I agree with you K-9Trainer. I've had a couple dogs that way. I never thought of them as aggressive. It's an awful thing when a normally docile dog gets put down because of a misunderstanding in canine/human communication.
I also agree with K-9Trainer up to a point. There are many situations where you just can't take the chance of a dog drawing blood (it may not be another dog it could be a child). I think the owner can do a lot to reduce the chances of trouble, by making a sensible choice (for their circumstances) when they get a dog, by training the dog well and treating it properly, and by never leaving young children unsupervised in the same area as the dog. Parents should teach their children how to behave around dogs and never to approach a strange dog without asking permission
Yeah kernow, I have seen what happens when owners are careless with their dogs. My parents had to put down a dog because he snapped at a child and drew blood. Not one of my sibling's but a friend's toddler. I think it was both couples fault for not supervising the child and dog but I couldn't do anything about it since I wasn't home at the time. There were several ways to prevent the accident but none were taken and the dog is the one who paid the ultimate price. Prior to the bite, he had never been overly aggressive and I think that contributed to the carelessness on my parents' part.
That is very sad phoenyxstarr, it must be heart breaking to find yourself in that situation. I remember a nasty incident when my brother and sister in law made an unplanned visit to show us their new (re-homed) shih tzu. My baby son was crawling at the time they let the dog run into the room, before I could pick my son up he had grabbed the dogs hair and it snapped at him. He was not hurt too badly, but the dog hated him forever afterwards and it had to be shut away if we visited. In fact it seemed to have a problem with all young children. I don't blame the dog for snapping, I blame the owners for putting the dog in that situation. The episode had a worse effect on the dog than my son, he has no memory of the incident, he grew up with dogs and he has always been very good with animals.
I think alot of 'bad dogs' are the result of having bad owners. Owners that don't bother to train their dogs and socialise their dogs properly. Owners that feed their dogs rubbish and don't exercise them mentally or physically - JMHO.
Definately more bad owners than bad dogs in my experience, although there are cases when dogs - for a whole bunch of reasons - will be bad and this can be down to their own situations, depending on their ages, background etc and because they have - as someone mentioned - a 'brain-wire' issue, if I may paraphrase. But it's owners mainly and even many 'bad' dogs can be remedied with patience and good training - or so I believe
It is reassuring to know that even some of the so called bad dogs can be remedied with care and good training. It is a shame that many dogs do not get that chance.
I believe that, by far, behavior issues by most dogs are due to bad owners. A lot of people do not know how to train their dogs and it creates a lot of problems for the owner and for the dogs!
I believe that there is a dog registration system in USA. I do not know exactly what it involves, but I was wondering if it makes owners more or less responsible?
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