There are two separate topics that actually fall under one category. Dog bites and attacks occur every day; almost all of them are the direct fault of breeders and other dog owners. Some people are under the mistaken belief that some breeds are not only more likely to attack and bite – they are almost guaranteed to do so.
We wanted to do this article and talk about both the situation of the attacks and the banning of entire breeds of dogs to prevent attacks, but to do so; we have had to divide the article up into sections. While at one hand, the two subjects are directly tied together, on the other hand they couldn’t be more different in cause and effect.
We’ll talk about the breed bans first. Breed banning is not necessary, nor is it a solution. Different breeds have been bred for specific reasons to work alongside man or to simply be a companion. Because of this, the dog’s relationship with man is marked by the good things that can come from such a team.
Some dogs go into police work, search and rescue, therapy, protection work and many other areas while some are “just” loving, wonderful pets. These dogs are descended from wolves that operate on instincts and those instincts include a prey drive and a protective nature for the pack. Make no mistake once you have even one dog in your home; you are now a member of a pack.
Most people will own dogs and never have to worry about a pack or biting situation. This article is meant to help in the education of preventing that from happening and to minimize the destruction if it does.
It bears repeating; one thing that does not work to stop dog bites or attacks is breed banning. The right kind of person can make any dog dangerous. A sick, twisted mind can always come up with a way to make a dog (or almost any animal) vicious even if the dog is mean out of fear. If every breed listed on all the breed bans disappeared overnight, these people who run these fight rings would merely start using different breeds of dogs than they already use.
{slide=Breeds that are Currently Banned}
Many soldiers currently and in the past can credit their lives to the very dogs that are banned in some places. I am speaking about Dobermans, German Shepherds, Malinois, Rottweilers and other breeds known for working. We know a guy in the U.S. Air Force who credits Rotweillers and German Shepherds with saving the lives of troops over and over due to their super sense of smell and hearing. While on patrol, these dogs would stop and fall to the ground indicating danger ahead that the soldiers simply could not see, hear or smell. Time after time the dogs saved them from ambush.
German Shepherds are on the front lines in police departments everywhere plus they are one of the top choice breeds to work with the blind. They are excellent herders and they are loyal and brave to all members of the family.
Dobermans have been used both as protection dogs and as war dogs and they too have saved lives.
The American Staffordshire Terrier (Pit Bull) is one of the calmest, most sensitive breeds out there. Some police departments have found this breed to be indispensible in police work. When criminals are confronted with a dog of which they are already fearful, sometimes that is all that is needed and they give up. If they have to bite though, these dogs will put a hurt on the criminal – one that will keep the bad guy from getting away and one that will keep their human partner from getting hurt or killed.
So why are these dogs a problem? Why are they a threat? The answer to that question is simple. There is always a common denominator and it walks on two legs.
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{slide=How do Breeds get Labled as “Bad?”}
The same qualities of a dog that make it a good protector, police dog, herder are the same qualities that can land a dog on a banning list. We are speaking here of size, tenacity, bravery, protectiveness plus the reputation of the breed.
For the most part, problem dogs start with irresponsible “breeders.” Some of these are people o not get their dogs de-sexed and let them run wild and create unwanted litters. Others obtain dogs of certain breeds and do no health or history checks. Their goal is to simply put two dogs together and get litter after litter of puppies. Some breed dams are bred every 6 months; perhaps even to death, particularly if they are not nourished properly. This is the backyard breeder.
Some of these breeders do stay within their breeds and want purebred or a popular mix so they can sell the litters. They may not even fully realize there are good and bad representatives of the breed they’ve chosen. They may not take the time to try to find out what the genetic defects of the breed are; they may not even be aware of such defects. They’ll produce the litters periodically for Christmas money or to help buy a car or for some other financial reason. They are not into the betterment of the breed; nor do they care a thing about the dog’s integrity, personality or its desire to please and propensity for love.
