Strollerderby

I don't have an answer to that one, but I have heard of some weird animal assault stories lately - f'r instance:

www.examiner.com/topics-odd_new_zealand_hedgehog_assault.html

I used to think this about pit bulls....until a sweet, pit bull mix "found me."  I have had her for about 5 years now, and she is the sweetest dog I know.  100% lazy (except when it comes to barking at the mail man).  We take her to the dog park, and she does not get involved in the scuffles.  I think it is mostly pet owners...although with any powerful bread you have to understand what they can do given certain situations.  Also, people still breed them to fight which causes problems with "breeding out" any aggressiveness in them.  Great Danes are an example of selective breeding that has completely changed personalities of what the dogs used to be.

"Are there any stories of poodles attacking people? Chihuahuas? Pugs? Golden retrievers? Labs? Maybe it happens and isn't reported. But I sort of doubt it."

So you sort of doubt it and that's that? According to the Humane Society, 80% of (reported) dog bites occur from dogs the victims know. Do most people you know own Rotweillers and pit bulls?  Of course these awful maulings (and they are awful) get news coverage, rather than, oh a chihuahaua biting the hand of a stranger, which at most would require stitches, not an ear reattachment. But to discount the fact that other breeds bite or attack only breeds blissful ignorance that could lead to more bites because people think "family" pets or breeds are not still, in essence, animals. ALL dogs are capable or biting and ALL dogs should be trained, socialized, spayed or neutered, not to mention leashed and supervised. There are plenty of lovely pit bulls in the world, and plenty of snippy golden retrievers.

We had a college buddy who had a pit bull.  He was a well trained, high energy dog and we all loved him a lot.  His favorite outside toy was a log.  Yeah, a LOG.  A large chunk of a tree bigger than my thigh (well at least as big as it was back then).  He shredded that thing to pieces over the course of one semester.

Pit bulls have powerful jaws, they are strong.  When they bite or attack, it causes damage you don't get from a small or midsized dog.  This means owners need to be responsible and strangers need to have caution near them.  

Well, glancing at <a href="www.doglegislationcouncilcanada.org/WinnipegBites.htm">this chart</a> it looks like the big biters are German Shephards, Terriers, Rottweilers, and Labs.  The frequency of Pit Bull bite reports probably has to do with a combination of Pit Bull type dogs strong jaws, media sensationalism (which makes a better headline - "Young Girl in Hospital in Critical Condition After Dog Attack!" or "Young Girl Needs Bandaid On Ankle After Dog Attack!"), and most people's <a href="www.pitbullsontheweb.com/.../findpit.html">inability  to identify an actual Pit Bull</a>.

Are pit bulls dangerous?  Sure.  They have high prey instincts and are very strong.  Here are some statistics from the American Humane Society:

* Every 40 seconds someone in the United States seeks medical attention for a dog bite-related injury.

* Dog attacks cause 4.5 million injuries annually, 800,000 of which require medical attention.

* At least 25 different breeds of dogs have been involved in the 238 dog bite-related fatalities in the United States.

* Pit bulls and rottweilers account for over half of these deaths.

* 24% of human deaths involve unrestrained dogs off of their owners' property.

* 58% of human deaths involved unrestrained dogs on their owners' property.

If you look at the fatality statistic, it says that over 25 breeds have been involved in fatalities.  Half are pits and rotties, but that still leaves over 100 fatal bites by other breeds.  So clearly, it is NOT *just* a pit bull problem.  That doesn't even address the 800,000 bites per year that require medical attention.  The largest percentage of dog bites are inflicted by small to medium sized family dogs.  Of large dogs, German Shepherds and shepherd mixes bite the most often.

The difference is how much damage is caused, obviously.  A larger dog can and will cause more damage, and some dogs, once excited by the chase, don't give it up.  And part of it IMO is that the press loves a good pit bull story.

Would I have a pit bull with my children?  Absolutely.  Would I possibly be more careful with a pit or other high-drive dog?  Yes.  Prey and guarding instincts are just that, instincts.  I personally have herding dogs, and while I do train them on proper channels for their instinct, I also don't expect them to ignore it altogether.  Or I put them away in situations that I know are ripe to trigger it (like noisy children running around the yard).

So in other words, if you don't want the possibility of dog bites, then we have to get rid of all dogs as pets.  Because even if you don't have a "gun" in your house, your kids' friends might have one.  And while PETA and the like are trying to do just that, I'm still hoping that there is a happy medium somewhere.  I believe that owners need to be held responsible for what they allow their dogs to do, no matter what the breed.  Because the bottom line?  A dog that is safely contained, trained, and understood to be a dog and not a mini-human, isn't as much of a threat.

Regardless of breed, it really does come down to the owner. Unfortunately, many pit bull owners are probably less likely to socialize and train their dog adequately. I have a feeling (no facts, just a feeling), that some "tough" people like to have tough dogs (like pit bulls, rottweilers, etc) to go with their image and won't take the time to teach them to be gentle.

I'm in the middle of training a puppy, my first dog ever, and we're training him to resist the natural urge to bite at things, including people. Training can't make him any less of an animal, though, and even as a kind hearted lab, if he gets excited or stimulated, he will still nip. He is an animal, plain and simple.

