It would seem that in the recent tragedy, the dogs saw the young girl as an intruder and acted as a pack defending their property. I'm not sure that dog training classes, which tend to concentrate on "sit" "stay" and recall, with some socialisation thrown in, would have helped in that particular situation.

In my experience, even the most placid dogs can behave differently when kept as a pack and particularly if the pack feels threatened. 

Most responsible dog owners already ensure their dogs are well trained and imo irresponsible dog owners would ignore any legislation.

I don't know what the answer is, Sainty.

 

 

 

Outside tesco yesterday there was a girl of about 15 with a younger child. They had a blue bulldog/mastiff (Im not sure of the exact breed) the dog hanging from the leather lead by its mouth, and the girl was saying to younger kid.... He's got lock jaw an he's doing my head.... To me it just looked like she shouldn't be in charge of that dog as she couldn't control it and tbh by 'playing' with it was only teaching it bad/dangerous habits.

I agree with yogi, and no matter what the law is, some people will ignore it and train their dogs to be aggressive anyway All we can do is be responsible with our dogs and report any illegal breeds that we see That poor girl, it's a terrible thing to have happened

 

It always saddens me that following one of these tragedies there are lots of media talk, talk in forums like this and in the work place, but ultimately it's becomes forgotten until the next one happens.

 

No matter what dog owners say, these are essentially animals which to some extent we anthropomorphise, giving them names, dressing them, calling them our "babies" (which I hate), treating them almost like human members of the family.

 

Just like humans, things can break in their heads and their behaviour can become unpredictable. It looks like in this case the dogs reverted to a pack mentality, perceiving a threat and doing what is natural to them.

 

I think that dogs should be controlled from birth. Breading and selling massively controlled. Certain breeds banned, anyone found owning them are hit heavily by law (a prison sentence should be a deterrent). All dogs chipped at birth. Dogs found un-chipped are put down. Training is compulsory and some sort of basic insurance should be part of dog ownership.

 

Just like driving, dog ownership is a privilege and not a right.

 

Now far from being a dog hater, my family have always had dogs and my sister has one at the moment which is a Westie and one of my oldest friends had two Japanese Akitas (they scared the life out of me), I'm just of a mind that these types of events happen too often and we need to have some form of control now.

EC i think putting any dog down found not to be chipped is a little harsh, its not the dogs fault its owners aren't responsible law abiding people. I do agree that its happening all too often though and as you say it gets attention for a few weeks but ultimately once the dead persons funeral is over it does just get forgotten again.

 

I took part in a huge R2 debate the other day. Yes, it's the owners fault, however human life is always more important than a dog. We have to deter scratters from keeping inappropriate dogs in inappropriate environments. I'm not happy with the idea of keeping and fetishising dogs anyway, so much cruelty is committed in the name of loving animals.

 

It does seem harsh I agree, but I think society is at a point where you need strong measures, people seem not to worry about consequences these days. Take use of mobile phones whilst driving. We all know we should not do it and if caught there is a fine and possible endorsements, but I lose count the number of people I see driving with a mobile clamped to their heads on a daily basis.

 

So if we are saying responsible owners will do the right things in buying from registered breeders and having their dogs chipped and trained, they have nothing to worry about, the people who should worry and will have their dogs put down are the people who want the dangerous dogs and status symbol dogs. So although on the face of it my comments seem harsh, not if you are a responsible dog owner.

I do see where you are coming from EC and i agree with most of your ideas, i just feel sorry for the dogs, if they haven't done anything wrong and are being killed just because of where they come from.