Posted on 04/21/2006 2:47:52 PM PDT by solosmoke
Dejae Galvin has grown up around pitbull terriers without so much as a scratch. But it was a corgi that bit him, leaving him with a suspected broken nose.
He was attacked by the "friendly" pet corgi at his friend's house as he attempted to pat it.
The last thing the 8-year-old remembers is seeing blood everywhere, being in pain and covering his face to avoid being bitten again.
Ms Galvin said his skin was pulled together with butterfly clips to close holes on each side of his nose. "He looked like he had been in a car accident or something." When she took him back to the doctor he was given strong antibiotics and told if he did not improve he would need to be hospitalised.
Ms Galvin, who has owned pitbulls for 15 years, said her family did not want the corgi to be put down if it was not normally hostile. "I think this particular dog should be tested for being aggressive. "I just want to make sure it doesn't go on to attack other kids if it's proven to be temperamental."
Ms Galvin said the attack was further proof that all dogs, however loving and loyal they might seem, needed to be treated with caution. "My kids were born into a family that had American pitbull terriers all their lives. We've never had any problems with our dogs the whole time but we never leave our children unsupervised with any dogs - not even our own. "Although Dejae has learnt a lesson the hard way, children will be children and dogs will be dogs. "It's the adults who need to take the upper hand and teach both parties how to act responsibly."
Dejae loves his new dog Lexus and sympathises with the owner of the corgi.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailypost.co.nz ...
Don't know for sure.
Article says it happened while the boy was attempting to pat the dog.
I would guess he brought his face too close to the dog.
Ummm.... wouldn't this be Barney's fault? Or maybe it's that evil Mrs. Beasley! LOL!
ping for the photo
Not true as some dogs were bred by "backyard" breeders who know nothing about breeding dogs too close or with bad temperments.
The results being a "bad" dog that has the vices of its breed with little or none of its virtues
Pit Bulls are a FIGHTING dog, that's what they were bred to do so I just can't understand someone with small children taking any kind of chance when there are numerous other breeds that are NOT bred to fight
I wonder if this incident will cause the dog fighting scum to use Corgi's instead of Pit Bulls?
The real issue regarding the viciousness of dog attacks has to do with the nature of the dog. Should I encounter a mean corgi, or chihauhau, I could defend myself; not so against pit bull, rottweiler or other large dog. I am petite and am not too keen on dogs that can chew my face off.
You can joke about this all you want but the facts remain. Pitbulls kill and there are many statistics to support this fact. I would be amazed to hear of any death due to a corgi or chihauhau.
Wow...How many swimming pools have been shot by law enforcement this month?
A girl and her dog
Apples and oranges....Accidental deaths vs Manslaughter.
I agree it's in the breeding. So in your mind it's an allowable risk that the breed is going to kill more dogs and humans than other breeds by several orders of magnitude. Other breeds will provide the same enjoyment of ownership unless you are looking for something nefarious.
New stats from Broward County, FL:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/14347565.htm
"In the last six months, pit bulls have been responsible for 113 of the 345 dog bites on record, according to the Broward County Animal Care and Regulation Division. That number was almost four times as high as the next-highest offender, German Shepherds, with a total of 30 bites."
Very naive. A platitude, and like most platitudes, it sounds nice, but is false.
Some dogs, like some people, are just bad in spite of their "upbringing," aka, owners. My dad had many working ranch dogs, usually Australian Sheperds, that he trained. They were wonderful dogs, extaordinarily smart. I know one who literally saved a child's life by leaping in front of a striking rattle snake and taking the bite itself instead of letting the child get it. That was a good dog. All cattle ranchers had working dogs (still do, no doubt). They were not pets, they were workmates. In my dad's case, when he was manager of a few cattle ranches, their job was to help him flush "wild" cows out of the brush -- cows that were too smart and wily to get caught in a round-up. Many a year, the dogs made the difference between profit and loss, because a dozen head of cattle is a lot of money. Without the dogs to help flush and herd the wild cows, the ranch would have lost money.
