Hi all. I hope this is not either the wrong sub or not allowed in here. However, I ran into a situation the other day that I was unfortunately not prepared for and am pretty sure I handled incorrectly.
To give some background, I was walking my dogs, 15 and 25lbs, down the street, both on leashes, and passed a house with two dogs unleashed in the yard with the two homeowners in the driveway. One dog, probably 40lbs, started running straight at me and my dogs growling. I immediately realized this would not be good. The dog ran past us but circled back, in hindsight I realized this was to either try to herd us or attack from behind. The dog ran straight into the center of my two dogs to and starts growling and trying to bite my dogs. My 25lb dog is afraid of dogs, poor socialization, and was jumping trying to get away. My 15lb dog wanted to be tough, apparently, because when all was said and done there was a tuft of fur in his mouth from the other dog. I guess he was trying to protect me.
My immediate reaction was to drop down and I grabbed the other dog and pinned it with my knee on the back of it's neck to the ground. The dog was unable to move at all. I feel bad because I didn't want to hurt the dog but unfortunately it was an instinctual thing and I wanted to protect my dogs. Also unfortunately, in the process I let go of my 15lb dog's leash to grab the aggressor and he ran off barking at the other dog in the yard. The other dog was just sitting and watching.
The homeowner immediately ran over and apologized profusely. I said it is fine and walked my dogs away. I checked them at home and they had no bites or marks so no harm, no foul.
The point of this long post which I apologize for is what is the correct way to handle an attacking dog? Dogs move fast and it is hard to really do much when walking two dogs by myself. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
