Parental Instinct

Voltex

Hi..went to visit a family relative today with my wife and two sons. My relatives have a cross between a pointer and a springer spaniel..this dog has been in the family years and is a wonderful pet. But when we visited today there was a new dog there...a much younger male who seemed very gentle but jumpy..so I kept my 3 yo right beside me.

as we walked across the patio the new dog came over to my son...took a sniff..backed off a little and then just lashed out at him...as he tried to bite, he caught hold of my sons t-shirt. It was right then I just grabbed this quite large dog by the troat and slammed it to the ground...I had the dog so tight by the neck I could feel its wind pipe...I turned to see if my son was ok because he was screaming his head off...so i couldnt tell if he was hurt. all i could do was hold this dog down.

It was at that point i realised that I could have actually killed the dog in a moment by crushing its wind pipe...and i was ready to do it..but then I think what seperates us from animals kicked in. I could see my son was actually unharmed...although very frightened.

It was then I let the dog go and went to pick up my son. The dog ran away and hid behind some plants.
the point i think is that i was very very surprised by the strenght of a parents instincts to protect their children. I havent a violent bone in my body..yet I was quite prepared to kill that dog on the spot if it posed any sort of further threat to my son.

Wantobe

That's amazing, isn't it? I remember years ago getting up in the middle of the night and coming downstairs to the kitchen which was in darkness. One of my brothers thought it would be funny to hide behind the door and when I came through to frighten me. I couldn't see who it was, thought there was an intruder and instinct took over. I roared at him and went for him- it is a really strange feeling- like the animal part of your brain just takes over and I just went into fight mode. Never felt anything like it since, thankfully. But in that moment, I could have killed the 'intruder'.

Hope your relatives never have that dog loose around other children again.

bohsboy

Its amazing what you can do if you really dig deep, there was a famous story in England of a mother lifting a car by herself to get her child out from under it. Will try and find a link.

Jaden

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2636/supermom

Deliverance

Voltex wrote: »

Hi..went to visit a family relative today with my wife and two sons. My relatives have a cross between a pointer and a springer spaniel..this dog has been in the family years and is a wonderful pet. But when we visited today there was a new dog there...a much younger male who seemed very gentle but jumpy..so I kept my 3 yo right beside me.

as we walked across the patio the new dog came over to my son...took a sniff..backed off a little and then just lashed out at him...as he tried to bite, he caught hold of my sons t-shirt. It was right then I just grabbed this quite large dog by the troat and slammed it to the ground...I had the dog so tight by the neck I could feel its wind pipe...I turned to see if my son was ok because he was screaming his head off...so i couldnt tell if he was hurt. all i could do was hold this dog down.

It was at that point i realised that I could have actually killed the dog in a moment by crushing its wind pipe...and i was ready to do it..but then I think what seperates us from animals kicked in. I could see my son was actually unharmed...although very frightened.

It was then I let the dog go and went to pick up my son. The dog ran away and hid behind some plants.
the point i think is that i was very very surprised by the strenght of a parents instincts to protect their children. I havent a violent bone in my body..yet I was quite prepared to kill that dog on the spot if it posed any sort of further threat to my son.

That is human nature. It is simplistic and a driving force depending on the situation. The final episode of 'MASH' is on my mind after reading this thread.

'Hawkeye' had a breakdown where it was revealed that war and threats to survival showed the extremes that we will all go to to survive in extreme situations.

There really are levels of extremes that we will go to in different circumstances, that is for sure.

Das Kitty

What did you do about the dog Voltex? I know they're your relatives but they aren't training that dog properly if he so quickly tried to take on your son like that.

It could have been so different had you not reacted as you did.