My friend was walking with her Border Collie in her local park in Watford yesterday, with a few other dog walking friends of hers.
They stopped to admire a little boy and his two 'fluffy puppies' when a Staff appeared, grabbed one of the dogs and starts mauling it.

The poor boy was hysterical, everyone was trying their hardest to pull the staff off, the owner saunters over with an attitude "it's not my fault".

The dog died last night, from what she said it sounded like Bichon Frise or Maltese Terrier. The poor little boy is beside himself as are his parents.

You know what? I'm going to buy my Mum one of those Pet Correcters, she walks in the local parks with her friends and her dog was attacked by a staff last summer and if one comes charging over, she can use it. It worries me her walking in the parks with these Staffs everywhere.

That's so awful Helen,poor dog,and lad.There are so many bad owners about,and they seem to want staffies as a status symbol,up here they have studded collars and breast plates to make them look like fighters.(dogs not owners)There's one lives round the corner from us,once Keith had our 3 on their leads walking past it's house and it shot out into the street barking.Keith was tied up in knots as our lot desperately tried to get away from it.Eventually,as no-one came out after it,Keith gave it a good hard kick and off it went.It really gets my p boiling!!!

They should have reported the incident, probably no action would be taken but the owner should have been warned about not keeping his dog under control. The law states that dogs must be under close control in a public place, which means on a lead or under control verbally. An owner with that attitude (Not my fault) needs reminding of his responsibilities.

It is technically an offence for a Deerhound that does not obey a recall command to be off lead in a public place and I was warned when Ben was younger even though he was not harassing any dogs or people, just being his friendly self. If a Deerhound with no intention of aggression must be subject to the law then an aggressive Staffy certainly should.

Yeah it was reported, my friend has to make a statement today. She was really upset. Dog fights aren't nice, but more often than not they are more noise than anything, trouble is with these Staffs, it isn't noise, they want to kill.
We have loads in our village, seems that everyone is getting one and whilst they are cute looking puppies, they haven't got any knowledge of the breed, I think I know more about their dogs than they do and I've never had one. I like to make it my knowlege though, if I see a dog a I like, I will google it, find out about it, these people buy them cos they think they look hard "Whose got the biggest, meanest looking staff" then take it to the local park and it ends up ripping some poor little dog to peices.

The trouble is, the little lads puppies were off the lead, as was the staff, but because they were all off lead, they won't do anything.
If the woman has any brains or common sense at all, she will muzzle it when out, she knows what it is capable of doing.

Just hope my Mum doesn't meet another one when she is out with her little dogs.

Robb wrote:


Its an technically offence for any dog to be off lead out of controal in a public place,
not just deerhounds, who ever told you it was just deerhounds was taking the p**s,

www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/...mestic/dogs.htm

Lurch insted of one of the Pet Correcters - you could try one of the rape alarms,
they omit the same high pitch that the Pet Correcters do,
and a brolly can come in handy as well, a lot of dogs dont like brollys, and it can give a little protection from the dog.

chook wrote:


Think I worded that quite badly, what I meant to say was that it is an offence for a dog to not be under close control in a public place. That doesn't necessary mean on a lead, if the dog will obey vocal command from it's owner and stay close to it's owner. For most Deerhounds that is impossible so a lead is a necessity, as most of us experience regularly, when they see something worth investigating/chasing and ignore our recall command until they are ready to obey and return.

We know that all too well - we walk with a lot of other lurchers and if they see something there gone, luckaly my dogs and the lurcher i have, all recall quite quickly,
but there have been times when ive had my heart in my mouth, especaly when my friends borzois and my lurcher girl took off after a red deer - i was so happy she recalled instanly that day.

I'm sorry, but I think that you are all missing the point. Those incidents would never have happened a very few years ago, and I think that there are various issues to consider here, and the first one is the increasing disrespect that one person has for the other and also the total lack of care for their dogs, as they are just a tool justify (not the word I'm looking for) there nefarious (sp.see chook) aims.

Thats true Alan - at one time people had respect for others,
theres so many people around now a days that shouldnt realy own dogs at all,
as they havent a clue, take my neighbours - they have had god knows how many dogs,
ive told them time and time again not to get any, but its like talking to a brick wall,
ive so far removed two dogs from there care, one is penny the lurcher i own,
the other was a 6 months old ab x mastiff, never been walked, never been scocalised - nothing,
if this dog had of caried on living there, he would have ended up being a dangerous dog,
and like there last mastiff ( who attacked another dog) woud have been pts,
luckaly hes now in a home, where he's well cared for and looked after,
but its people like this who give all dog owners a bad name.

Hi Chook, on one of my recent posts,I mentioned a dog called Hobo, his previous owners are a milion miles removed from the caring neighbours you describe ,if you get my drift.
Have a look at my post re Hobo, the biggest dog with the biggest future who got the needle
last week. Fighting dogs are big business in our refined UK society and its so easy to turn a blind eye.

We all know that dog attacks are mainly by the dogs of people who have no respect for others. The main point is how these people can be persuaded to act more responsibly. The law regarding dogs be under control in public places is not being upheld. In many areas the authorities are very quick in prosecuting people who let their dogs fowl or who drop litter but take no action when un uncontrolled dog causes problems for other people or their dogs.

Yeah, youre right there Rob, it's the owners more than the dogs, if you know what your dog is capable of, muzzle it! or keep it on a lead.
As I said to the man whose staff was hanging off my back, literally, trying to rip my border terrier out of my arms, "if my Deerhound did that to your wife, I'd expect a knock from the Police", it still stood there, watching and saying "it's only playing, put your dog down"!!!! Yeah, like the first time we encounter him, his dog got mine by the throat and shook and shook, poor little toodlepip thought his days were numbered. Now I know why he isn't over keen on other dogs anymore.

