Attacks for no reason?

[BraveWolf]

A few weeks ago, I was attending an event hosted by our local medieval reenactment group. We had rented a campsite beside a hither-to now unremarkable house.

This household owned a young unneutered, male Rottweiler that was wandering around the site. Fine; I got permission to go ask the owners to please keep their dog confined. Very polite, very reasonable. We were hosting a children's event and the dog was running uncontrolled over the length and breadth of our camp. This was Friday.

Unfortunately the response was a grudging "ok" along with offended "he's not going to bite anyone" and "We've got a 1 year old neice and he's fine!"

Hour later... dog loose again. We go and get him confined again. half-hour later, dog loose again. He is getting excited by children running and screaming.

Saturday. Dog is running loose in our campsite all day.

We asked the owners five separate times to please confine their animal - for the safety of the children and the safety of the dog (what do you think would happen to the dog if a kid hurt him and he bit?). The owners at several times left their home, leaving the dog completely alone and unsupervised.

Dog rushes out barking at people going to and from their cars. He rifles through a campsite. He is continually coming near children one year and up who were running and screaming and chasing each other - who were well within the confines of the campsite.

Finally we started calling animal control. We got the response "you'll have to tie the dog up yourself if you want us to come and get him". Luckily, I could - the dog was basically a pup - 7 months old. He was slightly head shy and nervous around strange men although he behaved fairly well when I got the rope around his neck.

Sunday, animal control finally came and got the dog. Not soon enough - I was a bundle of nerves imagining what could happen to a child who toddled up to a dog exhibiting fear aggression. And from imagining what would happen to the dog and the breed in my district if it did.

What could have happened if the dog was too fearful or aggressive to catch? What would have happened if a child had run up to the dog and hurt him somehow? How were we supposed to deal with owners who obviously did not care whether their dog was becoming a threat and a nuisance to the people around them?

Their selfish disregard of the saftey of others - especially children - is a case study of how a perfectly happy healthy dog can become a parents nightmare and the scapegoat for a society who refuses to take the time and resources to find and punish the true offenders - the irresponsible owners of dogs who become "menaces to society".

A few weeks/months/years from now, if this dog rushes out and attacks a jogger or a child or anyone, people will not search into his past. They won't wonder whether the bite resulted from behaviour patterns set when he was young and allowed to run uncontrolled. From owners who would not take the time, trouble, and effort to see that he was taught good behaviour, socialized and controlled.

He was a Rottweiler. That's all the explanation most people ever need or want. He was a "vicious Rottweiler that attacked for no reason".

[German Vanegas]

In reality dogs do not attack for no reason. The MAIN causes for dogs to bite people are:

1. Bad breeding. The dog comes from a random breeding, where genetics were not studied and temperament was not of consideration. Thus, possibly producing a genetic troubled dog, such as shy, spooky, fear-biter type, OR an overly aggressive vicious dog. Either way the potential for biting is great with any kind of such dog.

2. Irresponsible dog ownership. People get dogs, have no clue as to how to properly raise them, and out of negligence or ignorance, or even a combination of both, create this potential biters. Sometimes a perfectly sound tempered dog is totally ruined by such kind of people. These dogs become like "time clicking bombs"... it's just a matter of time.

3. Uneducated people and children. In some cases biting is caused by people not knowing how to correctly inter-act with a dog, thus triggering an aggressive unwanted response. Parents also owe to educate their children about dog safety inter-action rules. Children can easily provoked a dog bite due to many reasons.

If we all were more responsible about educating ourselves before hand, then getting a dog from a reliable source, provide the dog the best upbringing possible, and keep always our dogs under total control, I assure you that the number of dog attacks and bites will be reduced significantly. But as long as the above reasons are ignored, sadly nothing will change!