My newfy was playing in the back garden this mornig  prior to going to the groomers. He was not his usual boisterious self but i assumed it was the heat.
Made him cmfortable in the car and went about settling my other dogs a female newfy, staffy and blood hound and toy yorkie before taking alfie moon to the groomers in time for ragley hall.
Ten minutes after dropping him off at the groomers i get a call to say he has a large open wound on the front of his neck. I went straight back to see him and the cut was 9-10 inches long plus there was a round circular wound.
My dog needed emergency operation to sedate him and to clipper his fur in order to stitch him.
He had nine stitches in one wound and two in the other. The vet removed a pellet from the smaller wound. M dogs treatment cost £234.00 just for today that i dont mind but its the thought someone could do this to such a gentle giant. I am scared to let my other animals out in the garden now. We bought an air conditioning unit to keep them cool and i will walk them very late at night.

your poor boy :-(  how awful for you all of you... Some people are just so sick these days it makes me really angry
I hope he gets better soon and that this hasn't dented his confidence in anyway....

That's horrific - I'm glad he's physically on the mend but you must be distraught that he suffered at the hands of evil little #######  

Give him a gentle hug from me and try not to let this waste your enjoyment of your lovely dogs - thankfully there are far less nutters about than decent people ;)

Best wishes for a speedy recovery with no after effects from his ordeal.  Teri 

How awful!

I am confused as to how the wounds were made? 

How was anyone able to gain access to cut your dog? 

Was he also shot at by an Air rifle? 

What makes you think it was kids?

Sick sick sick people.

Have you reported this to the Police?

Hi,
Poor thing. To be cut they have had close accsess, I would get that! sorted,
Pellet gun, they will have to have a licence, for it the police should sort that out.
With your windows open havn't you heard any noise? have the dogs been barking?
We had nieighbours once, who had a pellet gun and used to shoot it from there bedroom windows.
We used to find odd pellets on the ground, some times by the babies pram that was in the garden pellets were found on the canapy. The police were informed, and we had it logged because I knew if my hubby had got there first there would have been more trouble. It did stop, when we found out who they were and was going to prosecute them privately. 

>Pellet gun, they will have to have a licence, for it the police should sort that out

No licence is required for air guns, denese.

I would report it to the police, the dog warden, and go and knock on your neighbour's doors and have a chat with their parents about it.

If he was shot, that's a danger to members of the public, it's not just an animal welfare issue, and the police should definitely do something about it.

This is absolutely terrible,poor baby!! Some people should be locked up and they key thrown away.
They have to pick on a gentle giant, I wonder would they be so quick to pick on a person that would fight back

That's just awful - your poor dog!!!

As has been mentioned report it immediately to the police as someone has commited an offence.

How Awful...I would ring the police !!Hope he soon gets better, some people are SO SICK!!!!!

Thats awful :(
Do you know who it was?
Have you reported it?

<<hugs>>

This is awful, if you do know who it was you need to let the Police know asap.  If not it still needs to be reported.

I hope he is feeling better today - give him a big hug from me!

Maria
xx

That sounds terrible. I'm a bit confused - someone shot an airgun pellet into your dog and cut its throat? The attacker must have got into your garden, then. After reporting it to the police you must increase the height of your boundary fences, and it would be worth considering installing CCTV. Cutting the throat doesn't sound like kids - that's more of an adult thing to do. A cut 9 to 10 inches long must have been halfway round his neck - you're lucky it needed so few stitches.

Really sorry to read about this awful incident.  Sounds like both an air gun and knife attack - can you pinpoint exactly where the attack took place ? a cut that long must have bled quite a bit.
The police need to be informed a.s.a.p.

I'm absolutely disgusted   Poor, poor dog.  My parents had a similar problem with the son of a family living a couple of doors away who used to fire an airgun from his bedroom window towards our patio - on one occassion we were sitting outside when it happened.  They couldn't take their dog out into the garden because they were sure he was aiming at her.  They went round to confront the kid and his mother absolutely refused to believe that her little angel (she persisted in thinking of him as such despite the fact that he was excluded from school and the bane of Children's Services lives) would own an air pistol.  I find it incredible that some parents don't even know what their children are doing in their own houses.  And why are these air pistols allowed to be sold anyway?  I can't think of any good use for them, they only cause damage, mutilation and criminality. There have been quite a few problems here in York with cats being blinded or severely injured by them.
Agree with the others that you should call the police and think about reinforcing your boundaries and maybe installing CCTV.  What is the world coming to?

How awful, your poor dog. :( I don't know what kind of world we live in. In our local paper today there is a report of a GSD that was killed in its own garden by thieves -and all the thieves took were a few potted plants. The dog had its neck and several ribs broken. You'd think in your own garden the dogs would be safe, at least I always had......

