Mauled by dog on housesit
Hi all,
I’d love some thoughts and advice on a housesit i recently completed with my fiance, where I was mauled by their 4yo Beagle.
In a nutshell, I was Housesitting a dog for 3 weeks. The owners told me shortly before the sit that he had been a bit ‘nippy’ lately when having his feet cleaned post walk. They said just distract him with treats.
We arrived to the sit after the HO had already left, but we had met the dog prior and spent time with him. He was fine.
On arrival, we noticed three muzzles in the house, but I figured they might be for travel or something.
From the get go, we noticed he’d growl if we tried to gently wipe his feet after a walk (per owner strict request). A bit worrisome as they didn’t mention this but we distracted with treats. On the last week of the sit he really started growling and trying to nip us when we would put his collar on for a walk.
On the fourth last day of the sit (last Thursday), I was sitting on the couch with my fiance and the dog jumped up to sit between us (not uncommon). I started patting him (we always did this) and he locked onto my left hand and began biting me. I could feel his teeth going through my skin and I was desperately trying to rip my hand out. I eventually got it out and he immediately grabbed my left hand and started mauling that hand too.
I went straight to hospital and had two procedures. One called debridement and the other was surgery to stitch together the cut tendon in my right index finger (I couldn’t move it). I developed an infection and had IV antibiotics for it.
The owners were in Italy so we had to continue the sit for 3 more days. The owners reaction was I’m sorry that happened, how are you feeling? The owners just kept asking if I felt better after a sleep. I thought they would offer to come home. I should’ve asked them to. I guess I was in shock. The dog tried to bite my fiance several times on the remaining days of the sit just for putting his collar on.
I’m not sure they understand the gravity of the situation. I’m in a special arm cast thing for 4 weeks. I’ve spent almost a week in hospital. I’m riddled with anxiety over this experience. I reported it to THS who said they’d investigate it.
I asked the HO if they could please pay for my Ubers (over 200£), which they did. I thought maybe THS might have some type of monetary assistance for these situations to help me with pharmacy costs etc. but they assured me they don’t.
Surprisingly, THS asked me if the owners left me with specific instructions on how I should managed their dogs biting- obviously not… but I thought that aggressive dogs weren’t allowed on this platform….?I felt quite shocked at that, maybe I’ve misunderstood their question. I’m surprised so far at how they’ve handled it… I asked to speak to someone but I get really generic emails which feel like templates or chat bots.
Anyway, I’m new to the UK (I’m Aussie), so I’m looking up how to report it to the council (as I’ve been told by a friend to do that). Is that what you guys would do?
For further context, I think this is my 15th housesit and have had my own dogs since I was a child. I’m 33.
Sorry for typos - I have one finger.
Don’t look at pics if you don’t want to see bites. Just attaching for context.