My dog bit the neighbor girl

[lunghushan]

First of all, the "there's no such thing as a bad dog" bit is nonsense. Some individual dogs are just 'off' and some breeds are quantifiably more dangerous and unpredictable. People who go out of their way to own such breeds are just irresponsible and asking for trouble.

The owner is responsible for the actions of his pet, but its more than a little harsh and inappropriately simple to just tell the guy to put down an old friend.

I haven't really found this to be true. A lot of people complain about pit bulls or rottweilers or dobermans, but I've run across plenty of these dogs that well trained. I've also run across some pit bulls who were trained to be nasty.

Like a neighbor of my grandmothers had a pit bull and would train it by having it jump at a cloth on a rope, while beating it down and kicking it. They had the rope swinging from the roof and the dog would play for hours, jumping in the air and biting the cloth, and hanging there about 4 feet in the air and not letting go.

I actually played with that poor dog when it got loose on several occasions, and it never bit me. In fact, I experimented on it a bit by seeing how good its grip was, by playing fetch with a chew toy and then trying to pull it away. Pit bulls have incredible jaw strength.

[unkokusai]

I haven't really found this to be true. A lot of people complain about pit bulls or rottweilers .

You don't have to find anything. Its a fact that more people are killed by Pitts and Rotts than any other breeds.

[lunghushan]

You don't have to find anything. Its a fact that more people are killed by Pitts and Rotts than any other breeds.

And it's also true that a lot of people train these dogs to be killers.

Anyways I don't think that unless you've been raised around dogs and people with dogs, that you really know how to deal with dogs. And some breeds of dogs like Rotts and pit bulls need some extra care and attention.

You abuse by locking up, leaving home alone, not paying attention to, playing with, providing compansionship with other dogs for, socializing with other people, providing room to roam, etc., a lot of dogs, they won't do much -- they're too mellow. But you fail to train, or abuse a rott or pit bull you could find you have an ill tempered dog with very good weapons.

Better just get a cat.

Heck -- I've known people who raised 1/2 wolves, and they were great dogs. Sure, they'd get out and kill somebody's rabbit once in a while, but that was just the wolf in them.

[TenTigers]

My dog is a flatcoat retriever, which is bred from retriever and newfie-he's big. He's a total mush, and will lie on his back for a belly rub from Charles Manson.
But..when he was less than a year old, a house guest's demon seed spawn of hell child,who was four reached into Bear's cage and grabbed his face and gouged him in the eyes. To this day, he is afraid of little children and has to be kept away from them or he will nip.
Actually, he has gotten better in his old age, but he is constantly surrounded by people, as he is the school mascot.-but he stays in the office when there are children present.
He's gettin on in years, and a bit fat in the rump. Should fry up nice.

[Black Jack II]

Actually thats not a fact at all. Show me that fact. You just hear about them more because the media gets more miles out of that breed. It's utter bs with no foundation. Bad dogs unless born "off" due to uneducated/unethical breeding are rare. You find more nasty tempered golden's due to the puppy factories than pits. When you see off pits its often because of red neck or inner city ghetto rollers.

As stated I have been around working breeds almost my whole life, including rasing american pit bull terriers. If you know anything about the history of the pit bull you would see why that comment makes no sense from a historical workding perspective but since your uneducated about the whole deal you might as well stay in the dark anyway.

The owner is responsible for the actions of his pet, but its more than a little harsh and inappropriately simple to just tell the guy to put down an old friend.-

Not really. Your saving him from future grief number one. The second aspect, as he already noted in his own post is the welfare of others, it takes a honest pet owner to understand that part.

[lunghushan]

You find more nasty tempered golden's due to the puppy factories than pits.

The dogs that I've run across the most that are nasty tempered are usually that way because they are kept locked up alone all the time, so they bark and do things for attention.

It's pretty sad, really, because doggie years are shorter than human years so all day to a dog alone all locked up is like a week for a person or something.

