Jeeves are always valets or butlers. They don't drive.
Bascombs drive.
Posted on 08/17/2011 11:49:53 PM PDT by Borough Park
A pregnant woman who was mauled to death by one of her pet pit bull terriers belonged to group campaigning to convince people that the animals aren't dangerous, it has emerged.
Darla Napora, 32, was bitten dozens of times and found by her husband Greg covered in blood outstretched on their living room floor in Pacifica, California.
Police say the two-year-old unneutered pit bull believed to be responsible was hovering around the woman, who had major injuries to her upper body and face.
It has since emerged Napora was a member of Bay Area Dog Lovers Responsible About Pit Bulls, a group that does its best to convince people that pit bulls aren't really that dangerous.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
>>They all want to be the alpha dog.
I’d have to disagree with that. Now maybe all Pit Bulls want to be the alpha dog, and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit. But I’ve had a Labrador Retriever who was completely satisfied to be everyone and anyone’s best friend. She had zero aggression towards man or beast. I’m sure it had to do with the way she was raised, but still, it was her greatest joy to meet new people towards whom she could be nice, fulfilling her self-assigned role as Man’s best friend. It was her natural temperament to be friendly, kind and empathetic.
Not a day goes by when I don’t miss that beautiful girl terribly.
All animals have instinctual behaviours that developed in the wild. For dogs, one of those instinctual behaviours is seeking to be the top dog. Sure, that instinct can be more prominant in some breeds than another, but it’s always there. It just part of their patterns as animals.
When the alpha dog is out with the pack hunting, the dogs left behind still need to be led, so a lesser alpha will fill that role.
Unless your dog sees itself as so far down the hierarchy that its name is mud, it will have those behaviors as well. There are a lot of videos on Youtube that dog owners have put up to show what their pooch does when they are away and its always the same. Owner gone, dog sits or sleeps where owner sleeps or sits or does things it knows darn well it is not supposed to do, like root through the garbage.
It’s just part of being a dog.
Kinda like the idiot bear guy who got himself and his girlfriend killed by Grizzlies after defending them for years as “safe”.
hee hee... thanks for the chuckle this AM
We have a pittie and yes, he does need to know who the alpha is (and it’s not him).
All it takes is a whack with a magazine across the nose and he is in submission mode.
My dogs stay in the back seat but I don’t agree that a dog jumping into the driver’s seat is a “coup attempt”.
Most dogs get nervous when left alone in the car and it comforts them to be “surrounded” by their owner’s smell.
[oddly enough, tearing up their absent owner’s objects and strewing them about themselves is an attempt to “protect” themselves from “danger” with a “barrier” of the owner’s predator-repelling smell]
Anyway, *if* they’re sitting in “my spot” on the sofa when I come back in the room, they either vacate it immediately or zip off it when I quietly, deeply say “Move”.
In the pack hierarchy, “my spot” is the Alpha Spot and the dogs jostle amongst themselves to inhabit it when I’m gone in order to establish the “Beta” spot in the pack.
Rarely is the same dog in that spot.
It seems to be mostly whoever gets there first.
*However*, I do -not- “establish dominance” with any form of aggression, bullying, ‘acting tough’ or any of the other outdated/discredited methods.
I simply *am* and act like an Alpha wolf who can afford to arbitrarily inhabit any particular place, at any particular time just because I feel like it.
The most effective form of “dominance” is, ironically, ignoring the dog as if it were beneath your notice.
That is how wolves do it and it works incredibly well with the wolves in your living room.
As an example, physically, trying force Odin out of a place I “feel like” being is a losing proposition.
The dog knows I’m physically weaker.
If I walk to said spot and merely walk “through” him on the way to it, without a word, eye contact or even acknowledgement of his existence, he instantly vacates that area.
He understands that ‘dog body language’ and that I am the one who gets to sit, walk or stand wherever ~I~ want.
The Alpha is -always- the one who can “afford not to give a flip” about what the other dogs may think.
Very simple, actually.
Resistance begets resistance.
Stress begets stress.
Tension begets tension.
Violence begets violence.
-Anybody- who tries to bully or force their dog into “submission” has already lost the battle.
The dog *knows* that “Alpha” must feel threatened enough to resort to brute violence and will remember that.
It may submit *then* but all you’ve taught is that a warning growl or snap results in punishment...and then it learns to suppress natural warning signs and suddenly, one day, *without* warning, you may get nailed by your nervous, resentful, completely aware of reality yet [so far] physically intimidated dog.
Any dog/human relationship like *that* is worth exactly ~nothing~.
If I had to ever resort to brutal, tin-horn petty dictator behavior with my dogs, I’d know that *I* was lacking....*not* the dogs.
“Kinda like the idiot bear guy who got himself and his girlfriend killed by Grizzlies after defending them for years as “safe”.”
