Another Neighbor attacked

I just think a person should be responsible for their own safety and that of their children, which means being proactive to reduce the likelihood of something going wrong.

Here's my example: My neighbor has a GSD/wolf mix. He is a lovely dog, but will guard his house and his the kids (he is a GSD after all). Because he is not well trained I made it a point to get to know him. To feed him goodies, to introduce my dogs, etc. So that, in an emergency, he knows who I am. I took it upon myself, to make it safer for me and my dogs to live near this particular dog.

About a month ago, he got out while I had Rosco out on leash. Rosco does not like this dog at all, and started ,mouthing off, posturing, etc. Fortunately, Rosco is well trained and I was able to tell him to "leave it" and "inside" which got him safely in the house. Then I went to retrieve my neighbor's dog before he found more trouble. I was able to put him back in his fenced yard, and let the owner know. I think the fact that their dog knows me made that possible. Especially after Rosco had been mouthing off to him.

ORIGINAL: Pit_Pointer_Aussie

Bob - I am sorry to hear about this attack. The poor person and family. Thankfully, it sounds like they will recover.

I am not sure what you were trying to accomplish in your OP, except to show why you are not a pit fan. It seems to me that you base your opinion on what you read in the paper, rather than personal interactions with a wide variety of pit bulls. (Correct me if I am wrong.)

Yes, parts of this country are hot beds for dog fighting and poorly bred pit bulls. (Hotlanta always comes to mind considering the crime rate.) However, that doesn't mean that every dog coming out of those areas is bad. Rosco is from a hood, and was probably bred for the wrong reasons. With training and proper care, he is a breed ambassador.

Please be mindful that there may be people with no pit exposure on the board, who read your posts and become more concerned about pits, rather than making their own decision based on personal interaction.

What I am trying to accomplish is to show that these incidents happen on a very frequent basis in our Metro area.  Every time I post one of these articles, someone pipes up with how rare these attacks are, and I always counter that they happen much to often in our city. I can think of well over a half dozen of these attacks in less than a year, right in the Atlanta Metro area. By the way, many of these attacks are in up-scale white collar -blue collar residential areas in the suburbs, not the inner city areas that one would expect.  These attacks are not just dog bites, but potentially  fatal attacks, one fatal attack, and several people that were maimed from the attacks.  This  isn't even counting the dog-dog attacks that frequently happen.

The PB people always seem to talk about the fact that these dogs are not people aggressive, which is apparently not true, since these attacks usually involve a human victim(s).  I go to 2 different dog parks with many dog owners that also visit the parks, many on a daily basis, , and the vast majority of them quickly hit the exit gates when they see a Pit Bull coming in, especially when it is unneuterred (which many of them are) .  Are we all crazy, and do none of us know anything about dogs and dog behavior? 

As for new people reading these posts, I think that it is always good to expose people to two sides of a discussion. Then let them research it and make up their own mind.  Muzzleing or insulting the side that doesn't agree with your viewpoint on the topic is not the way to have an open  discussion. Usually when people have to resort to insults, it is a prettty good indication that they don't have any relevant facts to present to prove their point.

good post by Pit_Pointer
if you live in a community and you recluse yourself into it and dont get to know your neighbour's and their dogs (also part of the community) then you've no one to blame but yourself when their dog looks at you as a stranger - because you ARE a stranger!!
my neighbour's min pin is a yard shark and will attack you from behind... thats how she was when we first moved here. the dog acttualy managed to bite my mom on her ankle... broke skin too....
but we've been here for an entire year now... every chance i get i try to make friends with that dog. when i see her and her owner out walking i make it a point to interact with them.. yes .. THEM.. i talk to the owner AND her dog. since then this little dog with a buzz saw mouth hasnt tried to attack anyone.

once again..... you have to encourage and be brave and try to help people improve.. not sit back from a safe hiding place and complain.
i'm sure you work in a shelter and all that jazz, but what about on the street, in your neighbourhood? do you know ALL the dogs out there? its your community.... so why dont you? afraid of people thinking you're "weird"?

ORIGINAL: DumDog

good post by Pit_Pointer
if you live in a community and you recluse yourself into it and dont get to know your neighbour's and their dogs (also part of the community) then you've no one to blame but yourself when their dog looks at you as a stranger - because you ARE a stranger!!
my neighbour's min pin is a yard shark and will attack you from behind... thats how she was when we first moved here. the dog acttualy managed to bite my mom on her ankle... broke skin too....
but we've been here for an entire year now... every chance i get i try to make friends with that dog. when i see her and her owner out walking i make it a point to interact with them.. yes .. THEM.. i talk to the owner AND her dog. since then this little dog with a buzz saw mouth hasnt tried to attack anyone.

once again..... you have to encourage and be brave and try to help people improve.. not sit back from a safe hiding place and complain.
i'm sure you work in a shelter and all that jazz, but what about on the street, in your neighbourhood? do you know ALL the dogs out there? its your community.... so why dont you? afraid of people thinking you're "weird"?

