Dangerous Dogs

[Teacher Terry]

Our 80lb old guy loves Home Depot and the workers often carry treats. However, he is very well behaved and would not be sniffing people. We had a 18lb old rescue dog that had been abused and was on pain medication. If kids came over we crated her in our bedroom and closed the door to be on the safe side. If a dog bites I think you have to look at the circumstances. I know of a incident where the owner disciplined the dog by hitting his back end. The dog had back pain and a horrible double ear infection and when the owner went to hit him the dog bit a piece of his lip off. 4 years later we lstill have the big guy. Had his infections treated and on 2 medications for back pain. He is very loving and sweet. I told the vet when we took him so they would muzzle him. If he ever bit again I would put him down. We don’t let him by kids because kids are unpredictable and could hit him. I think he only bit because of the pain he was in. I had told the owner previously not to use hitting as discipline.

[flowerseverywhere]

We used to be long distance bike riders and we often rode in groups. One rider had a huge scar down his leg inflicted by an off leash black Lab. A Black Lab of all things. Almost everyone had a story of being attacked or bit by a dog. We weren’t bit but a half dozen times had to evade a dog attack. One time a postman stopped to help me when a dog came after me. In every instance the owner said “he won’t hurt you.”


There is a reason for leash laws.
https://www.caninejournal.com/dog-bite-statistics/
4.7 million dog bites a year in the US.

And nauseating list of deaths by dogs per year. So many deaths of infants.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fata..._United_States

How do you ever get over the death of an baby attacked by your pet

[flowerseverywhere]

One more story. I had my gallbladder surgically removed this year. The day after my surgery I was walking gingerly down the street and a woman came towards me with an untrained dog pulling at the very long leash. I crossed the street to avoid her and she said “she is a sweetie and won’t hurt you”. I said “I had surgery yesterday and please keep your dog away so she won’t jump on me.” The lady said to her dog “ ignore that mean lady, I love you”.

When it comes to dogs, people are crazy.

[Teacher Terry]

We didn’t have dogs when raising the kids because my husband would not agree to a indoor dog and I was not making a dog live outside in Wisconsin. Then our youngest was born with bad allergies and asthma by age 1. When we walk our dogs big or small it doesn’t matter they are always on leash. Off leash dogs scare me. Be responsible.

[Teacher Terry]

Flowers when I look at the studies it appears that many of those instances were preventable.

[catherine]

One more story. I had my gallbladder surgically removed this year. The day after my surgery I was walking gingerly down the street and a woman came towards me with an untrained dog pulling at the very long leash. I crossed the street to avoid her and she said “she is a sweetie and won’t hurt you”. I said “I had surgery yesterday and please keep your dog away so she won’t jump on me.” The lady said to her dog “ ignore that mean lady, I love you”.

When it comes to dogs, people are crazy.

My BIL was like that with his dog. He was obsessive over his min pin. He would walk him with a lot of leash on his retractable, and he wouldn't rein him in when people were approaching him on the sidewalk because his attitude was "Everyone should love my dog." When some of the women in the neighborhood recoiled and moved away or crossed the street (he should have been the one to cross the street), he would call them idiots for not knowing that his dog wasn't vicious. Some people really are too self-absorbed.

[Miss Cellaneous]

One of my friends has an all black German Shepherd guide dog. That dog looks like a wolf. People jump away from it, clearly not knowing that guide dogs are carefully tested and any people or dog aggressive dogs are weeded out of the training programs. (Some of the "rejects" become police dogs, some become pets.) While that dog may look scary, she is a sweetheart and very, very, well-behaved.

I witnessed a pit bull mix attacking my cousin's mini schnauzer. The big dog just raced across the town common at a Memorial Day affair and grabbed the little dog, who was sleeping at the time, so not being aggressive in any way, by the stomach. It took 3 men to separate the dogs, and the schnauzer spent a week at the vet.

My cousin filed a complaint with the town. She found out that after 3 complaints against a dog, the dog's owner was required to remove the dog from the town. Not have it put down, just get it out of town permanently. She also found out that 4 other complaints had been filed previously against this dog. But it is a small town, and the father of the dog's owner is a good friend of the mayor, so no one had enforced the rules. She made a fuss, hired a lawyer, put up posters with pictures of her dog after surgery and the caption, "What if it's a child next time?" and after 5 months of fighting town hall, the owner was forced to re-home the dog.

[merince]

A few years ago a dog fighting ring got busted in our area and over a hundred dogs were "rescued". The shelters were overrun with pit type dogs and crosses. They are still dominating the shelters. I don't think a proper vetting was done to the people who ended up adopting those dogs. The shelters were issuing appeals and encouraging people to adopt multiples. It is a difficult situation all around.

A lot of those dogs require the owner to be an "alpha" all the time and a specific pecking order enforced 24/7 and are not suitable for situations with small children involved. The lady certainly was not "on" at the time, the leash was stupid for this dog/owner combo.

[Gardenarian]

My dog was also recently attacked by a pit bull. She is okay, but needed stitches and antibiotics.

I really dislike pit bulls. Any dog can do something unpredictable - it's usually only with pit bulls that the consequences are deadly. It's not their personality, it's simply the size and power of their jaws. They're like a 3 year old with a shotgun.

[IshbelRobertson]

Pit bulls and similar breeds were banned in the UK after so many attacks and deaths here, especially children.

When my daughter was about 8 we joined my friend and her same aged daughter, together with her 3 under 5 boys, to walk their Jack Russell puppy in Holyrood Park, a local public open space. It is always busy with locals plus tourists anxious to climb Arthur’s Seat, a local landmark. The wee pup was about 6 or 7 months and on a lead, held by the daughter. Two HUGE rotweillers, off leads, raced towards them, snapping and snarling. The wee girl panicked and dropped the lead running back to us. One of the dogs ran up to her, jumped on her back, pushing her to the ground anf then biting her arm. The other dog started killing the JR, and the ensuing noises caused the dkog to stop mauling. the girl and join his pack brother in finishing off the puppy. The whole thing was traumatising in the extreme. Five kids screaming, my friend trying to see the damage done to her daughter, i was trying to get the other boys closer and to quieten them.

We were lucky. A police car was driving through the park and one of the constables jumped out and started swinging at the dogs with a retractable truncheon thingy. His colleague joined in after calling in the incident. They managed to hold the 2 dogs. The owner came running up and told them his dogs wouldn’t hurt a fly

The owner never even wrote to apologise. He was taken to Court under the Dangerous Dogs Act, after his dogs were destroyed.

I’ll never forget that day, and none of those kids have forgotten it, either.