Animal control officer doesn't pay attention and pays the price

[draggar]

My wife and I were watching animal cops Miami the other day and they had an officer who picked up two rottweilers that were "guard dogs" at an abandoned warehouse.

He picked them up and brought them to the shelter with no obvious problem but my wife and I noticed that the dog's body language was saying a different story.

He had a rehaber in and he was showing the dogs to him. The officer was vigorously scratching the male dog on the head, behind the ears, and on the front of the back. The dog started to give him "the eye" and his ears went back. My wife commented "That dog is not happy". Then, a few seconds later the dog started to arch on his back legs and before I could say "He's about to get bit" the dog ripped into the officer's arm. The officer needed rescue to patch up his arm. My wife and I both agreed that the dog should have been put down but the officer said that the dog was just scared.

Here's a list of his mistakes that we could see:

1) No mention of temperament testing.
2) The officer was vigorously scratching the dog, insinuating excitement. If he was slowly petting the dog down the far end of the back, this might not have happened.
3) The officer did not pay one bit of attention to the dog's body language. This was the most significant mistake.
4) The officer was bending over the dog, acting extremely dominant to the dog and the dog's body language was telling the officer that he didn't like it.

They took the dog to the rehab and the tester had a fake hand and petted the dog with it. As soon as he started to scratch around the head with the fake hand the dog snapped at it. (This is considered a warning in dog language).

Two weeks later the officer went to visit the dog and sure enough, he started to vigorously scratch it on the head, chin, cheek and as we watched, the dog's body language started to tell the same story and again, the dog ripped into the officer's arm, and again, he needed medical attention.

Obviously the officer didn't learn the first time.

I would have put the dog down.

1) Be glad that this dog bit an adult who is structurally strong and not some little child who came to see the dog. The injuries would have been much worse.
2) The officer did nothing more than what any child or inexperienced adult would have done, putting them at risk of a bite, or worst.
3) The dog has some fear or dominance issues.
4) Adopting this dog out, IMO, it a very high risk. The kinds of people who would be able to handle a dog like this usually wouldn't go to a shelter to adopt a dog (except a rescue organization but most wouldn't take a dog that has a history of biting). The shelter is liable if the dog bits someone in the adopting family since they know it has a history of biting.

They didn't go into what happened to the dog later but the officer did say that the dog was just scared (again) and didn't want to put it down.

[Princess-Snake]

I think I saw this episode before. The story seemed similar anyways. When I saw the officer petting the dog and the dog giving his "Fuck off" signal, I was literally screaming at the tv, "You idiot!"

[Bradester]

It sucks on so many levels, and, as usual, the dog had to pay for it.

Not to get into fratching territory, but it's my opinion that your Average Joe who gets a dog for the sole purpose of using it as a 'guard dog' is creating more of a liability than a protector.

I remember seeing a show on National Geographic or Animal Planet a couple years ago featuring a guy who had a Caucasian Mountain Dog, a very large, powerful breed historically used as a livestock guardian. He got the dog, ostensibly, for 'protection.' It was protective, alright, lunging and snarling at a woman walking with her baby in a stroller down the sidewalk, while the owner (a small, skinny guy) struggled to hold it back. I sense visits from Animal Control officers in his future, and, unfortunately, a shot of the 'blue juice' for his dog.

I don't usually watch Animal Cops Miami, because I have issues with the Miami-Dade pitbull ban, so I haven't seen this episode. It sounds like that was just plain dumb on this ACO's part. You work with dogs, especially potentially dangerous ones, you read their body language. Simple as that. My favorite ACO said that every time he got bit was a result of a lapse in judgment on his part. This example almost seems beyond that. Hopefully both the officer and the shelter learn from this.

A friend of mine worked at the local humane society a few years ago (separate from our animal control) and noticed one of the dogs up for adoption (it just happened to be a Rottie, but I'm definitely not anti- any breed) acted very aggressively toward her, lunging at the door of its run when she walked by. She mentioned it to her supervisors, but they basically shrugged it off. It was adopted a few days later by a woman with a small child. Guess what happened? The very next day, the dog grabbed ahold of the little girl by her scalp and dragged her around the backyard. Of course, Genius Mom left the three-year-old ALONE with the dog in their backyard. So the blame is on both parties.

Working at an animal control facility has led me to believe that a decent percentage of dog owners have absolutely no business owning an animal (or procreating, for that matter). And, like I said above, due to bad breeding, training, and irresponsible ownership, the dog usually has to pay the ultimate price.

Sorry to threadjack, but this is something I'm extremely passionate about.

[draggar]

It sucks on so many levels, and, as usual, the dog had to pay for it.

