We technically aren't supposed to bring our dogs to work, but because clin path has a separate office from all the other residents and our faculty has historically turned a blind eye to it. For the past month my dog and another resident's pit bull have had some minor problems on 2-3 occasions. Mostly growling, but there was an instance when I heard the pit growl, then mine growl, and then my dog came away with a scrape on the top of his muzzle so I stopped bringing mine unless I was going to be in the office all day to monitor them because regardless of who was instigating it (which wasn't 100% clear initially), my 20lb dog would probably lose to the bigger dog in a fight.
Today the other dog came up to me at my desk, my dog sniffed him, and the other dog gave mine a lip curl. I shooed the pit away from my half of the office and figured that was the end of it, but about a half hour later the other dog went after the third resident's shepherd who was just walking over to her owner (seemingly unprovoked attack). I heard it and the shepherd's owner witnessed it. The shepherd was ultimately fine, but we told the pit's owner what happened and he got upset. We asked him not to tell our faculty and we'd just handle it ourselves because they'd just take away our ability to bring them at all, but he insisted since he decided the dog needed to move into the lab for the afternoon (why it couldn't go into a ward I don't know). Then he proceeded to be very grumpy all afternoon and was short with us. Sorry dude, it's not our fault your dog can't handle itself and be nice.
The dog is generally a sweet dog, is great with people, and I haven't ever been fearful to leave them all loose in our office unattended until this past month. I'm a firm believer that pit bulls aren't inherently bad dogs and it's more about how they were raised, but this one was a rescued dogfighting dog and the foster before my residentmate adopted it kept it in the garage for almost a year because they didn't trust it with her other pets. I really think he should just stop bringing his dog period if it can't get along with everyone else but he insists on being able to when he's the primary resident on duty. So now the shepherd's owner and I are coming up with an elaborate schedule of which one of us can skip out at noon to let each other's animals out on weeks when the pit bull comes to work with his owner since her 14 year old lab can't hold it all day...or at least we are until our faculty sit down and decide we can't bring them at all. I just hate that the unpredictable dog is probably ruining things for everyone.