Irresponsible breeders who stay within their breeds but who don’t bother to do their part in ensuring the physical and emotional standards for their breed are just as guilty as the other type of backyard breeder. They breed for the wrong reasons. Most breed for money, of course. Many will breed for size in the working dog group because they get buyers who want a big dog. The larger a dog, the shorter the life span and the more chances for problems with hips and elbows.
Irresponsible breeders will almost always breed for the wrong reasons and they continue to provide society with thousands of unwanted dogs and dogs that have to be put down every year. They create mentally and physically inferior dogs that are prone to pain and/or other type of thinking imbalance than can cause them to bite out of fear or pain aggression. If we must have further laws, then this is where they should be; the back yard breeder should not be allowed to breed. Not only do they lead to their own mis-bred dogs, but they allow their pups to be bred multiplying the mistakes over and over again. There are all sorts of wrong reasons to breed dogs.
Only those interested in weeding out genetic problems such as deafness in the Dalmatian, hip dysplasia (which exists in almost all breeds contrary to much public opinion), eye disorders that can be severe and so on. A responsible breeder has already taken steps to try to get healthy litters by the time the two chosen dogs are bred. A truly responsible breeder then goes further and makes sure the emotional and mental stability of both parents is also a sure thing.
A properly imprinted and trained dog does not have to be huge, of course; it only needs to be healthy and correctly trained but irresponsible breeders are always looking for shortcuts.
The Sunday Telegraph recently added the Maltese to a list of dogs that bite. Other dogs on their list include the pit bull, German Shepherds, Rotweillers and the Jack Russell terrier. The list is based on the number of bites so the details are not known. Now I don’t know about you but to me a list that includes Pit Bulls and Jack Russell Terriers on the same danger level is a list I will not want to recommend.
Three dogs of unknown breeds running wild recently attacked and killed some alpacas in Australia. Alpacas, of course, are calm loving animals that probably would have a difficult time defending themselves against such an attack.
For several years where I live, in the mountains of northern Idaho in the USA, there were reports of three wild dogs killing livestock. Some people thought it might actually be wolves or coyotes but supposedly photos proved otherwise and they were, in fact, wild dogs.
Recently in Melbourne, a crazed pit bull attacked a man and his dogs, brutally mauling the man’s arm. The dog had to be put down.
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{slide=Banning Breeds for Control of What? Perhaps Control of Us.}
Banning breeds of dogs is just one more way the government is trying to infringe on our lives. Because of irresponsible dog owners and breeders, some breeds are now identified as being dangerous and in some places are illegal to own.
Some of the breeds they have tried to illegalize are pit bulls, Rotweillers, Dobermans and German Shepherds. These breeds are not dangerous; they are just large and powerful. They were specially bred for specific purposes and their size was important in their development.
People have harmed full breeds of dogs by abusing them and mutilating them to the point where the only thing the dog can think about is biting. These breeders have no right being allowed to be involved with dogs in any way. Instead of trying to build a good protection dog, they are all about the viciousness of the attack. Therefore, they use shortcut methods to train the dog.
I’ve witnessed trainers short-cut train their dogs to bite by tying them up and beating them with sticks and pelting them with rocks. People who fight their dogs are lower on the evolutionary pole than their dogs. To get their dogs to bite, they’ll torture the dog with pinchers, cigarettes and electrical devices. They will starve them and beat them because they don’t care if the attack response is born out of fear as long as the dog will bite.
This kind of breeder chooses pit bulls not because of their breed personality but because of the size of their mouth and the grip of their jaw. The Staffordshire Terrier or Pit Bull can do a lot of damage with those teeth. It is, however a gentle and even timid breed. Because of this, it is more common to find an abused pit bull that fear bites than one who will “courageously” attack an attack it believes with all its heart is going to be very painful.