It goes against city people's ideas of "pets," but the truth is my dad, and every other rancher he knew, occasionally had a dog that was "bad." The dog would get the same training from puppyhood, the same care, the same everything as any other cow dog, but the "bad" dog was one that was sneaky, chased chickens or calves or lambs and killed them, or who simply didn't follow the commands of the cowboy who "operated" the dog. In those cases, my dad, and pretty much every other cowboy he knew, had the sad but neccessary chore of taking the dog out in the country somewhere, shooting him, and burying him. It was a real loss not only in the dog, but in the time the guy had put into training him. So the idea that "there are no bad dogs, just bad owners," is a sentiment for little girls.
I 2nd that. Bravo. I'm sick of all the nice-nice treat-trainers spreading the nonsense - and the libel/slander - that all bad dogs are the result of "abuse", "neglect", or what they think is "bad" training. It is 1 of the biggest lies in the world. They try to tell us genetics has nothing to do with dogs' behavior - then they tell us only to buy from high-class breeders with high-class bloodlines.
That said, I don't believe the vast majority of any dogs are truly incorrigible (untrustworthy especially as far as evil temperament) - but there are some. Just as there are naturally bad humans (I definitely believe), there are just-plain bad dogs no matter how much patty-cake you play with them.
You say that some dogs are just born bad and it doesn't have anything to do with the owners. Ok, please show me an article of a family dog from a dog trainer's house or someone who knows a lot about dogs attacking them. And I am not talking about breeders. Anyone can put two dogs together and get puppies. It just doesn't happen, unless they're training the dog to be some sort of guarding/attack dog.
It's always lower middle class neighborhoods or worse, with maybe the very occasional bite coming from somewhere else. That tells me that people get dogs and don't bother training them the right way or socializing them. And with large dogs, they don't bother stopping behaviors that are warning signs. For instance, if the dog has taken over the bed or sofa, or if you can't get near it while it's eating, those are HUGE problems that people will normally just ignore, and then when their precious dog attacks someone they will say something like, "we trained him ourselves and he's always been such a sweetheart. I don't know what made him snap". BULL! You know it, you're just too embarrassed to come out and say "yeah we knew he wasn't right in the head, but we just figured it would go away on it's own", or "we trained him to sit and speak for treats, but never bothered introducing him to other animals, kids, etc. and we probably should have taken him off the chain once in a while, at least long enough to get neutered"
As for farm dogs and old timers, you can believe whatever you want, but a dog chasing chickens, especially one bred to herd, is not a bad dog. It's a dog that is being a dog, just not where you want him to be a dog. If a dog isn't retarded, was brought up right, and trained to believe the master is boss, and doesn't have some underlying illness, it will be a great pet, regardless of the breed. Not to mention you don't just let dogs go roaming around with nothing to do. That is exactly how you get a dog into destructive behaviors in the first place.
I cannot stand when people try to take the dog out of them. That is what they are. If they attack other animals, you can bet it's in their nature and there isn't anything wrong with that. If you get a breed of dog that is predisposed to have a high prey drive and yet you insist on having cats live with it, expect disappointment.
Anyway, it's a fact that people for the most part just don't know sh** about dogs. For someone who has worked with them for years and learns everything possible, I can see how a strong dog in the wrong hands can be a liability, and quite dangerous. Having said that, there is a great cure for that, and it doesn't involve banning everything that requires education to handle. It means people need to learn about all these things BEFORE getting that dog. I am appalled on a daily basis by the sheer ignorance shown by people who have pets. It's astounding that these animals are still in as good a shape as I see them in, because it certainly isn't because the owners are doing the right things.
Another thing. Back in the day, lots of things happened with people's pets that the modern world thinks cruel. Most of the things people did to their pets back in the day was downright wrong. Not that they intended to harm their pets, it's just that they didn't know any better. Now, we all should know that if the dog keeps having puppies and we don't know how, it's probably got something to do with the fact that she isn't SPAYED for christ's sake!! And oh yeah, the dog that chases his tail wouldn't have had a chance back then.