I am totally dumbfounded!  What a terrible thing to happen and what a happy coincidence that your dog was booked into the groomers and discovered sooner rather than later.  There are certainly very sick people about but how do you know it was kids that did this? 

I don't understand, I know Newfie's have thick coats, but was there no blood at all a large open wound would indicte cut into the skin and flesh. Are your dogs left in the garden whilst you are out? Is this how someone got to them. If not was any barking of an intruder not heard.

I feel so sorry for you and your dog, but am horrified your dog could be hurt in such a way with no indication, can you rally your neighbours to help keep a lookout out for any strangers in the vacinaty, as suggested CCTV, and a call to the police. If you can't afford that, could the police or RSPCA lend you some equipment?????????????

Someone needs a gun taking away from them and prosectuting to the hilt. I can only assume someone means your dog/dogs harm and you need some sort of protection, I hope that the police will help you.

They would have to be at pretty close range to use a air rifle (we have one and its not effective (well to cause that damage)at long range) i'm certain they would have to be in close proximity.

I reallyu hope they catch someone and take them to task.  I know what I would like to do with their air rifle.  Please ensure you contact the Police.

My husband says he just cant see a standard air rifle doing that much damage, it'd be a job to kill a rabbit at far range(It certainly would not cause a 9-10' gash lol they aint powerful enough!)  unless it had an illegal spring in it which is a case for the law.

let me explain what happened , yesterday alfie moon was due to go to the groomers with his mate poppy to get ready for Ragley Hall on Saturday. I had let them into our back garden for 15 minutes while i got the car ready for transporting them. They were abrking like mad especially poppy alfie had with drawn from the fence and was standing way back.
i called them in a;fie came in with his head bowed i thought he had been naughty as this is what he does. He went to the car got in without trouble this was indeed unusal. I took him to meet my boss no sign of any blood at this time but alfie was withdrawn not like him. I thought it was because we had left poppy at home as she was to go in the afternoon.
Got alfie to the groomer she is lovely and he was enjoying the fuss i helped lift him onto the grooming table and when i withdrew my hand it had blood on it not much and i had cut my finger earlier thaat mornig and thought it was that. I recieved a call from the groomer to say alfie was bleeding and would i come and have a look, she said he had a cut on his neck but it had started bleeding i said ok. I spoke to the vets and they said pop in down for a look later that afternoon.
Got to the groomers and she was so upset he had a gaping big gash in his neck nine inches long, she had only seen the small wound when she phoned me. I rushed him to the vets who operated immediately to close the wound.
They said the pellet could have been there previously but the cut had a straight smooth edge like a knife if he had cut it on something by pulling his head away it would have been a jaggered edge.
I feel so guilty. The back gate had been broken by whom i dont know it could have been the dogs, i dont know. i have lived here 16 years and never had any trouble before. I spoke to the police who were unhelpful as i could not say who done it. so that is that. My dogs are not allowed out in the garden on their own now, but he is hopefully on the mend. He does not seem bothered about it but he cannot be walked as its where his choke chain would be. but thank you all for your kind words.
I cannot believe and adult would do such a thing.we have a lot of polish gypsy moved in they all have air pistols and i had a go at them for trying to bait a rottwieller against a staffy these were kids, may this was thier revenge who knows.

I'm sorry that such a horrible thing has happened to your dog.  Could you try a halti or dogmatic or gentle leader or something similar to walk him?

I'm so sorry to hear this, it sounds as if it may have been what you mention, the kids having a go back at you
Keep an eye on your dogs, if they can do this they may do something else. Horrible!!! I'm so sorry.

Lindsay
x

Had the groomer started work on Alfie?

I ask this, because I accidentally almost cut Buster's throat when I was grooming him once!!   I nicked him with the scissors - and immediately, the cut opened almost from ear to ear.  Of course I immediately called the vet, and took him there - the vet gave him two stitches and said it was just because of where I had nicked him that the wound opened up so much!

Margot

> he cannot be walked as its where his choke chain would be.<

Get rid of the choke chain and buy a harness,gentle leader/halti. You dont have to stop walking him just because you cant put a choker chain on him,there are other options,which are much kinder anyway.

Hope he recovers soon,and you manage to catch the mongrels who did this to him

Ktee would you want to walk a newfy that isn't used to being on a head collar or harness, because I sure to hell wouldn't want 10 stone (or maybe more ??) of dog creating a fuss at the end of a lead, it just wouldn't be safe. For the time he is going to take to get used to it and the amount of time his wounds will take to heal it just isn't worth it.... There is also nothing wrong with a choke chain as long as they are used in the correct manner. All military and police dogs are trained using these and they never have any problems. I also use them aswell as other methods.

