My blog Dangerous dogsWe have all heard it said that there are no dangerous dogs, only dangerous owners. Well, that may be true but although we love our animals dearly, we must remember that they tend to be controlled by their instincts more than we do. I had to take my friend´s Yorkshire Terrier to the neurosurgery and orthopaedic hospital near Frensham in Surrey today. It was the most stressful ride I have ever had. Last night, the little dog (Bonny) was attacked by a young Rottweiler while being taken for a walk. All the dogs were on leads but the Rottweiler was accompanied by a very young, small teenager who had no control over the dog whatsoever. The large dog attacked Bonny and she has been left with the most horrific injuries. She is now on a life support system in the animal hospital. Her eye came out of the socket, her jaw is broken in two places, here windpipe is damaged, and she had the most horrible rips in her skin. I give you these awful details because I want to impress on you that although you may think you know your dog, there is always the opportunity for you to encounter new situations.....ones where you will not be able to predict the animal´s behaviour. To my mind, it is essential that every owner of a large, powerful dog takes it for obedience training and make sure that s/he has good control when in unpredictable situations. The Rottweiler could not help itself. It was simply succumbing to its natural instincts and probably saw little Bonny as being prey. The chilling corollary to this awful tale is that the owners of the Rottweiler had the animal humanely destroyed this evening and the family is distraught. Because the animal was not trained or controlled, everyone has been a loser. What a horrible day we have had. Not only have we had to contend with coping with a long and stressful drive with poor little Bonny crying and gasping, but also with my friend´s grief. Please remember that the veneer of domestication is rather thin.If your dog has a tendency to attack others, please do not look upon it as anything other than a trait that must be controlled and trained out of its character. However much you might love and trust your pet, remember that it is not far from a small dog to a small child.  Comments  28 Jul 2007 21:22 well I assume that little dogs are completely innocent, in my experience little dogs should not go round with boots on that are clearly to big for them. your analysis is not a 100% correct my dear friend, it makes no difference if its a big dog a small dog or even a medium sized dog everything depends on the evironment they are brought up in and socialisation with people and other dogs. When we have an opinion about anything for it to be a true opinion you cannot let your own emotional stress come into it, because then what you say does not make complete sense as its very differcult to explain stress, a logical approach is much more comprehendable dont you think without been apinionated, when a person is abused as a child and grows up with emotional problems and cannot make a contribution to society as "people think they should" well that person is the problem and not people like you with your assumptions. My rotty was attacked by a jack russel cross when he was 6 months old, and my dog sat down, he did not attack the smaller dog, its the smaller dogs who are the agressors as they feel inferior to a larger dog, like there is some thing to prove, but even then its the owners who are at fault once again as they give of negative to there own dogs as well as negative body language, this does not let there own dog feel secure it that environment, but even the novice dog owner can recognise this ? the next time you pass a big dog you watch which dog starts pulling on the lead first and creating the trouble ? Darren 12 Jul 2007 21:52 I truly hope the yorshire terrier is doing well. Hi my friends rotties are not the problem at all, but you are right of course that animals have there own natural instincts. I have owned my rotty for nearly 4.5 years and he has never been aggressive towards any animal or any person. What we need to remember is when we see a rottweiler puppy we all seem fine and do not mind letting our dogs near them, but as they grow you suddenly realise that people start to avoid the dog in fear, but then the rottweiler starts to wonder to itself why I am been taken away from another dog ? then the rottweiler starts to become antisocial towards other dogs as we as dog owners helped create this problem, so who is to blame the rottweiler, the other dog breed owners or society ? I have 2 boys aged 10 and 11 years old and my 10 year old son has autism, my rottweiler comforts him when he is destressed, he plays with my sons and they hold his lead when we take him for walks, there is not a mean bone in this dogs body. people who own any pet have to take full responsability for that pet.  09 Jul 2007 11:45 hi pat.... a very similar thing happened when my mum was taking her two yorkies out for a walk, she lives in the country and a house thats roughly 200 yard from her house that she walked past a fully grown rotweiller came running down the drive, as you can imagine my mum was terriefied!...as my mum is quite elderly now and a bit unsteady on her legs she tried to pick both of her dogs up but did not manage to get them both before the rotweiller attacked!....it got hold of one of her yorkies and was shaking it about like a ragdoll, it really was a horrendous site to see, by the time the owner came out it was to late the damage was done, the poor yorkie was left nearly dead, it cost hundreds in vets bills and the rotweiller was not put to sleep!....unbeliverble i know!......the yorkie was never the same again and died 1 year later!...so sad that theese owners do not take proper control of theese dogs then things like this would never happen....so i deeply sypathise with what happened to you also  14 Feb 2007 21:50 So pleased to hear that Bonny is on the mend. What an amazing recovery she has made. What a little star she is.  08 Feb 2007 22:42 I have wonderful news about Bonny. I visited her last night and expected to see a sorry little scrap.......not a bit of it. She would have bowled me over if she had been big enough (she only comes up to my knee when fully stretched out). Her eye is still a little big bulgy but she hasn't lost her sight in it. Her wounds and scars are getting hidden by her fur, and her tracheotomy scar has also become camouflaged by fur. She still has the pins and wires in her jaw but that didn't stop her trying to kill her felt toy last night. I was overjoyed to see her. It just goes to show that so much illness is in the mind. Bonny didn't know she was near death's door. She suffered the pain and the treatment and only wanted to be back with her toys and family. Animals can't help being positive. It must help them recover. Anyway, I thought you would all like to know the good news. She will have the pins and wires removed in two weeks' time so watch this space. 20 Jan 2007 22:24 What a terrible thing to happen. I am so sorry and hope that little Bonny will recover physically and emotionally. What an awful story and look at all that suffer because of it, Particularly the two dogs, and all because someone couldn't spend a little time and effort to do a bit of training, or take the time to make sure the person on the other end of the lead was responsible and strong enough to control this big dog. Absolutely disgusting!!!  10 Jan 2007 10:29 What a powerful and tragic story. Is there any chance the little dog will survive? It´s so important that people realize that it´s vital to train their dogs. I sometimes look after a 10 month old labrador which has had no training. Although this dog isn´t at all aggressive, the combination of her boisterous nature, strength and total lack of training makes her a liability - she is strong enough to drag me under oncoming traffic and she is quite capable of leaping up on and injuring smaller dogs and even children. Someone else on this site has pointed me in the direction of good training and I am going to do everything I can to see that this dog´s owner makes a commitment to training her before it´s too late. |
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