Had an incident today with a big aggressive doberman - lose - charging up at me and Bonnie (who was leashed) and jumping/gnashing/barking - quite frightening for both of us! Although scared Bonnie did bark back - which seemed to aggratate the situation - and the Doberman was getting alarmingly aggressive.
Enter owner number one (from a table at a cafe we were passing) - a middle aged woman who tried screeching to command the Doberman to stop. No effect. So she tries to smack it - then grabbed it - which it resisted. This in fact made its agression worse and I thought Bonnie was going to get bitten. Then enter owner two - a guy who was yelling at it to stop and had to forcilbly drag it away by its chain against its will - using all his weight. Thankfully no harm done, just a very nasty fright.
Now I'm a rational, dog-loving person, and understand that its the owners who are to blame, not the dogs. If you have a dog (especially a so-called "bad rap" breed) especially if agressive and/or able to out-power you, if you were responsible surely you would have it leashed (even muzzled if necessary) when other people/dogs were around etc, and be certain that it would respond to your commands.
Perhaps part of the 'bad rap' problem is owners like this - imagine what someones reaction would be if they didn't like/understand dogs - not everyone has to. The impression they get isn't about what the owners may or may not have done in the past in terms of training/socialisation but the intimidating memory of a hunk of charging/barking animal baring its teeth.
I've seen this dog (or one very like it) being walked by an unsupervised little kid before - madness!
Rant over
I just wish ALL people, but especially people wth dogs like this (where misbehaviour could be tragic) - would be responsible. Probably a case of a small minority giving the majority a bad name - but the statistics don't matter when its you that gets affected.
Enter owner number one (from a table at a cafe we were passing) - a middle aged woman who tried screeching to command the Doberman to stop. No effect. So she tries to smack it - then grabbed it - which it resisted. This in fact made its agression worse and I thought Bonnie was going to get bitten. Then enter owner two - a guy who was yelling at it to stop and had to forcilbly drag it away by its chain against its will - using all his weight. Thankfully no harm done, just a very nasty fright.
Now I'm a rational, dog-loving person, and understand that its the owners who are to blame, not the dogs. If you have a dog (especially a so-called "bad rap" breed) especially if agressive and/or able to out-power you, if you were responsible surely you would have it leashed (even muzzled if necessary) when other people/dogs were around etc, and be certain that it would respond to your commands.
Perhaps part of the 'bad rap' problem is owners like this - imagine what someones reaction would be if they didn't like/understand dogs - not everyone has to. The impression they get isn't about what the owners may or may not have done in the past in terms of training/socialisation but the intimidating memory of a hunk of charging/barking animal baring its teeth.
I've seen this dog (or one very like it) being walked by an unsupervised little kid before - madness!
Rant over
I just wish ALL people, but especially people wth dogs like this (where misbehaviour could be tragic) - would be responsible. Probably a case of a small minority giving the majority a bad name - but the statistics don't matter when its you that gets affected.
