Lesson learned...

[Miss Conduct]

Now i always preach precaution/prevention with bulldogs. Well, last night i stuck my foot WAY into my mouth. I have an inside dog, and another dog that is currently inside in a crate upstairs.

Well.... i have the upstairs blocked off so the inside dog cannot go upstairs. Well i got a call saying that one of my fences in my pasture was down. I decided to run outside for a few seconds to take a looky. My inside dog was lounging on the couch, i didnt take the 3 seconds to think, and figured he'd be fine downstairs unattended for a few minutes since the upstairs dog wasnt "reachable".

So i go outside and fix the fence, it takes a few more minutes than i thought it would, but all in all i was gone about 15 mins. So i hurry and head inside (of course it has to start hailing the second i touch the fence lol).
I get inside, and no dog on the couch. I call his name.... and no dog. This is right about the time that my gut sinks, i run up the stairs to find that my inside dog had found his way to the crated dog, and they now are in holds in my bedroom. Of course they had to carry on into the room with white walls and white carpet... :(

I of course am the only one home, so i had to manuever them over to the door and shut the door on their faces until some skin gave, and i hurry and slammed the door.

I am kicking my own ass as i look over one dog and put him in the crate, them grab the other.

Now, i could keep miy IDIOTNESS to myself, but thought i would share... maybe save someone else from making the same mistake.

NEVER EVER LEAVE 2 DA DOGS IN THE HOUSE ALONE!! Well, unless they are crated in seperate rooms. Good god i cant believe i did that!

So, my room now looks like i murder'd someone in there, i have a demolished crate, and 2 f#cked up dogs.

So, let the bashing begin. I know i deserve it, just thought i'd share. Maybe i can spare someone else the ass kicking.

[MercedesMama]

People make mistakes. It happens to the best, most experienced people I'm sure. So if ya get bashed by someone, f**k em. No one is perfect. Are the dogs ok?

[Miss Conduct]

People make mistakes. It happens to the best, most experienced people I'm sure. So if ya get bashed by someone, f**k em. No one is perfect. Are the dogs ok?
Thanks.

Not too bad, the crated dog took most of the injury's - ground beef head and maybe a broken foot. Other dog broke a canine :( and has a swollen leg.

[MercedesMama]

Thanks.

Not too bad, the crated dog took most of the injury's - ground beef head and maybe a broken foot. Other dog broke a canine :( and has a swollen leg.
Sounds like you were lucky. It could've been a lot worse. Was the one in a metal crate? How the hell did he get out?

[miakoda]

That sucks. But we've all made mistakes. (I know I have :D ) The key is to learn from them. ;)

And thanks for sharing with all of us. Sometimes we ALL need a reminder.

I hope the dogs are ok. A little dex & some pen (however, I've found Keflex or Amoxicillan is better with dog bites) & hopefully all will be ok. But have that foot checked out. Keep me posted!

[mrsmickey351]

Thanks for sharing this with us. A lessoned learned!!! We lost a valuable dog not to long ago due to faulty equipment so I know where you are coming from. We all learn from are mistakes!!!

[miakoda]

Thanks for sharing this with us. A lessoned learned!!! We lost a valuable dog not to long ago due to faulty equipment so I know where you are coming from. We all learn from are mistakes!!!
I bought a few bullsnaps at the latest ADBA show here in LA (from a well known supplier) & it seems they were not of the best quality. 3 of the 5 broke & we had a few scuffles here as well. Thankfully, I was also home at the time. That's another good reason why it's important to check your equipment on a DAILY basis.

[Miss Conduct]

Sounds like you were lucky. It could've been a lot worse. Was the one in a metal crate? How the hell did he get out?

They busted the door. One was pulling (i think thats where the broken canine came from), and one was pushing. I was going to wait till spring to pick up one of the diamond plated welded crates, but maybe i'll buckle now and go get one.

[diva]

Hey, we all make mistakes and learn from them. I hope the dogs are okay!!

