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To: from occupied ga
dog bite fatalities '79 - '98 1.pit bull - 66 2.Rottweiler - 39 3.German Shepard - 17 4.Husky - 15 5.malmute - 12 6.doberman - 9 7.Chow - 8 8.Great dane - 7 9.St Bernard - 7

I'm not going to pretend that I don't expect my dogs to protect my family and property. I have always owned German Shepherds first for companionship and second for protection. Although I've never owned an aggressive Shepherd, they've all been protective to varying degrees. I always felt I could leave any of them alone with one of my kids or grandkids for as long as I'd ever leave any of the kids at an early age alone. Some had remarkable babysitting qualities (and I could tell you stories) but I'd never leave a small child alone for any extended period of time anyway.

I don't know enough about pit bulls - I'm sure there are lots of aggessive ones. Afterall, they've been bred to fight. However, I don't think they're all bad and in the hands of a responsible owner, I'm sure they're just fine.

I've owned Labs, Mutts, and German Shepherds. The only dog that's made your list is the German Shepherd. Other than two of the mutts, the only dogs I've ever trusted alone with an infant or toddler has been the German Shepherds. Every single one of them.

The particularly protective Shepherds I would never leave alone with a child or grandchild who was playing with a non-family member. That could be dangerous.

62 posted on 04/26/2013 5:44:57 AM PDT by old and tired
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To: old and tired

Those statistics give the dangerous breeds, but not the risk factor by breed. I got lazy. To get the risk factor you would have to adjust for the PROPORTION of that breed in the population. For example if pit bulls represented 50% of the pet dogs in theUSA and Shepards 1%, then shepards would be far more dangerous, but of course this isn’t true, just made up numbers illustrating the concept. I suspect that pit bulls are a small percentage of the pet population, and german shepards a larger percentage thus making them LESS dangerous than the raw stats suggest.


63 posted on 04/26/2013 8:14:47 AM PDT by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy)
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