All dogs are capable of a fight, but just a bit of common sense. Hence why I don't go anywhere where other people go. I used to walk through the local park with 2 Lurchers, a greyhound and a Patterdale terrier, off lead and they never bothered a soul, were friendly if a dog approached and were good as gold, never had a problem at all, the thing is, there are too many of these bull breeds about now and owned by people that dont know anything about their own dogs breed. I also now of a family living in the next village who breed from brother/sister, twice a year, selling them for £300 a pup and people are so ignorant they buy them and they seem to all be living in our village!

Thats a shame about poor Hobo - Alan
i understand how hard it is with a dog like that though, you have to think about there future,
and what will happen long term, i found it difficult to even get a rescue to take Tye on,
the only way they would was by me finding a foster home for the lad, and they helped out by doing home checks and the likes, they did find a wonderfull family, but i kept Tyes chip details in my name, if anything does happen he comes back to me,
ive never been one for bull breeds - but sometimes theres just one that gets under your skin.

We have many bull breeds walking round near us, a lot of bull lurchers mainly,
but have to say we are lucky, as most people round hear are respectful,
there are one or two we have to watch out for, as there owned by numptys,
but over all we have never had to be scared of walking our dogs anywhere round hear,
if we see a dog on lead - ours go back on,and visa versa, but i think it comes from knowing most of the dog walkers round hear, we all know each other and know what the dogs are like.

we also do dog walking days, where as a few of us get together, dosent matter what breed,
and we let the dogs play and scocalise, its helped two dogs so far, both had problems with people, one scared and one aggressive,

I don't think it's just a staffie/bull problem - our very local park with both woods and bird populated lake has a by-law that any dog must be on a lead - so in the woods people leave their dogs off lead who then come hurtling up to Storm (they're totally excited due to birds/squirrels around), he wants to join in and as soon as he playbows they run off sqealing or get aggressive - to which their owners say "oh they're fine, they're just playing" meanwhile Storm is now boinging up and down on the lead and nearly pulling my arms out and trampling me - they're dogs start going for Storms throat and I feel like he's a sitting duck - he's not short of confidence just being restrained by me - I'm SO tempted to say, Shall I let my dog off his lead then? I'm sure they'll really appreciate a 45KG giant breed crashing through the trees and surprising them! It's just ignorance - regardless of the breed. (sorry, I'll get off my soapbox, must have a lot of pent up frustration on this point!)

LSW wrote:


I completely agree, we have the same problem here. We have our fair share of the young, ignorant oiks who don't know one agressive end of their staffie from the other. However we have even more of the stupid airy fairy people. They usually have small furry, yappy things, which are always off the lead and they stand on the other side of the field shouting "Foo-Foo, come here, come on now. They'll eat you for breakfast. HA HA HA !!!" Meanwhile their irritating dog is completely ignoring it's owner, standing, yapping, six feet away from our two who are heaving and leaping about at the ends of their leads. I think I might take up Helen's suggestion about taking a pet corrector out with me, to dissuade Foo-Foo et al.

And whilst I'm on my soapbox..... I never cease to be amazed at the irresponsibility of some dog owners. We were at Crufts, where you would think (well I did) that everyone would be 'good' owners. However I was amazed to see some people allowing their dogs to pee against stalls and benches with other dogs on. I know accidents happen, but the 3 owners I saw seemed very casual about it; watched their dogs do it then nonchalantly strolled on. Towards the end of the day the man on the bench opposite us (not a Deerhound person BTW) picked up his dog's full water bowl and emptied it over the floor! On the way back to the car park, with sore feet and very tired we then had to avoid numerous landmines of poo along the pavements. Not just a couple, LOADS of poo. What is the matter with these people? Unfortunately these idiots just give the anti-dog briggade even more ammunition against us all.

I think I need to go and have a little lie down now......

Sue

I think I need to go and have a little lie down now......

Sue[/quote]

Not on the pavement though!

Oh Sue, yes I saw tonnes of pooh last year, had to dodge it on way back to car park AND the bins were overflowing with pooh bags, so stuffed it was spilling out on the pavement, don't think anyone had emptied them over the 4 days, yuk, thankfully it was cold, can you imagine if Crufts was in July? So annoying though when you pick your own pooh up (well not our own, our dogs).

WE have a phantom pooer who lets their dog do it on the path outside my house and sometimes on the driveway, even people have been commenting on it being personal. I will catch them, I did it before took a woman out a bag to clear it up, but this time I will follow them home and let Murphy do it in their garden, now that will be one hell of a pooh to clear up!

Yes, had noticed the building up of muscles in my right arm - not tennis elbow, but DH poobag elbow - thought i might aswell us it as a way of combatting bingo wings whilst walking!

Spot - we noticed a lot of that as well,
but we also noticed the dogs that went walk abouts with out owners,
and although i'd left by this time, was also told about the borzoi that ended up with a broken leg, was left on its bench, owner went shoping and the dog got tangled up and panacked,
to the point its leg snapped - it took over two hours to find the owner and by that time the dog had been sorted out by the vets, it was just lucky a few of the other borzoi peeps there helped the dog other wise it could have ended up much worse.

OMG! How awful for the Borzoi.

What a terrible thing to happen to that poor dog and the boy, it would have been terrifying.