OT bad experience today

[Robert Bonomi]

You mean you _don't_ have dimples, Chad?

And _nothing_ 'hanging', Chad?

[Rick Cook]

I would say that the responsible pit bull owners far out-number the irresponsible owners. But that doesn't mean the irresponsible/psycho owners don't exist and that they don't produce some very dangerous dogs. (Hell, there are creeps out there who fight their dogs.) As I say, some people shouldn't be allowed to own a goldfish.

But those are the owners, not the breed.

No one should let their dog of any breed run around loose. That is irresponsible and dangerous to the dog and everyone else. Dogs that run loose tend to have real short life spans. I can't understand how anyone who claims to care for a dog can allow it.

Well, if the dog is viscous, it's not going to be moving very fast. :-) Seriously, being confronted by any dog that is acting aggressively is scary. It shouldn't happen and it is a sign of an irresponsible owner to let a dog run loose.

The fact that are no inherently dangerous breeds doesn't mean there aren't any dangerous dogs.

Don't confuse dog-related deaths with dog bite incidents. Problems with identification aside, dogs like Rotts and pit bulls are strong, fast animals and when they do bite they tend to do a lot of damage. I'm not surprised they account for a disproportionate number of deaths. But apparently, as best we can judge from the dog bite reports, the _number_ of biting incidents pretty much tracks the popularity of the breed.

You should not have to tolerate _any_ dog growling on your property. Any dog that does is a candidate for removal -- either by animal control in a reasonably well-policed county or by more direct means if you don't have that option.

--RC

[Lobby Dosser]

[e-mail] (Dave Mundt) wrote in news: [e-mail]:

And probably got nailed by a cat!

[Lobby Dosser]

Prometheus wrote in news: [e-mail]:

What's provocation to a dog may not be provocation to us. The Collie, BTW, is up there with the other larger breeds on the CDC list I posted.

[Lobby Dosser]

"mp" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

According to the CDC, Fluffy The Yorkie killed at least one person. Had to have been an infant, or the Yorkie From Hell.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

You are probably correct, but you can't prove it by my real life experience. I've known of a half dozen pit bulls that are downright vicious. So are their owners. I just don't happen to know of any good dogs and good owners no matter how many exist.

The Pit Bull has become a status symbol for punks, gander members and other unsavory character. Cruise through a major city in the "lesser" neighborhoods and you will see them. The hoodlum wannabe walking his pet pit bull. He may not be able to flaunt a gun, so he does the next best thing for status.

IIRC correctly, the dog in Our Gang Comedy was a pit bull. Dobermans are also docile when bred properly, nasty when not. Probably other breeds too.

[J T]

Re: OT bad experience today Group: rec.woodworking Date: Sun, Oct 3, 2004, 8:27am (EDT-1) [e-mail] (Prometheus) says: ROFL!! You just made me imagine trying to turn my 70-lb. Collie into an attack dog- he'd much rather sleep on the couch than eal someone alive.

Dunno. There was a story about an attack rabbit, a few years back. Seems some young idiots had constantly teased it, over a period of time. It would actually jump at people and try to bite them. I didn't bother to check to verify it, but sounds like something that could happen. I do remember reading about it, and believe I saw something on it on TV. But, you know how true those TV news stories are.

JOAT We will never have great leaders as long as we mistake education for intelligence, ambition for ability, and lack of transgression for integrity.

- Unknown

[mp]

I'd imagine if you let a Yorkie chew on your flesh over an extended period of time it'll eventually kill you. Maybe.

[Charlie Self]

JOAT notes:

Oh, I dunno. Might be the same attack rabbit Jimmy Carter saw.

Charlie Self "Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles." Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

[Lobby Dosser]

[e-mail] (J T) wrote in news: [e-mail]:

There was the one that jumped in Jimmy Carter's boat. That got big press for a while.

[Bmchan]

[George]

That's the key. Owner's the influence.

We've a large but well-behaved German shepherd, and some of my daughter's college friends from Chicago wouldn't come close even when he was showing all the "friendly" signs. Reason was "where we come from the only people who have dogs like that are people who want vicious dogs."

Personally, I believe the larger the dog, the better he must behave.

[J. Clarke]

Or the one that Arthur, King of the Britons slew with the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.

[Mike Marlow]

Well, where I live in upstate NY, the whitetail deer is an extremely dangerous animal and considered by some to be a very real threat to human existence. It is for this very reason, and the deep and abiding concern I hold for my fellow man that I devote myself unselfishly to the annual pursuit of this animal in the name of eradicating this particular threat to humanity.