How about knocking off the insults?

ORIGINAL: Bobsk8



Can you explain to me, why the neighbor of an owner of these dogs should have to trust the safety of his family and any of his own  pets  to  how well his or her  neighbors  PB's  are socialized and trained ?  No Bob I cannot explain that for you. The breed is over popular (that is bad), over bred (that is bad) often owned by idiots (that is bad) and getting the situation back into control is difficult at best.
Are you confident in placing the safety of your family in the hands of a neighbors judgement and skill level in dog training? Yes, I teach my kids how to behave around dogs and how dogs behave. They know what to do if attacked by a dog and they know what not to do in order to prevent the attack in the first place. I will and do call animal control on owners who allow their dogs (regardless of breed) to roam the neighborhood and I also will and do call if I notice that you chain your dogs in your backyard with no shade, inadequet water and no social interaction.  How many dogs do you see on a daily basis that are not well trained?  Almost every one I see. It is rare (unless I am at a dog club) that I see a well behaved dog. I see it every day, and more often than not I see dogs that pull, dogs that don't know basic obediance commands, etc.. etc..  Agree Seeing  a Pit Bull(s) ( as well as other breeds)   dragging their  owners around on the end of a leash and choke collar is pretty common place.  Agree although I will say Pits are better behaved here than most other dogs and Albuquerque has a program for training adopted Pits which is free, anyone with a Pit or Pit mix can go to their classes as often as they like at no charge. I think this is a program that would work well everywhere but it requires the people who love the breed most to volunteer their services to train.

 
 Banning the breed is not the solution as another breed will become popular in its place, will be overbred, under socilaized and owned by the same idiots and then we will ban that breed, so on and so forth. GSD's used to own this spot back when RinTinTin was popular and everyong simply had to have a GSD not having sense enough to know that the breed is a WORKING breed and not suitable to throw into the backyard and ignore.
 
 itBull lovers need to work hard at making sure people understand what is wonderful about the breed and what the risks are in owning one. I for one will try and talk anyone who wants one into not getting one and in the end if they decide to go ahead and get one I can hope that they listened to me and are ready for the responsibility and work that goes along with owning one.

   
[linkhttp://atlanta.injuryboard.com/dog-attacks/pit-bull-viciously-attacks-roswell-woman.php]
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ORIGINAL: Bobsk8

ORIGINAL: Pit_Pointer_Aussie

Bob - I am sorry to hear about this attack. The poor person and family. Thankfully, it sounds like they will recover.

I am not sure what you were trying to accomplish in your OP, except to show why you are not a pit fan. It seems to me that you base your opinion on what you read in the paper, rather than personal interactions with a wide variety of pit bulls. (Correct me if I am wrong.)

Yes, parts of this country are hot beds for dog fighting and poorly bred pit bulls. (Hotlanta always comes to mind considering the crime rate.) However, that doesn't mean that every dog coming out of those areas is bad. Rosco is from a hood, and was probably bred for the wrong reasons. With training and proper care, he is a breed ambassador.

Please be mindful that there may be people with no pit exposure on the board, who read your posts and become more concerned about pits, rather than making their own decision based on personal interaction.

What I am trying to accomplish is to show that these incidents happen on a very frequent basis in our Metro area.  Every time I post one of these articles, someone pipes up with how rare these attacks are, and I always counter that they happen much to often in our city. I can think of well over a half dozen of these attacks in less than a year, right in the Atlanta Metro area. By the way, many of these attacks are in up-scale white collar -blue collar residential areas in the suburbs, not the inner city areas that one would expect.  These attacks are not just dog bites, but potentially  fatal attacks, one fatal attack, and several people that were maimed from the attacks.  This  isn't even counting the dog-dog attacks that frequently happen.

The PB people always seem to talk about the fact that these dogs are not people aggressive, which is apparently not true, since these attacks usually involve a human victim(s).  I go to 2 different dog parks with many dog owners that also visit the parks, many on a daily basis, , and the vast majority of them quickly hit the exit gates when they see a Pit Bull coming in, especially when it is unneuterred (which many of them are) .  Are we all crazy, and do none of us know anything about dogs and dog behavior? 

As for new people reading these posts, I think that it is always good to expose people to two sides of a discussion. Then let them research it and make up their own mind.  Muzzleing or insulting the side that doesn't agree with your viewpoint on the topic is not the way to have an open  discussion. Usually when people have to resort to insults, it is a prettty good indication that they don't have any relevant facts to present to prove their point.

ok so you're just taking up the negative position. thats fine. you bring the threat of BSL home to every bulldog owner on this board and we see what we're up against.. there's no excuse for being naive is what you seem to be telling us. thats fine and good.
and you're right, there are a lot of underdeveloped pit bull personalities.... but i have lived with them....all kinds of them. chained  to trees, kept in kennels, guarding junkyards, sleeping on the foot of the kid's bed, walking peacefully down the street on a leash... off a leash... i've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly... and the missunderstood.
these ARE protective dogs. they ARE territorial... but they can be curbed......
they arent a lost cause and they dont all deserve to be shunned. the people at your dog park need to actually help these owners rather than run from them in fear..... i dont see that as improvement. its BAD!! its unhealthy!!

