We had a horrible experience yesterday when we were out in the woods, when our 15 month old wc was attacked by a much larger mixed breed dog, which passers by who came to help think was a pit bull mix. Both were off lead and the other dog came to us, sniffed my dog then launched himself at him, taking him by the scruff and shaking him from side to side. It was immediately clear this was a serious dog and I thought my dog was going to be killed. I am not sure what exactly happened next as it was all noise and movement, but I ended up holding my poor dog around the hind legs, while the other dog's owner was lying on top of him, with him gripped under him to try and disable him and make him release my dog. Neither of the dog's heads were visible as they were under the other dog's owner and I couldn't tell how the other dog was holding my dog, who was making a terrible screaming noise. It was absolutely terrifying. My dog, amazingly, is fine. We have reported the incident and the police have been great, and the passers by have also reported it and took us to the vet straightaway. The police think they may be able to take some action as we have the owner's details.
My question is, what do you actually do when this is happening? I know you should stay calm and I absolutely failed to do that as I was screaming and shouting, but the deadlock where we were all just in a pile on the ground with the two dogs locked together seemed to go on for ever, and I felt absolutely helpless. When a dog like this has your dog in its jaws, is there ANYTHING you can do?
Today, thinking about it, it seems like a truly awful dream. My lovely dog was himself on our walk earlier, but I was jumpy as hell and any enjoyment at being in the park with him was tempered by expectation of something bad happening, as unlikely as that is. I am sure I will get over this
but I would love to feel more prepared I suppose, in case anything like this happens again. Are there any words of wisdom out there?