Yeah, see, this is somthing that these dog owners just don’t seem to get. Your dog may be fine, your dog may be non-aggressive and nice, your dog may not attack other dogs. But mine will. Which is why I always keep her on a leash. But even with her on leash, if you can’t get your dog away, I can’t stop my dog from attacking your dog. It’s not in my interest that you should leash your dog, it’s in yours.
I am also sick of the whole “my dog is under voice control” bullshit. I have only met one dog in my life that was under enough voice control to back off when being attacked by another dog. Forgive me for not trusting you.
Exactly, Necros. I ranted for quite a while after that scene.
Just wanted to post back and mention that, although I kind of liked the idea about tossing gravel… gravel is not easy to come by at the beach!
And, Procupine, great link! Too bad those of us who actually understand dog behavior read that stuff. I wish the morons who refuse to control and leash their pets would read up.
Dogzilla, you don’t actually have to have gravel. That’s the cool thing. You just have to reach down and pretend to pick up gravel. Apparantly every semi-aggressive dog has already had a gravel experience and will respond accordingly. I’ve done it successfully on grass, pavement, dirt, and cement. I’ve only had to throw once in dozens of encounters.
I don’t even have a dog and I really liked Porcupine’s links as well. The author(s) has a great conversational style.
I really enjoyed the pit bull that came after me today as I drove past on my scooter (bike). I got to test the acceleration and thankfully it was pretty quick, because he was barreling at me full force. I’m thinking a can of mace on board wouldn’t be a bad idea. I would have loved to have aimed it behind me and just let a cloud of it loose. Freaking idiot owners and their chasing dogs.
When people ask me why they should leash their dog in urban settings, I always say:
All it takes in ONE SQUIRREL.
Yeah, sure, little Muffy listens to you all the time. Well, all the time except for that one time where her prey drive is so strong she just HAS to chase that squirrel.
Above all else, leash laws are meant to protect the animals themselves.
That dog does sound aggressive - at least dog-aggressive. I hope someone can do something about it before someone else, or someone else’s pet gets hurt.
Damn, and AGAIN with the unleashed dogs. This morning I was letting my dogs do their business (leashed) and the little yappy dog across the way came barrelling toward us barking to beat the band. I think my Rottie thought it was breakfast. I had to hurry my dogs back inside until it went away again. Fucking little ratdog.
Agree wholeheartedly with the OP. A couple of weeks ago I was rollerblading with my border collie - two golden retrievers who were off the leash ran right up to us, barking aggressively and started to bite my dog. No sniffing, growling, anything, they drew blood. I had a tough time trying to calm the situation, Casey (my dog) being on an extender leash and me wearing rollerblades. I gave one of the two a hefty kick as it was biting my dog. Casey then managed to slip his collar over his head and get in a few bites of his own before running a short disance away. We were right next to a busy 4 lane road so I was worried that he would run into the road. I yelled at him to sit and stay, which he did - by now the owner of the goldens had grabbed them and was walking away - no apology, but I think he was just trying to get them out of there fast.
I was 12 years old, schoolbag on the shoulder, and walking towards the train station at 7.30am to catch the train that would get me to school on time. I knew we had a Latin test that day first lesson so in my head I was running through the noun cases we had learnt last week when all of a sudden this vicious dog came running out from the front gate of the house I has just passed and bit me right in the calf muscle of my left leg. It tore right through my trousers like fire and I jumped about swinging my leg to try to throw it off, and when it finally fell I jumped on its skull with both feet, but my weight landed mostly on its neck - which did the job well enough. I never went back to the house and explained what had happened or expressed my ‘deepest regrets’. Why should I?
I grew up with plenty of animals around the house (mostly cats and hamsters etc, not dogs) so from experience I am not against the concept of domesticated pets. I believe they can contribute to a warm household. However, I simply don’t understand the blinded sentimentality that some have towards their dogs despite the fact that dogs are killers. “Sure!”, some people say, “some dogs are like that!, but not mine - they’re just frisky. They love to play. See him nipping your ankles, that means he likes you.”
