[Greenerlife]

Copied this across from the pig forum - anybody any experience?

Really upset as my four newly arrived Berkshire weaners got attacked yesterday afternoon by my next door neighbour's Alsatian dog.  He's managed to bite 3 out of the 4 and one of them has lots and lots of tears in the skin over his "shoulders" and one has his tag torn.  Have applied antisceptic and informed the vet, who has given advice and I just have to keep an eye on any infection - but what would you people do about the neighbour and her dog?  She is very apologetic and almost as distraught as me - the dog is usually docile.  Anybody out there with any experience?

[Roxy]

Thats an awful thing to happen.  The dog must have jumped into the pigs enclosure?  I have a large male GSD, and he is never, ever, allowed anywhere unattended, or even off the lead where there are other people, or any animals, even our own who is he used to.  To be honest, that would apply to any of our dogs.

Hopefully the poor little pigs will recover from their dreadful ordeal.  I would think this has been a wake up call for the dog owner, but really the pig owner needs to stress, that she must keep the dog under control and well away from any livestock, as its obvious it will attack.  I hope the dog owner has the decency to offer to pay for any vet treatment, etc.

[doganjo]

Thats an awful thing to happen.  The dog must have jumped into the pigs enclosure?  I have a large male GSD, and he is never, ever, allowed anywhere unattended, or even off the lead where there are other people, or any animals, even our own who is he used to.  To be honest, that would apply to any of our dogs.

Hopefully the poor little pigs will recover from their dreadful ordeal.  I would think this has been a wake up call for the dog owner, but really the pig owner needs to stress, that she must keep the dog under control and well away from any livestock, as its obvious it will attack.  I hope the dog owner has the decency to offer to pay for any vet treatment, etc.

Exactly my thoughts too..  The dog will ALWAYS attack livestock now he/she has had a taste of it.

[HappyHippy]

Ooooo I'm going to be contraversial and disagree (sorry  )
I've posted a response on the other thread already.
But my gut feeling is if the dog is normally docile and the neighbour is a reasonable person there's no need to go in all guns blazing straight away (after all you've got to live next to each other)
Accidents happen sometimes, my feeling is that this dog went for a look, got a fright from the electric fence and freaked out - has it ever even seen a piglet before ? I don't think it means it's neccesarilly going to turn into a blood crazed pig killing machine 

[Hardfeather]

Maybe the dog has had as much of a fright as everyone else. It might never look near the pigs again.

[tjtrike]

I have many years experience both as a dog owner and also working with many breeds of dogs and I also think that something set this off and the dog is unlikely to become a problem with all livestock but I would politely ask your neighbour to keep the dog under a more watchful eye.Hope the piglets are ok soon.

[sabrina]

As your neighbour now knows that her dog did attack your pigs, its up to her to make sure nothing like this happens again. It might be worth asking around to see if this dog has done anything like this before and take it from there.

[charlie]

If the dog gets another chance it will do it again. Its highly likely it was nothing to do with getting scared by the electric fence,  its the dogs nature and you will never get it out of the dog. I had a white g s d which was a sheep worrier and sadly had to get rid of it after trying every technique I could, even with professional help .

[doganjo]

If the dog gets another chance it will do it again. Its highly likely it was nothing to do with getting scared by the electric fence,  its the dogs nature and you will never get it out of the dog. I had a white g s d which was a sheep worrier and sadly had to get rid of it after trying every technique I could, even with professional help .

This is why the E-collar should NOT be banned - it works.  I have seen it working - a gundog which chased deer every time it went hunting with its owner.  A fortnight with no correction at all (a dummy collar) then one zap and it never chased again.  But they HAVE to be used by people who know what they are doing. But that is another topic altogether.

[charlie]

E collars do work sometimes .But once the collar is off the dog they can go back to there old ways been there seen it . For most dogs they do work.

[kingnigel]

This is why the E-collar should NOT be banned

such crap
they should be banned
if you need one try wearing one
punishment is no way to train a dog.
kn

[doganjo]

This is why the E-collar should NOT be banned

such crap
they should be banned
if you need one try wearing one
punishment is no way to train a dog.
kn

I have, have you?

[mab]

I think the collars could be used by 'professionals' rather than being allowed to the general public who may, in a few cases, see it as an easy alternative to training their dog, and use it excessively.

On the original subject; As the neighbour seems to genuinely regret the incident I think it's worth giving her a chance, though I would expect her to offer to pay the vet bills.

If the dog's trained and the owner can control it, then there's no reason it can't be taught to leave the piglets alone. The notion that 'once a dog's tasted the blood of something it can never be trusted' is pure nonsense.

mab

[kingnigel]

http://www.rspca.org.uk/ImageLocator/LocateAsset?asset=document&assetId=1232713013325&mode=prd

no, i havnt worn one nor was i in a concentration camp but i know they were not nice places.
these things can and are abused by lazy trainers with as yet no evidence that they are any better than positive reinforcement training.
unfortunately they are also abused by those who take their anger and frustration out on innocent pets.
kn

[doganjo]

http://www.rspca.org.uk/ImageLocator/LocateAsset?asset=document&assetId=1232713013325&mode=prd

no, i havnt worn one nor was i in a concentration camp but i know they were not nice places.
these things can and are abused by lazy trainers with as yet no evidence that they are any better than positive reinforcement training.
unfortunately they are also abused by those who take their anger and frustration out on innocent pets.
kn

I agree with that, but I suggest you try one on your arm before condemning them outright.  One of my dogs was a sheep chaser -  this was quite a long time ago.  A friend took him to retrain, who had trained dogs withva collar, my dog wore a dummy collar every day for a month, still chasing sheep if he could, then Si gave him one zap on a low setting, he didn't even yelp, just sat down on the whistle, and never looked near another sheep.