I discovered this amazing tidbit this morning while delivering a package to a wonderful retired lady who, upon seeing her dog feasting on my leg, became enraged and apologetic at the same time. I recall two things about this incident that strike me as funny after the fact: Her other German Shepard was standing there looking at the first with an embarassed look on its face as if apologizing for the other's behavior. Also, after the woman started yelling, the attacker walked away and stuck its head in a corner as if realizing it was in trouble and on a time out.

I can laugh about it now in between wincing at the pain of this wound but at least now I know not to enter her property without knowing where Cujo is.

Here if a dog bites, it's termination of service.
Keep in mind if that dog were to attack you again, and do more damage, they'd pin it on you.

Lol! Yeah, they have some fangs on ‘em. Our one year old Shepard bit my dick once and about made me cry. He didn’t mean to. I was laying in bed in my underwear and he jumped up and dropped a toy in my lap. I try not to encourage playing on the bed since it usually ends up with me getting a paw in the guts so I ignored the toy. He went to pick the chew toy up and hooked a fang on my schlong in the process. Holy shit did that hurt! I folded up like a cheap lawn chair. If he had done it in anger, I’m pretty sure I’d have gotten a free Prince Albert.

I’ve had him accidentally catch a finger or hand when playing tug-o-war as well, and that shit hurts. I can’t imagine what it would feel like if our 75lbs furball decided to ‘feast on my leg’.

- Bret

quote:

Originally posted by SevenPlusOne:
Here if a dog bites, it's termination of service.
Keep in mind if that dog were to attack you again, and do more damage, they'd pin it on you.

I didn't report it but now that I'm home and seeing the wound that I didn't realize was there, I guess I got lucky. There's no tear in my uniform so I figured nothing was wrong. Apparently, Ze Germans found a way to engineer magical fangs that tear skin without damaging clothing to conceal the wound.

I do think you should report it, since it broke the skin. You need to have it documented. Get some pics of the wound as well.

Yeah they do. I had an incident like sadlerbw’s, except the common thread was the one year old shepherd and not getting nipped in the shaft. I was basically playing grab-ass with the dog, throwing a hand out here and there and wrestling with him, and he got a little too excited and I felt one of his canines go down to the bone of one of my fingers. We both immediately stopped. He backed up and looked sorry and sad and I couldn’t be mad at him, it was an honest accident. But yeah, that hurt pretty good. I called him over with a gentle voice while holding my hand and he just about bowled me over, rubbing up against me and whimpering. I think the poor dog felt worse about it than I did.

I’d make the report. Clean it out real good and keep and eye on it. Those like to get infected.

K9 chomp war story:
My partner and I responded to a medic assist call and arrived as the EMTs were in the process of removing a man who was bandaged up in multiple places. They told us it was the result of a dog attack. Passing through the house, it was clear that quite a battle had taken place, with blood everywhere. In the kitchen, an elderly woman was seated at the table and petting a German Shepard.
We sat down at the table to interview her and the dog came over and put his head in my lap.
The elderly lady said her son was the dog owner and began to beat the dog after it ate a pizza slice off the mans plate.
The dog decided he was not going put up with that, and went into chain saw mode.
I asked the elderly lady where the dog was that had bitten the man. She said "you are petting him". I looked down at the dog in my lap and to this day, I swear he was smiling.
I later learned that the dog owner required 75 stitches to close his bites

They can have crazy strong jaws for their size also. Our GSD can destroy most “indestructible” chew toys.

quote:

Originally posted by Orguss:

quote:

Originally posted by SevenPlusOne:
Here if a dog bites, it's termination of service.
Keep in mind if that dog were to attack you again, and do more damage, they'd pin it on you.

I didn't report it but now that I'm home and seeing the wound that I didn't realize was there, I guess I got lucky. There's no tear in my uniform so I figured nothing was wrong. Apparently, Ze Germans found a way to engineer magical fangs that tear skin without damaging clothing to conceal the wound.