I blame the previous owner for not properly training the dog and the officer for not paying attention but I agree, it's the dog that paid the price for only doing what it was (badly) trained to fo.

Not to get into fratching territory, but it's my opinion that your Average Joe who gets a dog for the sole purpose of using it as a 'guard dog' is creating more of a liability than a protector.

It's funny how the average "protection" dog is highly aggressive because the average Joe doesn't know how to properly train the dog and isn't willing to spend the money to properly train the dog.

I've had fully (and properly) trained protection dogs in my house (including one of my own and one of mine in training). These dogs were not aggressive at all, they were sweet, stable, and very affectionate to their family, including us. But, if there was a threat they sprang into action, giving several warnings to let the threat know that they meant business.

A well trained protection dog will only use a bite as a last resort. Control is very important.

I don't usually watch Animal Cops Miami, because I have issues with the Miami-Dade pitbull ban, so I haven't seen this episode. It sounds like that was just plain dumb on this ACO's part. You work with dogs, especially potentially dangerous ones, you read their body language. Simple as that. My favorite ACO said that every time he got bit was a result of a lapse in judgment on his part. This example almost seems beyond that. Hopefully both the officer and the shelter learn from this.

I agree, owners should be licensed, not dogs. But sadly, I've also noticed that at UKC dog shows here in Broward county (just to the north of Miami-Dade) the least responsible owners are the pit bull owners (and I also see this in my neighborhood). While most of the other dogs (non pit bulls) were in crates in shade with water, a lot of the pit bulls were tied out in the sun with little to no water.

In my community of 29 townhomes, there are 5 dog owners in the community. 3 are responsible with their dogs. The dogs are always leashed while outside, the owners keep them inside, always cleaning up after their dogs, and the dogs are generally friendly to other people (but are good alarm dogs).

The other two never have their dogs leashed (allow them to run free in the neighborhood), their dogs chase people (we've filed police reports about this), one even "aggression trains" his dogs. Coincidently, these two residents are the only pit bill owners in the neighborhood.

But, don't get me wrong, I've met very responsible pit bull owners / breeders (they are trying their hardest to breed a good temperament into the breed). Their dogs are great, but he is a minority. I think pit bulls attract a certain kind of dog owner (generally speaking). This is the part that needs to be addressed.

I find breed specific legislation funny, though, and a double edged sword. It's clear that the people who write them are not dog educated very well. (I also find them funny by looking at the lists of dogs that are banned - while some ban retrievers but allow presa canareos (sp?)). Legislation like this also intruduces other breeds into the bad element. Right now, with the pit bull legislation out there, other breeds are being brought into dog fighting (including our favorite, malinois). It's sad to say but with people like Michael Vick promoting dog fighting, it won't go away any time soon.

A friend of mine worked at the local humane society a few years ago (separate from our animal control) and noticed one of the dogs up for adoption (it just happened to be a Rottie, but I'm definitely not anti- any breed) acted very aggressively toward her, lunging at the door of its run when she walked by. She mentioned it to her supervisors, but they basically shrugged it off. It was adopted a few days later by a woman with a small child. Guess what happened? The very next day, the dog grabbed ahold of the little girl by her scalp and dragged her around the backyard. Of course, Genius Mom left the three-year-old ALONE with the dog in their backyard. So the blame is on both parties.

I hope your friend filed a complaint about this but yes, highly irresponsible on both sides. Shelters need to listen to their employees / volunteers about dogs. The shelter could have had one hell of a lawsuit.

Working at an animal control facility has led me to believe that a decent percentage of dog owners have absolutely no business owning an animal (or procreating, for that matter). And, like I said above, due to bad breeding, training, and irresponsible ownership, the dog usually has to pay the ultimate price.

I agree. We are breeding our GSD but only because she comes from incredible lines, has her hip certification (OHA?), CGC, HIC, TT, SG-1, UKC-Ch, and is ready for her BH. The sire is a UKC-Ch, AKC-CH, CHC, HIC, TT, SchH3, SV-1, and so on. This is our first litter but with the GSD my wife is standing by the German style breeding as close as we can (OK, we did an AI, don't yell at us). Kiri had pyometra so it was either fix her (hell no, not with her and her lines!) or breed her in the next heat.

Sorry to threadjack, but this is something I'm extremely passionate about.

NP, we're also passionate about this. We've done a lot of work with malinois rescue (including temperament testing, home checks, transport, fostering, training, shelter pulling, medical care etc..). We even picked up the slack where other rescues left (by taking in a beautiful and sweet GDS, er, I mean, malinois mix, and a wonderful terveurn, er, I mean coated malinois. (I pulled one dog an hour before his time was up). We worked almost exclusively with the Miami-Dade humane society and even had the rescue coordinator's personal cell phone number (and she had ours) so we could react quickly to get dogs into rescue and out of the shelter.

