Yet another child savaged by dog

oRlyYaRly

I feel sorry for the dog and the girl, and hope the dog's owner is f*cking ashamed of his/herself. :mad:

fits

iguana wrote:

To be fair dogs absolutely need to have time out and off their leads. Unless you have a football pitch of a garden dogs do need some time to run free. Obviously they need to be well trained before doing this, but if they don't get a regular chance to burn off steam your only storing up trouble and making them unhappy.

I think you missed my point slightly, I agree with what you are saying. I own lurchers and exercise them off lead all the time, which some people seem to think is irresponsible. I was talking about people keeping their dogs loose in the garden free to run out on the road and accost pedestrians, other pets, cyclists etc... or run off whenever they're feeling like a little loving. Whenever I have my dogs off lead I always call them back to me when I see other dogs or kids around.
I dont think theres anything inherently wrong with rottweilers or dobermanns, but there is a certain responsibility by owners to train any breed of dog. I wouldnt particularly like to see these breeds controlled any more than they are at present but mandatory puppy training courses could be a good idea.

dawballz

mountainyman wrote:

There are always dog attacks.
In every generation there are dog breeds which people buy to feel tough.
At the moment most obviously it is the Pit Bull. It is also the Rotteweiler, the Ridgeback, the Dobermann and to a lesser extent the German Shepherd.

The owners will try to make their dog act tough, they will turn it into a vicious dog. Frankly any breed can be vicious but certain breeds can do real damage. All the above breeds (except the GSD) should be banned and that means the dogs should be detroyed. Ownership of a GSD should be contingent on attending a certain amount of training.

It is true that it isn't the dog it is the owner but only a55h0les buy pit bulls and to a (much) lesser extend this is true of Rottweilers and Dobermanns. I accept that old people cna be nervous etc. and want a dog to protect the home but a GSD can do this and is also a highly trainable animal.

MM

You're full of sh1t.

meepins

peasant wrote:

Sorry mountainyman ...but that's rubbish.

Out of your sample group there, especially the Old English Sheepdog has massive aggression issues. (I know that, because I own an OES mix and have had quite some insights into OES circles)

This is just one example of how breeders can spoil a whole breed.

But generally speaking, classification (and in some cases sweeping condemnation) of dogs' behaviour and character by breed does not work.

Dogs are individuals and circumstances are individual ...and so are their owners.

The only way to assess a dog is to look at each single one, the conditions it is kept in and the way its owner trains and handles it.

The really unfortunate thing about this all is the fact that undesireable and incapable dog owners seem to focus in on certain breeds, thus tarnishing their names.

But this is not the dogs' fault.

Exactly what I was going to say.
I own German Shepard, two years old . He's a gentle giant , extremely playful and loving.Absolutely loves to play. My previous G Shepard was pretty much the same.When I'm out with him he likes to interact and play with other dogs although because he is so big the smaller dogs tend to get aggressive and snap at him.He pretty much ignores it, the only times he becomes defensive is if it's a GS as big as himself being aggressive/defensive.
The nature of a dog is very specific so generalising and saying such and such needs to be banned and so and so is more dangerous, very ill informed opinions and lacking understanding of dog behaviour and nature.
It's this lack of understanding among dog owners who leave children unsupervised with dogs that causes these incidents.
The aggressive tendancies of these big dogs have for the most part should have been bred out except for certain people specifically breeding dangerous dogs and training them to be vicious. I'd be all for rooting out these dogs but getting rid of every single one regardless is just absurd.
A case by case basis really is the way to solve the problem.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_attack