My Neighbor Got a Pit Bull - What Do I Do?

[joeknows]

if i had a neighbor who had a dog and it attacked one of my kids, then that dogs life is over.

i agree 100%

also if MY mastiff attacked someone and did serious damage...... ie. more than one bite..... shes done

[RocketCitySkins]

you can say what you want but i know from my experiences that usually the person is to blame.... and as i stated before.... many stories you hear from the vicyims dont include an inadvertant antagonization of the dog.

a dog is only as good as its owner in most cases..... .

That is absolutely crazy. I never, in no way, antagonized the dog that could have killed me. I never, ever even went up to the fence where the dog was kept. And the owner thought he had him secured. This dog had always acted aggressive. Is my case an exception? Possibly. But even one exception that cost a life is one too many.

[CallMeGreen]

robotfire, in the essence of time, I stopped reading after 150 posts, having not seen my preferred answer by that point.

First of all, don't build a fence, unless you were planning to do it anyway, which it didn't seem was the case. I understand clearly how you intend to protect your children, but putting up a fence around either yours or his yards (at your expense), that's being way too generous.

The owner of the animal is the responsible party, period. It doesn't matter in principle whether we're talking about a pit bull, a chihuahua or any other animal that could pose a safety risk [edit: if off the owner's property]. It's solely his responsibility to heel his animal, not yours or anyone else's. If my neighbor starts shooting off a bazooka in the backyard, should I have to pay to install my own bomb shelter?

You spoke to the guy once already, but spell it out for him in no uncertain terms that if he intends to allow either of his dogs to roam free and unsecured that you intend to call the shelter and/or the cops. You're well within your legal rights to do so.

This guy clearly didn't think his situation through when he got the pit bull. Or he just figured he could do as he pleased. Being a reasonable and friendly neighbor as you seem is a fine thing to be, but there's no reason you have to either build a fence or stay out of your own backyard.

[W1N_SKINS]

call mike vick?

bingo

[AJWatson3]

If you live in the ghetto and your neighbor raises pit bulls for fighting I would be worried.

However, if the dog is a pet I strongly encourage you to get to know the animal. And make sure your children do also. The more comfortable you are around the pet the better your relationship will be with it... animals can sense stuff like fear, anger, stress, etc....!

And while I have never met a raving mad, baby-eating pit bull I have met dozens of sweet ones who have made for great pets....

While pit bulls, rotweilers, etc may account for the dangerous attacks (ie- the ones the media loves to persue) I am pretty sure that retreivers and labs account for the majority of actual bites.... where did I read that?

[joeknows]

That is absolutely crazy. I never, in no way, antagonized the dog that could have killed me. I never, ever even went up to the fence where the dog was kept. And the owner thought he had him secured. This dog had always acted aggressive. Is my case an exception? Possibly. But even one exception that cost a life is one too many.

i guess we should take cars off the streets since people get killed by them daily

[RocketCitySkins]

i guess we should take cars off the streets since people get killed by them daily

That wasn't your argument. Your argument was that I was somehow responsible for almost being attacked by a pitbull.

[joeknows]

first off i dont know your story but i was replying to the last statement of your post......

im not going to read thru 20 pages to find your story but if you link it here ill will do so and get back with you.....

you may have not done anything to cause the dog to bite you or attack you and if that is the case i stand by my argument that ..... that is the exception to the rule...

by stating that one would be too many it appeared that you fell that responsible dog owners such as myself shouldnt have those dogs because of what happend to you......

people die in many absurd ways...... we cant just run around making everything illegal because it COULD BE dangerous

[ljs]

There is a very simple explanation for this.... The one who was the terror thought he was the pack leader. He believed he was the defender of the family.

He had already dominated the other 2.. so they were docile.. he also dominated everyone else in the house.

The man of that house did not properly assert himself over that dog. that's it. If he was viewed as the pack leader... that dog would be docile like the other 2.

You are on the money GGM. Dogs are pack animals and need a leader. If the owner is not willing to be the total dominate leader, there will very likely be issues. The problem with many owners is that they don't want to be too mean to their dog, sort of like people spoiling their kids, and won't discipline them.

The other issue people have to remember is how does a dog discipline it's own? By nipping or bite. Let's say a young puppy is pulling on an older dogs ear. The older dog will scold the pupply by biting it or nipping at it. now imagine a small child pulling on the dogs ear....and the dog "disciplines' it, as it would another dog. Well, now we have a child who is bit. Then add the fact that most kids, or people, will try to fight the dog, and the dog keeps reacting, by biting.

That is why in police work, we train a dog to bite and hold, not chew. Logn story short, there are several training exercises that teach the dog to bite and hold. However, if a criminal struggles, the dog will bite more/harder/other places. That is why when a Police K9 locates/bites the criminal, we yell for them to lay still (yes I realize that is very hard when a dog is biting you), because if they don't, injuries will be worse.

I had a court case where a guy sustained very bad injuries after my police K9 apprehended him. Well, I brought in all of my studies/k9 behavior books and was able to educate the jury on why his injuries were not consistent with most apprehensions. Even the way the bites/scratches went, you can prove that it's due to the person fighting. It's almost like motor vehicle accident reconstruction. We won that case by the way.

[ljs]

I also want to say that it irks me beyond all belief that some parents/people, find it funny that their dog will chase their kid, who is running around. Because they think the dog and kid are playing. But dogs like the chase. They like to hunt. Most dogs think they are playing and don't even realize that they are hurting someone. It's sort of a weird thing to see my dog biting a criminal, and his tail is wagging. He thinks it's a game. He does it cause it's fun, not because he is mean.

