Teen Rescues 6-Year-Old From Dog Attack in Harrowing Video: 'I Ran Over There Without Thinking'
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The full name of that breed is Yorkshire terrier, implying that the breed was developed to kill rats and other rodents. Rats are nasty and aggressive and a working terrier had to be able to hold its own and match that aggression level. I’ve often felt that as that breed has gone from working dog to house pet, too much emphasis has been in the dog’s physical appearance and not nearly enough focus has been on breeding for temperament better suiting a pet serving as a house pet/lap animal
So you often get this hyper aggressive dog that gets a pass because it’s too small to do significant harm to humans when it does attack
Oh yea, I'm quite familiar with what breeds like Yorkies Dachsaunds and such were originally bred for. I'm also quite aware of what a big rat is capable of. Like a Norway or some such. Our pack rats we have here are pretty harmless.
I've run across people here who get a big muscley Pit or Rott for the express purpose of it being a "badass" dog. These types annoy me no end. They seem to just go looking for trouble to prove to themselves their dog is a canine action hero. I think they are living vicariously through the animal. One guy told me once his Rott was so "bad" he wasn't worried about coyotes at all, even living out in the weeds as he was. I rolled my eyes and shook my head.
He thought that this dog was easily a match for ten yotes. Four was all it took for that dog to be a meal. At least it looked to be around four from the sign. Of course the guy swore there had to have been at least 20 to take HIS dog out. Alrighty then. That Rott was ornery and big but not that ornery and big. People like that just frost me.
Teaching a big powerful dog like that to be mean is just brain dead. Great Pyrenease are popular with sheep ranchers herebouts for herd protection. A couple of them are a match for the yotes. Their heavy fur and hugeness balance things out. And I've never seen a mean one yet. Their dispositions are wonderful. Even with small kids. But they are all business when it's time to go to work.
Yes. that pit bull in the video looks like it was trying to play with that child... but the dog is to big and strong for it to safely play with a small human of that size.
Years ago, a pit bull owner in the dog section of C-D made a post saying that whenever her pit bulls played together, some blood was always drawn. I took it to mean that inadvertently, the dogs were so strong, that they broke skin by accident. So who in the world wants to own a dog that strong?
Meanwhile, I've known GSDs who were big and very serious dogs. One used to bark and growl at our dogs in play, as if to tell them that they should be working, not playing. So I would not worry about a well trained GSD around children, because if they were in working mode, they would not be engaging in playtime with young children.
Otherwise, this news story was very disturbing and tragic...
Irresponsible dog owners, can't stand em. Just got to catch them off leash, take them to a shelter 2 towns away, and the irresponsible owners never get the chance to be irresponsible again. I'm not going to endanger my children because some bozo thinks it's cool to let his dog roam.
Interesting, when I watched the video and audio from kvue again, I got a different perspective.
I don't think the child suffered any bite marks at all, despite the pit bull appearing to attack him for quite awhile. He had a flesh injury to the back of his head, where he landed on the concrete after the dog jumped on him.
Then, when the man came running up, the dog abandoned the boy quickly and chased the man. The only bite mark the man has was from when he was pushing the dog off him and accidentally put his hands in the dog's mouth, as per the man's statement.
I probably will be attacked for saying this, but this is MUCH more in keeping with Pit Bull behavior. He was just playing way, way too hard and aggressively, and with dominance behaviors.
He wasn't intending to kill the boy, or the man. He was playing like a great big aggressive clumsy oaf.
(I say this, because I have a lot of experience walking pit bulls just like this at the Shelter. They try to play WAY too aggressively, and if you don't take the alpha position, yes, they'll knock you over and pin you down and you're likely to get hurt and need help.)
At this point, the dog won't be returned to the owner or neighborhood, which is a good thing.
But unlike this situation, when a Pit Bull decides to attack, you have to have a weapon with you to get them to release their prey, and even then, it's not likely. Another person running up on the scene 15 feet away, won't cause the dog to relent, unless his intent is just aggressive play as this case appears to be. This is a dog who is behaving as if he's establishing a hierarchy with peers, and he's way over the top.
Thanks. I didn't know that. I have a female GS and she can play very rough. But not with me.
I have always had dogs who play rough... with other rough dogs. Mentally healthy dogs learn very quickly how much pressure and wild play their companion can tolerate. They adjust down for smaller dogs and really adjust down for humans.
Normal mentally stable dogs treat human babies the same as they treat puppies. It is hard wired into their brains to pull their punches and not be any rougher than the puppy can tolerate safely.
Dog play often looks and sounds rougher than it is. It can involve a lot of sound and fury but all biting is controlled so that skin is not broken.
I'd be very alarmed by a dog that thought it was OK to treat a human baby like he was a soccer ball. There is something wrong with that dog's wiring.
Chasing the teen did not look like play to me. I admire the teen's courage to put himself into danger to protect the child.
Meh. It's truly not the dogs it's the owners. I guarantee you I could turn a toy poodle nasty and mean. I'm not a pit bull fan but that's just because I don't like bull breeds in general. I'm a stock dog guy. If an animal has been raised to be vicious it will be.
I had a Siberian Husky mix dog once. My homeowners insurance dropped me because she was considered a "vicious" breed. She was the sweetest and most harmless dog I ever had. She would not bite in defense of her own life. She was a big fluffy snowball and a total family pet. The only thing dangerous about her was her friendly enthusiasm.
A dog who has not been properly socialized and taught to be mean is going to be dangerous regardless of breed. The only dog bite I ever suffered that drew blood was a frigging Yorky. This dog was a nasty rodent. People who keep and teach vicious animals are the issue. Not the animal itself.
That being said I did have a dog go bad on me once. He was never taught to be vicious but he did turn that way. And I ended him. I sure wasn't going to keep an animal like that around. But some people think it's "cool" to keep a vicious dog. It's not. Such animals are nothing but a liability and a danger to the neighborhood. Some animals do just go bad but in the greatest number of cases they were made that way. By stupid people.
There are propensities for the different breeds. That's why they're differentiated by breed. Just as breeds look different from each other, so their personalities are different, too. Then there is the musculature, power, and size of a dog that makes a propensity toward unpredictability or aggressiveness more dangerous than a small dog.
There is a reason that some insurance companies won't insure for dog liability when the dog is a pit bull. There are reasons that only certain dogs are used in fighting rings. They are, for one thing, highly prey driven. This accounts for the numerous times that pits have attacked children in their families, despite being raised lovingly as a family pet. Stand behind a pit bull or some other prey-driven breeds, and squeak a squeaky toy, and see what happens. Terriers were bred for and used for going after small prey. Children, with their fast movements and high pitched voices can be considered prey for some dogs.
When a large dog with a strong jaw, muscular, and a never-give-up trait attacks, he is capable of doing a lot of damage. When a chihuahua goes berserk, the likelihood of severe damage goes down to near zero (I've brushed aside with my foot a loose aggressive chihuahua when on walks before.)
Pits can apparently make good pets for the right kind of people, but I see them loose on the streets, no collars, owned by guys who don't know anything about training dogs to be happy and well adjusted pets, and don't handle them properly. I see pits on leashes sometimes (usu. they're not leashed), with those extend-a-leashes, which gives the owner virtually no control over a muscular dog. It's all about constant control of a dog that can do a lot of damage. Even then, dogs can get away from you. I don't understand why anyone would get a dog that could cause that kind of damage or is prey-driven or has other dangerous traits, for a pet.
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Alrighty then. That Rott was ornery and big but not that ornery and big. People like that just frost me. 
Bravo.