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{slide=Bite Dogs vs. Fight Dogs}
When one is training a bite dog, the dog is started as a pup. Proper biting is taught right down to the grip and to the correct commands. When a dog is taught to kill and money is wagered, owners of these dogs that are fought will go into neighborhoods and kidnap the innocent pets of families like yours and mine. They will sew the dogs’ mouths shut, pull their nails and cripple them in other ways to make sure they cannot fight back. In pain, whimpering (exhibiting total prey behavior), these stolen pets are then thrown into the cages with the pit bulls (or other chosen breed). This is what NFL player Michael Vick admits doing to people’s pets.
The stolen, missed and loved pets that are then taped up posters and lost pet advertisements don’t stand a chance – they are ripped to shreds by the dogs these so called human beings bet money on. If the pets aren’t killed outright by the dogs, they are either left to die slowly or mercifully put out of their misery by having their back or neck broken. Their only function is to build the kill drive, pack drive and courage in the fighting dog.
Some of these dogs are not trained to bite just to kill other dogs. Some owners train the dogs to maim and kill through torture and abuse so they can use them as weapons against the police, neighbors and even to threaten loved ones. Large dogs with big teeth are usually the victims of these abusers though the truth is probably there isn’t a breed that hasn’t been used. If there isn’t a lot of room, a smaller dog will do. There is really no limit to the evil of man when you think about the damage and abuse they can pile upon an innocent animal.
Where did man ever get the idea to use dogs to fight with and to make money? They’ve used other animals; places are famous for cock fights. Sometimes wild animals are caught and pitted against each other. Dog bites, however, can be very impressive (especially if the dog retains wolf instincts, is bred or taught to bite properly or is running in a pack). Some of the fighters will actually sharpen their dog’s teeth.
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{slide=Danger Can Come in Different Types of Bites}
A dog bite is a dog bite right? No, it isn’t. There are nips, rips, tugs and full- mouthed bites. There are bites meant to be play and some that are meant to be warnings. Biting should be taught and it should be taught properly because some day your dog could protect you. For the purposes of this article, we are more interested in dangerous, accidental or pack attacks of dogs which are horrible things to witness.
Just as there are different types of bites, there are different types of situations in which the bites can happen which will be illustrated in this article.
First, though there is something that should further illustrate that the human is the most dangerous animal in the dog/man team. The number one biter in the USA three years ago was the golden retriever. Who does not love the Golden? So why does it hit the top biter position so often? Part of the answer probably lies in the popularity of the breed. If one million people own Goldens, compared to 100,000 who own say Dobermans then common sense dictates there will be more golden retrievers inflicting bites. Also, since Goldens have such a sweet nature, they are more likely to go to homes with children. And the sad truth is that a lot of parents do not treat their children to NOT mistreat their animals.
The bite statistics are dangerous because the only way they are broken down is by breed. The circumstances rarely, if ever, are taken into consideration. They have become a bunch of numbers on many lists. They have not resulted in any type of cure or answer. They merely serve to try to eradicate breeds of dogs – which again, will be replaced by other breeds of dogs if their eradication proves to be successful.
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{slide=Children and Dogs}
People who have children AND own dogs have so many more responsibilities than those who don’t. You can’t have a dog in your home that is going to hurt your child. By the same line of reasoning, you must teach your child (and usually the best way is through example) to treat the animals with respect. How many of the children who got bit were biting the dogs or pinching them, running them over with their toys and jabbing sticks into their eyes? Unfortunately, we’ve seen this behavior all too often. The dog gets in trouble for snapping but nothing happens to the child.
Even if the dog is given to another home, what has the child learned? If a child cannot learn to avoid hurting an animal, then pets may need to be kept out of the home or limited until the child can learn these lessons. Otherwise, the child (and the pet) will always be in danger.
It does not matter what type of breed of dog you have in your home; if it is abused, it will defend itself. Educate yourself and educate your children. You’ll be doing them a favor. By learning to treat their pets with respect, you’ll be lessening the chance they’ll get bit by a stranger’s dog. You may even be helping them become responsible parents some day.
