Posted on 04/24/2013 10:29:09 PM PDT by Arthurio
You've been here this long and haven't heard the story of my contacting
the author of opinion piece in a Boston newspaper?
He had wrote about the need for enforcement of the leash law.
As an aside he mentioned that his child had been attacked in the past.
It piqued my curiosity and I was able to get in touch with him.
I asked what breed or type of dog had attacked his child.
He told me it was a Standard Poodle
and that the doctor in the ER had told him
it was the worse case of mauling that he had ever seen.
some breeds are just falt out more likely to trigger prey instinct and damage a person. if you dont believe that, then, well.. cant help.
Don't patronize me. Next you'll be telling me dogs are different than guns.
Of course there are differences in dogs. By breed and by personality.
Larger dogs can do more damage
but even a small dog can do serious damage and cause fatalities.
A Terrier may have greater prey than other breeds
but even a 'docile' Lab can literally take off your face.
The point is...
The principles of Responsible Dog Ownership(Contain, Train and Maintain)can be applied to any dog.
The knowledge gained by studying dog attacks and discovering common factors can be applied to any dog.
Firmly grasping and rigorously applying the principles while molding behavior with knowledge can virtually eliminate all dog attacks.
I'm not going to pretend that I don't expect my dogs to protect my family and property. I have always owned German Shepherds first for companionship and second for protection. Although I've never owned an aggressive Shepherd, they've all been protective to varying degrees. I always felt I could leave any of them alone with one of my kids or grandkids for as long as I'd ever leave any of the kids at an early age alone. Some had remarkable babysitting qualities (and I could tell you stories) but I'd never leave a small child alone for any extended period of time anyway.
I don't know enough about pit bulls - I'm sure there are lots of aggessive ones. Afterall, they've been bred to fight. However, I don't think they're all bad and in the hands of a responsible owner, I'm sure they're just fine.
I've owned Labs, Mutts, and German Shepherds. The only dog that's made your list is the German Shepherd. Other than two of the mutts, the only dogs I've ever trusted alone with an infant or toddler has been the German Shepherds. Every single one of them.
The particularly protective Shepherds I would never leave alone with a child or grandchild who was playing with a non-family member. That could be dangerous.
Those statistics give the dangerous breeds, but not the risk factor by breed. I got lazy. To get the risk factor you would have to adjust for the PROPORTION of that breed in the population. For example if pit bulls represented 50% of the pet dogs in theUSA and Shepards 1%, then shepards would be far more dangerous, but of course this isn’t true, just made up numbers illustrating the concept. I suspect that pit bulls are a small percentage of the pet population, and german shepards a larger percentage thus making them LESS dangerous than the raw stats suggest.
Maybe so, but it is the cariactures that you notice because they make it a point to be obtrusive, not the responsible owners.
Maybe so, but it is the cariactures that you notice because they make it a point to be obtrusive, not the responsible owners.
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I completely agree.
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