Posted on 12/03/2009 10:41:09 AM PST by JoeProBono
"Oh geez. Is this really graphic really necessary? We found it over at CBS 5, attached to today's "2 Pit Bulls Who Mauled Dog Shot In East Palo Alto" item. The story goes like this: An East Palo Alto cop "shot two pit bulls" that had just mauled a tiny poodle mix as it was being walked by its owner last night. Then, the aggressive pooches "approached responding officers in a 'vicious manner,'" which is when the fuzz had no other choice but to open fire, killing the dogs.
But these kind of headlines and jarring graphics, of course, give the breed a bad reputation; all pit bulls aren't itching to go for the jugular. And you never read headlines like, for example, "Irish Terrier Mauls Nob Hill Woman in Park Her Family Gave to City," a recent story at SF Weekly. Pit bulls always seem to make it in the headline.
Then again, who are we to poo-poo a little sensationalism?
Anyway, learn how to train your dogs properly, folks, or don't adopt them. Also, don't fear the pit bull breed. They're great dogs, even better companions. Seriously."
No, I’m not buying your explanation, not even a little.
Humans are as much a mystery to dogs as dogs are to humans. It’s two different species with two completely different standards of conduct and methods of communicating.
Its a rare thing when a human can communicate with dogs as well as a dog can. It’s even rarer when a human is universally accepted and liked by all or nearly all dogs. even most dogs can’t do that.
Yup! (pant! pant!) I can smell you all the way over here. (scratch, scratch, sniff, sniff)
What if someone had a very lonely, isolated childhood, with no human playmates anywhere nearby?
What if they’d spent their entire youth running or riding the endless mountains with nothing but dogs, horses and wildlife for company?
What if the person they eventually became was wholly influenced by what *animals* had “taught” ~them~?
What if, to this very day, that person was *much* more comfortable in the company of animals than people because people are still borderline incomprehensible beings, to them, existing on a totally different “wavelength” as it were?
I have a *lot* of “unblievable animal stories” that I’d never post in public because frankly, if I hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t believe them myself.
That’s why I love you, man.
You’re more animal than human.
To you, I can relate.
I think dogs can sense alpha-ness ☺.
I can be standing in a crowd of twenty people and a strange dog will come up to me, ignoring everyone else, get a pat on the head and then go on about his business. Almost as if to get my permission to be in the area.
I have been bit but I understood it because I was a stranger and an intruder. Never a continuous attack, just a nip to let me know who's territory I was in.
[mebbe we should form a club]....;]
The *one* time I was actually worried involved a yard sale and Cujo...er...a St Bernard in the house.
The lady was inside instead of tending her sale so I knocked on the flimsy screen door only to have the biggest, slobberiest StB I'd ever seen hit the frail door full on.
There was no latch on the door and I was pushing 105 pounds inward while he was pushing 220 barking, foaming, raging pounds outward and frankly, I *was* scared.
She finally showed up, _and opened the door_ and Cujo rushed out at me barking and flinging slobber everywhere.
Turns out that was his way of “expressing joy”.
For about 5 minutes, I thought I was dog chow.
I went home with a nice little table and totally drool-drenched hair and clothes.
I guess he liked me a lot.
[yuck]
At another yard sale [yes, a pattern is forming here] a guy pulled up with a Dobe in his truck.
I, just being me [wonderfully stupid] walked over to the truck and the dog.
The dog lunged towards me, all teeth and hackles.
I respected his inborn duty to protect his master's space but the guy opened the door and smacked that dog *hard*.
I gave him holy hell for that.
Read him the whole riot act about the stupidity of punishing the dog for doing the job he was born to do, did only out of love and loyalty, etc etc.
He apologized to me for hitting him and then tried to make it up to the baffled, saddened dog..who abruptly pushed by him and gave me the infamous “Dobe hug”.
I'm sure the dog is long gone but I always felt sorry he had a master not worthy of him.
Now that bitter cold is upon us, I think of the Rottweiler who “guards” the Maaco lot with only a chintzy, non-insulated house and old blanket for warmth against the hard, freezing and unforgiving blacktop.
He doesn't even have a heated water bowl.
While waiting for a paint job correction, I grew bored and left the truck and made friends with him by petting him through the dangerously large gaps in his cheap, crappy kennel run.
In spite of the owner's assertion he was “dangerous”, he was starved for affection.
Pitiful.
Years ago, a local tattoo parlor owner bragged on his Rott male’s “aggression”.
Naturally, I had to get my hands on it.
The dog *did* growl and become nasty when I put my hands near his hips and hind legs.
I told the idiot owner to take the dog to the vet but he just brushed it off as the dog being a “bad ass”.
Within months, the poor dog died of untreated bone cancer.
His “viciousness” was little more than an expression of agonizing pain.
I could easily see it in his eyes but his owner willfully shut his ears to my request.
If only the owner had listened to me like I'd "listened" to the dog....
Sounds like my hunch was right.
You know how they say a person’s dog seems to resemble the person? I hope that’s not too true. because I always end up with a dog that no one else wants and no one else likes. (personality wise)
i had a boston terrier that was guaranteed to get bit 30 seconds after meeting another dog. And then the fight would be on. Something about that dog just instantly angered pretty much every dog on the planet. I felt real bad for her because she really really wanted a play mate really bad. but no dog would have anything to do with her. I think she might have been mildly mentally retarded and the other dogs maybe were sensing that and reacting to it.
Pitbulls fascinate me because I see some of my boston terrier’s personality traits(flaws) in pitbulls. I have a hunch that part of a pit’s problem is they just are very dumb and very immature and lack doggie social skills.
Now I have a red lab that gets into fights constantly but this one initiates it. If there were no humans anywhere around I think she’d get along just fine with other dogs. But as soon as a human is in the picture, she has to be the most popular dog around or she gets mad and tries to tell the other dogs to stay away from *HER* humans. Then the fight starts. She even tries to make a dog stay away from it’s own master. All humans belong to her.
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