[Miss Conduct]

I hope the dogs are ok. A little dex & some pen (however, I've found Keflex or Amoxicillan is better with dog bites) & hopefully all will be ok. But have that foot checked out. Keep me posted!
They are tough, they'll be alright ;). Ive always used Ceph for wounds, and Amox for mouth injury's. I gave 2 cc's of Rimadyl, so hopefully the one wont have a basket ball head later LOL

I felt his foot, and didnt feel anything. He is favoring it, but then again theres a big hole there. If hes still favoring it this weekend, i'll have x-rays done.

Thanks again everyone :)

And yes, checking hardware is a daily task!

[jadedpitgirl]

That sucks. But we've all made mistakes. (I know I have :D ) The key is to learn from them. ;)

And thanks for sharing with all of us. Sometimes we ALL need a reminder.

I hope the dogs are ok. A little dex & some pen (however, I've found Keflex or Amoxicillan is better with dog bites) & hopefully all will be ok. But have that foot checked out. Keep me posted!
I have always used the Keflex (Cephalexin) for dog bites, work real well.

[debodebo]

Glad to hear that they both made it. It will be okay everyone makes mistakes. Just learn from them.

[14rock]

Happens in the blink of an eye, I'm sure its happened to each of us. Hell, your story sounds identical to my last accident, except a friend let the upstairs mutt loose, not knowing any better after he went up there.

[squirt07]

Glad you are okay to0.

[Big Game]

Live.....Learn..........Repeat.....

[Suki]

I have been caught with my guard down as well, and thankyou for sharing this, as it's good to remind folks, even a second unattended is a second too long!


No bashing or ass kicking needed! ;)

[Miss Conduct]

Glad you are okay to0.

Thanks, but im not leary of my dogs one bit. I could probably saw my dogs legs off and they wouldnt harm me. :)

[Miss Conduct]

Live.....Learn..........Repeat.....

Who said anything about repeat?

[Big Game]

What I ment is as long as you are still living you are still learning. It is a process that keeps on repeating. I was not implying that you will make the same mistake again.
Who said anything about repeat?

[Miss Conduct]

What I ment is as long as you are still living you are still learning. It is a process that keeps on repeating. I was not implying that you will make the same mistake again.


LOLmy bad!! i thougt about that after i posted.

[Big Game]

No offence taken. I hope youre dogs make a quick recovery.
LOLmy bad!! i thougt about that after i posted.

[catcher T]

Hey,,it can happen to all of us,,I had an issue Thanksgiving morning,,,My better half,,not thinking,,as usual,,let two into the house together!! in the same room!! after I told him and told him,,I heard it start and thought,,no he did not!! and yes he did!! they came apart,,much to my surprise,,pretty easy,,after it was over,,and the dogs were put away,,the stupid look on my husbands face was priceless,,of course I didn't say a word and just walked away shaking my head.

[Attila]

Hell I had one of those last night when I got back from Texas. Baby and Sunshine. Baby got loose in the back yard and went under the chain link fence to get it going on with sunshine. It took some work and I sliped a disk but I got them apart. What a mess. Some times it happens. If they both live you are doing good. Sometimes you just can't be there and something happens. We just try hard to avoid it. I have been lucky to have only had a few inccidents over the past 30+ years of raising these dogs. None to serious that I couldn't fix or patch up. No one lost an eye. I have had to shoot a stray dog that happened into my yard. Not because I wanted to but because it was dying anyway. I am not going to let one suffer because the owner failed to keep his pets in his own yard. I would also rather it dye by my rifle than one of my dogs. I have not had one happen in the house. That would suck. But it can and does happen. Hell I have grabbed the wrong dog to herd my sheep back in. Only Baby can do that. Gretchen on the other hand can kill three of them before I can do a dang thing to stop her. Lessons learned are good, scary sometimes but good. They ate good that week though. There was a little meat left for me too. Not much though. It takes a serious crate to hold these dogs. I have heard of them going through dry wall walls to get to another dog so even a closed door isn't always effective as it should be. lol Good job getting them apart alone I know very well how hard that is to do. And how much damage can be done in just a few seconds. Good job is what I say.

