Spoon

Seriously Snaz, the day I get 'picked' on will be the day I'm dead.
Fire away, all opinions are welcome, just some are funnier than others.

Snazy

lol fair play mate
I never see these threads as arguements, more discussions and displays of opinions. Something everyone is entitled to, however someone always has to be wrong

Spoon

Listening to experience, whatever the field of work, without taking views of others personally comes with age.

Snazy

Cant wait to be as old as you
If I dont fall apart before I reach that age.

chris singleton

My dog went through nearly 3 years of obedience training, she'll walk down the road and heel to command without a lead but for safety I always use a lead when on pavement near roads. Over our local park (7/8 large fields, no kiddies playgrounds or anything like that) there is normally 10-15 dogs at any one time. I let her off the lead, you can't get enough exercise on the lead and unfortunately I only have a small garden.

She recalls on commmand and generally doesn't stray more than 10-20 metres away from me. If other dogs approach she'll have a sniff but she's not really interested.

Sorry, but I don't class that as irresponsible

Spoon

Is that your ear in Computer Related?

Snazy

I think the scale of irresponsibility is a long one.
Ultimatly dogs are animals and only 90% predictable, which is why I always use a lead.
The difference becomes obvious when lesser trained dogs start trouble. Most dogs will then revert to being a dog and engage.
To me its not about my dog, its about the other dogs. If a little dog walkes over off the lead and nips mine and gets a chunk bitten out of it for its troubles, who is to blame?

In an ideal world there would be somewhere for all dogs to exercise, and all dogs would be trained and respect one another. Sadly this is not the case.


Spoon, cheers mate, I wondered why my sunglasses kept falling off

moff1888

The little dog drew first blood

chris singleton

I'd say the little dogs fault as it was the aggresor.

If an owner knows that it's dog will bark, bite, annoy other dogs then they should keep it on a lead when other dogs are about. I find that in general, it's the litte yappy yorkshire terrier type dogs that are overly aggressive and not the the staffs, rotties, etc which have the bad reputations.

Snazy

I would be inclined to agree, in general. Small dog syndrome. Yap yap nip nip... But, at the end of the day they are all dogs and cant be trusted 100%.

Like I say, each case has its own merits. Its hard to generalise about ALL dog owners, and ALL breeds. At the end of the day breed is not the only deciding factor.

Law says, use a lead. Personal preference is to have the dog on a lead too.
Others differ, thats fair enough.

Just playing switcheroo with the question. Same 2 dogs, my mal off the lead, the nippy little one on the lead. Mine approaches the nippy one with no bad intensions, but gets bitten. So bites back naturally defending itself. Kills the little dog with one big bite... whos fault now?

Spoon

No owner knows. There's only one thing predictable about an animal and that's its unpredictability. Every story we read about children being injured is followed with something like "My dog has never shown signs of doing that, he/she is usually so good"

I could think of several cases where dogs costing several thousands have surprised their experienced owners/handlers. Police dogs have done it. You Tube's your friend for that.

Spoon

Check out I think the 3rd dog. His handler would never have said he'd turn on him.

YouTube - police dog training. STRONG DOGS!!!

chris singleton

Your fault for not controlling your dog

If you know your dog will react to being barked, nipped, bitten by other dogs then you shouln't let him near other dogs. My dog has been snarled at, barked at, she runs away from confrontation. I agree that I can't be 100% that she won't fight back but to date she has always avoided it. Even when my git of a nephew kicked her she just yelped and ran and hid behind me. I do own the smallest, wimp of a staff though. Strangely though, she doesn't bark and loves watching fireworks, go figure

Tiggs

Get a grip though. You may as well say that a car doing 70 is unpredictable as you never know if a tyre may blow out. As cars killed thousands more people than dogs maybe we should walk (or at least put are cars on a leash)

Snazy

But the decision on the last one was "I'd say the little dogs fault as it was the aggresor. " But now mine is off the lead, its to blame although not the aggresor? Just doing what most dogs would do and defending themself. Do you get my point?
Either its the one out of control, or the one thats the aggresor. Cant chop and change, and the only way to control the odds is to keep them on a lead when around others

The fact your dog likes fireworks and others hate them just goes to show how different and unpredictable dogs really are. Just like humans

Tiggs, not the greatest example. There is such a thing as an acceptable risk. Choosing to get on a plane, but they crash.... However there IS an element of control over them, same as cars.
Dogs, think for themselves, and have their own habits, traits, and moods... So slightly less predictable.

Spoon, every time I see that vid I think OUCH !

Police dogs bite cops quite a lot, once excited they just go for it. There is a clip somewhere of a cop having his trousers almost ripped off after catching the criminal. Its still so wound up it just keeps biting.
Interesting to notice that trained police dogs, that are TRAINED how and where to bite so NOT to cause too much harm, are STILL kept on leads in general, even the sniffer dogs are.

chris singleton

yes, but in the first scenario you had control of your dog, in the second scenario you didn't have control.

Either way, if the little yappy thing bites your dog it deserves all it gets, bite the owner as well for (a) buying a stupid yappy dog and (b) failing to train and control it properly