Dog attacks

[gurneyhalleck1]

Does that dog speak Finnish?

Here is my dog Anni, chilling out with a friend while he is on the phone with his girlfriend ^^

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[gurneyhalleck1]

I held back initially with this pic as I am afraid the sheer terror of my Shih-Tzu boy might strike terror in your hearts....

 

[prodromos]

We too have a beautiful dog. We got her from the dog pound and constantly wonder why her previous owners gave her up. She is very disciplined and has the sweetest nature but unfortunately hates cats with a passion. One of the last two that made the mistake of entering our yard died on the way to the vet, the other one survived.
My sister-in-law's dog attacked my wife once, despite knowing us well and being accustomed to our presence. My wife grew up with dogs and knows how to handle them.

 

[Andrei D]

Regarding the increased incidence, that is supposedly a statistical fact as. On the other hand, it is hard to know for certain, because we mostly have proxy data about this (number of ER presentations, number of insurance payouts, Medicare/Medicaid costs, police reports, etc) and proxy data can be influenced by other variables (e.g. people are more educated about tetanus/rabies, people are more litigious, insurance is more prevalent, increasing healthcare costs etc). I think deadly attack data is more reliable and temporally robust, and that shows an increase as well.

So I tend to give credence to the idea that there is a trend towards an increase in incidence. On the other hand, the data I can find is too poor quality to try to use it to explain the factors behind such increase in any meaningful way.

On the other hand, I tend to be careful about ascribing a mystical explanation to poorly understood phenomena. This is one of the most common things pointed out with glee by advocates of scientific materialism - the so called "God of the gaps" argument. It goes like this: religious people tend to immediately provide a mystical cause for poorly understood phenomena, then scientific inquiry finds the actual proximate cause and hilarity ensues. Of course, the issue remains that scientific inquiry never finds ultimate causes, but that is a different discussion.

In this case, I would postulate that as people, at least in Western countries, become progressively more attentive to global issues and virtual relationships and progressively less involved in day to day real life, all their real relationships, including those with their pets, suffer.

 

[ZaidaBoBaida]

My niece was mauled by her grandmother's Rottweiler when she was five. She is now 8. I still can't talk about it too much, or I start boiling with anger.

I think part of the problem is that people want to treat big dogs like lap dogs. A badly trained little dog is obnoxious. A badly trained big dog is dangerous. Plus, with all the push to adopt instead of buy - people are getting shelter dogs that have issues, and aren't really equipped to deal with it.

I'll admit we adopted our dog Snape at 4 months of age from the SPCA. We thought because he was so young that he wouldn't have any issues, but we were wrong. He has to be kept in his crate if we have company because he doesn't like strangers in our house. He growled at my 2 year old nephew over Christmas. He simply can't be allowed around my niece. Period. We love him - 99% of the time he's a very sweet dog, but I won't ever do another rescue. I want a dog adopted at exactly 8 weeks of age - because then I know if the dog has issues I probably caused them. Just like our two little dogs.

 

[tapi]

Does that dog speak Finnish?

As a matter of fact, she is from the streets of St. Petersburg, found abandoned as a very young pup. When I took her into my shelter, she had already been in Finland for 2 months in a temporary home, so I didn't need to learn any Russian to be able to deliver commands She's a very sweet dog despite her past and loves all people.

 

[jovanovic]

its pitbulls that is the problem, its a dog trained for fights. they should be banned.

 

[prodromos]

Another dog attack yesterday. A 3 year old boy was dragged off his bike and mauled by a Great Dane.

 

[ArmyMatt]

its pitbulls that is the problem, its a dog trained for fights. they should be banned.

no, I have friends who have pit bulls and they are two of the sweetest and gentlest dogs I know. it's in how you train them.