Not real patient with other people's dogs on my property

[LillFilly]

When the dog lunged at Jerry to bite him, Jerry kicked it in the face, and sent it running back into the house whimpering.

The guy got pissed, but Jerry told him, "He was going to attack me. You're lucky I didn't kill him." When Jerry returned to the post office, he told them what happened and they suspended his delivery service. From then on, he had to go to the post office to get his mail.

Awesome! I feel bad for the dog because of how it was trained though.

I started having nightmares a few years ago and had to ask my mom; "Did my sisters ever dangle me over the back fence for the neighbor's German Shepherd? Cause I've been having these dreams..." And my sisters both looked at each other like " I thought she'd be too young to remember!", pointed at each-other and said "It was HER idea!" So it took me till I was in my 20's to start getting these 'flashbacks' and figure it out! Funny enough, I'm not afraid of dogs though...

[Seshat]

When I was volunteering for the RSPCA, one of the staff told me that it was the small dogs they really needed to watch.

Some people don't ever take their small dogs for a walk, or socialise them to the outside world. So when the small dog strays, it's TERRIFIED. It's in a strange, unknown place and can't cope.

[Mikkel]

And my sisters both looked at each other like " I thought she'd be too young to remember!", pointed at each-other and said "It was HER idea!"

I hope they got the scolding they should have had when it happened .

[chainedbarista]

Seems to me, the smaller the dog, the bigger the ego and attitude.

sadly, blas, this is true; the only dogs that tried to seriously bite me/give me a great deal of trouble were the small yappy ones (the type that i despise); to top it off, they were usually owned by helicopter mommies who babied the damned things, to the point where obnoxiousness on the dog's part was strongly encouraged.

[Flying Grype]

He was the meanest dog ever, used to be a police dog. He would kill cats, so no doubt he'd attack a kid.

I'm betting he used to be a police dog because with that attitude he couldn't cut it. Police dogs are not supposed to be randomly vicious -- they're supposed to bite when told, and stop when told. They have to be pushbutton tools in the hands of the cop. A dog who takes initiative or gets scared and vicious when the cop hasn't told him to can escalate a bad situation. My hometown had a police dog like that -- he was hyperactive and disobedient and had no attention span. They should never have kept him on the force. Fortunately nothing bad happened due to his lack of training, and he's retired now. (Our rival city, by contrast, had a very smart and very well-trained police dog.)

Also, for what it's worth, dogs who chase and kill cats don't necessarily do the same to any small creature such as a human child. Many dogs have a 'prey drive' that triggers them to chase and kill when something runs from them, but are perfectly fine around animals who are not afraid of them and not acting like prey. My mother's pit bull would snap at our old cat because he was afraid and would run when he saw her. But her current best buddy is a kitten who sleeps in her bed and plays with her tail. In many prey drive situations a dog recognizes that a human child is not prey, even if it does run.

[LadyAndreca]

I've been hunted by a pack of dogs that saw a kid on a bike and decided I was prey. I couldn't outride them and was too scared to realize what was going on. THAT ended when the lead dog got close enough to take a bite out of my calf, I hopped off the bike rather than crash, and suddenly instead of fleeing prey there was an angry human throwing a bike at them!

I got bit hard enough to break the outer layer of skin through my jeans--thankfully I WAS wearing jeans, or I would have been very, very hurt. And though the owner of the gas station I hid in knew who owned the lead dog, and that it wasn't the first time the dogs had chased a kid, the man at that house denied owning a dog when my dad and I went to talk to him. Dad was SO angry, because he knew the guy was lying but couldn't prove it.

[PepperElf]

the only problem with former police dogs - assuming they're retired dogs and not "fired" dogs - is that they don't know how to enjoy retirement. they just can't go from a regular work routine to sitting quietly at home. they have to be active.

saw a case of that on the animal planet. the cop tried taking care of the retired dog but it just wasn't working because the dog was going crazy being stuck at home all day long and started developing destructive habits. eventually the owner found an animal reserve that did life-time shelter and they adopted him as a "guard" and the dog got to patrol the grounds. pretty soon afterwards the retired dog was quite at home and happy with his new "job".