[bahamutt99]

Its been at least 6 years since I've had an accidental fight, but I know that check is always in the mail, even with just the one dog. I made up for my relative lack of screw-ups these past years by letting Loki get half-throttled playing with another dog while both of them wore choke chains. Sometimes you don't think, and sometimes your dogs know when you're not full-on paying attention and they do their worst while they have a chance to get away with it. All you can do is try, right?

[Miss Conduct]

Hell I had one of those last night when I got back from Texas. Baby and Sunshine. Baby got loose in the back yard and went under the chain link fence to get it going on with sunshine. It took some work and I sliped a disk but I got them apart. What a mess. Some times it happens. If they both live you are doing good. Sometimes you just can't be there and something happens. We just try hard to avoid it. I have been lucky to have only had a few inccidents over the past 30+ years of raising these dogs. None to serious that I couldn't fix or patch up. No one lost an eye. I have had to shoot a stray dog that happened into my yard. Not because I wanted to but because it was dying anyway. I am not going to let one suffer because the owner failed to keep his pets in his own yard. I would also rather it dye by my rifle than one of my dogs. I have not had one happen in the house. That would suck. But it can and does happen. Hell I have grabbed the wrong dog to herd my sheep back in. Only Baby can do that. Gretchen on the other hand can kill three of them before I can do a dang thing to stop her. Lessons learned are good, scary sometimes but good. They ate good that week though. There was a little meat left for me too. Not much though. It takes a serious crate to hold these dogs. I have heard of them going through dry wall walls to get to another dog so even a closed door isn't always effective as it should be. lol Good job getting them apart alone I know very well how hard that is to do. And how much damage can be done in just a few seconds. Good job is what I say.

Thanks Attila!! :) And yes, being a small female, it was fun trying to wrestle two flailing 50 pound dogs to the door! lol

[Attila]

Thanks Attila!! :) And yes, being a small female, it was fun trying to wrestle two flailing 50 pound dogs to the door! lol
No problem. I am not small and even I have trouble too. It isn't easy trying it alone. cattle prod does simplify things sometimes though. I don't like to use it but some times stuff happens.

[catcher T]

No problem. I am not small and even I have trouble too. It isn't easy trying it alone. cattle prod does simplify things sometimes though. I don't like to use it but some times stuff happens.I have one of those,,tip # 1. when charging it up, don't have your other hand on the barrel part of it thinking you are holding the handle. learned that the hard way LOL

[Miss Conduct]

I have one of those,,tip # 1. when charging it up, don't have your other hand on the barrel part of it thinking you are holding the handle. learned that the hard way LOL
Damn! haha, thats one ya dont do twice!!

I have some electric fence in my pastures. In order to get in the pasture there is a large metal gate, with a wire running along the top. I unhooked the wire and moved it to the side, well the wire was touching the metal fence... i am in a puddle of water and grabbed the fence... WaWooWeeWa i got a good shock from that! lol Cant imagine the cattle prod though!

I need to get me one of those! Maybe i can keep the man in line :D ;) :cool:

[cheekymunkee]

Glad everyone is ok!!! Accidents happen, that's why they are called accidents. ;)

[BoiBoi]

I need to get me one of those! Maybe i can keep the man in line :D ;) :cool:
Hey now easy, see what u guys did gave her ideas LOL

[LuvinBullies]

There is a silver lining here as well: at least you know bulldogs, and you acknowledged your mistake, you knew what had happened before you even saw them, and as a result you acted quickly without time for fear or reservation. You could confidently post your experience here for others to learn from, and others did the same and this thread is now a great page for "the handbook for all first time APBT owners" :)
What is really creepy/scary are those owners who think "their dogs are different" and your situation doesn't apply to them. There are so many people who in your situation would have ended up with two dead dogs.

