yes, dogs are returned to shelters for reasons other than viciousness. New apartments don’t take pets, new people are allergic to dogs, dog won’t go outside to pee…
and the title of the thread is TWO VISCOUS PITBULLS. That you interpret “don’t look happy” in a way inconsistent with the title does not make sense. “Don’t look happy” means the dogs are not happy. Now maybe they’re sad their favorite TV got cancelled. Or, and I’m just throwing this out, it means they appear in a threatening manner which is consistent with the title of the thread.
The op didn’t appear to be discussing people confused by frowny faced dogs. The question was what to do when confronted with 2 viscous pit bulls.
They are slippery creatures, that is true.
Basically, the question could have been better written as “Two vicious 30-50 pound dogs are coming towards me” since the answer doesn’t have a lot to do with what type of dog it is, especially since identification is rather difficult in a high stress situation. How the dog was raised is much more important than the breed, and there’s no way to know that in this scenario.
From what I have read pit bulls and pit bull mixes have been involved in more fatal attacks than any other single breed by a significant margin. That should raise some alarm if under attack. I think the question was a fair question just as it was worded.
And has been quoted in every thread about dog attacks, that information is woefully inaccurate and unverifiable. There’s no significant effort made to correctly identify dog breeds involved with attacks, and the default is to call them pit bulls.
Are you talking facts or some pc mantra that needs to be adhered to?
This is what the CDC wrote after their study was widely used to support breed specific legislation:
And veterinarians and staff aren’t that good at identifying breeds either - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S109002331500310X
Bottom line, visual identification is difficult and often contradicted by DNA.
So
The original condition: Two scary looking dogs are approaching you in an place where you have no place to hide or escape
Added variable: You have a gun
Question: Won’t a gun shot scare away most dogs? So, why aim for the dog?
I don’t know a lot about hunting, but I’m pretty sure that dogs that are trained to accept gunfire are pretty well trained. They also tend to be those with less powerful jaws that won’t savage the kill.
So, why aim at the dog if you fire?
your quote said they didn’t identify which breed, not that the all dogs are equal and therefore it doesn’t matter. We all know that’s not true.
As to identifying pit bulls I call shenanigans on that. Yes, there are some dogs that resemble pit bulls in some respects. The people in my city who died horribly from pit bull attacks weren’t killed by golden retrievers.
You really need to stop this “all dogs are exactly the same” mantra. They’re not. People who use dogs for fighting choose specific breeds and they’re not Dachshunds.
I personally know people who were mauled or their pets mauled by pit bulls. They weren’t bitten, they were mauled as in the dog bit down, shook them and wouldn’t let go. The dogs had to be destroyed.
It might. If you have a 17 round magazine with a decent length barrel you can afford to be generous. That’s what I would do. If you have a 6 round magazine you’re betting you can hit what you’re aiming at and it’s in a spot that’s fatal. Most CCW guns used are small with 6 round magazines.
Personally, with a short barrel 6 round gun I’d wait until they’re almost on me and hope the 2nd dog takes the hint. I’m not going to waste a round.
Good, we’re in violent agreement on that. I don’t think anyone here has said otherwise.
That’s true, but the breeds they choose to breed for fighting have changed over the years. And they’re bred for fighting other dogs, not humans. Don’t forget, pit bulls were used for years around toddlers as “Nanny dogs” because of their gentle nature with people.
That’s sad, to be sure. I’ve been bitten by a few dogs over the years but nothing like that. My bites have been from German Shepards, an Irish Wolfhound, a Chow and an Akita. I’ve never had a problem with pit bulls but have no doubt that incidents like that have happened. But they happen with all dog breeds, it’s extremely hard to separate the breeding from the training/socialization, and it’s really hard to identify breeds by sight. All large dogs should be treated with respect and caution.
I have no doubt they were used as guard dogs. But a handful of photo’s with children represent 30 seconds of a family relationship and not a history of a breed. I’m not surprised people take pictures of their pets next to their children. We would need data on dog attacks during the time frame these pictures were taken. I could probably show you a family picture of both dogs I described earlier. They were “part of the family” until they weren’t.
