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Feb 4, 2023
3:08:32pm
dryflyelk All-American
That sucks. I have an experience with this as the dog owner...
I have an amazing dog. He's an english creme golden retriever. Sweetest dog ever. Smartest dog ever. Anyone who knows him loves him instantly. He's never hurt a fly.

Except for one time.

One sunday afternoon a neighbor guy reached through our fence to get a toy he said his dog had dropped into our yard. My dog grabbed his hand and messed it up pretty good. The dude had to get surgeries and a lot of different things to get it fixed.

We felt absolutely horrible about it. That said, what are we supposed to do? The dog was barking at him as he was trying to get something on our side of the fence. He reached through anyway. Bang. Instinct triggered.

In those situations where there is a defined border like a fence, I think the dog's basic instinct is to protect it's territory and his people. Reaching through triggers that. Again, our dog is the sweetest, laziest, softest, kindest dog I've ever met. We tell people that story and they don't believe it could have happened.

The family kept sending us updates on the hand and very guilt laced messages trying to pressure us into paying for it. I mean - again - we felt horrible about it. But were we at fault? He had reached into our property.

They pushed us to see if our insurance would cover it. I ended up reaching out to our home owners insurance. They came out (Bear River) and took pictures of the scene. They determined it was a "no fault" accident and covered it all. Honestly, I was going to be pretty upset if that had come back as a strike on my insurance with raised premiums.

I'm so, so sorry you've got to go through that with your little guy. Unfortunately, I also know how the other family might feel. Bad deal all around. Hopefully they can get him fixed up and he heals quickly.
dryflyelk
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dryflyelk
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Aug 12, 2003
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Mar 28, 2024
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