Young Writers Society

If I were an adult author, I'd totally call people up or drive places and, you know, get this all from the horse's mouth. But I am not. So I'm going to ask very specific questions and hope someone knows what the heck is going on so I'm not like, "Artistic license! I have one!"

Anyway, I have three specific topics I'm curious about for a book I'm editing.

First off, I'm rather aware what happens when you call 911 and an ambulance comes. But what happens if, say, you're with two friends in the middle of the woods and you've been attacked by dogs, hmm? What happens to the dogs? What happens to you? Can a friend ride along? I don't know.

On a similar topic, if you merely have a nasty dog bite on your arm, you'll get rabies shots, right? But what if your guardians aren't picking up the phone? Will you be kept overnight if the sun's starting to set? Will your friends be able to stay in the room? Will they have to wait? If so, how easy is it for a nurse to sneak them in--and how often does that really happen?

Third topic. Say you have PTSD or, well, you've been through a lot of traumatic experiences. You're in therapy because of it at, say, sixteen/seventeen. You live with your aunt and uncle. Your therapist's father was a therapist and she followed in his shoes but isn't really, ahem, that good.

^Simply: What would go on during a therapy session in general? How much is the therapist allowed to tell a minor's caretakers? (How not good/skeevy can you be before you're fired or whatever? Just curious.)

That's it for now. If anyone has any answers that seem rather serious/true, I thank you for that retroactively.

-Cas

Anyway, I have three specific topics I'm curious about for a book I'm editing.

First off, I'm rather aware what happens when you call 911 and an ambulance comes. But what happens if, say, you're with two friends in the middle of the woods and you've been attacked by dogs, hmm? What happens to the dogs? What happens to you? Can a friend ride along? I don't know.

If the dogs are wild, they will be left behind, possibly pest control sent out a few days later. If they are pets but have attacked you, they will be left behind as they are dangerous.
If you are injured, you will be taken to hospital. If not, you will be given a lift back only if leaving you would endanger you eg. there's no other way for you to get home.
Yes, friends can ride along as it helps keep the patient calm. And with the whole, "Can you get home" situation.

On a similar topic, if you merely have a nasty dog bite on your arm, you'll get rabies shots, right? But what if your guardians aren't picking up the phone? Will you be kept overnight if the sun's starting to set? Will your friends be able to stay in the room? Will they have to wait? If so, how easy is it for a nurse to sneak them in--and how often does that really happen?

Rabies and tetanus probably, depends where it's set. Britain no longer has rabies, but the US of A does. If the bite got infected, you would then be put onto antibiotics.
If you're parents/guardians aren't answering phones, you will be asked for someone else to contact eg. Grandparents, older siblings, uncles/aunts. If no family members are available they may ask for your teacher.
If the Doctors suspected rabies, you would definitely be kept overnight, no question about it.
I wouldn't have thought your friends would be allowed to stay, as it's usually just next of kin. They'd probably be sent home (after a check to make sure they're okay).
If the nurse was nice enough, he/she'd probably let your friends in to see you longer than usual. They certainly wouldn't be refused access to you, unless you were severely hurt.

Third topic. Say you have PTSD or, well, you've been through a lot of traumatic experiences. You're in therapy because of it at, say, sixteen/seventeen. You live with your aunt and uncle. Your therapist's father was a therapist and she followed in his shoes but isn't really, ahem, that good.

^Simply: What would go on during a therapy session in general? How much is the therapist allowed to tell a minor's caretakers? (How not good/skeevy can you be before you're fired or whatever? Just curious.)

Basically, the therapist would get you to talk about your experience if you were able to. They'd ask you how you felt about it, just generally see if you're coping with the experience.
A therapist may not tell the persons parents anything, unless they're under 16 (I think it may be 18 in the US of A) without permission. Doctor/Patient confidentiality.
Really, if you can get away with being rubbish at your job you won't get fired. If lots of patients complain however, the therapist may be investigated. It all depends on whether they get caught.

Hope this helped!

Chiming in on a few aspects.

I'm in no way an expert on any of the medical aspects, but I'm sure enough to wager a small amount of money (like, a dollar) that your character would be given antibiotics regardless. i.e., in contrast to what Roosta said, they wouldn't wait until you showed signs of infection. They'd want to prevent infection because infections can be very bad news. They do this even for small outpatient procedures done in clean hospital environments. A dog bite (and mouths have all sorts of lovely bacteria in them) plus the wooded environment = asking for an infection = antibiotics.