Yeah, he may be playing with you because you’re his ‘family’, but he’s threatening me. Don’t you dog owners see that?
Admittedly, dogs may have been great companions for a time during the history of humanity; bloodyminded loyalty, deep fear and suspicion of strangers and an understated lethality, make them the perfect best friend to have on your side in times of trouble. But haven’t they outdone their usefulness today? If you want a friend make one. If you want a bodyguard, hire one. Don’t fish outside your own species to find a companion who will love through thick or thin simply because you feed it.
While I wish that the dog attack I experienced at 12 had never happened, I do not regret killing the dog, and I will do the same to the next dog that attacks me.
cankerist, though I understand you’ve had a bad experience, you are generalizing to the extreme when you say that “dogs are killers.” Get some perspective.
First, you’re the one making the claim that “dogs are killers” (presumably of people - that is what you’re claiming, right), so you back up the claim.
Second, it’s not generally possible to provide proof of a negative. , but I have some data from the CDC. After a quick search, I found the following: there were 279 deaths due to dog attacks in the U.S from 1995 to 1996. The report estimated about 55 million dogs in the U.S. I’d hardly consider this signficant. Do you?
Also, dogs were domesticated from wolves. I couldn’t find evidence at the CDC website of wild wolves attacking people, except for domesticated wolf hybrids included in the first link above. Also, since dogs were domesticated from wolves, if wolves were predisposed to attack humans, how would they ever have been domesticated to begin with? Are you claiming that humans are the natural prey of wolves?
I just realized the title of the CDC report and the numbers I quoted make things look a lot worse they really are. The 279 deaths from dog bites are for the period from 1979 to 1994, not 1995 to 1996 as I stated originally. So that’s about 18 deaths per year.
I could say the same thing about all the cats and hamsters you had as a child. FWIW, cats are a major problem here in Australia. They kill the native wildlife. Both cats and dogs have the instinct to hunt and kill. Just because cats don’t attack humans doesn’t make it untrue.
I am a responsible dog owner, I train my dog, I socialised him, took him to puppy school, keep him leashed. As a result he is a happy, loving, and well adjusted dog who wouldn’t hurt a fly. He brings me joy and happiness every single day. Take your anger out on irresponsible owners, not the dogs who don’t have a choice on who their owners are.
Captain Blunty
O.K., I am perhaps overreacting, but my feelings on this issue run pretty deep. Yes, I should qualify that my anger is directed at irresponsible owners. The fact that I fail to understand the attraction of owning a dog shouldn’t be transferred to a blanket condemnation of dog owners across the board. Sorry about that.
porcupine
I’m sorry that you don’t consider even just one death significant and that you are so ready and willing to right off a human death as part of the trade off for the benefits of owning a dog.
Oh, I see your point now: - “Humans are more dangerous than dogs, therefore dogs are safe.” An elegantly presented logical argument that has really cut out the foundations of my position. Well done.
cankerist, I meant statistically insignficant. Please explain how you consider 18 deaths/55,000,000 dogs per year (.0000327%) to be evidence that dogs are generally predisposed to kill people.
And where’s your cite to back up your claim, BTW?
As an aside, I’m glad to see the CDC report discourage (or at least not encourage) breed specific legislation and encourage holding asshole owners responsible. From the link above:
lno Obviously, they should all be put down, and their owners beaten with large sticks.
I’m going to second guess your rather innocent question and presume that your point is that some dogs are useful, friendly or even indispensable, therefore cankerist your anti-dog ownership rant is bollocks.*
Look, I have no problem with people who are using dogs to help them overcome a disability, in much the same way that I don’t condemn the use of opiates for medical purposes or the use of firearms for law enforcement, however, I do not believe there is a reason for everyone to be carrying a gun while on smack. If you want to reduce an argument to its logical (absurd) conclusion in an attempt to discredit the argument, then that’s up to you, but I don’t believe that critical-thinking people will be persuaded.
*Forgive me if I have read too much into your question