I’ve been bitten too. Never mauled. I’ve been attacked by a dog for no other reason than I was riding a bike down a public road. Fortunately I was able to use the bike as a defensive shield and the dog lost interest upon contact with it.
I have no doubt there are good pit bulls around. I also have no doubt the fighting instinct bred into them is not something you want to experience.
I don’t consider an option that avoids killing wasting anything.
Dogs are afraid of gun fire unless they have very specific and intense training.
And if you’re all that worried about wasting rounds, you might try more time on the range.
Do I print our your opinion and show them this?
You are of course welcome to post your knowledge of weapons accuracy on a moving target. I spend a fair amount of time and money on the range. I know what to expect from the weapons I train on. Your mileage may vary.
Then don’t hit the dog.
That’s what you get for not reading past the headlines. I was going by what was in the post.
Around here, there are not many fields that are not private property, and most of those property owners have dogs. If you come onto their property, those dogs will likely come over and check you out. If you go onto someone’s property and kill their dog for coming to check out who is on the property, you don’t have any moral high ground, and if your only articulable reason for feeling fear is that “they didn’t look happy”, you are going to be found in the wrong legally as well, unless, of course, you lie about what the dogs were doing to cause you to fear for your life.
But, in any case you are the one who is fighting the hypothetical here.
Unless you can point out in the OP where he said he had a gun, then your contribution is without any value or relevance to the thread.
And it is vicious, not viscous. The latter indicates that the dog is made of molasses. If confronted by that, I dunno, make som rum?
To which, you replied, “Yes, we agree, there’s no surprise when a vicious animal is returned to a shelter that it will be destroyed.”
My pibbles love people and their dog siblings - on the whole pits make lousy guard dogs because they like humans so much. I would trust them to be around kids far more than I would my border collies.
On the other hand, PBTs have a reputation for inter-dog aggression. I haven’t seen this in my dogs, but I won’t risk it by going to dog parks. God forbid if a PB is involved in a dog park fracas, people would freak out (and rightly so if their dog gets hurt).
I think that it’s important for pit owners to be ambassadors for the breed. To me this means not putting the dogs in stressful situations where, however unlikely, they misbehave (like dog parks).
IMHO, PBs are not more likely to attack people than most other breeds (chihuahuas are satanic bitey bastards) but pits are strong, agile, tenacious and, like many larger dogs, can inflict serious bites.
The title is the premise of the thread and you’ve interpreted it as you see fit and that’s obvious given your name tag. The op asked specifically what you would do with 2 vicious pit bulls coming toward you. There is nothing ambiguous about the question. Saying the dogs don’t look at all happy does not alter this premise. It’s the first sentence after the title and reinforces what it’s about which is 2 vicious dogs coming toward you. The words “at all” are meant to reinforce the words “not happy” as in the dogs REALLY don’t look happy. In other words, they appear vicious. This is a very bad thing if 2 pit bulls are approaching you. You will not look at all happy if in this situation regardless of how much you love dogs.
The OP is certainly not one who can judge if a dog is vicious from across a field, so the premise is him looking for advice on what is the best way to deal with a situation where the OP is not sure what to do. He even asked if making friends with them would be a valid strategy, suggesting that even he is aware the vicious part of the description is just an assumption, not gleaned from his mind reading ability.
The first thing that is actually advised is to use some common sense and dog interaction to determine if they are hostile or just curious.
I’ve had many times in my life where I was approached by strange dogs in places where I was by myself. I’ve been at the park, where some people don’t believe in leash laws (I bend them a bit, and do let my dog off the leash from time to time, but you couldn’t tell it by the way she heels), I’ve been on private land, where people let their dogs roam free on their own property, I’ve been on my land when strange dogs have approached me. In none of those cases was I ready to kill the dog because I was afraid.
But, even if I give you that the dogs are hostile and aggressive and going to eat your face off, why do you think that advice of shooting the dogs is useful, when the OP says nothing about having a gun?