Whoops, dey's sumthin wrong wit'em. Shoot it!
This approach just doesn't cut it anymore. It's time to stop shooting things and start learning. Obviously if it was that simple we would have shot and ridden the world of all the bad stuff by now.
You can "believe" that two plus two is five, but I know it is four, just like it isn't a matter of "believing" what I want about farmers and old timers, it's what I know. There is a difference between knowing known, and something believed.
Ranch dogs are not pets. My dad's experience is proof that individual dogs have unique natures/personality quirks that are independent of how they are raised. In the case of a ranch dog, it's means dead livestock and financial loss on the ranch. In the case of a pit bull or Rottweiler, it has meant dead and maimed people. You think you know a lot more than you do. You are out of touch with reality and mother nature. More important, pit bull/Rottweiler/power dog owners like yourself who refuse to deal with reality are part of the problem, not the solution. I don't want to see any dog breed banned -- but in order to find a better solution, a good start would be for so-called "responsible" owners like yourself to start offering realistic alternative solutions. So far all you have to offer is the keening refrain of "it's not the dog, it's the owner!" and useless advice to "be prudent." Neither are helpful in the slightest. So if, God forbid, the ban finally IS banned, remember that you failed to do anything concrete to prevent it.
Smart people get dogs from good bloodlines not because they're scared that dogs with low-class bloodlines are bad. There are some great reasons to get a dog from a reputable breeder. For one, you will know the temperament of the parents and the grandparents, which means you will have a pretty good idea about the temperament of the puppies.
Not to mention these dogs all need health tests to ensure no genetic faults are being passed down from the parents. (Like hip dysplasia, kidney disease, rage syndrome etc. ) If you get a large breed dog from a breeder that doesn't even know the history of his own dogs, you never know what you might get. Sure, the vast majority of the dogs will live their lives without incident regardless of the parents, but there are some that just should never have been, and a great way to prevent getting a dog that might have temperament issues is to go with one whose lineage is known.
Even though this post wasn't even about pit bulls, since we're already on the subject here's a great example. The vast majority of pit bulls will never ever kill anyone. Statistics prove this, but that isn't my point. The point is, of all the deaths by pit bulls so far, how many of them came directly from purebred, champion lines? And by champion I don't mean in the fighting ring, I mean titled, purebred dogs from reputable breeders. I would wager not a one. That is because anyone who would bother getting one of these dogs from a good breeder has the money and time to do things right. So nature and nurture are both part of it.
If you are willing to buy a dog for a thousand dollars that is just a family pet, or even a show or agility dog, you are in all probability going to train it, and you probably already know lots about the breed. On the other hand, if you're going to a back yard breeder and spending a hundred dollars on whatever looks good, you obviously aren't concerned with using the dog for much. Maybe a family pet, maybe a protection dog, maybe just something to brag about. These kind of people don't even pay to get their dogs vaccinated, let alone bother training it anymore than superficially, and these are the dogs out causing harm.
If you don't believe it, look up all the dog attack stories. Most of the time it's a dog running loose, which rules out any caring owner with enough money for the right kind of fencing, or even the knowledge that this type of dog is smart enough to escape almost any fence. The most common type of dog in any attack is an un neutered male, regardless of breed. I have read on the CDC report that this one type alone represents 90 percent of all attacks. That says the owner doesn't care enough to get the dog neutered, doesn't have the money, or is of the ignorant belief that the dog will somehow be less of a "man". It's a freaking dog!
The second most common is the chained dog, which also says that the owner cannot figure a way to contain it, doesn't care, thinks the chain looks cool, doesn't have time to potty train it, can't keep it indoors, etc.
In all of these instances, it wasn't as if the dog had a choice. They can't neuter themselves, train themselves, socialize themselves, or stay in the yard on their own. We as their responsible owners, have to do that for them. It goes hand in hand with owning a pet. If you can't do these things for your dog, expect sometime or another to be a statistic if large dogs are the kind you like.
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