[Phantomgrift]

Reminds me of a news clip I saw years ago taken from a German television program.

The reporter was interviewing a member of the German Army who worked in the K-9 unit.
His K-9 was between them and remaining fairly calm.
The reporter, as they are wont to do, begin fussing with the dog, ignored the trainer and hunched over to towsle the dogs ears, effectively looming over the dog.

You could see it coming....... Heh. The Shepard was getting more and more twitchy before it's ears suddenly snapped flat back against his head and he nabbed the reporter square in the face!
The reporter was an idiot.

[aqutalion]

Before anyone starts getting mad, I've seen this episode, too, and if I remember correctly, they were eventually able to train the dog not to bite, although it took forever and a day. He was even on one of the best-of compilation episodes, and I think they showed him with his new owner.

But yeah, I agree the ACO was a doofus for not picking up on the dog's body language.

[Hyndis]

People who buy large, aggressive dogs and then either keep them unleashed, untrained, and uncontrolled are setting up all sorts of trouble.

I witnessed an attack by a dog on a woman and her baby in a stroller. This was some years back, and luckily at the time my father was there too (I was just a kid at the time). The dog bolted from an open front door and was running right at the woman and her stroller, when my dad who was nearby was able to run over and kick the dog in the ribs. It was a hard kick, but it was a big dog, and it most definitely got the dog's attention. It yelped loudly and ran away.

The owner came running out of the house in a rage, but once he realized that his dog had begun to attack a woman and a baby, he apologized profusely and then chased his dog back into the house. There was hope for that dog, though it came at potentially a way too high price. At least the dog probably got the discipline and training it needed.

[draggar]

You could see it coming....... Heh. The Shepard was getting more and more twitchy before it's ears suddenly snapped flat back against his head and he nabbed the reporter square in the face!
The reporter was an idiot.

I think that one is on so many "When good pets go bad" type shows (I think they should be renamed "When humans get stupid"). You can see that one coming from a mile away and the reporter had plenty of warning (and so did the K9 handler).

Most people don't realize the most important part of dog training:

1) Drive and respect. If your dog doesn't have this, or you don't train it into the dog, then you're done for. Let it be a couch potato. The dog has to want to work or else you won't be successful and the dog needs to respect the handler as an alpha.

2) Control. Once you have drive and respect then you need control meaning your dog either anticipates your needs or listens to you without hesitation. Two of our dogs are so well trained that if my wife says "down" ("platz") then they will down, it does not matter what they are on, they could be on hot pavement, they'll down (OK, so the collie might take a few seconds now, but he's 10 years old and getting old).

We love watching cops, especially the K9 episodes, we can tell the very wel trained dogs as opposed to the OK trained dogs.

[Bradester]

I think pit bulls attract a certain kind of dog owner (generally speaking). This is the part that needs to be addressed.

I find breed specific legislation funny, though, and a double edged sword. It's clear that the people who write them are not dog educated very well. (I also find them funny by looking at the lists of dogs that are banned - while some ban retrievers but allow presa canareos (sp?)). Legislation like this also intruduces other breeds into the bad element. Right now, with the pit bull legislation out there, other breeds are being brought into dog fighting (including our favorite, malinois). It's sad to say but with people like Michael Vick promoting dog fighting, it won't go away any time soon.

Absolutely. I typically consider the issue of aggressive dogs to be a 'people problem' rather than a dog problem. Getting rid of the breed won't fix the underlying problem of irresponsible ownership and plain stupidity.

I'm surprised to hear that Malinois have been used for fighting. In my area, more and more people are getting Cane Corsos, including gang members in Omaha.

It's definitely a mess. Thanks for letting me get on my soapbox.

[Sliceanddice]

just out of the blue, i have never met a mean pitbull, mean chiuahas yes, because their owners think ohhh look at the cute little doggy thinking its so big, and when they bit it may not remove a body part, but they still hurt, id rather remove all bad chiuaha owners, and leave the pitbull owners.
Every pitbull ive met, or even rottwhielers ive met are the sweetest puppys on earth who want nothing but to curl in my lap and snuggle close and kiss me all over.
but rats are evil.
i also want ot point out, my grandfather , a pug lover like me, bought a pug (ITS NAME IS MISS SCARLET O'HARA!!! poor thing...) and when a friend came by with the family and their doggy, a rat, the rat barked and was aggressive with miss scarlet, and when one of the kids tried to pet the rat, miss scarlet grab his hand with her mouth (no teeth just mouth) and pulled him away because she didnt want him encourageing it.... so my opinion is growing for pugs, lowering daily for rats.

