[spidey]

Thank you so much for posting this, Elisabeth. I'm so sorry this happened, but in a bigger picture sense, I'm in some way glad that if it had to happen with this dog, it happened to someone like you, who's brave and educated enough to use this horrible experience to try and teach people something valuable. I admit that I'm one of the people who cringes when people refer to their dogs as "furbabies" or any of the other cutesy words people use, I think it's not only demeaning to the dogs, but is often (not always, but often) indicative of a serious lack of understanding that dogs are NOT "little people in fur coats", but a separate species, with different motivations and instincts from humans. I fully understand how much some people love their dogs, and I am no different in that regard, but just because it's often the case that the way we feel about our dogs is no different from the way we feel about other members of our family does not mean that we should expect a dog to be human, and treat it as such. Understanding and respecting your dog for its own sake, AS a dog, is far more loving and responsible than thinking of it as a human and thereby placing unreasonable expectations on it.

ANY dog will bite, given the right (wrong) set of circumstances. NO dog, regardless of size, deserves to be treated like a teddy bear instead of a dog. NO dog, regardless of breed, deserves to live in the confusing, frightening world we create for it when we force it to go without training, socialization and clear, fair, reasonable leadership from its owner. And NO dog deserves to be set up for failure through a lack of responsible ownership, be it socialization, medical issues or management. Dogs do a remarkable job of fitting into our society, we owe it to them to do whatever we can to help them - we need to TEACH them how to live peacefully and happily with humans, I think too many people forget that.

I hope you heal quickly, and in addition to my sympathy for the pain and distress this has surely caused you, I have so much respect for you for having the strength to use this the way you have in this post.