Bad Dog Owners and Collateral Damage
Yes, this pit bull should die. Because it had ban owners. The bad owners are responsible for the dog’s eventual death and the mauling of a child. But the dog is a lost cause. Period. Bad owners make bad dogs. And we can’t euthanize bad owners. If you’re going to have a large breed dog, you need to treat it like it can be dangerous. Because it fucking is. And you need to know to restrain them, watch them, and remember that they’re dogs. Dogs are killers. Without a steady supply of kibble, socialization and love, they’ll rip a throat out and kill.
I’m currently going through collateral damage of a bad dog owner. Yippie dog in the street runs up to my dog. My dog reacts in protective mode. Grabs yippie dog by the neck and thrashes it about. Somehow, I’m told I should pick up the vet tab because someone else was letting their dog run loose.
At least this guy knows he can’t handle a dog and shouldn’t own one. They take work and work is hard. As the owner in this case illustrate.
April 17th, 2014 at 9:32 am
Yep. Bad owners.
You teach a family dog (not a guard dog)early on that putting it’s mouth on a human is always unacceptable.
Later on, you can teach the dog that putting ANYTHING in it’s mouth without permission is unacceptable – this has the benefit of keeping them from trying to eat off the table, counters, dropped medication, coffee beans, chocolate, and anything else that can make a dog sick or kill it.
It takes work. Work is what you do when you care about your family AND your dog.
April 17th, 2014 at 9:40 am
My neighbor’s Rottie, a huge gentle lovable animal, once got loose and ended up in my back yard, under my patio, trying to break into my rabbit hutch to eat the kid’s bunnies.
As I later explained to the Rottie’s owners, I was amazed when one of the rabbits picked up a piece of firewood and whacked the poor dog on the head, causing it to loose interest in the rabbits. I promised to start training the rabbits to be less violent, if they’d fix the hole their dog made in their fence. They agreed.
April 17th, 2014 at 10:28 am
People get all wrapped around the axle about pitbulls, but thats crap. Not all violent dogs are pitbulls, and not all pitbulls are violent. The two meanest dogs I’ve ever known? First, a papered Black Lab named Bud who met an unjust fate. I hated the dog, but he mauled a woman who had broken into his owner’s home. She sued, Bud lost. The most evil, though, was a German Shepherd named Rex. Rex backed down for nobody. He once bit and punctured the tires of somebody he didn’t like (which was everybody, except his master). He was a disaster. The thing about those two dogs? You didn’t mess with them- if you got bit, you oughtn’t have done whatever you were doing.
April 17th, 2014 at 12:52 pm
I’ve yet to meet a well mannered Chihuahua. It seems they always have bad owners and are always poorly trained. The only thing that keeps them from being dangerous is their small size. On the other end of the scale, some of the mildest mannered dogs I’ve encountered were those that could be used as draft animals – large and strong. But the primary factor in a dog’s demeanor is the “parenting” they get from their owner.
April 17th, 2014 at 2:19 pm
Wait, they think you should pick up the vet bill because your dog acted like a dog and they were irresponsible. Idiots. Hope you win.
Back when I still had a rottweiler, my neighbor started throwing a fit because my dog was aggressive with her daughter. Indeed, her daughter was the one and only person my dog had ever snapped at. Turns out, she snapped at her because the daughter was trying to hit the dog with a lawn chair. I told the neighbor that I felt my dog’s reaction was completely justified. Of course, the same neighbor also accused the dog of getting into their trash two months after the dog had passed away.
And this is why I want to get far enough out that I don’t have neighbors.
April 17th, 2014 at 3:56 pm
My neighbor’s dog ate two of my geese last year. Someone told me it was seen carrying it back home.
I talked to the neighbor about “some dog” eating my animals. I got a backhoe, AND a shooting range on my property. He didn’t need to be told: there is a hole waiting for that dog out back when I see it on my property.
Haven’t seen that dog since. Matter of fact, nobody has seen it off leash ever again.
So there is your proof: even bad owners can be trained.
April 17th, 2014 at 8:03 pm
Screw THAT. If your state / city has a leash law, the other owner can eat a D%^%! Don’t pay the vet bill.
By the grace of God, I have not had to kick the crap out of the 2 Chihuahuas and 1 Jack Russel that live in my neighborhood. All have been off leash, and all have tried to bite me and my pit bull.
When this happens, I command my pit bull to sit, which she does, and then I take a step towards the offending dog. If that dog got close enough to bite my dog, I would kick and then stomp it. Thankfully the offending dogs got wise when I stepped closer to them and shouted “No”. THe lady that owns the dog said, “Wow, they never listen to me that way.” To which I replied, “That’s because your dogs don’t think you would actually kick them.”
April 17th, 2014 at 11:47 pm
Mikee, that reminds me…I need to show my rabbits where the shotgun is kept.
April 18th, 2014 at 9:47 am
I’m pleased to see people recognizing the bite hazard of tiny little dogs, without jokes (although little dogs with jokes are dangerous too). I once managed a unit of the world’s largest delivery service. Our ratio of “nuisance” bites from toy breeds, to actual maiming bites from noble wolf-like tribal herders, was about three to one. Little Fluffy could run out a screen door between the owner’s legs, administer a bleeding nip, and disappear, sometimes before the “victim” even saw it. The nip legally required immediate medical attention and a full complement of categorized accident reports, and then cost recovery.
The thing to remember is “breaks the skin.” Any bite that broke the skin was the equivalent of a federal lawsuit, and the Company’s legal dept would represent the employee for pain, suffering and follow-on collaterals in most cases. Your chained & trained Rottie may be a lesser liability than grandma’s lap ornament. “But my dog would never do that.”
Property-visiting agencies share some information. In my day it was ad hoc and informal. In the age of big data, if your dog bites the FedEx guy, your relationship with UPS, meter readers if you still have them, local police, and the mailman will become remote, impersonal and legalistic.