[TenTigers]

I don't know about you guys, but I have met many a rottie that were mush dogs-playful,lovable pets. Same with dobies and shepards. Don't blame the breed. Dogs are like people (jeez, could I sound any more like a dog lover?) we get bad kids also-but you have to look no further than the parents.
There is a problem with overbreeding, puppymills, etc, just as we have kids born with biochemical imbalances, but for the most part, it is enviornmental.
I have good recipes for 'Long Pig" as well, if anyone's interested.
(face it, you will never get a straight answer out of me!)

[lunghushan]

It is kindof apt to compare dogs to kids because these days a lot of parents seem as clueless as pet owners as to how to raise kids. Then they say the kid is defective and drug them up with a lot of drugs and blame it on ADD or ausbergers or something.

'Common sense' has pretty much flown out the window these days. I blame the hippies. When in doubt, blame the hippies. LOL

[TenTigers]

yep-I was the Ritalin poster child.
Q:How many ADD kids does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: Wanna go fishing?

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

if pits are so vicous why are they not used as guard dogs?

[unkokusai]

Actually thats not a fact at all. Show me that fact.

Attribution: The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Humane Society of the United States

"The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Humane Society of the United States recently updated data on fatal dog bites for the period 1989 to 1994.

In the 6-year study published in the medical journal PEDIATRICS (Vol.97 No. 6, 891-5), Jeffrey J. Sacks, M.D. and associates reported the finding of 109 bite-related fatalities. They found that 57% of the deaths were in children under 10 years of age. 22% of the deaths involved an unrestrained dog OFF the owner's property. 18% of the deaths involved a restrained dog ON the owner's property, and 59% of the deaths involved an unrestrained dog ON the owner's property.

The researchers also found that 10% of the dog bite attacks involved sleeping infants.

The most commonly reported dog breeds involved were pit bulls (24 deaths), followed by rottweilers (16 deaths), and German shepherds (10 deaths). The authors point out that many breeds, however, are involved in the problem.

The death rate from dog bite-related fatalities (18 deaths per year) in the 6-year study period remained relatively constant compared with the prior 10 years."


Sources:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/duip/dogbreeds.pdf

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/ma...articlekey=572


http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/

http://www.cdc.gov/

http://www.hsus.org/

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/misc/about.shtml

[Samurai Jack]

Ah yes. Auatralia did a counter study, however which looked at bite averages instead of just fatalities. The results were surprising. Of the breeds researched (all recognized here in the U.S. by the AKC), the most aggressive according to number of reported bites averaged out to:

1. Maltese
2. Australian Cattle Dog
3. Fox Terrier
4. Alaskan Malamute

According to "Breeds of dogs involved in fatal human attacks in the United States between 1979 and 1998", by Jeffrey J. Sacks, MD, the Rottwieler has been involved in less fatal attacks on humans than the Dalmation, which is second only to the German Sheperd in number of fatal attacks per year. Interestingly, the American Pit bull came in tenth for that study.

Is it possible that a breeds likelihood to be aggressive toward humans might be just as, if not more important than it's "bite strength" in determining what breeds are "safe"?

Chief, I'm sorry to hear of your difficult choice. I hope the neighbor girl is okay.

[lunghushan]

Yeah but Unkokusai, please consider this is a 6 year study. Most sites seem to agree there are about 20 dog related fatalities per year out of the entire United States. That isn't very big compared to the bites.

http://www.dogbitelaw.com/PAGES/danger.htm

Although there are a LOT more bites.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/fact_book/1...e_Injuries.htm

At least in the U.S., it doesn't seem like anybody has put together good statistics on the breeds that do bite.

http://www.animallaw.info/articles/arus11conninslj1.htm

It is a little shocking though the frequency that dog bites appear to happen. I had no idea that many people were bitten every year.

[TenTigers]

How many fatalities were caused by the maltese?

[unkokusai]

How many fatalities were caused by the maltese?

Exactly. Its ridiculous to try and compare being nibbled by a lap dog and the loss of human life. By this logic, the common house cat is far more dangerous than any dog.