The Ongoing Dog Attack Mega-Thread

[Coach]

I think I've discovered the source of Sliver's dog hate. He was bitten and infected with rabies.

[IliketoPuck]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Fata the dog. Put it down. Chasing a kid into a house and attacking him? Why the fata should we show it any leniency? It's a GD menace.

Whether the kid should have stood his ground or not is the opposite of relevant. This dog was mishandled by its owner. It's 100% on the owner and 0% on the kid.

What a horror show that must have been for the kid. Can you imagine the fear while getting chased and overtaken by ferocious animal trained to take down humans?

Not going to comment on whether we should have police dogs or not, but I agree with the majority of what you've posted.

Also, if that was an animal attacking my child, in my house, it would be dead.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

I thought that as a society we were trying to get away from victim blaming.

It's not victim blaming to teach people that when you run from a dog you're more likely to get bit by it.

When I was a kid, we all knew not to run. I don't know if it was something our parents explicitly told us, or if it was just common street sense. Back then, there were enough stray dogs on the streets that random encounters with dogs while we were out playing happened at least weekly.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

Not going to comment on whether we should have police dogs or not, but I agree with the majority of what you've posted.

Also, if that was an animal attacking my child, in my house, it would be dead.

This is also a good reminder about dog spray. We keep a can at our front door. The whole family knows it's there. If there is a problem with a dog (like this one), hose it down.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Sliver

What a horror show that must have been for the kid. Can you imagine the fear while getting chased and overtaken by ferocious animal trained to take down humans? This is an absolute outrage. I hope the whole CPS dog program is re-evaluated and we move forward without these mutts.

Yes, I can imagine. When I was about 6 I was chased and bitten by a German Sheppard. My dad explained why the dog what he did as he was taking care of my wounds. We went and found the dog and it's owner, and I got to meet the dog again in a more controlled setting. And so began a great lifelong relationship with dogs; all from being chased down and being bit.

My earlier mention of "every dog gets one bite" has been around for hundreds of years; and the most important thing is that now this particular dog will have to be handled much differently now that it has done this.

I don't dispute that this is on CPS- the handler and the dog. I just think execution should not be the only response to a dog bite. If any group has the resources to deal with getting the dog the proper training and/or change of environment that it needs, it should be a major city's K-9 department.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by ken0042

Yes, I can imagine. When I was about 6 I was chased and bitten by a German Sheppard. My dad explained why the dog what he did as he was taking care of my wounds. We went and found the dog and it's owner, and I got to meet the dog again in a more controlled setting. And so began a great lifelong relationship with dogs; all from being chased down and being bit.

My earlier mention of "every dog gets one bite" has been around for hundreds of years; and the most important thing is that now this particular dog will have to be handled much differently now that it has done this.

I don't dispute that this is on CPS- the handler and the dog. I just think execution should not be the only response to a dog bite. If any group has the resources to deal with getting the dog the proper training and/or change of environment that it needs, it should be a major city's K-9 department.

I thought so, too, but this event has made me re-evaluate my views and face some potentially difficult truths. For years on this site (and in real life) when I talk about dogs, I've always made explicit exceptions for service animals. I thought you could actually train them so well that this wasn't a possibility, which in retrospect was naive. It's clear now, that no matter how well trained, these animals are too dangerous and I just don't believe the belong in a city.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by Sliver

I thought you could actually train them so well that this wasn't a possibility, which in retrospect was naive. It's clear now, that no matter how well trained, these animals are too dangerous and I just don't believe the belong in a city.

You're talking about people, right?

[OMG!WTF!]

I don't think you should kill a dog for chasing down a person and biting him in the leg when you've spent the first two years of its life teaching it to chase people down and bite them in the leg. It's obviously not well enough trained and should be handled differently.

I think in this case the kid was right to run because of the dog's training. He would have been chomped in the leg anyway. But generally I see a painful amount of kids who have no idea how to act or react to dogs. If your kid is scared around dogs that will cause huge problems. We live with dogs and people should teach their kids something about that.

[burn_this_city]

People teach their kids to be afraid of dogs and when they flee they become prey in the eyes of a dog. This is a young dog trained to catch fleeing suspects. It did exactly what it's been rewarded to do from a young age.

