While I am flattered by all the attention, let's get back to the point of this thread. Pretty incredible (and disheartening) dog bite reports have jumped fourfold in just five years. I am also convinced a very small percentage of dog bites ever even get reported so I'm sure the actual number is much higher.
Why is it disheartening? The article doesn't say dog bites have increased. It states that the number or reports have increased due to education efforts.
Do you seriously think that 4 times as many dogs people in 2013 as in 2009?
According to most reports 2009 had the lowest reported dog attacks in 25 years maybe it's not the greatest starting point. All of that combined is creating a misleading stat.
I would expect that as the city keeps growing, the number of bites will increase, combine that with better reporting it's going to increase no doubt. As a percentage for the population I'd wager that the actual number is fairly similar each year..
If this isn't the case there's something in the water in Calgary causing all the dogs to go crazy.
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The worst part of adults being scared of dogs is their transferring that fear to their children. Dogs can sense your fear and if you teach your children to be afraid of them, they are more succeptible to attack themselves. I see this every day when i walk my little Boston Terrier up in Saddletown. Astrid is a curious and friendly dog and wants to make friends with everyone; children, parents, other dogs, squirrels, cats, she doesn't care. But when people start tripping over themselves to get off the sidewalk to avoid her, it just makes her more curious about them. She will stretch out her leash as far as possible to get as close as possible to people who purposely avoid her. If people just walk by, she ignores them.
You are the worst type of dog owner. Keep your fataing dog away from me and my family, please. If approaching people look anxious about your dog, then remove your dog from the situation by pulling its leash in right to your body, stepping to the side and commanding your dog to sit until the people have passed so they can be assured it's a safe, trained dog that is being demonstrably controlled by its conscientious master.
The fact that multiple people have fallen over themselves trying to get away from your dog should be an obvious signal to you that you are not handling this dog appropriately. My guess is you have one of those really long retractable leashes and you just let the dog run it out and do its thing instead of being in proper control.
And what is your definition of your dog wanting "to be friends with everyone"? Like, how does that want manifest itself? Because if you think it's okay for your dog to approach strangers you are absolutely wrong and I promise you a great many people don't want anything to do with your dog and it is your responsibility to prevent those interactions from happening.
Finally, parents passing on a healthy fear of the power and unpredictability of dogs is called proper parenting. Negligent parenting would be letting your pit bull play with a newborn, as an example. Now I know you'll say I'm passing on an unhealthy fear of dogs, but I disagree. The four untrained rotties that live next door would eat my kids given the chance, so we do have to prepare my children for the worst part of coexisting in a city with dogs, as would any of you if you lived where I live. My daughter is still scared of all dogs and we are working on that. My son loves them.
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You are the worst type of dog owner. Keep your fataing dog away from me and my family, please. If approaching people look anxious about your dog, then remove your dog from the situation by pulling its leash in right to your body, stepping to the side and commanding your dog to sit until the people have passed so they can be assured it's a safe, trained dog that is being demonstrably controlled by its conscientious master.
You're so over-the-top, you're like a cartoon.
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You are the worst type of dog owner. Keep your fataing dog away from me and my family, please. If approaching people look anxious about your dog, then remove your dog from the situation by pulling its leash in right to your body, stepping to the side and commanding your dog to sit until the people have passed so they can be assured it's a safe, trained dog that is being demonstrably controlled by its conscientious master.
The fact that multiple people have fallen over themselves trying to get away from your dog should be an obvious signal to you that you are not handling this dog appropriately. My guess is you have one of those really long retractable leashes and you just let the dog run it out and do its thing instead of being in proper control.
And what is your definition of your dog wanting "to be friends with everyone"? Like, how does that want manifest itself? Because if you think it's okay for your dog to approach strangers you are absolutely wrong and I promise you a great many people don't want anything to do with your dog and it is your responsibility to prevent those interactions from happening.
