u/sleepydeepydar

Yesterday, I was going for my daily walk and I decided to switch up my route a little. I ended up walking on the gravel road that runs behind our houses in the neighborhood. I’ve walked back there many times and I’ve seen other neighbors doing the same. It’s a scenic view next to the river and I even saw two Great horned owls once!

This time, as I was making my way back to my house, I was passing my neighbor’s backyard (lives a few houses down from us, I haven’t met him but have seen him), and his 4 dogs started freaking out. They're all the same breed and idk dog breeds but they look like white and bronze English Settlers or something similar. A female dog jumped the fence (there had been something stacked in the corner of the yard that I feel like she used? Didn’t get a good look). She raced up on me and growled and then bit my leg hard. I jogged away and she kept growling and I turned to face her while backing up and pointing my water bottle at her like a stick while she kept growling and coming after me. She then turned and ran to inspect the other side of the yard I'm guessing and I ran the short distance home. She had been running back down the street towards me when I finally got back inside.

My partner helped me clean the wound. We washed it well with antibacterial soap and bandaged it. Then within 10 minutes we went over to knock on the neighbor’s door. A young girl answered, around 12 years old and asked, “did our dog bite you?” .....which leads me to believe this has either happened before, or she must have seen the tail end of it. I told her yes and asked to speak to an adult. She got her dad. He was definitely apologetic but also kind of…not taking it seriously enough? To be fair, I also wasn't demanding any sort of action really. It had JUST happened and I just wanted to let him know that his dog had gotten out and was biting people. Me and my partner I think we're too understanding but we tried to convey in the clearest and kindest way we could express, that this dog owner is very fortunate this happened to me and not one of the neighborhood children. He said the dog was vaccinated (which I didn’t think to verify). He said they’ve had problems with her aggression but that she had been getting better this summer. He had been downstairs painting when it happened and was sure that one of his kids had probably let her out on accident because they try to keep her inside due to her aggression. She’s had three litters of puppies I guess.

I went home and just wanted to forget about it. We dressed the wound again. After speaking with my primary care doctor and some friends, I’ve decided to go to the walk-in clinic today. There’s four puncture wounds and I bled an amount. And now that the dust has settled I'm just trying to figure out what the next step is. I don’t want this to happen to anyone else. I was so jumpy this morning and last night going outside. This dog is not safe to be around kids or people.

It’s just messed up. I had done nothing to provoke this. Was just walking a public area near my house and that dog aggressed me and chased me and drew blood. Ugh.it sucks knowing and also not knowing what my responsibility on this should be. This has never happened to me before.

UPDATE: Got back from urgent care. They were mandated to report the bite to law enforcement which took some pressure off me. Animal control came to talk with me at the clinic and by the time I was done getting my tetanus booster we could see animal control talking with the neighbor. Then they stopped by and let me know that his dog IS up to date on vaccinations because this dog bit someone else a few months ago and HADN'T been up to date and so the owner had been fined. I wasn't planning to issue a ticket and was happy enough with animal control talking to him to convey the seriousness.... but now finding out the dog has already bit someone else is really upsetting and I don't trust this guy is going to do anything to amend the situation and keep the neighborhood safe.