Attacked by Dogs

I am too wound up to sleep and I'm wasting hours of darkness replaying the day in my head.  I go over the events in my typical way, overthinking, but unable to stop myself. What should have gone differently? How do we prevent it from happening again?

My three children and two dogs were attacked by a pair of dogs. My oldest daughter sustained most of the damage with her hands bitten when she tried to get the most aggressive dog off of our collie. The collie has bite injuries too, but her massive, rough coat, just recently starting its spring blow, protected her from the worst. Both my sweet girl and her dog will be sore, and they have bites and bruises that will need to heal.  Its the mental parts for both of them that I worry about.

I worry about the two who were hurt, but I also worry about the three that weren't. My princess girl already harbors so much anxiety, born out of could-be-worse incidents and rehab'd dogs from sketchy backgrounds. Its a lot of work and tears to bring a dog out of a bad situation and turn it into something to be proud of. Will this ramp up her stress and anxiety levels to where she won't be able to enjoy her hard work? What about my boy, who himself has suffered several dog bites? Finally, can we deal with it if the big dog suffers a setback in his training and mental well-being? Large, neurotic dogs aren't fun, and I don't have the money to devote to more professional training.

The kids walk the dogs daily--its part of being responsible pet owners. Its getting increasingly harder to be a good pet owner though. In the past year and a half our dogs have been attacked twice by dogs that have broken through fences, four times by small dogs in various settings, and now today's two dogs which ran across a baseball field, large parking lot and street in order to attack my family. There is something wrong with this picture.

My kids and dogs average a friendly following dog every 6 weeks, and we often call owners who act like its our fault their dogs are roaming at large. I've had owners tell me they are too busy and hang up the phone when I've called to let them know their dog was loose. We've only had one dog without a collar that we had to send to the pound.

I worry about the dog that was impounded for biting my girl. If only, if only, if only...

I hate the man who didn't care his dog had injured my child, refused to tell his name, and told me that his dog wasn't at fault. He's ruined the lives of his pets because I cannot stand idly by when he turned his aggressive dog loose near a playground. That dog will probably die because of this. And that was preventable simply by keeping the dog on the leash that the man carried in his hand.