I love dogs and have three of 'em, but am terrified of pit bulls because my late labrador was attacked on three different occasions by (different) PBs and was nearly killed during one of these events (45 bites and 250+ stitches).
Today my doggie and I were strolling through the park when a guy started screaming that his dog was off the leash and to stop. Tiger and I stopped and the man’s enormous pit bull ran at us full speed. My heart nearly burst out my chest and I made Tiger sit and I stared the other dog in the eyes and said “no.” The dog, thankfully, was not aggressive and let me grab her collar and sit her down (which, retrospectively, was a really dumb thing for me to do, but it was an instinctive thing).
The guy then proceeded to hit the dog for not listening to him. I had to just turn and walk away. What the hell is wrong with people? Who lets a non-compliant dog with a breed reputation for ferocity off the leash in a public park and then hits the poor animal?
I feel your pain. I walk my beagles every day in the park. We have been attacked 3 times. Every one was a pit bull off leash. The owners apologized always saying it never did that before. I got beagles on a leash. They walk pits without leashes. The fine is 225 bucks but a cop is never around.
Once I walked past an opening and 3 loose pit bulls came running. At that time I had 1 beagle. I shoved him in a trash can and jumped up on a picnic table. I was kicking at them when the owner caught up. He explained they never did that before.
I am terrified of other people’s dogs. I grew up in a rural-ish area where a lot of people, despite a leash law, just let their dogs roam the neighborhood. Every once in a while there’d be a strange dog circling the house. When I was young, this freaked me out, as barking frightens me and I always imagined being attacked. Ditto for walking by a house and the dog runs out of their backyard at you. As far as I am concerned, the definition of “good neighbor” is “invisible fencing”.
Quincy is big on his doggie dignity. He was not happy and as they walked away he barked in victory.\ He hates to be picked up. Once when a dog ran up to us I picked him up and held him til the dog was retrieved. As soon a s it was far enough away he growled at me for picking him up.
He was abused and I think he was thrown against walls as a puppy. He has issues.
This same exact thing happened to me last summer. I took my dog on our usual walk, and walking by a house where the dog has always been on a lead, a little boy had him off the lead and was playing with him. He rushed us at warp speed. I tried to pick up my dog before he got to us but was unsuccessful and wanted to get my face out of biting range. Fortunately he wasn’t aggressive (mean), but he was all over my dog, and that kid had NO control over him. I finally got my foot between the two dogs and kicked him as hard as I could, enough to pick up my dog. I shook for an hour.
If not invisible fencing (expensive) at least a 20-30 foot lead.
I feel your pain–I often walk Widget off his leash but he’s just a little border collie and very obedient, stays right by me, whereas SpaceDawg is onleash only unless we’re at the dog park. Unfortunately there’s this stupid woman in the neighborhood who goes out with five to eight big, stupid, disobedient and aggressive dogs that she doesn’t have a single leash for any of. They come rampaging up to us and I’ve gotten tired of yelling at her about the goddamned pack she has so now I just start hollering and kicking the shit out of them as soon as they get in range. I will be damned if I’m going to end up paying for vet bills either for my small dog getting savaged or one of her 'tard dogs getting savaged by the Malemute. Since I don’t have health insurance I’m not too sanguine about getting into the middle of a bigass dog fight either. Every single time this has happened the moronic cunt just stands there shouting ineffectually at the equally brain dead dogs that pay absolutely zero attention to her. That dumb broad is a disaster waiting for a spot marked “X!” Gah, the things you see when you don’t have a gun…
I think the worst is the owners who get mad at you for defending yourself from their aggressive dogs.
Once my dad was going for a jog when a dog came running up to him and tried to bite him. He kicked the dog to protect himself and the dog’s owner started yelling at him! Clearly, my dad yelled back with some pretty angry words. It’s just astounding how people can be so blind about their animals.
Aggressive nasty dogs can be any breed. I know a person who has two labs that are so big and strong that she “can’t” walk them herself and needs to pay someone to do it. I know another person with an Italian mastiff that wasn’t really wanted in the first place, wasn’t socialized, and now isn’t exercised properly. I once saw a rottie mix tied up beside a drum circle by her owner who moved over to sit somewhere quieter; the poor thing was terrified and barked and snapped at everyone who walked past. I knew a Rhodesian ridgeback that bit several of the owners’ friends but was never put down or otherwise legally sanctioned. Accidents waiting to happen. It’s terrifying.
My sweet pit bull has twice been attacked by off-leash dogs of other breeds while he was leashed and muzzled. Please can we leave the breed out of the discussion before this turns into another pit bull thread? The common thread seems to be irresponsible owners, a question upon which I think we can all agree.
No, fuck that. Any breed CAN be aggressive and nasty, but some are a lot more likely to be.
There’s a reason that violent and nasty people prefer the breed more than others. Assume that every unknown Pit is a nasty piece of shit, because enough of them are to justify it.
I missed the edit window, but I thought I should throw in another cite from the Center for Disease control, via Wikipedia.
So one type of dog caused almost DOUBLE the fatal attacks of the 2nd most dangerous dog over a 20 year period, according to the CDC. Pit Bulls caused one third of ALL fatal dog attacks. What the fuck is wrong with people who can see statistics like this, including the fact that 2/3 of Pit Bull attacks were the first time the owner had ever noticed dangerous aggression from their dog, and still insist that there’s absolutely nothing inherently wrong with the breed.
Pit Bulls are a menace, and I will always assume an unknown one is capable of attacking, because they all ARE. The breed is known (and proven to) go from complete compliance and obedience to ruthless killer with absolutely no warning. There’s no way to tell which ones WON’T snap and try to kill you, because there’s no warning before it happens. There’s no way to separate the “good” Pit Bulls from the “bad” ones.
cowgirl, let me say that in my earlier post, though I did specify it was a pit bull, I didn’t mean to single pits out. We have been rushed by any number and variety of dogs. In the end, none of them hurt us, thankfully. My point was strictly that dogs should be restrained. I know there are well behaved dogs out there, all over the place. But there are at least as many that aren’t, and you can’t know, unless it has happened to you, what it does to my heart when I see a dog hurling at us. Ice runs through my veins.
I will second the vote for visible fencing too, but I sure don’t see much of it where I live. There is a leash law in the village where I live. It’s as simple as that. It isn’t enforced, and that pisses me off.
Can someone tell me - what are the rules in dog parks? Are there even any rules? Do you have to have proof that the dog has had its shots and all that other stuff?