Big Dogs

[Wesley]

This is less of a rant and more of a personal statement.

When I meet a big dog for the first time, my brain goes into analysis mode to figure out how to disable and/or kill the animal if I have to. Why would I have to? Dog gets scared, is poorly trained, overreacts and is going to hurt a child. That is the worst case scenario. Big dogs are often like Lenny from Of Mice And Men. Even with no malice, they will accidentally hurt others.

My sister's husband has wanted a dog for a long time. But in the past, it was too cramped in the house, no yard, etc. , so they stuck with cats. Oscar, Poisson, and Evie. Now they have a house with a yard and so they found a dog with a great personality, knows the difference between kids and adults, loves all the attention, does not randomly bark and jump up. Good things. Named Bear. Approximately 100lb Rottweiler. Good dog.

Today Bear met Poisson and overreacted. And shortly after, Poisson died in my niece's arms. Buried in the back yard. There was no real malice, just a powerful animal getting slightly spooked and misunderstanding a situation.

Remember what happened to Lenny at the end of Of Mice And Men?

I don't hate dogs. Not even big ones. I don't want to hurt them. If they are out of control and at the point of hurting others, I will stop it. No malice.




Now I am going to go and be sad for a little while.

[chex]

Aw, I'm sorry.

[Wesley]

For me personally, it is hard to have a pet in the house that I have to think about fighting and killing once in a while.

Although, Baki is getting stronger......

[bella]

Dogs are not malicious from birth on. A Rottweiler can be very gentle and kind, ask Mouse. It depends on good training, education and that you show the dog its position within your household.
What kind of background does the dog have? Did it have owners before or was he a puppy when he came? They are able to learn, I think Mouse has a cat too (correct me if I am mistaken). You need to show them what they are allowed to do and where the borders are. If you aren't the first owner of a pet there might always be a risk.
This is not just an opinion of mine but based on experience, until two weeks ago we owned a great dane and she was the most gentle, kind-hearted dog I ever met even though she has been abandoned by two previous owners. My mom was a dog trainer and had to deal with all kind of breeds.
With your reactions towards big dogs, they can sense your tension. It might be better to show them confidence and to let them know you aren't aggressive but dominant and they'll accept.

I'm sorry that this happened. Poor kitty.

[Wesley]

Like I said, I am sure that there was no malice.

And I don't walk in reeking of apprehension. Dogs like me just as much as cats do.

And even a well trained dog can get itself into a bad situation. Nobody wins then.

This is not a judgement against big dogs. Just an observation.

[Clarence]

So sorry Zot

[bella]

Then this is true for every dog, not just big ones. And cats too, they all have their instincts.

[Dowster]

I like dogs, and in particular big ones (they tend to have a better temprement than the small yappy ones - especially the terrior breeds) But im with you on this one and for a reason that applies to me daily

Scenario - you go to a house with a delivery, there's a large garden, the house is about 50 meters away and there's a sign on the gate saying "beware of the dog, enter at own risk" Really? well smurf you, you have no bell on your gate, no way of raising your attention and letting you know im there, and without a clear view of the entire garden (which usually has a rear section that links to the front) no way of knowing if you actually have the dog mentioned on the sign, or if it's locked in the house or out the back. Nor do I have any way of knowing if the dog is friendly, or unfriendly towards strangers - within it's own territory. Or even trained to attack tresspassers

2nd Scenario, this one applies to deliveries of large boxes containting 1-3 16KG bags of dog food (difficult enough to carry anyway) They always have instructions on like - leave in shed, or leave in conservatory. Ok so you're having 50kg of dog food delivered to your house and you want me to go walking around the back to find the shed/conservaroty. It's a pain in the arse, I don't want to fail deliveries or have big heavy boxes left on my van, but I hate being in that situation every time I go to a new address where im unfamiliar with the dog(s) and it really is is almost daily. I had one yesterday, a box of flowers that said leave in greenhouse, I go to the greenhouse - which was about 70-80 yards from the gate, then heard barking and turned around to see a large border collie running straight at me. Fortunately it just wanted to play, but it's not always like that. Im actually trying to count up the number of times I've been bitten on the back of the leg or arm, and to be honest I can't..

Even if you're not a small child, dogs can still take you down - or at least do some serious damage

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/04 ... 62707.html

[bella]

This is totally inconsiderate towards the person delivering what these have ordered. If they expect a delivery they have to take care that their dog won't bite anyone entering.

[Dowster]

Plenty of times they do, lock the dog up somewhere etc, the problem is that not once in all the years I've been doing it has anyone ever left a note on the gate saying "the dog is in the house today" or anything to indicate whether or not it's loose. They just expect me to assume, unfortunately around 30% of the time, it's not secured, and those 30%'s are enough to get bitten

[bella]

That's stoopid.