[wagegoth]

Definitely the owners and irresponsible breeders. Any time a dog breed becomes popular, overbreeding and inbreeding start and that's when you get dogs with mental issues, which are then sold to people with mental issues.

[PepperElf]

I would have put the dog down.

for me... no. If the dog was just breaking free to run around and bite people then yes, but... not in this case.

The dog told the officer "I don't like my head being touched." He said it in his stance and how he reacted... The officer didn't stop and got himself bit.

Then the officer did the same thing AGAIN. He knew the animal was sensitive about the head and chose to rub the head again? Hell at that point he deserved to get bitten.


Now I've seen rotties before. I saw one that ... his whole facial appearance was "YAY! I'm out with Daddy!" Quite a happy dog.

Did I just reach out and touch the dog's head because of that? Hell no! I asked the owner for permission and he made a point of petting the dog at the same time so the dog wouldn't get too excited or scared.

But back to the original dog... I don't believe in wasting an animal's life just because the cop was being stupid. Especially since the dog was trained as a Guard Dog. That means Puppy has been trained to bite and keep people out.

Now if this doggie had jumped the fence to run over and bite some kid... hand me the shotgun.

But it sounds more like this dog was kept in the fence... and the cop got careless and complacent. I would like to say "maybe next time he'll learn to wear padding while dealing with dogs..." but he already proved he didn't learn a thing.

[auntiem]

I've seen this episode (I'm a sucker for Animal Precinct). The officer both times was not paying attention to the dog's signals. Also, I'm fairly sure he was the officer who arrested the dog's original owner so the dog was probably already not his biggest fan and then the guy starts messing with the dog. Sorry, no sympathy for the officer.

[Kitten in the box]

people need to read animals body language. I had one dog who was rather agressive with people he didn't know and when we took him to the vet we had him muzzled. People would come up and say "oooohhh pretty dog....can I pet him?" some would even reach out without asking. I would have to say "NO!!! HE BITES!!" or "He's a security dog...not for petting because he has a tendacy to bite." Then they would back off. Just letting them know makes a big difference. The dog's body language was not enough apparently. he tried giving warning signs of do not touch.

Also I have been confronted by loose strange dogs. They would walk right up to me stop and look right at me. i would look away and not move until the dog was done sniffing me and had given me "permission" to walk away. On the rare occasions I did walk away I made sure I did not look at the dog in the eye whatso ever. Obviously the dogs didn't consider me a threat because no one has gone for me yet thankgoodness.

[draggar]

for me... no. If the dog was just breaking free to run around and bite people then yes, but... not in this case.

I agree that this is a borderline care but, the shelter has a liability for the animals that it adopts out. The average Joe, especially one who adopts a dog from a shelter, doesn't even know about the existence of canine body language, let alone how to read it.

The officer was doing nothing more than what your average person (including child) would do. Heaven forbid some kid runs up to the dog and tries to give it a hug while scratching its head.

Now I've seen rotties before. I saw one that ... his whole facial appearance was "YAY! I'm out with Daddy!" Quite a happy dog.

A friend of my wife's and mine breeds rotties and breeds the sweetest dogs you've ever seen (my only complaint is that they slobber too much! ). Generally they are a sweet matured breed but there are a lot of bad owners and breeders out there.

But back to the original dog... I don't believe in wasting an animal's life just because the cop was being stupid. Especially since the dog was trained as a Guard Dog. That means Puppy has been trained to bite and keep people out.

Trained or not it wasn't too well protection trained (and yes, I do schutzhund training with my wife). True protection dogs are trained to deter and then warn (before it gets to a bite). That bite wasn't a warning, it was a protest (a warning would have "clacked" at the officer but wouldn't have grabbed his arm).

But it sounds more like this dog was kept in the fence... and the cop got careless and complacent. I would like to say "maybe next time he'll learn to wear padding while dealing with dogs..." but he already proved he didn't learn a thing.

Yes, it was primarily the cops fault but IMO it is better than an adult tap this part of the dog as opposed to some child with his parents who are looking to adopt a "sweet rottie".

Also, the Miami-Dade animal shelter is inundated with unwanted animals, most of which are not properly socialized or trained. They have the highest euthanasia rate in the country because of this. Most of the dogs that come in are unadoptable and if they are, they generally have two weeks to be adopted and if not, then they're put down. Unless a rescue organization is willing to take a dog in, if it is sick or injured, it is usually put down within 24 hours.

I have a feeling that there is going to be a lot of "agreeing to disagree" in this thread.