Source
r/Rottweiler•
MasterOfAudio

My neighbor's rottweiler dog bit my wife

It happened on Saturday-morning. My wife was about to bring my 10 year old daughter to scouts and chatted a bit with our neighbor (male) who was walking his rottweiler dog.

Some back history: the dog has been living with them for 1.5 or 2 years now. Both my daughters met him before while visiting the neighbors (and so did I once or twice). No problem. We have superficial contact, no deep relation.

So while my wife was chatting with our male neighbor, the dog bit her in her upper-arm through her winter-coat. He was shocked and pulled the dog away from her, said something about "oh, she wasn't trying to eat you!" My wife's arm now shows a large blue mark and is sensitive. She disinfected the spot ofcourse.

One thing I notice with this dog: he (or she... don't know the gender) keeps barking whenever we get or leave our home. If the neighbor is walking the dog and I'm outside, the dog will bark and jump too - why? we're just neighbors, never did harm, right...

At this point I'm wondering if I can ever trust their dog. Maybe I should ask our municipality to force my neighbor to use a muzzle on the dog whenever they walk it. At the same time they or their friends might retaliate/bully us if I force rules on them.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to share your thoughts on this issue.

Posted Feb 27, 2023, 3:45 AM UTC

013
Tinyberzerker•

No excuse for this. Having said that, Rottweilers are very protective of their "person" and it sounds like this guy may not like you, or tenses up around you, and the dog senses this. My girl is super protective, but if I'm cool, she's cool. My neighbor is scared to death of her, but trusted me to bring her over to play with her Chihuahua and they did great.

11
jadegreen60•

Is the dog always leashed or contained in a fenced area when outside? If so, I would just avoid your neighbor when they are walking the dog. You can even tell them that you are concerned after the bite incident and prefer to keep your distance from the dog.

It is possible that dog is untrained and mouthy, and was just trying to play. Still not acceptable, of course. But if the dog was aggressive and trying trying to bite your wife, he probably would have done more damage. Rotties have very strong bite force.

5
MasterOfAudioOP•

The dog is always leashed when walked. Inside their house other times of the day.

Yeah the dog is very mouthy (barks at basically anything moving through our street). So leaving a bruise is considered "playing", just not properly trained..? Well, that's a relief then, haha.

We'll just keep our distance. Thanks for your reply.

2
jadegreen60•

Yeah my guess as a rottie owner would be that this is an energetic and playful dog with no training and inexperienced owners. All I can say is that if the dog was truly aggressive and wanted to really bite, she would almost certainly have more than a bruise. But either way, shame on the owners for not addressing this behavior.

Good news that they keep the dog leashed! I think it’s totally fine to tell your neighbor that your family is afraid of the dog because of the jumping and mouthing.. and to ask them not to approach you when they have the dog on leash. Or you can just avoid them! If you have a good relationship with your neighbor, you could even gently suggest they work with a trainer. It’s really not acceptable for a dog (especially a large breed) to jump and mouth strangers outside of the puppy stage. They are doing a disservice to the poor dog by not training him properly.. setting him up to hurt someone and be euthanized because of their failure to train him.

3
Martin1905•

The dog didn't show any sign of aggression and then just randomly bit your wife out of nowhere?

3
Right-Silver8587•

Maybe talk with your neighbour honestly, explain how you feel and see if you can find a solution to this that works for all of you while keeping your family safe.

3
Competitive-Push-715•

Not acceptable at all. That owner should not have a rottie if he’s so cavalier about it biting

2
Heli7373•

Are you sure it wasn’t playing around? Mine did that a lot when she was young, she would leave bruises and sometimes a little blood. If it was a bite where they meant to do harm they would leave deep puncture wounds and a hospital trip.

2
tehgimpage•

just a random thought when reading your story. do they know the prior history of the dog? could the dog have thought the big puffy jacket was a bite jacket? is it something she wears often? the behavior is obviously not tolerable, but if he was previously attempted to bite train it could maybe be a contributor? apologies if this is off base.

2
BulletToothJake•

The dog needs training and possibly a new owner. Sounds like the neighbor doesn't care too much if people get bit. The bad news is, if you contact the authorities, the dog may be euthanized depending on local laws.

I hope your wife is ok, sounds like its more of a bruise than anything.

1
SilverLining93•

Sounds like dog may be reactive to people/dogs in general given the barking at everyone/everything. Could be a lack of training or even sometimes it can just be genetic. That is an unfortunate event, but it doesn’t sound like pure aggression. They’re large dogs and although may not have meant to do damage, easily can due to their size.

1
rottweiler100•

How did he bite her in the upper arm? Did he jump up and grab her or was she squated and petting the dog. Do you guys live next door to each other?

I would talk to the neighbor first. What the dog did was wrong and behavior needs to be corrected. If you live next to each other the dog may have territory issues.

If your wife was down at the dogs level or bending down over the dog then the dog may have felt threatened.

Obviously the dog needs much more socialization and training. Rotties are usually people friendly if socialized properly. My rottie likes people except if you break into my house. Just don't approach that dog any more.

1
ECU_BSN•

Rottie owner here.

I will say there are three sides to all stories. The side where my dog bites a human with aggression, unprovoked, is the last day my Rottie would see the sun.

People over humans. Thank everything and all the gods (old and new) it wasn’t that kiddo.

Never ever trust that dog.

0