[Flying Grype]

Awesome! I feel bad for the dog because of how it was trained though.

Yup. What people don't realize about letting their dogs behave badly is that it will result in harm to the dog. They think the dog will be happier 'free' and not having to obey rules, but it does not keep the dog from getting hurt.

[Flying Grype]

Oh, and @LadyAndreca -- yeah, I misspoke, I meant to say that just because a dog chases cats doesn't mean it will chase kids. Some dogs do chase kids. Especially country yokels' dogs who run loose in packs. *kills hometown*

[scruff]

I'm more a cat person, but there was a chap down our road who was an ex policeman, retired through injury, and he had a retired police dog. They were both lovely and peaceful as long as everyone left them alone (he was getting into sculpture and doggy was enjoying retirement), but they were a _wonderful_ disincentive for the local druggys. :-)

[Difdi]

After thousands of years of cohabitation, humans and dogs are pretty good at reading eachother. Nine tenths of what makes a dog decide not to bite a human is the confidence the human has that not only will the dog not bite, but if the dog does bite, he'll get his furry ass kicked.

Whether it's actually true doesn't matter. Dogs only know what they've proven, humans can imagine things and project emotions they don't actually feel. A human who is afraid of dogs is more likely to be bitten by any dog, than one who convincingly imagines they're dominant over the dog.

And for those rare dogs that refuse to take your "word" for it, there's this stuff:

http://www.thehomesecuritysuperstore...ay-80146-p=665

[Magpie]

Dogs are happy when they know their place. Unfortunately, a lot of little dogs think that their place is at the top of the heap. Same camping trip as when my mom yelled at the people who had their dog off-leash, Jackdaw and I were on a trail, and we saw the happiest beagle ever. He was trotting along on his own, and was going to come and say "hi" to us. His owner saw us, and called the dog back, and the dog trotted back beside him, and let the guy grab his collar. Still the happiest dog in the world. The first dog? I really had a hard time blaming my mom for getting scared, because he did not look friendly, because he was confused (just got out from a long car trip, in a new place).

I've never seen a well-behaved dog that seems horribly unhappy, nor have I seen one that fusses that seems to be enjoying itself as much as the ones that behave. (Bearing in mind, of course, that what I interpret as it enjoying itself is probably going to be tempered by if I think it's acting out).

[Andara Bledin]

Dogs are pack animals. They like to know where they belong in the pack, and if the owner doesn't assert their position as pack leader, then the dog things that they're pack leader and sets their own rules. This usually doesn't lead to good things, since the owner will assert themselves at least some of the time, and that confuses the poor dog.

Dogs also like having jobs. They're pretty good at being put to work.

^-.-^

[RecoveringKinkoid]

That is so true. My dog used to periodically try to renegotiate the terms of the relationship, which would require me to give him a refresher course on who was boss.

This frequently ended with him manhandled onto his back with my hand clamped firmly (but not tightly or painfully) over his throat. Worked like a charm.

He was willfull and very alpha, so I had to do this about every three months or so until he quit trying to be pack leader. Once he got the message, it was done.

I had to be very careful about what kind of signals I was sending him. Often, I could not indulge him the way I would have liked to, because to do so would have sent him a message that I was being subservient to him, which you cannot do, especially with an alpha personality dog.

[Shalom]

And though the owner of the gas station I hid in knew who owned the lead dog, and that it wasn't the first time the dogs had chased a kid, the man at that house denied owning a dog when my dad and I went to talk to him. Dad was SO angry, because he knew the guy was lying but couldn't prove it.

"Well, if it's not your dog, then I guess you won't mind when I have it put down. Good day, sir."