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{slide=Banning by Breeds Does Not Make Sense}
If there are 100,000 people a year who get killed by drunk drivers, how do we stop that? Do we collect all the facts to determine the types of cars that were involved in these fatal accidents? Instead of having driver’s licenses, penalties for breaking the law and vehicle insurance, we could always just ban Fords or Volkswagens. That would make as much sense as banning a breed of dog. The drunk driver in the accident scenario is the owner and/or breeder in the dog scenario.
These drivers (breeders) need to be taken off the road. Fines and penalties need to be stiff enough to make them quit repeating their erroneous ways.
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{slide=More About Types of Attacks and Bites}
We ran a rescue for breeds that were put down when they went to the humane shelter and we rescued and found homes for many of these dogs. One was not so lucky. He was a pit bull named Jake.
Jake bit a five-year-old boy not once, but twice. The first time, the owners were notified and Jake was put on quarantine. The second time, Jake was picked up and put to sleep.
Those are the facts as they were laid out in the newspaper and it sounds like Jake received the only justifiable solution.
There is much more to the story, however. First of all, the dog nipped the child; he didn’t bite the child. I know I’ll enrage some people with that remark alone but the fact is if a dog – any dog, much less a pit bull – is trying to hurt someone they are not going to nip at them. A nip or snap is like a short growl; it is a warning. Leave me alone. Some dogs whine when they snap – “PLEASE leave me alone.” We see that when the animal is abused or in pain.
Where was Jake when he bit the child? That’s an important question that was left out of the debate. He was under the front porch of his owner’s home hiding from a group of children that went around the neighborhood poking and throwing rocks at the dogs that were restrained in their yards. Jake not only was on a tether, a neighbor reported that one of the children hit him with a rock and the dog scurried under the porch.
The five year old then reached under the porch, grabbed Jake’s paw and began to drag him out and Jake nipped him hard enough to leave a mark though he didn’t break the skin. He didn’t draw blood. The child was alarmed, began to cry, ran home to his parents and they made a call and by the time Jake’s family got home, Jake was sitting at the shelter.
Jake was a pit bull who bit a five-year-old child and his sentence was death. He was almost three years old and he was loved. He was inside a fenced and gated yard and to protect him against the neighborhood children, he was tethered. To protect him against the weather, he was near shelter.
I will never understand what lessons were learned here. Did the child ever get in trouble for trespassing? Was he ever told it was wrong to throw rocks at dogs or poke them with sticks? We’ll never know because Jake nipped the same child twice. Yes, that’s right. The same child who was bit the first time reached under the porch to forcefully pull the dog out.
So Jake is dead and I’ll repeat – what good came of it? Were any lessons learned? Were any steps taken to make it so this child would not incur another dog bite? I met Jake’s owner five years after the dog’s death and the man is still devastated by the loss of what he describes as a friendly, shy dog who had been his best friend for years.
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{slide=A True Dog Attack is Something to be Feared}
Have you ever seen a dog pack in the throes of an attack? I have. Some ancient survival instinct at the basic level kicks in and the dogs – even your precious Peaches and Buttercup – turn into something different. They don’t even resemble your dog; they are more like something from the movie “An American Werewolf in London.”
Once a dog is into the primal attack mode, it is out of your control at every level. So intense is this instinct that it takes over everything from the dog’s body language to its entire mind. Fluffy won’t hear you calling, yelling to stop. Your baby Precious won’t notice water sprayed on her unless you are fortunate enough to have a high pressure washer or a fire hose at your disposal. You can spray about any kind of deterrent into the dog’s eyes and it will not notice. You will. Long after the attack is over, your eyes will be burning.
Once, I had two intact males weighing in at around 100 pounds each lock onto each other’s jaws. They were litter brothers and there was always some type of friction going on between them though it was usually verbal. There was a fence between them thankfully but in their rage, they’d found a space between the gate and the fence large enough to push their noses through. I don’t believe in physical punishment for a dog but the day that happened, I tried everything. I pulled, I hit. I did a hammer fist to the inside dog’s head. If he even noticed it, he didn’t show it.