I have found that a body harness (not the stop pull type (has worked very well with the unsocialised never been on a lead before rescues I have been fostering (onto number three now).

Hi brainless, my only experience with body harness' was walking my dobes litter brother of a slightly smaller build and it was a complete nightmare never again, he used it like an anchor to pull himself even more. I will only ever walk him on a dogmatic not even a choker as he really doesn't know how to behave on lead, but that isn't my dog to train. The in-laws think they have it all sorted ;-)

I have never used one on a puling dog only on ones reluctant to walk (because of no socialisation and never been on lead until adult), trying to walk such dogs by the neck was scary stressful and painful for them, the harness supported the boy so I was able to lead them without throttling. 

At the same time I also had a longer lead attached to the collar (back up in case they managed to get out of tee=h harness).  Once they were walking well on the harness I tried them just on the collar and they have all walked really well.

The Halti harness or Walkezee should be fine for strong dogs even if not used to them, and they will help with pulling :)

Lindsay
x

Definitely - I've used the walkezee on my dobe to teach him not to pull - the only thing I've tried that actually worked, it seemed to get the message across after 3 years of trying.  Now I use a halti harness, he seems to have brought what he learned from the walkezee to it and is now a nice dog to walk on leash - a world away from the dog that would give all hell on the end of the lead to pull me where he wanted to go.  And that was only a 5 or 6 months ago - not bad for a dog that's pulled hard from his very first walk.

And, he's never made a fuss about wearing either harness, or any of the other 2 or 3 he tried as a youngster - even the standard walking harness that rubbed under his armpits.

Hope Alfie gets better soon btw!

Or a body harness.

Shame about the police reaction, although not entirely unexpected. 
We'll all just have to remember to only report crimes if we know who committed them :rolleyes:   Don't the Police have detectives any more ?

I would insist they still logged it as a crime.

Poor Alfie. I hope he's feeling better and heals quickly. Happy healing thoughts and big, gentle hugs to him.

According to the local community police you don't have to know who did something to report it (although it does help ;) )  I would insist on it being logged and being given an incident number.  This way if anything else happens you have proof it's not the first time ;)

I just wanted to say the same as everybody else really.  I hope your dog gets better - I cant understand why anybody would want to do such a thing.  The fact that this seems to be a knife wound too - the thought of kids roaming the streets indiscriminately flashing knives at anything or anybody that displeases them is horrific!  But please for your own safety and for all your dogs if you do seem them hanging around your house dont try to tackle them - take a note of who/what time and if you have a digital camera keep it somewhere handy.  I know its frustrating that the police cant help - I'm married to one and believe me he is very often as frustrated as the rest of us - the police officers do have gut feelings and instints too but its just not enough for them.  Could it be worth letting the local paper know ......so horrible I cant believe it.  Best wishes ...

The poor lad.  I do hope he soon recovers - what an awful thing to happen.

Louise

well folks  Alfie will have his stitches removed on wednednesday and he is doing fine. i bought a gentle leader harness to walk him thank you. Alfie actually weighs 14 stone and stands 4 foot high. I was worried he would be defensive to people but no he is the same noisy gentle giant he was thank god. However he refuses to go near the fence but his mate poppy does and she is very defensive of her mate. Poppy will bite if they come near its as if she knows.
Police have logged the incident, but on our local news today RSPCA mentions about the amount of cats being shot with pellet guns no mention of dogs  and they state people found shooting animals will get a custodial sentence.
In our local paper the latest craze is to run over sheep and cows in fileds and leave them dying....
But thank you all for your concerns and please keep your dogs safe. mine are only allowed out my garden when i am with them but we are building a large kennel which will take up mearly all my garden it will have a run  and facing my patio doors, they hate being indoors we are punishing them for something little brats have done.
So folks all is well with Alfie he is still my big slobbery baby

Why on earth could anyone be so cruel to animals?  How could anyone run over an animal and leave it to die?  Our cat was run over and killed last week and I hate to think that anyone could know they'd hit an animal and just leave it in the road.  I have to try and think they didn't realise.  People who are cruel to animals are just the worst kind of life. 

Well Alfie is fine took him for his check up vets says he is fine and he noticed that some of Alfie stitiches were missing poppy his mate has only been pulling them out we had to laugh. Poppy keeps washing him and he is so lazy he lets her.
Well he is fine over his ordeal and well on the road to recovery as prevciously stated.
However he came in with a horses crop whip in his mouth yesterday  from the garden, god knows where that was as we live in a built up housing estate, they both  enjoyed pulling each end of it.