[Mike Marlow]

This entire thread boarders on a religious war so I was going to stay out of the thick of it, but at one point while reading all of the overstatements on both sides of the issue the thought did occur to me that it was not that long ago that German Shepherds and Dobermans were spoken of exactly the way the Pit Bull is today. Especially the Doberman - it was common folk lore and fire talk to rag on how they turned on their owners with no warning or provocation. Stay tuned - someone is yet bound to introduce the Rottweiller into this thread...

[D. J. Dorn]

Sorry, can't buy it. I had a pit bull and spent a great deal of time with it hunting and just being out in the woods. I noticed that even in the house, there was agression I didn't care for. One day, he almost took out the front door of the house trying to get at a horse that was walking down the street. About a month later, we were in the country and a 900 lb steer grunted at him during a staredown. I saw it coming but was too late - the dog attacked the steer in the throat and was then tossed outwardly by the steer turning in circles. The dog couldn't hang on and hit a post through centrifugal force when the grip gave way. He shook it off and went back after the running steer and went under and grabbed the underside with the steer hitting it with its hooves while running. I aimed to shoot the dog but couldn't get a good shot without possibly hitting the steer. The steer finally collapsed on top of the dog which still wouldn't let go. I ran to the dog and turned the collar enough to make him let go and then took him to the truck. Drove immediately to the vet and had the dog put down and then the vet and I went to the steer. He said it almost died but not from the wounds which didn't penetrate the leather but rather exhaustion.

I miss the dog because he was loyal but he couldn't be trusted. You're probably going to assume it's something I did but all I can do is assure you that he lived in a normal household enviornment with no teasing or tauting and lots of human contact. While I don't think he would have ever attacked a human, I couldn't take the chance because if he would have, there wouldn't have been a chance in hell. A 40 lb dog against a 900 lb steer and the steer didn't have a prayer - that dog made sounds during the attack I hadn't heard in an animal before.

Don

bulls

[ann archy]

eminem responded reasonably -

el correcto... as the owner of a number of dobies over the past 20+ years, friend of many others, and having known a number of rottweilers, etc, i know there are all kinds of factors which determine a dog's personality, how it will *tend* to react in various stressful situations, and how it *might* react under extreme situations...

dogs are people too: they have definite individual personalities, quirks, habits, and tendencies; our training, discipline and interaction can all obviously influence how their personalities are expressed...

of course, *any* breed can be made more viscious if that character trait is bred for (purposefully, or as a result of coexisting with some other trait being bred for), or trained for... obviously, the bigger/stronger/ more agressive breeds are going to make that much more of a threat when they 'go bad'...

i'd be willing to bet dollars to donut holes that there are *really* far more dog bites from chihuahua's than any other breed; its just that while 90% of the doberman/etc bites may get reported in some fashion, i bet 90% of the chihuahua 'bites' don't get reported because A. it's embarassing B. what's to report ? ow, i got four little dents on my ankle...

some of the most consistently agressive, badly behaved, and snappy dogs i have met, are the yipyap breeds; the thing is, because they can be swept aside with your foot, their 'agression' is not as threatening as a pit/dobie/etc, and thus is often not recognized as the nasty behavior it is...

some very few dogs are just born mean, a bunch more are made mean by willful or casual mistreatment, and *any* dog -regardless of training- can 'go postal' if it is in circumstances where it feels threatened and can't escape...

same goes for people...

dogs is people too...

charley

eof

[Larry Blanchard]

According to dog breeders I've spoken to, the Doberman was once bred for agressiveness. I certainly remember them that way from my (long ago) childhood. But in the last few decades, the agressiveness has been deliberately bred out of them. The few I've met recently have certainly been a lot friendlier than the ones long ago.

The same may apply to the German Sheperd - I don't know about them.

But I do have a question - what is a pit bull? What were they bred from? I'm familiar with bull terriers, but the dogs I've seen called pit bulls look more like a boxer/Rottweiler mix. They weren't around in my earlier years.

[George]

You must be pretty old indeed.

yes, answer to your childish plaint is still the same - in the minds of the perpetrators.

[Dave Hinz]

(snip story of dog endangering people)

Over in misc.rural, I've seen the "3 S's" - Shoot, Shovel, and Shut up. If the dog goes after my kid, the dog will be dead, and the backhoe will make noise for a minute or three.