scilly

A neighbour had a Rottweiler years ago ........... he brought it home as a puppy when his 3rd child was still crawling, not yet learned to walk. He also had 2 cats

We all though "what the hxxx?!!"

That dog was the most beautifully trained dog you could imagine ....... the kids (and there was eventually a 4th child) could do anything with him. The cats ruled him ......... he was scared to death of their claws.

He guarded 3 houses ............. if he was out in his yard and anyone came on to either of the next door properties, he would bark like mad. We had to "introduce" visitors to him if we wanted to sit with them on our sundeck, or he would bark until we did.

His owner had him trained to finger moves, and often did not have him on the leash, he never ran.

He did get out of his yard occasionally, other people would be scared of him ....... but OH or I would go up to him, point homeward and say "Home, Raider", and off he would go.

I admit that I would NOT put one toe on his property if none of the family were there ......... I would just guide him home, then stand on the sidewalk and point him into his garden. I know he could well have attacked me if I had followed him, and in my eyes he would have been protecting his property.

If we were talking to his owner, Raider would come to me and let me pet him, and then gradually lean against my leg ................ until I almost fell over!

He taught me that a good owner can have a well-behaved dog.

Stinkypup

I glad your son is ok, thankfully it wasn't worse but I'm sure bad enough. You all must be be pretty shaken up.

Unfortunately, any dog is capable of doing what happened, irrespective of the breed, large or small, some as have been discussed are more likely to be aggressive but even seemingly gentle dogs such as golden retrievers, labradoodles and any kind of Heinz 57 can flip for no noticeable reason, as has been said, sometimes due to the contacting person being oblivious to signs that the dog was putting out, often warning signs such as aggression or fright etc. There are occasions when these signs aren't put out but these are I think rare.

We aren't sure of the circumstances in this case, a 17 year old boy is unlikely to set off the attack. The problem was, the dogs weren't known to you and so reading the signs under these circumstances was probably nigh impossible.

Prior to Canada, Stinky went for hydrotherapy for his hips since he was a pup. The pool was at a house owned by a Rottweiler and Staffie shower and breeder. She asked before we left if I could photograph her dogs. She had at that time 14 Rotties and 4 Staffies and the control that she had over all of these dogs as she brought them out to photograph was impeccable.

Undoubtedly there are more aggressive breeds, there are breeds with immensely powerful jaws (Mastiff and Rottweiler easily come out on top here- although the Hyena and Wolf have twice the bite strength of both of these breeds!) Someone on her Facebook page, a friend takes amazing photos of her "fabulous five" Rotties perfectly posed like professionals. Cute but like any dog potentially dangerous.

I 100% agree with the comment re Pit Bulls and little kids on Facebook. Friends of mine bought one whilst she was pregnant...that I think was foolish. When our kids were young, I would never leave Stinky and his predecessors alone with the kids at any time however much I trusted them.

It is often the owners, using dogs as perverse status symbols, the dangerous dogs act in the UK was I feel a good plan- countrywide. Here in Canada, Provinces are different in their policies. Im not sure banning breeds is the answer, it might be but where do you draw the line?- Pitbulls, Mastiffs, Rotties, Staffies, GDSs, Akitas, Boxers, Huskies..the list goes on.

I personally dont think that Pit Bulls should be licensed but I come from a country which has banned them long ago. It is also about control- a Labrador can cause savage damage if out of control. Im not sure what can be learnt from this horrible event that occurred- it was a couple of Rottweilers but could have been many other breeds.I hope as has been said that your son and indeed yourselves will move on, and continue to hopefully get back the love for dogs which you seem to have had prior to this traumatic experience. I strongly believe that the essence of control and behaviour lies within the hands of the owners.

plasticcanuck

A few weeks ago I went to the drug store. When I arrived I noticed a small terrier mix tied up outside waiting for his owner to come out. Being a dog lover I approached the dog with my hand extended palm up, to say hi to him. Well I guess he didn't appreciate that because he snapped at me and got me good on the soft flesh at the bottom of my thumb. Lots of pain and blood ensued. It wasn't the dog's fault-all mine. He obviously felt threatened. I learned a lesson though about petting strange dogs without owner's presence and permission, although once in 70+ years ain't bad.

dbd33

I think this is too kind to the dogs.

I have a greyhound, a breed of dog that eats cats, and we have two cats. One cat will bat the greyhound on the nose to wake her up and then demand petting, the greyhound will then nuzzle him. So, that greyhound is compatible with those cats and we have lovely facebook compliant pictures of them snuggling. Would I let the unleashed greyhound be in the same garden as a strange cat? No. As one of those cats? No. Greyhounds eat cats and being ok with specific ones indoors doesn't alter the nature of the greyhound.

Similarly, having a territorial dog such as a Mastiff or Rottweiler that's compatible with specific children indoors doesn't make it acceptable to expose strangers, children or adults, to that animal. If you have a guard dog type of animal, keep it for guarding, don't take it out to places where passers-by have to be expected to "read the signs" that the dog is going to bite them. Don't take it away from it's territory and dump it on innocent dog sitters.