I hate how the kids parents have handled this. They're milking the attention for a payout and calling for revenge on the dog. Taxpayers paid $20k to train that dog, it shouldn't be destroyed. It should be re-homed with a different handler and everyone should move on.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Sliver

It's clear now, that no matter how well trained, these animals are too dangerous and I just don't believe the belong in a city.

Using that same logic, it's clear that motor vehicles do not belong in a city. They are just too dangerous. No matter how well maintained they are they seem to break down and cause injury at a much higher rate than service dogs.

I am not going to bother debating this with you; as you have told me to my face that the whole dog thing is a shtick you use here to try and stir the pot.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Sliver

I thought so, too, but this event has made me re-evaluate my views and face some potentially difficult truths. For years on this site (and in real life) when I talk about dogs, I've always made explicit exceptions for service animals. I thought you could actually train them so well that this wasn't a possibility, which in retrospect was naive. It's clear now, that no matter how well trained, these animals are too dangerous and I just don't believe the belong in a city.

Instead of ####canning the entire K9 unit, maybe we stop letting the officer bring them home.

I think the protocol around the K9 unit should be reviewed. For example: have the officer "sign the dog out and in" with his/her shift.

Unless, you have evidence to show that the K9 component of the CPS isn't cost effective or effective in policing.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by ken0042

I am not going to bother debating this with you; as you have told me to my face that the whole dog thing is a shtick you use here to try and stir the pot.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

Instead of ####canning the entire K9 unit, maybe we stop letting the officer bring them home.

I think the protocol around the K9 unit should be reviewed. For example: have the officer "sign the dog out and in" with his/her shift.

Unless, you have evidence to show that the K9 component of the CPS isn't cost effective or effective in policing.

Where does the dog stay in the meantime? In a kennel at the police station or something? Not a good plan IMO, the dogs need comradery, a pack leader, and socialization.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

People teach their kids to be afraid of dogs and when they flee they become prey in the eyes of a dog. This is a young dog trained to catch fleeing suspects. It did exactly what it's been rewarded to do from a young age.

I hate how the kids parents have handled this. They're milking the attention for a payout and calling for revenge on the dog. Taxpayers paid $20k to train that dog, it shouldn't be destroyed. It should be re-homed with a different handler and everyone should move on.

Taxpayers paid $20k to train the dog catch fleeing suspects? Fine. Where was the fleeing suspect in this case?

I would hope part of its training was to not chase people who happen to be running, and that it has been trained to do what it's told by its handler. It apparently didn't take.

As for "milking the attention for a payout", where do you get that? The dog was in their kitchen biting their child, but somehow they are at fault? They should just let it go? Would you? I wouldn't.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by MattyC

Where does the dog stay in the meantime? In a kennel at the police station or something? Not a good plan IMO, the dogs need comradery, a pack leader, and socialization.

Yeah I am blue skying this, but yeah, a kennel with people working at it. That individual(s) would be in charge of day to day for that animal. Remember that a large chunk of the time the animal would be "on the job".

[burn_this_city]

These dogs are usually leashed except when released by the handler to catch a suspect. It somehow got loose and chased a kid who ran. I don't really think we should expect a dog that has been trained to pursue not to react. It's a dog after all and it reacted based on its instincts and training.

There's no permanent damage to the kid, he got a puncture wound on his leg and a pretty bad scare. He's not the first person to be chased and bit by a dog. His parents seem to be playing up the severity of the incident like hes received life altering trauma. Being in the kitchen vs the lawn really doesn't change things immensely. It just happened to be where the kid ran with the dog closing in.

Should it have happened? Obviously not, but lets not act like the kid is in hospital on life support.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

These dogs are usually leashed except when released by the handler to catch a suspect. It somehow got loose and chased a kid who ran. I don't really think we should expect a dog that has been trained to pursue not to react. It's a dog after all and it reacted based on its instincts and training.

There's no permanent damage to the kid, he got a puncture wound on his leg and a pretty bad scare. He's not the first person to be chased and bit by a dog. His parents seem to be playing up the severity of the incident like hes received life altering trauma. Being in the kitchen vs the lawn really doesn't change things immensely. It just happened to be where the kid ran with the dog closing in.