ORIGINAL: Bobsk8

ORIGINAL: DumDog

good post by Pit_Pointer
if you live in a community and you recluse yourself into it and dont get to know your neighbour's and their dogs (also part of the community) then you've no one to blame but yourself when their dog looks at you as a stranger - because you ARE a stranger!!
my neighbour's min pin is a yard shark and will attack you from behind... thats how she was when we first moved here. the dog acttualy managed to bite my mom on her ankle... broke skin too....
but we've been here for an entire year now... every chance i get i try to make friends with that dog. when i see her and her owner out walking i make it a point to interact with them.. yes .. THEM.. i talk to the owner AND her dog. since then this little dog with a buzz saw mouth hasnt tried to attack anyone.

once again..... you have to encourage and be brave and try to help people improve.. not sit back from a safe hiding place and complain.
i'm sure you work in a shelter and all that jazz, but what about on the street, in your neighbourhood? do you know ALL the dogs out there? its your community.... so why dont you? afraid of people thinking you're "weird"?

How about knocking off the insults?

asking a question is insulting??

BOB-

AIR HORN, dear.
Get one. WORKS WONDERS.

Read my thread about the air horn. I had an off leash shih-tzu charge at me and my pit bull last night.
I blasted that sucker with it and it stopped dead in its tracks.
But, I think it scared my pit bull more. Had she not been leashed, I have NO DOUBT IN MY MIND, that she would have hauled butt in the opposite direction.


You can get less harmful sprays, too, that can be JUST AS EFFECTIVE.
Halt! dog repellent is one of them.
And it works, as my sister-in-law and brother are mail carriers and have had to use it.
You MAY have to spray more than once, but it works WONDERS.

ORIGINAL: DumDog

so bob what do you to fix the problem? complaining about it doesnt help, thats for sure!
do you have the courage to go up to someone being drug by their dog and show them the proper way to walk their dog? or do you stand back and hide behind a tree and grumble about how bad these people are?

your posts are not helpful to any cause for any breed. why dont you try posting some GOOD news for a change?

I am going to ask you one more time to knock off the insults and rude comments...

ORIGINAL: chewbecca

BOB-

AIR HORN, dear.
Get one. WORKS WONDERS.

Read my thread about the air horn. I had an off leash shih-tzu charge at me and my pit bull last night.
I blasted that sucker with it and it stopped dead in its tracks.
But, I think it scared my pit bull more. Had she not been leashed, I have NO DOUBT IN MY MIND, that she would have hauled butt in the opposite direction.


You can get less harmful sprays, too, that can be JUST AS EFFECTIVE.
Halt! dog repellent is one of them.
And it works, as my sister-in-law and brother are mail carriers and have had to use it.
You MAY have to spray more than once, but it works WONDERS.

I think you will find that the using an airhorn was a suggestion that I made this forum many months ago.  []

[linkhttp://forum.dog.com/asp/tm.asp?m=375453&mpage=1&key=air%2Chorn񛯲]http://forum.dog.com/asp/tm.asp?m=375453&mpage=1&key=air%2Chorn񛯲[/link]

I have also been avocating using Halt for over a year.  It is my understanding from an AC worker  that using Halt on an attacking Pit Bull is pretty worthless.  As reported in several of these  attacks,  many times a  firearm is necessary to stop the attack.  .  

First I didn`t read all the posts. Pit-bull owners and breeders need to take action. Yep there are too many aggressive bullies. We all know why and it`s been stated, too many , poor breeding, bad owners and too popular. Rotties went through it, Shepherds went through it but the crowd that is attracted to the bullies is very different than people in the past.
I ran into a guy buying food for his Cane Corso and Presario Canary. Guess what he is breeding for. Size, he says the cane`s are too small. No mention of nerves temperament or health just size. That`s scary.
I don`t believe in BSL but I do believe in confiscation aggressive dogs with irresponsible owners and disposing of them.

HOW am i being rude by asking questions!?!?
some one please point it out to me?
why dont you answer the questions on how you're helping this crisis? all i see is you complaining and fanning the fire on why people need to destroy the bulldog breeds. and YES its upsetting to me.
so i want to know, as some others do i'm sure, what exactly do YOU do to help the situation?

if thats insulting to you then thats your problem. you need to examine your own character and ask yourself why you're offended.

ORIGINAL: DumDog

HOW am i being rude by asking questions!?!?
some one please point it out to me?
why dont you answer the questions on how you're helping this crisis? all i see is you complaining and fanning the fire on why people need to destroy the bulldog breeds. and YES its upsetting to me.
so i want to know, as some others do i'm sure, what exactly do YOU do to help the situation?

if thats insulting to you then thats your problem. you need to examine your own character and ask yourself why you're offended.

If you don't see that you are rude, I doubt if anyone can explain it to you.  

Try.