Finally, parents passing on a healthy fear of the power and unpredictability of dogs is called proper parenting. Negligent parenting would be letting your pit bull play with a newborn, as an example. Now I know you'll say I'm passing on an unhealthy fear of dogs, but I disagree. The four untrained rotties that live next door would eat my kids given the chance, so we do have to prepare my children for the worst part of coexisting in a city with dogs, as would any of you if you lived where I live. My daughter is still scared of all dogs and we are working on that. My son loves them.
You get any more frothy about this, you can hire yourself out as topping for lattes.
There's nothing over the top there. I think you read my posts using a crazy-guy voice in your head or something because you are attributing a tone to my posts that isn't accurate.
Where there are people, there are dogs. This has been true for tens of thousands of years. There is no place you can go and live with people where there are no dogs. You are lucky that you live in a place where there are not feral dogs, so count your blessings and realize that your issues with dogs are your problem and not someone else's.
Sliver we had a rational discussion about 2 or 3 months ago in this same thread about breed bans and dogs in general. Now you've got pepper spray by your front door to save passer by's from the roving dog gangs in Calgary? I mean I get you want to save people but the whole thought process of it all just seems... so... bizarre.
Also dog bites may be up in the last 5 years and I'm not saying it's not concerning, but when you look at the big picture:
You are the worst type of dog owner. Keep your fataing dog away from me and my family, please. If approaching people look anxious about your dog, then remove your dog from the situation by pulling its leash in right to your body, stepping to the side and commanding your dog to sit until the people have passed so they can be assured it's a safe, trained dog that is being demonstrably controlled by its conscientious master.
The fact that multiple people have fallen over themselves trying to get away from your dog should be an obvious signal to you that you are not handling this dog appropriately. My guess is you have one of those really long retractable leashes and you just let the dog run it out and do its thing instead of being in proper control.
And what is your definition of your dog wanting "to be friends with everyone"? Like, how does that want manifest itself? Because if you think it's okay for your dog to approach strangers you are absolutely wrong and I promise you a great many people don't want anything to do with your dog and it is your responsibility to prevent those interactions from happening.
Finally, parents passing on a healthy fear of the power and unpredictability of dogs is called proper parenting. Negligent parenting would be letting your pit bull play with a newborn, as an example. Now I know you'll say I'm passing on an unhealthy fear of dogs, but I disagree. The four untrained rotties that live next door would eat my kids given the chance, so we do have to prepare my children for the worst part of coexisting in a city with dogs, as would any of you if you lived where I live. My daughter is still scared of all dogs and we are working on that. My son loves them.
Wow, just Wow, I dont even know what to say, so I'm going to post some cute puppies to lighten the mood.
The worst part of adults being scared of dogs is their transferring that fear to their children. Dogs can sense your fear and if you teach your children to be afraid of them, they are more succeptible to attack themselves. I see this every day when i walk my little Boston Terrier up in Saddletown. Astrid is a curious and friendly dog and wants to make friends with everyone; children, parents, other dogs, squirrels, cats, she doesn't care. But when people start tripping over themselves to get off the sidewalk to avoid her, it just makes her more curious about them. She will stretch out her leash as far as possible to get as close as possible to people who purposely avoid her. If people just walk by, she ignores them.
You have it backwards.
People don't have to modify their behavior to accommodate the curiosity of your dog. If they don't want to be near your dog, and you can apparently tell when this is the case, don't let the dog get to the end of its leash to get near them. That's how it works.
Some people don't like dogs. Some people are scared of dogs. Some people are allergic to dogs. You're not going to change that. As cute and curious as little Astrid may be, the people are more important.
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People don't have to modify their behavior to accommodate the curiosity of your dog. If they don't want to be near your dog, and you can apparently tell when this is the case, don't let the dog get to the end of its leash to get near them. That's how it works.
Some people don't like dogs. Some people are scared of dogs. Some people are allergic to dogs. You're not going to change that. As cute and curious as little Astrid may be, the people are more important.
I think you guys are mis-understanding firefly, she dosent say she lets her dog run at the end of her leash up to these people. Firefly says the fear in people peaks the curiosity of the dog and of course they want to investigate.