Desperate, I actually (cringe) grabbed his testicles and pulled. Nothing. They were too intent on each other.
I had to hold the collar with one hand and literally forcefully but carefully pry the one dog’s mouth open, literally pulling his teeth from the other dog’s mouth. I had a stick I slid it between his teeth so he couldn’t bite down again. Luckily the other male was so relieved the grip had been loosened, he backed away from the fence. Oh, they still carried on with their death threats and name calling. Both had deep gashes in the mouth and face which amazingly did not scar.
I found myself in a very volatile position once while I was still learning about dogs and the problems hormones and jealousy can cause. With one female in heat, one female with a litter on the ground and an intact male, the last thing I needed wandering into my yard was a 6 month old male. It is right about the age of 6 months that the male dog starts producing more testosterone and puts an odor out the older males can smell.
The occasion I am speaking about occurred when a neighbor left her dog out and it wandered onto our property. I remember looking out the door and seeing the 6-month-old pup running right into the yard and I saw the instant reaction of my male. Immediately, the ears went back, the fur up and the tail went straight in the air. I remember screaming as I tried to make it to the pup before my dog did. I was yelling at the puppy to come and it did make it up onto the porch before my male caught him.
I don’t know what I was expecting. Many books are adamant on the fact that a dog fight will blow over if you allow it to run its due course. This was no dog fight. As soon as the male bit the pup, the puppy made noises so wild it drew the attention of the two females and they joined the pack.
It was as if I was looking at dogs or wild animals I no longer recognized. The screams of the attacked pup sounded close to human.
This is hard to read, I’m sure, and harder to write about. I believe this is one of those memories that will never leave me but I also believe it is important that people understand what causes these situations, how to break them up and what NOT to do. Usually one learns what not to do the hard way and that was certainly the truth on this day.
My first instinct was to grab the pup off the ground but he was torn from my arms. I felt at that moment he would die and I made another mistake. I threw myself on him to try to protect him. The dogs not only took this as a sign that I was joining their pack, but they were frenzied and they bit me too.
I’ve read of people who have thrown themselves on top of their dogs and been injured – mutilated and worse so I was very lucky. They were my dogs and they were not trying to hurt me but I saw and heard firsthand the awfulness of the attack. Wolves attack in packs for a reason. Many of the animals they hunt are simply too large for one wolf to take down. The wolves will circle the animal and they will actually rip it to shreds.
I remember on that day hearing that poor pup’s flesh and skin rip just like a piece of fabric and with each rip came a terrible scream; the kind that can cause you to break out in a cold sweat.
At first I tried getting all the dogs off at once which quickly zapped my strength. It was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made, but I came to realize I had to settle for peeling one dog off at a time.
I grabbed my male and literally pried his teeth off the pup and dragged him into the house past his litter of pups and into the bathroom. Had I let go of him at any point along that journey, e would have laid into one or more of those puppies.
I then went back out to retrieve one of the two females who I had to haul downstairs and lock up. I was out of breath and weak by the time I got back to the third and last dog the pup under attack was losing strength as well.
Somehow I got the third dog off and separated. I managed to literally walk/crawl to the neighbor’s and got a ride for myself to the emergency room and the pup to the vet’s office.
I survived with some serious bites; none of which got infected but I took a while to heal.
The pup, too, survived with around 200 sutures and drain tubes hanging out that had to be cleansed several times a day.
My point is as much as we love our dogs, if we are going to be responsible dog owners and breeders, we must educate ourselves on these issues. We must take steps to breed this aggression out through imprinting and socialization. We must be aware of how a female in heat completely changes the dynamics.
We need to know what our dogs (especially the large ones) are capable of and it is our responsibility to make sure they don’t hurt people or pets. If you don’t fully understand the truly animalistic nature of rage in a dog, you will not be equipped to recognize a situation and fix it before it is out of control.
