Anatomy of a dog attack

daddy cool wrote: ive been a dog lover/owner for as long as i can remember and none of my dogs have ever attacked anyone or anything if anything they have been on the receiving end of attacks and none of them have been what you would call small or wimpish dogs .  I see a couple of you have mentioned the "DANGEROUS DOG" line , now thats a tag that really annoys me !  my dogs have all been in that band  yet have all been attacked by "loving family" dogs  usually labs,retrievers,collies even jack russels and possibly the funniest time a minature yorkie  yet never bitten back .  it has absolutly nothing to do with the dogs themselves , its the owners that have the sort of dogs your talking about that are the problem . staffordshire pitbull terriers are the usual target for the halfwit asbo muppets that  buy them as a fashion statement  or simply over feed them to make them big and then walk around with them to make themselves look hard . (if swearing was allowed you would see how much this makes my blood boil).   so what exactly is dangerous about these beautiful animals ?  they may have the ability to do major damage but so does a poodle so whats the difference ?  ITS THE OWNERS .   dog licencing is a bloody good idea imho , it might stop these asbo wannabe's from getting hold of loving family pets and turning them into hated creatures . and finally for the record , staffies werent originally bred for fighting . they were bred as nurserie dogs to protect babies and children. im guessing some of you will never change your opinion on these types of dogs but if my experiences can give you a very small amount of positive feeling towards them then i guess my job is done .

I couldn't agree more. My dogs if they are charging at you can look extremely menacing but would never harm a thing. My black shepherd was once attacked by two dogs who ganged up on him and he actually ran so far out of sight, I had to call several times before he came back. It took me 6 months to get him to feel safe with other dogs. As for my other one, he barks at other dogs and people but thatas his way of saying "look at me, I'm here!" and thats about it.

Staffs are a fashion statement to the chav part of society and this is what gives them a bad name. They are rarely/never trained and so just work off instinct and when they do wrong are often bullied by their owners rather than shown how to do things right. As already mentioned "dangerous dogs" tag is annoying. I'm sure less than 2% of the population are violent, murderous and rapists so should we label all humans with the same tag? because this is how dogs are being labelled through no fault of their own. I'm sure all humans have the potential to be bad but it depends on their temperament and upbringing as to how they are and it's the same with dogs.

Mike

Nigel wrote: I'm very interested by all of this. I have two labradors, one chocolate, one golden, I've been around this breed and alsations for my entire life. I'm very embarrased to have to say it, but recently my dogs "packed" and attacked another dog. I am at a total loss to explain their behaviour, they were in a wood they are familiar with, they are always off lead in this wood, they mix with other dogs every day, they play with anyone who will play with them. The other dog, a spaniel, was hurt badly but has survived, its owner and I know each other, these dogs know each other. Neither the other owner or myself have a clue as to what went wrong that day, we were just having a smoke together, the dogs were doing their own thing, not playing with each other, then my golden lab attacked, and the chocolate one joined in with no worries. I've seen labradors get very annoyed, usually by silly people that think they are teddy bears and encroach onto the dogs territory. I'm at this moment very unsure what to do with my two, weve been back to the woods, I've observed them very closely, and its as if nothing has happened, but according to the original poster, I'm an irresponsible dog owner, as I just don't know what caused them to attack that day.

I did not label you an irresponsible dog owner and I did not intend for you to feel that way My whole point is to state that in cases of dogs attacking humans, it is quite often the owners fault that the dog does what it does but now always, as in the story, a lovely dog and un-provoked attack but the dog in it's own little world thought he had good reason. Some instances are un-explainable but maybe you could ask a dog behavourist or there are dog forums out there too, someone there may be able to assist?

Mike

Hmmm...difficult dogs...

I use to walk home from school in my last few years, as my lift fell through on many occasion... I remeber one day that I was walking up the road just a few blocks from my house... In the middle of the road, with no visible human support, was a huge black Rottweiler! So, naturally I gave it a wide birth and did not look at it... Just as I was passed it, it suddenly decided for some reason that I was a threat and took off at me. I, instintively, ran as fast as I could(know now that that was the wrong thing to do) away from a huge dog that was snarling and snapping at me. He did catch me and proceded to bite though my bag...lucky for me!!!

Now, I consider that to be totally unprovoked! I was not on the dogs territory or was I behaving in a threatning manner!

