isnt it funny how so many small dogs have so much courage.I wouldnt want to get on the wrong side of a big dog.As i have posted previously,theres a small terrier that will not leave my two GSDs alone and attacks them at every available oppotunity.

The dog in question in our problem is a border terrier.Are they know for being a little too big for their boots or is it just this particular dog? :)

I have only met one border terrier which was extremley playful and not at all scared of my big bouncey goldie. He seemed to enjoy hanging of tyler neck, not in an aggressive way at all, they were playing a really strange game but both seemed to enjoy it.

On the whole Borders are not known for their feistyness.  They were never bred to be aggressive to other dogs, as they were bred to run with a pack of hounds.  Aggressiveness in that instance would have led to many a Border death.

They are more known for the fact that they will finish a fight not start it.

But unfortunately there has been a glut of breeding over the last few years, due to popularity and an aggresive streak has crept into the breed.  Much to our disgust.

The other fact in this is that too many people are buying them as pets without having the knowledge of owning a terrier, and they are very good at twisting people round their little paws and getting uncontrollable.

The border terrier is a lovely dog and he is great around people.The most wonderfull licky lil dog you could imagine.He just does not like any other animal. :rolleyes:

My next door neighbours have a young Border male (prob. 18 months now?) who is frankly horrible in temperament, despite all their best efforts to bring him up correctly.  Mind you, in my opinion, he's not a remotely good example of his breed either - I'd question whether he's pure Border ... and he certainly wasn't cheap.

What a shame to see this type of breeding going on, I've always been very fond of Borders.

M.

I am glad to read that it's bad breeding that's done that - I thought they weren't supposed to be bad, but at the boarding kennels where I work, every border terrier we get in has to go out by itself - even one we thought was very friendly (and was for a week) went for a westie and had to go out alone after that.  One, Toby, is positively evil :( he tried to attack dogs through the bars of his kennel.  They're all great with people though.

Having said that, one of my Opi's best friends in the whole world is a BT called Rosie - they're the same age, and have played together on the odd occasion we meet for the last 18 months :) Remy ignores her of course, but he never did get the hang of small dogs!

When I started with Borders some 17 odd years ago, they were a very rare sight. Nowadays they are two a penny.  The registrations are increasing each quarter, plus the amount of litters available on the KC site has quadrupled over the last few years.

The majority of the increase in breeding are with dogs and bitch's with no recognisable affix.

All of our Breed Clubs have met to discuss the problem of the increase in popularity and have yet to come up with a solution.  Unfortunately as many of you will know when a dogs popularity increases everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon and breed a litter, this tends to be done both by puppy farmers and pet breeders, with no thought being put into either quality, type or temperament.

To make matters worse, after the exposure on televison in both adverts and series (i.e. Emmerdale and the Scottish series (can't think of its name at the moment), we now know that a Border is going to feature in Coronation Street over the Christmas Period. So now instead of being asked for an Emmerdale dog it will be we want a Corrie dog!!!!!

As custodians of this lovely breed, there are many of us who are very distressed by this exposure, as we can see our delightful breed being ruined year by year.

Please, please if you are thinking of owning a Border either now or in the near future, please make you first port of call, one of the Breed Clubs who can point you in the right direction of puppies bred for quality,type and temperament and don't fuel the fire by answering adverts either in the newspapers or on the net.  Most reputable breeders will never need to advertise.  It may mean you having to wait a little longer for a puppy, but I promise it will be worth the wait, as a Border wrongly bred with a nasty temperament and or health problems is nothing but a liability as can be seen by this thread.

I had the pleasure of knowing a beautiful Border Terrier.
She was lovely not a nasty bone in her body.
She and my Boxer were the best of friends.
Yes she thought herself a 'big' dog in a little body but
she never had a nasty word with any dog.

Sadly the person that owned her rehomed her as she was
stressed in her home environment (kept toileting in the house).
Sadly I didn't realise as I'd have had her like a shot.

I agree with all of Lady Dazzle's comments re the breed.
It's such a shame too as they are a lovely breed.

Is it courage or SDS (small dog syndrome) ;)  ie, attitude problem :rolleyes:

Oh how awful you must have been so shocked and upset to see the dog with such horrible injuries, it must have been extremly painful for the poor dog. Hope all involved recover well.

I knew 4 BT's. " lived behind us and were known as "the gremlins" as they were the nastiest little s**s that ever walked this earth. They would take on anyone and anything and I mean that. Their owners were elderley and thought that their behaviour was "funny"..........I ask you. Of the other 2, one was called Goose and was fabulous in every way and the other has no manners what so ever (not his fault probably).

