When dogs attack...

My wife was out walking today and was attacked by a dog, ended up getting bitten on the hip – luckily the skin wasn’t broken, but some fairly nasty bruising is starting to come up. She was just walking along when all of a sudden the dog came sprinting out of the gate and leap at her and she was unable to make it stop until a man on the street chased the dog away. She was obviously really distressed and frightened, and when the owner came out to see if all was ok he offered for her to come in for a cup of tea – she naturally declined (yeah right go into the damn dog’s house!).

As it turns out another lady was attacked by the same dog last week, fortunately for her it did not bite her. The local council had been to see the owner and had instructed him to keep the dog locked up – clearly he didn’t listen. So the council man came around and we had to fill in a report, have photos taken of the injury, and the really funny thing was she had to look at dog mug shots to confirm it was the same dog. So anyway the council will be returning to see the owner and “encourage” him to keep his dog locked up.

I like dogs, but I can not understand their owners sometimes; why would you not lock up the dog after the first attack? So what should happen now; should he be fined, should the dog be taken away from the owner or should it be put down? I don’t know what the right answer is, but something clearly needs to be done.

Interesting to read that the Kelpie has a tendency for this type of behaviour, yet they are kept in city homes versus on the farm where they are intended.

With reference to aggressive behaviour, some breeds of dogs are recognised for being more reactive than others, that is they show higher motivation and a greater tendency to become aroused. From the above discussion of aggression in dogs in general, it shouldn't come as any surprise that breeds tending to display these qualities include working breeds which include guard-types such as German Shepherd, Rottweiler and Dobermann, hunting types such as terriers and herding types such as Kelpie, Cattle Dog, Corgi and Collie.

So in the meantime I would suggest bypassing upper Burnham Road, Bardon (Queensland, Australia for those out of towners).