If I'm walking down the street with my dogs and someone is coming the other way I move out of the way with my dogs, if someone is freaking out and screaming like its Godzilla about to attack them I'm not crossing the street to avoid that person, I'll still keep my dogs away from them, but its Your fear, Its Your Anxiety that causes that, your the one that should be taking yourself out of that situation.
I think you guys are mis-understanding firefly, she dosent say she lets her dog run at the end of her leash up to these people. Firefly says the fear in people peaks the curiosity of the dog and of course they want to investigate.
If I'm walking down the street with my dogs and someone is coming the other way I move out of the way with my dogs, if someone is freaking out and screaming like its Godzilla about to attack them I'm not crossing the street to avoid that person, I'll still keep my dogs away from them, but its Your fear, Its Your Anxiety that causes that, your the one that should be taking yourself out of that situation.
I'm just going by what I read in her post, and I don't much care what the rationale of a dog is when it approaches a person who wants nothing to do with said dog.
I agree that you shouldn't have to cross the street if someone is "screaming like Godzilla about to attack them". The point is that in a normal situation, (which has nothing to do with someone screaming as though they are being attacked by a sea monster), it's up to the owner of the dog to deal with it, and not the person who doesn't want to be bothered by a dog.
Teaching your kids to fear dogs is healthy? I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm having a hard time believing this isn't one big troll job. It's either that or not all the synapses are firing.
Not only should people need a license and mandatory training for dogs, they should need it to have kids as well. Maybe an IQ test wouldn't hurt either.
There's nothing over the top there. I think you read my posts using a crazy-guy voice in your head or something because you are attributing a tone to my posts that isn't accurate.
Think again. You're going on and on about 200 reported dog bites a year in a city of 1 million. That's quite the epidemic.
Think again. You're going on and on about 200 reported dog bites a year in a city of 1 million. That's quite the epidemic.
Oh so dog bites aren't a problem? That's an interesting take. I'll pass that along to the family of the baby that was killed by a husky in our area this year and the kid whose face was ripped off by a pit bull.
Also, maybe we should get the mods to shut down the Zimmerman/Martin thread since only one guy died; hardly an epidemic.
Maybe while we are at it we can shut down the Boston bombing thread. How many people were injured there? Wasn't it a few hundred and a few dead? Per capita that's likely similar to the number of casualties suffered by Calgarians at the hands of dogs.
Just so I know, what is the threshold of dead and injured for a topic to become important enough for us to discuss on a message board, in your opinion?
Oh so dog bites aren't a problem? That's an interesting take. I'll pass that along to the family of the baby that was killed by a husky in our area this year and the kid whose face was ripped off by a pit bull.
Also, maybe we should get the mods to shut down the Zimmerman/Martin thread since only one guy died; hardly an epidemic.
Maybe while we are at it we can shut down the Boston bombing thread. How many people were injured there? Wasn't it a few hundred and a few dead? Per capita that's likely similar to the number of casualties suffered by Calgarians at the hands of dogs.
Just so I know, what is the threshold of dead and injured for a topic to become important enough for us to discuss on a message board, in your opinion?
Cartoon.
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Teaching your kids to fear dogs is healthy? I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm having a hard time believing this isn't one big troll job. It's either that or not all the synapses are firing.
Not only should people need a license and mandatory training for dogs, they should need it to have kids as well. Maybe an IQ test wouldn't hurt either.
Believe me you aren't the only one who thinks this is a gigantic troll job. The hysterics and totally over the top hyperbole from Sliver could be costrued as comedy by anyone who happened to read this thread. If he is trolling than awesome.
If not, does anyone really want to be Sliver's neighbor? Ready to bust out the bear spray (???) on potentially rabid dogs? I mean it sounds like a joke, but if serious that makes him a public hazard. If three kids are walking the dog and he gets a bit wild, Sliver comes busting in with his bear spray and accidentally (or not) sprays one of the kids in his eyes....yeah your irrational fear of dogs may now land you in the slam. If he was an American it'd be a gun and I cannot imagine that ending well at all. No doubt Sliver has a Mike Vick jersey lying around somewhere.
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