[robotfire]

i guess we should take cars off the streets since people get killed by them daily

If cars jumped people's fences to attack them and rip them to shreds, then I would be the first to sign a petition against cars. How many cars do you see? How many pit bulls do you see? The ratio of pit bull injuries/deaths per animal is probably higher than that of car injuries/deaths per car. At least cars aren't intentionally jerks and serve a purpose.

[joeknows]

If cars jumped people's fences to attack them and rip them to shreds, then I would be the first to sign a petition against cars. How many cars do you see? How many pit bulls do you see? The ratio of pit bull injuries/deaths per animal is probably higher than that of car injuries/deaths per car. At least cars aren't intentionally jerks and serve a purpose.

cars jump curbs and hit pedestrians regularly and thats not including the ones that jump curbs and drive into homes <i have seen it>

yall are the reason i say quit putting helmets on kids riding bikes..... natural selection should take its course...

you are villifying an entire breed of dogs because of irresponsible owners and that is ridiculous.....

seems like just yesterday people were saying the same things about dobermans......

its funny that so many people are killed by handguns and yet many of these same people complaining about dogs are the same ones that say the 2nd amendment should be protected........

for the record i agree the 2nd amendment SHOULD be protected but i in 36 years of being a redneck country boy have never myself used or seen anyone use a handgun for hunting purposes.........

[ChampSkinsFanatic]

vote for Obama, thats what you do

[pjfootballer]

What's a different story?

Come into my house. You will be licked to death. Unless that's too much for you

Half the people who are the "Pit Bull = Terrible" advocates are people who never been around them. They rather sit back and listen to CNN or see what the these thugs in the city do with them and roll them ALL into that category.

I here the same BS on a weekly basis. I bet half the people who argue that don't even have dogs!

I have a Golden Retriever who will be 7 and 2 Pit Bulls who are 3 and they are the best of friends. I would let ANYONE, ANY AGE into my house and nothing brutal or vicious will happen. Unless you don't liked to be licked or having a 100Lb lap dog sit on you

Here's what I said earlier in the thread, so I don't just discrimminate with one breed. When I was a kid, there were 3 Sheppards in 3 yards. Ours, the next door neighbors and the one across the street. I was not afraid of ours or the next door dog because she was friendly like ours. The one across the street scared the bejesus out of me because he was bigger than the other 2 and guess what? It was a K-9 dog of a cop. Even a trained dog scared me. So sometimes it's not the breed, just the nature of the dog that I sense.

While I don't agree with Captrich's post, but I do sympathize with his experience, I have to disagree with you on a couple of points. I don't think it's MY reponsibility to watch out for other people's dogs. I don't own any dogs (but have in the past including a Sheppard) and while I never had a traumatic experience with one, Rots, Pit Bills, Mastiffs and Sheppards make me very uneasy when around those dogs.

[pedigroove]

Watch "The Dog Whisperer" or "Dog Town" and learn about how to act around dogs.

[GoSkins561]

Watch "The Dog Whisperer" or "Dog Town" and learn about how to act around dogs.

Good one, you are suppose to teach a child how to act around a dog that might rip their face off for no reason by watching a TC show?

:laugh:

[dockeryfan]

Good one, you are suppose to teach a child how to act around a dog that might rip their face off for no reason by watching a TC show?

:laugh:

I'm pretty sure you missed the fact that he was responding to pjfootballer.:doh:

[Morneblade]

I saw that dog working at the airport, before he sniffed in Jose Canseco's bags.

P.S.

I don't buy that about Pit Bulls not being aggressive unless taught. A retriever will retrieve becasue it's been bred into them over generations. A terrier will get stuck down a hole looking for moles, because they have been bred for that over generations. Pit bulls will be aggressive. Period. It's in their nature.

That is because you dont have a clue about what they were bred to do apparently. Pretty typical unfortunately.

I've had them since about 1989 and by and large they are excellent dogs and very good with children. They have a high pain threshold and things that you might do to another dog that would get a child bit, doesnt affect them. They are very affectionate and tend to be protective of the family. They are also very loyal dogs. As to the "aggression"......

The APBT was of course bred to fight OTHER DOGS. Not people. In fact pups that showed ANY aggression towards people were put down up untill the last 30 years or so.

Why?

In "organised" dogfighting, there are 2 dogs and THREE PEOPLE in a "pit". You have 2 handlers and a referee. The ref has to acutally "break" the dogs when one makes a turn, so dogs that show ANY hint of agression towards people could be trusted to not bite in the heat of battle. This has changed in recent years, with the ABPT becoming a more mainstream dog and the "wrong" kinds of people wanted them for the wrong reasons. That, and ever dog you see that looks like a APBT isnt nessisarily one.

So, the APBT was actually bread to be very gentle with humans and to NOT show aggression towards them. I will add that that part of the breeding has not been upheld over the last 25 or so years as it once was.

But then that UKC Golden Retiever at the pet store hasnt really been bred for retieving for some time, but still has those traits. I'd worry more about the owner than the dog, he sounds like a guy that doesnt need one or is responsible enough to own one.

[BigMike619]

peep this link

http://video.yahoo.com/network/100284668?v=3805344&l=3774740

Its horrible how this pit bull is mauling this kitten. but hey, they were born to fight right?

[The Brave Little Toaster Oven]

So, have you shot the dog yet?