Should it have happened? Obviously not, but lets not act like the kid is in hospital on life support.

The dog, when properly trained, attacks or chases people down when commanded to do so. We have been to police events where the handlers and dogs are present and kids are running around and playing nearby the dogs. The dogs aren't constantly chomping on the bit to get free and run down the nearest person.

This dog was/is obviously poorly trained/early on in it's training. The dog shouldn't be attacking unless the handler gave the command.

[polak]

lol yes lets blame the kid.... it's the kids fault for running. It's parents fault for not teaching their kids how to react to dogs....

No, it's dog owners faults for having crap dogs. Trained or not. Unless the kid is harming the dog, there is no excuse. It's 100% all on the dog.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by ken0042

I am not going to bother debating this with you; as you have told me to my face that the whole dog thing is a shtick you use here to try and stir the pot.

I don't recall the context of that conversation, but my views on dogs are very genuine. I do like debating topics when I have a genuine contrarian opinion, and I also like watching people with differing opinions debate. It's certainly not a shtick, but I'm not going to lie and say I haven't enjoyed a lot of the dog talk on here in the past. The novelty has certainly worn off, though, but this particular incident did bug me a lot.

[foshizzle11]

So we have a neighbor across the street, 1 house over. He and his wife spend time in their front yard gardening when it is nice out. They have a dog they rescued that has "dog" issues but gets a long with people really well. They know this, they know that she has issues with other dogs.

We always have people walking by with their dogs on leash, constantly. We have 3 dogs, if we are in the front yard they are on a lead and they can't reach the sidewalk, so anyone walking by doesn't have to worry unless they come onto our property.

Our neighbor last week was outside with his dog, let's call her Molly. Molly wasn't on a leash, was just sitting there beside her owner. She is a larger dog, probably 70 lbs or so, lots of hair so it is hard to tell how much she weighs, a bit of a mutt. An older gentleman that walks his dog on our block on a regular basis was across the street walking his dog on leash when Molly darts across the road and starts attacking this other dog. My BF and our other neighbor go running over and help the older gentleman get Molly off his dog. Shiz-tzu type dog he was walking has no obvious damage but the dog was scream and yelping. Molly's owner came and grabbed her, took her to his backyard and then came out to apologize for his dogs behaviour but the older guy left, cleared pissed and heading to the vet to get his dog checked. 10 minutes later the old guy comes back in his truck just pissed and yelling/screaming at Molly's owner. Anyway, we don't know if his dog was injured in the end but it was pretty crazy.

Molly's owner was annoyed that us, his neighbors were asking why he has her off leash in their un-fenced yard when he knows she has issues with other dogs. He just didn't understand.

So, after all this talk of having dogs in muzzles in public, would this have helped in this case, likely. Something as simple as tying up their dog would have stopped an attack like this.

On Friday afternoon, Molly was in their fenced back yard on a rope lead. She must have chewed threw it and jumped the fence. We were in our front yard with our 20 lbs cocker-poo. He was beside us and Molly came straight across the street to greet our dog, I was nervous because of what happened last week. My BF got up from under the truck and got our dog away from her, after a surprisingly nice and well behaved greeting, all the good dog greeting behaviour. Nothing out of the ordinary. It was so strange because I thought something might happen. My step-son grabbed onto Molly's broken leash and took her back across the street, she couldn't have been nicer.

What makes a dog attack 1 week and act properly the next? What did our dog do differently then that little Shiz-tzu did the week before? I honestly don't understand that.

Having been around dogs my whole life, I thought I understood their behavior pretty well. I have to say the biggest issue with dogs is when they are off leash and free to do as they please. If owners can do a better job at keeping their dogs on leash we wouldn't have as many mauling or dog bites that we do have.

One of my other dogs is unpredictable around some people she is unsure about, she is always on leash. I don't want anything to happen. I also don't put her in a situation where she is uncomfortable enough to have to resort to biting or chasing.

Sorry for the long rant, it was just a strange situation. I don't want my neighbor to lose his dog because it bites another dog or a person, but I also want to know that our dogs are safe and so are the rest in the neighborhood. It seems like they struggle to keep their dog in their yard and one day it won't turn out well for Molly if she keeps getting out. That sucks.