In more ways than you realize; just as this idiot exposed others to the dangers of these dogs with the group, that jackass with the bears was endangering other people by getting the bears accustomed to people. Rangers at the time told him that he was causing problems, and that they were afraid they’d have to shoot some bears because of how he was removing the natural inclination of those bears to avoid people. They did have to shoot two on his account; the one that was literally eating him when they were found, and a larger one in the area that they suspected had killed them.
I have no problem with people owning pitbulls, but they have to know the potential damage they can cause. I couldn’t imagine a dog breed that would be less enjoyable to own.
I have an SPCA mutt that we got as a puppy, and no kidding, she is so passive that our CAT has the alpha dog position over her.
There was a young lady from Niger,
Who smiled as she rode on a tiger.
After the ride
She was inside,
And the smile was on the face of the tiger.
Dogs have a lot of behavior hard-wired in, no training required. Anyone who has been around dogs much can tell of instances that vary by breed - retrievers retrieving, terriers doing a “kill the rat” head shake on a toy, herding dogs herding family members, those sorts of things. Why would anyone think that attack behavior by a breed known for attacking might not be hard-wired in?
Animals, some, retain their wild behavior even if they seem domesticated. I tried to give my African Grey a piece of peach pie yesterday, dropped it, and he tried to bite me for doing that....I mean it was an immediate response. That parrot wanted his pie and to hell with me for being so careless. And I have owned him for 25 years.
Spot on.
The staffy we have (along with 2 heelers)knows exactly where he stands in the order of things.Especially when obama is on tv.He knows my moods and even the slightest hint of me not happy sends him into a fit of apologies.And the look,good grief what a pathetic look he gives us LOL.
He's an absolute gem,love him to bits,but wouldn't trust him alone with kids for 1 millisecond.Kids being kids.
On a more somber note,a 4 year old girl was mauled fataly by a pitbull here in Oz today.She was playing in her own backyard with a sibling and an older cousin.The dog just wandered in from next door and went straight for the little one.Terrible terrible trajedy.
Very good, sir.
“Mr Napora, who still believes the dogs are not dangerous, has said he will bury his wife with the dead pet.”
That is just plain sick......
Unfortunately, the noises and movements children naturally make can provoke “predator behavior” even in the “best” of dogs.
[squealing laughter, flailing limbs, erratic running, etc all mimic wounded “prey”]
I was taught very young to *not* act like that if a strange dog was nearby but most people probably wouldn’t have that high up on their childhood education list.
Where I grew up, everybody and brother always had multiple dogs of unknown temperament running loose on their property and it was a good thing to know.
Apparently the irresponsible “owner” of the pit never bothered to socialize the dog with children so that it would not over-react to them.
[or bother observing any kind of canine containment protocols, either, the worthless idiot]
Now the family of that poor child and the dog will pay the price for the owner’s “sins”.
I hope the dog’s “owner” gets nailed with manslaughter charges.
My Ibizan Hounds get excited by kids but in a giddy, run-around-crazy-goofy-happy way.
The Dobermann has been around them since he was a 6 week old pup and he reacts totally differently.
First of all, he adores kids and will make a complete ass of himself doing his “tricks” just to get them to pet him.
[and then he kisses them silly]
If he hears a child screaming or crying, he gets very upset and wants to go and “protect” them from whatever he imagines is causing them “harm”, much to shock of their parents, usually.....;D
I know what you mean about the moods.
If I’m down about something, I have to go upstairs to my bathroom and brood/cry/vent/whatever because Odin just gets too upset and his efforts to “console” me are ridiculous.
[odds are he’ll literally crush me under the weight of his immense sympathy, some day]...;]
I also have to try and hide my “feelings” about some stranger who makes me nervous because he’ll pick up on that in a millisecond.
[it rarely works...I think he’s an empath]...LOL
Oh boy, idiots attract. Who knew? I feel sorriest for her baby but then again, with two winners like these for parents, what chance did this poor little one have?
“There is no cure for stupid.”
“Why would anyone think that attack behavior by a breed known for attacking might not be hard-wired in?”
Because at dog shows where literally hundreds of un-neutereed “Bully” breeds are exhibited at the same time in the same place, no fights ever break out and no bystanders are attacked?
Those dogs are socialized from an early age and raised by decent people who don’t make a living selling crack or training fighting dogs.
Compare/contrast.
I ~could~ turn a Golden Retriever [or any random breed] into a man killer.
It’s all in the training.
There’s quite a lucrative market for “protection dogs” disguised as friendly, harmless breeds.
Even sweet, gentle “Lassie” next door could, unbeknownst to you, be ready, willing and able to rip your face off, on command.
Don’t ever judge any book by its cover.
My dear old Ibizan Minny always sat on the right side of the back seat of my car.
I could see her face in the rear view mirror and when “Driving Miss Daisy” came out, I LMAO.
She was so prissy, aristocratic and disapproving of my driving, that I started to refer to our trips as “Driving Miss Minny”.
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