I've had German Sheperds for about 25 years. They know exactly where to bite to achieve a desired effect. When horse playing with one of mine it would nip you at a pressure point (but not break the skin or create even a mark) and make your hand useless for 5 minutes......or here or there.....They're VERY intelligent dogs.

USPS worker? You can milk that for 6-8 weeks of rehab and a PTSD claim!

Or I could not be a bitch and keep on working because despite being painful it's not that big a deal.

quote:

Or I could not be a bitch and keep on working because despite being painful it's not that big a deal.

^^^^^^^^^^^^
Not reporting a work related injury is generally not advisable. It is just good common sense. Believe me if you fell in front of a USPS supervisor reports would be completed.

Oh, I reported it this morning. All's good.

Ok good deal.

Our previous Shepherd lightly bit the FedEx delivery guy. I was outside, walking up the dog was barking at him. I thought he would stay in the vehicle until I got there?

He got out, then extended his hand toward the barking dog. That made it even easier for the dog to take a nip. She did break the skin, not bad though.

I gave him some cut disinfectant & a few bandaids. He reported it to his supervisor, nothing more came of it. Since it already happened as I walked up, I didn’t ask why he got out. One would think you’d stay in with the dog barking like that?

quote:

One would think you’d stay in with the dog barking like that?

^^^^
Common sense is not that common. A social worker who had to make house calls in tough neighborhoods shared a tidbit with me. When you pull up in the driveway you open and shut your car door. If they have dogs they will come running or start barking. If so, stay in the car.

Orguss, glad you reported it. Incidents like that, I don't give them a second chance. They get two options, move their box to the street, or get a PO box. The next time it could be worse, or it could happen to a co-worker. It doesn't even have to be a bite, you could trip, slip, or hit your head off something. All because the owner cannot control their dog. That IS NOT your problem.

Any incident like this, the first thing I do is text my supervisor, tell them to expect a call. COVER YOUR ASS!!! I have about a dozen dogs on my route that I have told the owners NUMEROUS times, if I see your dog standing at the storm door, or in your yard, you won't be getting mail that day. Usually they catch on pretty quick, but some don't seem to give a shit. Nor should I.

Depending on the situation, I even call the cops, especially if the dog has left their yard, and the owner has no control.

Dogs play for keeps. And even owners of 15lb ankle biters don't seem to realize their dog can trip you down steps, or rip a $50 pair of pants. The bigger the dog, the more serious the damage...

When I worked for the USPS one of my coworkers was knocked of some steps by a big dog that came through the screen door, broke her leg in 2 places.

quote:

Depending on the situation, I even call the cops

*Cops here don't do shit "Call animal control", call animal control, they drive by the house.... Back in May, I had a boxer jump a fence, run across the street at me, I kicked him right in the fucking face, but he twisted around and bit my foot. They said they'd turn it over to an investigator... I held that street for over a month. People were pissed, AT ME. They were driving around finding ME and bitching at ME. I told them to call the City. Dog wasn't picked up, so dog was still there, how in the world is that safe? some lady who I have another stupid story about, started bitch at people in DC... District ordered me to start walking down that street again. Go eat a bag of dicks.
Two Postal Retards (Management) drove by the house and said the dog was in the back yard. Yeah, fuckstick, it jumped the fence to attack me. I got everything in writing.
We've had several dog bites since then, so they read the stupid dog bite prevention standup talk, so they can blame the employee if they get hurt.


*Two different times I've gone up to uniformed Police officers and told them of large vicious dogs at large, the only time one did anything is when I told him there were children who walk up that street to/from school and there were kids playing on that street at that very moment. The street this was on is behind the parking lot where they sit to zap people speeding through the school zone.

When faced with out of control dogs, while walking, pepper spray is often much better than whipping the Sig out.

A nose of spray can really mess up a dog, when you hit them right.

Those smaller Fox Labs spray cans are handy.