Personally, having always had medium/large dogs, I've found small dogs will invariably start trying to wind up the larger dogs and it's just fortunate that ours are so well behaved in the face of small dogs throwing insults! :rolleyes:

Poor little soul - my spitz whos little lkes to think shes tough too. I cant get this post out my head. I really feel for the little dog such a sad story - i hope you/the owner and the dog ae ok

Just been to pick him up. Apart from looking grotesquely swollen he is completely his normal self. Thank you so much for all your messages. Oh and there were no other injuries. I think the eye came out from when the Lab was shaking him. Poor little soul. Was v. pleased with the attitude of the Lab's owner though, fair play to him.

Oh and a glass or three of wine is helping me get over it!!!

im suprised at him too glad all is well :-)

Hi. Good to know the little one's as well as can be expected. Hope your ok, what an awful ordeal to go through.......(((hugs))) to you hun.

Hayley. x

Before my boys started fighting with each other, they would club together to drive off any dog that showed too much interest in my bitch puppy, as she was very young then. I always made sure they were on leads with any dog I didn't know, or any dog that might have turned on them, and they never attacked to injure, they would just run at them barking. They are a Cav and a Yankee, so they looked pretty silly facing up to a Rottweiler - who had only wanted to say hello anyway!! :-)

Sorry to hear of this terrible experience, hope the little dog recovers fully. They say dogs don't mind being blind or partly blind the way a human does. :-(

Dogs rely on there sense of smell and taste more than there eyesight whereas we rely on on our hearing and sight. He still has one eye i'm sure he will be fine, it's just a shame it happened.

He will do just fine with one eye, Junior has one eye and you wouldn't even know it. He still jumps the fence into our grass the lil bratt, but he does seem to make more noise after running now. 

I'm glad that the lab owner was so concerned and helpful, others would have run off never to be traced again.  I have met many a little dog ready to mouth off at bigger breeds and even had to re-train a friends not to do this, I guess it is a terrier thing.  Maybe the lab had been attacked once before by a little yapper, which could be why it decided not to ignore this time and get in first.

Even though I agree with everyone that the dog will be ok, I must say, I would be so mortified if it were my dog :-(   (And embarrassed to say probably sick, I am really funny about eyes)  But I am glad he is ok.

I know what you mean about eyes i am very sqeamish when it comes eyes

me to louise, i fainted once in biology when the teacher took apart this HUGE PLASTIC eye. still made me feel very ill!!!!!

Urgh  i think that would be my worst nightmare ( actually no a real eye would ). A few years back my husband had an accident, the metal cupboard in his work van fell down and the corner stabbed him in the eye i had to drive him round to the doctors, it was awful i couldn't look to see the damage, he also had to go in on his own ( where he fainted ) as i just couldn't go in with him. I only looked when the bandage came off and that was really hard for me. I have also glued my eyelid togther but thats another awful sorry story. Sorry to all those eye phobic folk out there if i have made you qweezy :)

I am very sorry for your little dog.From your original post I interpret that the dog was off lead(you say you ran over to seperate them).....I am afraid that when you yourself describe him as ''yappy' this is not a wise thing to do.Small or big if a dog 'gives it some' vocally it is not suprising the other dog taliated.
I hope he makes a full recovery and would like to say well done to the lab owner for being so responsible in offering help and showing an interest in the little chap.
Archer

I may not offer to walk this dog again, but if I do it will be on a lead. (he's a shih tzu by the way not a border terrier -not sure where that came from!)  I realise that it was not so wise now. But yappy or not, I dont know that I could have foreseen the result. Initially I thought the lab was just telling him to 'get lost', but within a second or two I realised it was something much more serious. It was all very dreadful and a very high price to pay. He is still recovering well. The attitude of the lab owner has been the saving grace of this awful business.

Hi, I am really sorry to hear about your friends little dog, I am not saying that the little dog started it but it is really against a Labrador's nature to be so nasty! It was either scared by a previous attack or brought up to be nasty! (even though to train a lab to be like this would be hard). Your friends dog will adapt comfortable to one eye im sure, As much as it was the Labrador that did it please dont let that put you off this breed as I have had lots and none of them have had a bad bone in there body. It concerns me that the Lab did this, although by the sound of the owner it really was a one off, I think you both handled the incident well, It must have been hard for you.

I hope the little one is fine.

I don't think it's a breed thing there are bad dogs in every breed. Either by bad breeding or more so the experiences the dog has in life. We have goldies in our family and i always thought they were all going to be lovely natured but recently we have met a few who are not. Luckily all ours have been really lovely. My own dog has been having a hard time of it at the moment due his manleness! but has never tried to retaliate but i do worry if we introduce him to the wrong kind of dogs too many times his lovely nature will be harmed. I always judge any dog on it's own merit which i am sure most do. I think a lot of it has to do with the owners not necessarily in this case as the owner was responsible, but personally i get a lot of information from the owner.