Doggone terrible!

Terrible story today about a 3 year old girl in Farmingdale who was mauled by a 100 lb rottweiler.  My first thought when I read the headline was 'thank God it wasn't a pitbull!'   It is a tragedy no matter what breed the dog was; a dog is dead (shot and killed by an officer responding to the scene) and a little girl is in the Shriner's hospital with head injuries, several surgeries ahead of her and a long recovery.  A grandmother will never be able to forget the images that the event has burned into her head.  Apparently she threw herself over the girl to protect her from the dog after the initial attack.

So,  what happened?  It seems that the dog was chained to the side of a barn, wearing a choke chain.  The girl wandered into his area and was attacked.  The dog's collar then broke and he was able to continue the assault on the girl and her grandmother who had stepped in.   EMTs then responded to the scene and the dog was so aggressive that responders could not treat the child.  The dog was then shot and killed by a police officer.

Who is at fault?  The dog?  The child?   In my opinion there are couple of people at fault and none of them are the dog or the child.   The idiot who treated this dog so poorly as to chain him outside by a choke chain in an area that a child could wander into is the biggest one at fault.  Aggressive dogs should be contained in a fence that keeps others out of the dog's range.  Chains do nothing to protect others from a potentially dangerous dog.  Also, if you have an aggressive dog,  why would you add to the aggression by using a choke chain?  Choke chains (I prefer the term walking collar)  have their uses, and I don't deny using them; however, they ONLY belong on a dog when the other end is attached to a leash being held by a human.   A walking collar has nothing to stop it from tightening around a dog's neck, causing discomfort, possibly pain and eventually stopping the dog from being able to breathe.  All of these things could INCREASE a dog's natural tendency toward aggressive behavior.   NEVER EVER should a dog be hooked to an immobile object by a 'choke collar', nylon or chain.   It is cruelty and neglect and is unacceptable.   The dog here never had a chance.

The next one I would hold at fault here is the adult who was responsible for the child.   A three year old should not be allowed to wander into the area of a dangerous dog.  A dangerous dog in this scenario would be ANY DOG.  People need to realize that ANY dog with teeth is a potential danger to a small child.  Dogs do not always see children as they would other humans.   Often dogs, even 'nice dogs', see children as threats or as lower beings that need discipline (a nip or bite) either view can cause a small child to get bitten or even seriously injured.     I do understand though, sometimes 3 year olds get away from you and bad things happen.  This is what happened here...  so sad.

My children grew up with a couple of very large German Shepherds.  My family was always convinced that dogs were going to eat the babies.  They never did.  My dogs were taught from the start that the children out ranked them.  My kids hand fed the dogs, placed them in their crates (or helped).  But, most importantly, the children and the dogs were always supervised whenever they were together.

Here is a link to the article in the KJ....  http://www.kjonline.com/news/3-year-old-Farmingdale-girl-rushed-to-Maine-Medical-Center-after-dog-attack.html

Doggone sad  :(

Dog Gone Dangerous!

My rant today involves the use of retractable leashes. These leashes have been a pet peeve of mine for quite sometime. Don't get me wrong, I own a retractable leash (the all tape style 26') and I acknowledge that these types of leashes have their place. The newbie owner and untrained dog, however, should never, never, ever be within 20' of a retractable leash. Unfortunately, for all of us, they are exactly who uses them these beastly contraptions the most. The know it all with their new 16' retractable, bags on board, built in flashlight, button stop retractable leash, proudly parades down the street, dog out of control at least 10 feet away, peeing on lawns, winding around signs and chasing anything that moves.

New students come to me all the time wanting me to help stop their dog from always pulling on its leash. All to often that leash is a retractable. The whole principle of how a retractable works is that a dog pulls away from his owner and more leash comes out of the handle/cord housing. Pulling=more room to roam. Dogs learn this very quickly, leash gets tight, pull and you get to go further. Why would they NOT pull? Retractable leashes teach a dog to pull its owner. One cannot train a dog not to pull while using a retractable leash.

These leashes also pose a threat to human as well as canine. Many injuries have been attributed to retractable leashes. If one follows the warnings that come with the leash, one may avoid such disasters, but things do not always go according to plan. Many people have found themselves with serious rope burns and deep cuts. A lot of these leashes are mostly made from a very narrow round braided cord. The use of cord makes the leash advance and retract very smoothly. It also makes the leash very dangerous. When a dog begins to run after something, catching the handler off guard, the first instinct is not to push the trigger and stop the advancement of cord, but to grab the cord with ones hand, we're only human after all. This action has caused very deep cuts and these cords have also been known to sever a finger off on a few occasions. Burns to the legs are also very common when a rambunctious dog wraps his handler up in the leash. Cuts and burns to the dog's or another dog's leg occurs all to often as well, as dogs play on leash with others, getting tangled in their cord.

Losing the dog to accidentally dropping the leash is another big danger to retractable leash users. This happens so often that now the handles often come with safety loops to put around the wrist when walking. These leashes are easily dropped as the hard plastic handle can be pulled out ones hand quite easily by a large dog. Once dropped, the handle begins to retract the cord and the end result is the plastic handle chasing the poor dog all the while scrapping along the ground making a hideous and very scary noise. Dogs are compelled to run for their lives, and far away from their clumsy masters.

As I said, retractable leashes do have their place. The well trained dog, with a strong recall and good leash manners, can be happily handled in a park or field on a retractable. These leashes, when used by knowing and experienced handlers, offer security (as no dog needs to be loose in unfamiliar territory) and allow a dog and handler a lot more space for exercise and play.