And, on guarding, I would think a dog barking fiercely is the deterrent, not the likelihood of the dog biting; for that purpose even a friendly retriever poodle mix meets the need.

BristolUK

I'd never heard that before but I suppose it's only logical a North American would call a sausage dog by that name.

DandNHill

Funny isn't it? I grew up with wiener dogs so have no worries about them. Our fears are very much based on experience.

Novocastrian

One more who's sorry, but relieved, at this tale of your son. Kudos to him for handling it so well.

I'm a dog-lover but no fan of Rottweilers and can anecdotally explain why. Our best-friend German neighbours (in, err, Germany) would always invite me to stay in their house when I used to go back to have collaborative research time with my former colleagues. Unfortunately after a few years they acquired a Rottweiler bitch. The dog was fine with the family but nervous about having a stranger in the house (i.e. me) overnight.

Again, unfortunately, their old German village house, like most older German houses didn't have en suite loos in the bedrooms and this bloody dog would growl and bark when I had to go (and you know the size of a german Bierstein).

After a couple of years of this I started to make excuses and stay elsewhere (I think they understood why).

OK, so far, all my problem, but two years later the animal attacked the husband of the family for no obvious reason and was subsequently put down.

Just saying.

I'll stick to Border Collies.

DandNHill

Thank you everybody for your kind words. He's on the mend and very positive. I still can't get over how well he dealt with the situation. He didn't try to rip his arm out of the dogs mouth but just wrestled the dog to the floor and pinned it to the ground. I think what will take a long time for me to get over is the tone of his voice when he shouted for help saying "They're going to kill me". Somehow he managed to get off the dog and out of the room before I got there. He was so much calmer than me then, I couldn't even figure out how to call 911!!

I do agree that the owners are responsible for the most part for the behaviour of these breeds and if in the wrong hands these dogs are time bombs.
However, if all dogs are equal and that it's how the owners treat them / train them why don't the police use golden retrievers or wieners dogs? In my opinion Simply because rottweilers, pit bulls and various others have it in them to be vicious and putting them in the wrong hands makes them go from bad to worse not from good to bad.

DandNHill

Thank you for that Novo. Exactly as I said above. Time bombs!

Almost Canadian

When we lived in England, we knew the woman whose dogs were used in the Omen films. She was horrified when Rotties were then called "Devil dogs" in the 1990s following a series of bites that were reported in the media.

There are so many factors that affect whether a particular dog will turn "nasty" that I do not believe it is helpful to simply label a breed of dog as bad. An intact dog of any breed is likely to be far more aggressive that a castrated dog of the same breed all other things being equal.

When in England, my wife had Rotties and we brought them to Calgary with us. They have since passed away.

We now have an Akita and 3 GSDs. All of them are well trained and we have no issue with taking them to off leash parks. While at such parks we meet owners with smaller dogs that wish to do nothing but pick fights with larger dogs and, when the larger dog retaliates, all of a sudden it is the larger dog's fault.

We also meet larger dogs that are not under the control of their owners.

Suffice to say, a well trained dog that is under the care of a sensible owner, is very unlikely to cause anything like the issues that a poorly trained dog that is under the care of "tattooed ****-wit" (to paragraph Mr. Connelly) that has the dog simply to attempt to intimidate others.

DandNHill

I think there are many factors that make the dog. Breeding, training, handler, spay/neuter vs intact and situation the animal is in.
From my recent experience and my past animal control experience (to be fair also my upbringing) I will never trust those breeds ever again. I don't believe however that a ban is the way to go. The CKC has a Canine Good Neighbour program. I think it should be mandatory for dogs to get their CGN certificate. That might help. Banning them just gets vets to record them as American Bulldogs, boxer X etc... In Ontario however the dog only ""has to display the physical characteristics of a pit bull" for the dog to be deemed pit bull and therefore banned.

DandNHill

I'm afraid whenever those dogs come to mind all I can see now is the Onen dogs with their red eyes! Sorry

Jerseygirl

I am fed up with unleashed dogs running up to my little dog when we are out walking. A French Bulldog bit her a couple of months ago and she is now frightened of dogs running up to her while we are walking. There are signs all over saying dogs must be leashed but irresponsible owners take no notice.

When we are away she goes into kennels. They have large playrooms where the dogs can run around all day under supervision. She loves running/playing and jumping in the pool with the large dogs. Go figure.

Almost Canadian

Does it really surprise you that your leashed dog feels more threatened when an unleashed dog comes to her than she does when she, too, is unleashed?

Clearly, dogs should not be unleashed accept in areas where unleashed dogs are permitted, if we accept that such bylaws are necessary.

DandNHill

Speaking from an animal control perspective. I don't like dog parks. Seen some bad injuries happen in them. Including humans that put their arms between dogs to separate them...