I have lived in neighborhoods where pit bulls or bully mixes are in every other home at least (Oakland, Long Beach, etc.), and things were fine.  I know it's totally anecdotal evidence and you can throw it out, but I can at least personally attest to hundreds of dogs who will never make it to the paper, because they are good!  A dog of any breed will turn mean if neglected or unsocialized, and any juvenile dog can get overexcited and accidentally hurt people.

I have a 100-pound American Bulldog who gets mistaken for a pit bull all the time, and he is nothing but a big lump of laziness; he couldn't be bothered with biting anything that isn't a cookie.  Both my kids learned to pull up by crawling up to him and yanking on him.  He hardly noticed they were there.  If newspapers reported on the hundreds of thousands (or millions?) of well-taken-care-of bullies, you'd have headlines of "RILEY HOGGED UP THE BED AGAIN LAST NIGHT" AND "LOCAL PIT BULL ATE ALL OF THE SANDWICH EXCEPT FOR THE LETTUCE".

My grandmothers neighbors have 2 pitbulls that were sweet and quiet. One day while my grandmother was pulling weeds along the fenceline one of the pitbulls was spooked and put his head under the chain-link fence and grabbed my grandmothers leg. It took most of the muscle and skin off of her calf and she is recovering from skin graft surgery. She is 84.

I would never have a pit bull, even a well trained pit bull around my children. Any dog has a chance of freaking out uncharacteristically, but these large dogs were bred to be fighters and have the jaw strength to do real damage. If my grandmother had been a child, the dog most likely would have bitten off its leg.

I found this article so strange because had just earlier this week read a story that mentions a new study showing that chihuahuas are actually number 2 for biting people on a list of top 10 published in the daily mail,  The first is Dachshunds.

www.dailymail.co.uk/.../Why-sausage-dogs-really-just-legged-fiends.html

Bigger stronger dogs get more press because they can do more damage, but they are not inherently more vicious than other dogs.

Also, this is an old story, but it is certainly not the only time I can think of something like this happening.  In this case a pomeranian killed an infant left alone.  

The moral is that dogs and babies must be supervised at all times, its more dangerous to be complacent with a dog than it is to keep a pit bull as a pet.

The guy who threw his angry dog into a room full of preschoolers needs to be thrown himself into a pit of angry dogs and see how he fares. Scum.

pits are stero-typed...like blacks...jews...you name it.

wake up people...if a pit is aggressive its has nothing to do with the breed (that would be easy now right).  If a pit is dangerous its because of some humane asshole that trained it to be that way.

I've met some nasty acting little dogs.  And big dogs that were big babies.  It just depends on the dog's personality, training and owner.  And once again, dogs can not be trusted alone with kids.  I have four dogs--none spends any time alone with my kids.  Kids can be unpredictable and can bite at dogs, pull fur and ears and the dog will respond accordingly or not, but why take the chance.  

As the above poster commented, dachsunds bite more people than other breeds. HOWEVER...all dog bites are not created equal. A pit bull is able to exert more pressure per square inch than any other breed, meaning that once it bites, it will not let go. This is what they are bred to do. Just like my doberman has been bred to protect our house/yard, and will bark at anyone knocking on the door, driving into the driveway, etc. It does, in fact, have A LOT to do with the breed, because purebred dogs have been bred for specific purposes. Sadly, a pit bull has been bred to fight. Just as labs were bred to retrieve from water, pointers to hunt on land, etc. etc. I pity these dogs, and know some precious, sweet ones. But I think almost any dog will bite when provoked, no matter what thier owner thinks, but some breeds will cause a much greater amount of damage. Let's look at the bigger picture: all dogs deserve to be loved, trained, owned by responsible adults, and not bred for fighting.

A lot of things are difficult to quantify. Perhaps there are simply alot more bad Pitbull owners. It also seems most Pitbull attack stories I've ever read about, the owners say the dog never misbehaved before - though this is hardly counts as a statistical fact. The Pitbull was definitely bred to be a strong dog. But what does count as a statistical fact is the number of deaths caused by dog attacks, as collected by the CDC, between 1979 and 1998 for purevreds only is as follows: Top of the list by a wide margin are Pitbulls with 66 deaths, followed by Rottweilers with 39, followed by German Sheppards with 17. Also, if you consider how many more German Sheppards there are out there than either Pitbulls or Rottweilers, it creates an even more damning number for these two dogs. Bottom line, for whatever the reason, be it breeding, or mishandling by owners, Pitbulls have to be considered a more dangeroug in the community than other breeds. It could completely be due to bad owners, but one has to consider that when they encounter a Pitbull, there is a greater risk than when they encounter most other common breeds.

I think a well trained, well socialized Pit is less likely to attack than a chihuahua or many other types of dogs, but once a pit does attack his instinct is to kill -- and he is very good at it.  A collie might be more likely to nip or bite protecting its "sheep" than a pit, but the collie is also likely to bite and retreat, and not likely to pursue a victim off of its own property.  So, yes, there are many sweet pits (and rotties, and other bull dogs) but remember, they are bred to kill (historically at least, I think they were also bred to have a pretty high trigger for attack, i.e. it is much harder to get them to attack than other dogs, but once the attack starts, you're dead). Labs are not bred to kill.  Collies are not bred to kill.  

Unfortunately today there there are a lot of irresponsible pit bull owners -- especially in inner cities.  And, those dogs are super dangerous.