Yet another story...my moms new dog, that she adopted from the SPCA, seems to have a serious problem with me. The dog is seriously aggresive one moment and then he is your best friend the next. When I get home, he will run up to my car and start wildly barking at it. When I get out he gets even more aggresive. I usually get fed up and end up telling him to shut up, which makes him even more angry. After I walk inside the house, and he comes to the sliding garden door, he is fine! Will lick my hand and leave his head at the door to be loved!!! Explain that! He has been with is now for about 2 years and he still sees me as a threat. I have noticed that he also tries to stare me down on a regular basis...getting very angry and aggresive when I ignore him!

I do agree that all of the above are owner problems, but not even sure how to sort out my problem with my moms dog. Guess this is the sort of risk you get by adopting a dog...

I must admit, I am not a dog person... I rather chose a cat as my companion! No risk there ...

BB

We have a lot of staffies being walked in the woods.

In equal proportions, some are great, some are awful, in almost all circumstances when they are awful they are being walked by chav types with their caps on backwards, the owners are covered in spots and struggle to speak English without using the "F" word. When they are nice they are normaly walked by people with young familys, so I have to go with the comments above.

My own lovable breed, the labrador, are always in the top ten for biting people and other animals, but I've yet to come across anyone frightened of a lab, mores the pity !

540 V8 wrote:  A proper pedigree (as mine are) are pure bred and bred by professional breaders for particular useful attributes they have but they still need to be trained to realise those attributes.

What useful attributes does a Staffordshire bull terrier have?

Weren't they bred for fighting originally?

I'm very interested by all of this.

I have two labradors, one chocolate, one golden, I've been around this breed and alsations for my entire life.

I'm very embarrased to have to say it, but recently my dogs "packed" and attacked another dog.

I am at a total loss to explain their behaviour, they were in a wood they are familiar with, they are always off lead in this wood, they mix with other dogs every day, they play with anyone who will play with them.

The other dog, a spaniel, was hurt badly but has survived, its owner and I know each other, these dogs know each other.

Neither the other owner or myself have a clue as to what went wrong that day, we were just having a smoke together, the dogs were doing their own thing, not playing with each other, then my golden lab attacked, and the chocolate one joined in with no worries.

I've seen labradors get very annoyed, usually by silly people that think they are teddy bears and encroach onto the dogs territory.

I'm at this moment very unsure what to do with my two, weve been back to the woods, I've observed them very closely, and its as if nothing has happened, but according to the original poster, I'm an irresponsible dog owner, as I just don't know what caused them to attack that day.

540 V8 wrote: P.S. I'll bring my dogs to Gaydon next year and you can see how lovely they are

Yes Mike, I'm sure thepits would love to meet them.. 

I agree totally. I have been part of a campaign for about a year now to try and get dog ownership licenced. In order to gain a provisional licence you should be able to prove that you have the knowlege to train the dog, and show the dog will be kept in a good home. There is a scheme called the good dog citizen scheme. There are 3 levels, bronze, silver and gold. Each level is a number of tests that the dog and owner must pass to achieve that level. This would be the final test to gain the full license.

I have 3 kids all under the age of 5 so I'd never have dogs that are dangerous. Rottweilers are actually one of the most gentle species you can imagine. It's only their appearance ,the fact they are bred as guard dogs and a couple of attacks that got in the press that give them a bad name. Working dogs are bred for their particular attributes. German shepherds are good as police dogs because they are very intelligent, obidient and strong making them ideal. Rottweilers on the other hand naturally have a good temperament and are only used as guard dogs because of their agressive looks. They are not naturally hard dogs, quite the opposite infact. Pitbulls on the other hand I do have to agree, it's bred into them to be natually agressive and it was right to ban them.

That poor baby who was mauled a few months back was a tragedy and the dogs were put down for doing what they are trained to do. The people were staying round their parents pub to look after it while the owners were away. The dogs are guard dogs for the pub. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that leaving a poor defensless baby who is a stranger on their territory that they are trained to protect, was going to be at risk. The owners should not have left the dogs with the family at all or at least the dogs should have never been left with the baby for a second.

Again, it comes down to the owners NOT the dogs who are at fault. As I have what are usually used as guard/army/police dogs I'm just fed up with the bad press the dogs get but never any mention of the owners being bad owners. It's these people who give my dogs a bad name.

I know my dogs are fine with anyone, but I'd still never leave my kids with them no matter what because they may just push the dogs boundries too far and that cannot happen. I have trained my dogs to tolerate my kids. They can pull their fur, tease them, take food off them or anything like that and my dogs will just walk away or just sit there patiently waiting for it to stop!

Whether the licence scheme ever happens or not we'll never know but one thing is for sure, it's the owner who makes the dog who they are, just like it is us who makes our kids what they are.

Mike