{{Clears throat}}

My biggest mistake ever -which I have not had the balls to talk about here yet- was taking on a highly driven gamebred bitch about 6 years ago for a pet. The guy who had her first flashed her papers at me when he gave her to me...so I can't remember her ped or validate her breeding. In retrospect he was an idiot, too...so who knows. She was classic to the standard though as far as drive goes-just trust me on this. He told me to keep her for awhile and if things worked out I could have her. Why would he do this? He was a lazy rat bastard and didn't feel like dealing with her first heat...so he pawned her off on me for 3 weeks under the pretense of a "trial" ownership, so I found out. Me = SUCKER. Things didn't work out and he got her back, and I was a classic case of supreme ignorance in owning a APBT, highly driven APBT bitch in heat, no less.
I did everything wrong with this girl. I had no insight about what her drive was supposed to be, so I crated her while I worked, and walked her when I got home. I knew the remedial basic of "don't trust em not to fight", so I thought keeping her on a leash was about as responsible as I had to be. :rolleyes:That was the extent of her exercise. She crawled the walls wanting to get outside the first week, and when she slipped out once and I was so confused why such a sweet -though hyper- dog flat refused to listen to me when I called her back. (DUH! The equivalent of shaking up a Coca Cola and not expecting it to explode eventually when you opened it). She wreaked havoc in the courtyard of my apartments, chasing the morning birds and squirrels and knocking over decorative plants, etc. When I finally got ahold of her I was also confused at her attitude: she was sooooooooo happy and looked quite pleased with herself. "The nerve!" I thought...
As if that wasn't a potentially bad enough experience (not to mention I had no idea how to handle the mess of a bitch in heat) and display of ignorance, I actually topped it. Fancy free and head held high, I took my brand new doggy to the stables where I kept my show horse. I had no intentions of letting her out...I knew she'd be tough to catch at this point and I thought I was being careful letting her sit in the car for about 15 minutes while I clipped my horse. I was so smart I even rolled the window down some for her in addition to keeping the ac running :rolleyes:(it gets worse)..but I had no idea the trigger I set off the minute I drove onto the property. She was whining, screaming, panting to get out at the horses in the pasture. No one was at the barn because it was a drizzly Sunday. I managed to get out of the car and back in again without incident, but as I drove off I forgot I had already rolled down the window some for her, and I rolled it down more to get the air circulating and *POOF* she was gone. The paddock with the loose horses was small enough for them to be like fish in a barrel for her, especially one which was older. The stampede she caused prevented me from just jumping on her because I would have been completely trampled. I was powerless, by myself and this dog was starting to do some real damage to the older horse. God intervened after about 10 minutes and granted me the one in a million shot of snagging her by the collar as the stampede ran by. As bad as it sounds...it could have been so much worse I know now. I had to call the older horse's owner and explain myself, and also call an emergency to the vet. The horse's wounds were not as bad as they looked or could have been- nothing needed stitches which is unbelievable. I paid the vet bill (as I should have), but I was just appalled at the mess I created (two of the horses broke through the top tier of the fence and ran in panicked circles over the grounds destroying more than I care to discuss). Due to the damages I paid I opted to cut the lease on my show horse I was going to buy (I spent easily a few months lease on the damages), make my necessary apologies where they were due and just sort of allowed myself to phase out as a presence there. This is still damned hard to fess up to, especially here- just the excuse of "I didn't know any better" ain't enough. It's much easier when I use this story as an example for people who need to hear it than speak about it here.:o

[catcher T]

I know that sick feeling,,,,that is for sure a lesson learned,,(just like when I zapped myself with 120,000 volts) LOL

[Miss Conduct]

There is a silver lining here as well: at least you know bulldogs, and you acknowledged your mistake, you knew what had happened before you even saw them, and as a result you acted quickly without time for fear or reservation. You could confidently post your experience here for others to learn from, and others did the same and this thread is now a great page for "the handbook for all first time APBT owners" :)
What is really creepy/scary are those owners who think "their dogs are different" and your situation doesn't apply to them. There are so many people who in your situation would have ended up with two dead dogs.