In regards to the therapist, a lot depends on what type of bad the therapist is. There's the "technically doing everything right just not...good" sort, where the person is following the law and the procedures but just is no genius at helping people work through issues. And then there's the bad as in the malpractice sort, where rules are getting broken and ethics breached. You said skeevy, so I imagine you mean the latter. Here it'd depend on a) country and b) state/province if applicable, and also the nature of the offenses, and if anyone bothers to report it. Ask Google. Read up some statements of patients rights relevant to your story's area, and maybe Google some malpractice suit cases to give you ideas of the severity.

Finally, though, to something I do know quite a bit about: the dogs. (Dog-trainer-in-training and shelter volunteer, though by no means an expert). At least, as far as the US is concerned.

1) Animal control would be called in. In the US, this is often part of the sheriff department. County-operated shelters are legal requirements, and their duties are to protect animals from people and people from animals. Here we have the latter case with an animal attacking a human. Thus, animal control gets called in. They'd round up the dogs within reasonable means, and if they didn't catch them, there'd be some sort of warning released to the public to warn of stray dogs and to call if seen plus a list of recommendations on how to deal with stray animals to calm all the people who freak out over such press releases.

2) Any of the dogs that bit your character (or the friends) would need to be examined for rabies. To the best of my knowledge, this requires killing the animal. Another reason why they'd need to be rounded up.

3) The dogs that attacked would almost certainly be euthanized. If there were other dogs present that did not attack the humans, they might be allowed to live if they are deemed to be no threat, but I find it unlikely that one or two dogs would attack and a third or fourth wouldn't show any signs of aggression at all.

4) If the dogs were feral or long-time strays, people freak out. If they were short-term strays or newly escaped from a backyard or house of the owner, then people get really angry, and the owner faces consequences. Fines, usually.

5) This isn't so much a point as it is a request, but please don't make the dogs pit bulls. Or German shepherds. Or Dobermans. Or Rotties. Or other breeds with bad raps. Doing so would only increase the bad rap these dogs get (and it breaks my little Rache heart). I've met some pitties sweeter than Labradors in my day, and some Labradors with nasty temperments. Any dog can be dangerous (most could crush your hand with one bite or tear a vein from your throat if they chose, but most wouldn't, unless they were for one reason or another encouraged to do so).

And to be honest, I find it unlikely that your characters would come away from an attack by a large to very large dogs with only a few bites anyway...especially from a breed with fighting instincts. Pitties and German shepherds, for instance, are quite good at biting and not letting go, no matter how hard you yank or shake. YouTube some police dog training videos if you want to see a full grown, fit male be taken down by a German shepherd. (A remarkable thing about German shepherds being how they'll release on command, which is why they're chosen for police dogs. Huge, extremely loyal, extremely powerful, extremely obedient.)

I'm about 5'8", and when we had this Labrador I'm about to mention, I was probably about 135-140 pounds. In other words, probably either taller and bigger than your characters if they're female, or around the same size if they're high school males. This dog put tooth holes in her metal food dish by accident, and carried around railroad ties in her mouth. To give you an idea of how heavy a railroad tie is, try 200 pounds on average. This might have been half of one, but it would still have been 100 pounds. Also, she was so powerful, she nearly pulled me over on walks on the occasions she abruptly decided she wanted to chase something. She was about 70lbs, half my weight, several times my strength.

Terriers. Beagles. Smaller breeds, right? Still ferociously strong.

What did your characters do to provoke the dogs? Or were they actually rabid? I ask because why the dogs attacked would determine how your characters managed to get away as well as how much damage they did. If the dogs were feeling aggressive for whatever reason, especially if they were rabid, I'd have a hard time imagining what they could have done to get the dogs to stop, other than killing the dogs. Because they'd keep on attacking unless you broke their concentration somehow and invoked flight over fight (A sudden and hugely loud noise, like that of a blow horn. Works extremely well.)

A more likely scenario that I could picture would be your characters approaching the dogs, and going in to pet one of them, and getting bit pretty severely, and the screams scaring them away. Then you get one friend badly hurt and pretty shaken and the rest scared but okay.

Basically, I'm having trouble figuring out why it is that all the dogs would attack unless they were provoked (wittingly or unwittingly) or they were rabid or they were trained to attack anything.

Going back to what animal services would do if it were the case of one dog biting and then all of them running off, the one that did the biting would be killed and evaluated for rabies, and the others would probably undergo a behavior evaluation to see if they're dangerous to themselves, other animals, or humans.