It can happen in the blink of an eye. You may be walking your dog on leash in a neighborhood that already has plenty of dog laws but also its share of irresponsible owners. One minute you and your pet are enjoying the fresh air and sunshine and the next your dog and maybe even you are fighting for your life. I’ve witnessed this type of attack and can only say that the most important thing you can do is remain level headed. Walking a licensed dog on a leash, suddenly we were surrounded by three mixed breed dogs – all off leash. They were on my dog so fast I had no time to think.
I learned things that day that have helped me in similar situations. One – you cannot fight more than one dog at a time. Two you need to remove the threat the fastest way possible. I grabbed the collar of one dog and literally pulled him off mine; all his frenzy was directed at getting loose and back to shredding my dog got the first dog away and there was a shed which thankfully was unlocked and I threw the dog in and went back to grab the second dog by its collar. I was able to isolate him by throwing him into someone’s car. By then my dog was torn up, bleeding and very tired but at least there was only one dog on him which I removed just about the time her owner showed up and asked me what I thought I was doing to her dog. I pointed at my dog and asked her if she would take her dog from me or if she would rather I killed it. I had lost my sense of humor long before she arrived at the scene.
It’s a story that is repeated across the globe all the time. We as responsible dog owners and breeders must take steps to educate ourselves and the public as on how to prevent these attacks. In the event one happens, we also must learn and educate how to break such a pack up. We must quit closing our eyes and mouths regarding the irresponsible backyard breeders.
Our dogs have many instincts in them and most of them can be used to make that dog more valuable to us. They are protective, territorial and loyal. These are all good traits but you can see how they work against us if there is a pack situation.
The problem is on the international level; dog attacks on people. The question is what can we do to stop them and unfortunately, the answer always seems to be new laws. While making new laws could actually be the answer, it seems like we are being forced to go down a crazy path first. The answer is not to ban certain breeds and the answer is certainly not to kill dogs that are out of their yards.
I have a personal problem with this. Twelve years ago I had three German Shepherds from the same litter – Cowboy, Sheba and Athena. We live in the mountains on 23 acres and German Shepherds are territorial and loyal. They are also the kind of dog you want around when you share your living quarters with bear and cougar. A neighbor deliberately murdered my dogs – they were on our property and he shot them in the backs as they were trying to flee. The man had decided that German Shepherds were dangerous. They were still pups.
Governments on different levels are looking for ways to stop a problem that would not exist if it weren’t for irresponsible humans. Maybe, instead of killing the dogs or the breeds, we should start looking at who should be allowed to own a dog and more importantly who should be allowed to breed dogs.
In Australia, for example, the government in Victoria wants to make it a law that if a dog is seen wandering about on its own without tags, it can just get shot dead. I’m glad I’m not the one who has that job because I don’t think I could do it. There is something innately wrong with shooting a live being just because it’s walking down the street.
Let’s say old Mrs. Hoover’s 15-year old cocker spaniel, Cookie gets out when a grandchild leaves the gate open and next thing you know bam!!! Cookie is dead. Neighborhood kids illegally set off some firecrackers and a few frightened pets scramble over and under fences to get away from the scare and the dogs get put down. I can see a lot of problems with a law like this.
All over the world governments in cities and townships are trying to figure out how to keep kids from getting bit by dogs. Some of these attacks are vicious and even deadly. Is killing the dogs the answer?
No it is not. Do not ban the breed; ban the irresponsible backyard breeder.
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{slide=The Tide May be Turning}
In Toledo, Ohio, dog advocate and animal law specialist Ledy VanKavage is part of a group that helped rescue the dogs in the imfamous Michael Vick dog fighting scandal. She points out that the term itself “pit bull” is used erroneously. The name came about from the ancient British sport of putting dogs in a pit with rats to see which dog coud kill the most rats. The pit itself was used to keep the rats from escaping. The pit bull as we know it today was only one of many breeds used in this “sport.” Ms. VanKavage cites several studies where breeds have been banned, yet there has been no decrease in dog bites or attacks in these areas.
Twelve states in the USA specifically forbid breed profiling.
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(2010w01)
