After being saved from icy waters, dog bites anchorwoman on live t.v. - Page 3

First, glad the dog was not put to sleep!!! But come on!! you don't stick your strange face in a dogs face! I saw that coming a mile away. I hate when people get to close myself!. This dog just let her know it in it's own way. I saw on the news where she said she didn't blame the dog. DUH!! how could she. It was her fault.

I'd have done better than that if personal attack was my intent. All I meant was you seem to think your own dog will NEVER bite, yet have no desire to learn about dog language from people who do know a bit about it. You strike me as the type of person that thinks dogs should just take whatever humans dish out. I would suggest you rehome your dog if you are going to have children, yes. Kids and dogs are great together as long as kids are taught from the very beginning what NOT to do around dogs. Everything that news anchor did to that dog, I was taught at a very young age not to do, especially to a dog who doesn't know you.

This.

You don't understand dog body language nor care to learn. That attitude + having a dog + having small children can end in tragedy. I stand by my original statment. Believe me, I would do better if my intent was a personal attack. I'll refrain for now so I don't get banned before the vegan exchange.

I know very little about dogs, but even I could see that one coming.
My neighbor has a beautiful chocolate lab, and once I asked if I could pet her. He replied that she was very friendly, so I should feel free to pet away. When I put my hand near her back, she gently growled. That was enough for me, so I pulled away, respecting her space.
In my humble opinion, this story just proves that dogs ,like people, have their own personalities and react differently to having their spaces invaded by strangers, and we should learn to understand and respect that.

I don't think you're a bad dog owner. I'm just saying even the most easy-going dog and small kids may not mix if you don't know the subtle signs to look for that a dog is getting stressed. Like that mastiff mix in the news recently who killed that poor 1 year old. His owners said he "loved" the baby and "had never shown any aggression before" but not sure I buy that. I think he probably showed signs before and the people didn't know the signs.

I know that reporter never blamed the dog. Plenty of others blamed him, but she did not.

I'm sorry that you were bitten by dogs whose owners evidently didn't know them as well as they thought. I've had people tell me a few times "oh he loves everyone, he won't bite" when the dog is clearly telling me he's not comfortable. Too many people treat their dogs like four-footed humans and expect dogs to see a situation the same way people do.

I can assure you if we ever meet, my dogs WILL NOT bite you, unless you behave in a threatening manner towards me. Letting a strange dog come to you first is a smart move, too.

This attitude is unconscionably niave and very dangerous for your dog. EVERY dog will bite if put in the wrong circumstances. Your dog is, I imagine, and amazing creature who enriches your life. However, he is not some super secret special dog that isn't subject to the same behaviours as ever.single.other.dog on the face of the planet. IMO having a dog in your life while simultaneously knowing nothing about dog behaviour, and not being interested in *learning* isn't a good mix and can end in tragedy with the dog paying the price for the human's ignorance.

^^^^



I am not trying to insult anyone on this thread. But the dog always pays for human error.

Every dog is not the same?

No one needs to know you personally to know you don't know squat about dogs, you have revealed it in your posts.

I wouldn't put my face close to any dog like that, it's just common knowledge that you don't put your faces in dogs like that.

The dog showed no signs that he/she was going to attack=you don't know the signs a dog shows when they are going to bite. We are conditioned to think that barking/growling is a precursor to any bite through bad education and television when this is actually not the case, and when a poor dog shows all the other signs we just don't see them, and suddenly the dog never warned anyone at all.

With this dog it would have been harder to gauge how the dog was feeling because the owner had it pulled tight in a sitting position and the dog had floppy ears- which were being manipulated, as well as the skin around the eyebrows and mouth. Think of it from this perspective, if you were a dog and you felt uncomfortable you would try to move away(couldn't) try to show discomfort through stance(couldn't) through the way you hold your tail (couldn't) through pulling back your ears(couldn't) through facial expression (which is being restricted) The only tool you have is your eyes, which you show the whites of, and your mouth, which you pull tight as you attempt to get away from the threat, but can't. All of the sudden this person who has been absolutely, though unintentionally displaying dominant behavior(holding her head high, facing dogs face straight on, placing hands on top of the head and over the eyes(having your hand on the top of a dogs head is VERY dominant. A stranger should NEVER do this), looking up at the people seated above her(thus showing the whites of HER eyes), and then approaching after bearing her teeth towards your face. That dog gave a warning nip. He did not attack.

My dog got attacked(very minor injuries thank goodness) by a food aggressive dog two days ago. She didn't growl, she didn't bark. Her body stiffened, head went up, and attacked. She did show signs but with my hands busy it was much too fast for me to stop when the signs got sent out. A dog assesses body language instantly just like we assess human body language instantly. A dog expects you to understand what they are saying at a glance, in less than a second.

For the record the attacker was a golden retriever who's owners told me was perfect and would never hurt a fly. Turns out she is extremely dominant and resource guards. Owners didn't realize because they had always acted submissive to the dog and had never bothered to train her or learn body language. It isn't just big, muscular dogs who attack. The golden would have done MUCH more damage if I hadn't been right there to intervene.

That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard anybody say. Ever. Every dog CAN bite. You can never say that a dog will never bite, that is just plain stupid. For ****'s sake, one of my dogs (actually both of my dogs but my newest one we've only had a few weeks but my older one definitely is) is the friendliest dog you will ever met. She is also incredibly submissive, so if another dog comes over to her and starts getting dominant around her she will either run away or roll over onto her stomach. She has never growled at anything, even when she's been obviously frightened of something. Even when she broke her paw and the vet (a complete stranger to her) was trying to examine her paw she didn't bite at all, she just licked the vet's hand as she was touching her paw despite being in a lot of pain. She even had another dog attack her a few days ago and she didn't fight back, she ran away.
But luckily I'm not an idiot, and despite the fact that I view it highly unlikely that she will ever bite a human, I'm not dumb enough to say that she will never bite. She has the ability to bite and if she feels threatened enough she will bite. Luckily (unlike some people) I am a responsible dog owner and if people aren't acting sensibly around my dogs (or other people's dogs for that matter) I will tell them. And if children dare to run over to my dogs I will have a stern word with their parents. And I will also let irresponsible dog owners who are idiotic enough to say things like "my dog will never bite" know that they are stupid idiots and should not be allowed to own dogs because they are clearly an incompetent ignoramus.

I see enough dogs damaged thanks to moronic owners where I work that I'm fed up with trying to be polite to idiots.

EDIT:
By damaged I don't just mean abused. There are plenty of behavioural problems that dogs can have which have been caused by irresponsible owners but that does not mean abused or neglected.