{{Clears throat}}

My biggest mistake ever -which I have not had the balls to talk about here yet- was taking on a highly driven gamebred bitch about 6 years ago for a pet. The guy who had her first flashed her papers at me when he gave her to me...so I can't remember her ped or validate her breeding. In retrospect he was an idiot, too...so who knows. She was classic to the standard though as far as drive goes-just trust me on this. He told me to keep her for awhile and if things worked out I could have her. Why would he do this? He was a lazy rat bastard and didn't feel like dealing with her first heat...so he pawned her off on me for 3 weeks under the pretense of a "trial" ownership, so I found out. Me = SUCKER. Things didn't work out and he got her back, and I was a classic case of supreme ignorance in owning a APBT, highly driven APBT bitch in heat, no less.
I did everything wrong with this girl. I had no insight about what her drive was supposed to be, so I crated her while I worked, and walked her when I got home. I knew the remedial basic of "don't trust em not to fight", so I thought keeping her on a leash was about as responsible as I had to be. :rolleyes:That was the extent of her exercise. She crawled the walls wanting to get outside the first week, and when she slipped out once and I was so confused why such a sweet -though hyper- dog flat refused to listen to me when I called her back. (DUH! The equivalent of shaking up a Coca Cola and not expecting it to explode eventually when you opened it). She wreaked havoc in the courtyard of my apartments, chasing the morning birds and squirrels and knocking over decorative plants, etc. When I finally got ahold of her I was also confused at her attitude: she was sooooooooo happy and looked quite pleased with herself. "The nerve!" I thought...
As if that wasn't a potentially bad enough experience (not to mention I had no idea how to handle the mess of a bitch in heat) and display of ignorance, I actually topped it. Fancy free and head held high, I took my brand new doggy to the stables where I kept my show horse. I had no intentions of letting her out...I knew she'd be tough to catch at this point and I thought I was being careful letting her sit in the car for about 15 minutes while I clipped my horse. I was so smart I even rolled the window down some for her in addition to keeping the ac running :rolleyes:(it gets worse)..but I had no idea the trigger I set off the minute I drove onto the property. She was whining, screaming, panting to get out at the horses in the pasture. No one was at the barn because it was a drizzly Sunday. I managed to get out of the car and back in again without incident, but as I drove off I forgot I had already rolled down the window some for her, and I rolled it down more to get the air circulating and *POOF* she was gone. The paddock with the loose horses was small enough for them to be like fish in a barrel for her, especially one which was older. The stampede she caused prevented me from just jumping on her because I would have been completely trampled. I was powerless, by myself and this dog was starting to do some real damage to the older horse. God intervened after about 10 minutes and granted me the one in a million shot of snagging her by the collar as the stampede ran by. As bad as it sounds...it could have been so much worse I know now. I had to call the older horse's owner and explain myself, and also call an emergency to the vet. The horse's wounds were not as bad as they looked or could have been- nothing needed stitches which is unbelievable. I paid the vet bill (as I should have), but I was just appalled at the mess I created (two of the horses broke through the top tier of the fence and ran in panicked circles over the grounds destroying more than I care to discuss). Due to the damages I paid I opted to cut the lease on my show horse I was going to buy (I spent easily a few months lease on the damages), make my necessary apologies where they were due and just sort of allowed myself to phase out as a presence there. This is still damned hard to fess up to, especially here- just the excuse of "I didn't know any better" ain't enough. It's much easier when I use this story as an example for people who need to hear it than speak about it here.:o

Good for you for admitting your mistake. Im sure you never did anything like that again. That was rough welcome into the GB bulldogs! I know starting out i made my mistakes as well.... (bulldogs will jump 2 6 foot fences to get at each other?? geez! lol....). I seemed to get the drive hoodini dogs, so i learned quick in that aspect. Im damn lucky that i had always been home, otherwise, id be missing a few today.

I have many expensive horses, so i am always VERY VERY precautious. 2 of the dogs dont care for the horses (though the never get the chance to see if maybe they'll "like" them) & the other dogs want to play a game of fetch with them. Always be on guard with all animals.

Like was said, live and learn, and remember. ;)

[JuicyCa]

I hate to say it could have been worse (which would have sucked big time), but we all know it's true. I'm glad you could get them apart. Chalk it up to a momentary lapse in judgement-WE ALL DO IT.

Makes you wonder what the downstairs dog was thinking... Perhaps plotting a trip upstairs for some time now? ;)

[Miss Conduct]

Makes you wonder what the downstairs dog was thinking... Perhaps plotting a trip upstairs for some time now? ;)
Im sure he was, he was just waiting til i slipped up and handed him the moment lol.

What happen'd to the dog in your avatar?