[hotpursuit]

im not sure if this is the correct are to post this but i wanted to tell my story.

i have had dogs all my life, 4 dobies total in imediate family + numerous other breeds.

i spent time with K9 trainers and there dogs at work.

so, one day while at work (police officer) i get a call for a large dog chassing kids onto cars. i respond, i find the dog quite a distance from me heading between homes. i stop the wagon, exit the vehicle staying right at the door. the dog is 75 yards away from me, i call him in a very playful/praise type voice to see how he responds. he responds very well, no sign of aggression and starts a pleasant trot towards me. he approaches me straight on, then just at a slow walk is turning into me like a swing heel, at this point im thinking hmm dog is trained... mid swing, no bark no indication of anything he is airbore for my head. i instantly give him my left arm, he slammed me into the wagon and begin pulling and tearing. the pain was the most incredible pressure i could ever imagine.. i let him have my arm and was going with his violent twsiting and pulling, i knew his teeth were to my bone and didnt want him taking all of my forearm flesh from me, and possibly reengaging. the dog i speak of was a 145lb akita. i am 6'3 265lbs and he was tossing me around like a rag doll. i had no choice even as a dog lover to pull my duty weapon out and shoot this dog, one of the rounds grazed my knucle taking a tendon out. if that dog would of got ahold of a child or possibly an unarmed person, it would of been fatal. i had a surgery a few days later to remove a piece of his tooth that was lodged in my forearm and the tendon stitched up... some said that i was unlucky, but i disagree im glad it was me and i was able to do something about it. the owner stated that the dog got loose and that it is a vicious dog outside her immediate family.

i didnt post this for a pity or ohh my im sorry, i want new owners to large breed dogs to know what they are getting into, and to make sure you socialize your dogs and get the proper training...no dog needs to be that way, they are smart enough to know if there threatened or not, that level of vicious is totally uncalled for, even if you are doing protection and bite work.
this is why dogs get a bad wrap, its more time than not the owner, not the dogs fault.

i look at dogs differently now but i still love em....

 

[TracyJo]

When I was 16 I had the left side of my face basically shredded by an Australian Shepherd. It was a dog I knew too. I walked into my friend Dave's house and Freckles was sleeping in his favorite chair. I kind of bent over the back of the chair to scratch his ears and say "Hi". As I stood up, he jumped up and got me in the face. I swear I didn't feel a thing and probably wouldn't have realized I had been bit if Dave and my friend Mindy hadn't gone ghost white.

I went to the bathroom and the only thing I could think of was that part in Poltergeist when the guy rips his face off. It was pretty swollen and there was a lot of blood, so the extent of the damage was difficult to tell. I ran my tongue across my cheek on the inside of my mouth and that's when the whole bottom part of my cheek from the corner of my left eye to the corner of my mouth just kind of folded over. There was also a small tear on the bottom corner of the right side of my mouth. Pretty nasty.

The hospital staff didn't stitch me up that night, they cleaned the wounds and bandaged it but had me come back for the plastic surgeon the next day. I tell you, as bad as the bite was the shots to numb me up the next day were a million times worse! I used to be very self conscious of it but not so much anymore. In fact, unless I get a really great tan (which is rare the scars are pretty hard to notice. The worst part of it all is that sometimes I get twitches where the scar is in the left corner of my mouth and I look like I have bells palsey or something...

I count myself lucky. If he had gotten me any higher I would have most certainly lost my eye, any lower and he would have ripped out my throat... I still love dogs. In fact just days after it happened with countless stiches in my face I brought home a stray dog LOL My parents were furious!

So although I agree with you 100% that people need to take responsibility of socializing their dogs, people also have to take responsibility of their own actions with dogs. I never should have postured myself that way over a sleeping dog. Looking back on it now, I was leaning over him, a very dominating position when he woke. It just makes sense that he saw me as a threat.

Isn't it strange though that some people can suffer serious bites and still adore all things with 4 legs and others are terrified of them because their aunts poodle jumped on them or something equally trivial?

 

[hotpursuit]

with no doubt Tracy Jo, no doubt, children need to be taught the do's and donts around dogs

do you know how many times i have seen people approach a work dog without even asking, and moving quickly, i believe they want a bite.

 

[TracyJo]

with no doubt Tracy Jo, no doubt, children need to be taught the do's and donts around dogs

do you know how many times i have seen people approach a work dog without even asking, and moving quickly, i believe they want a bite.

My hubby is a cop in the AF and I frequently visit him at work. It is so hard for me not to cuddle and spoil all the Mals we have on this base!!! There are a few that can be approached but I wouldn't dare if their handlers weren't present...

 

[hotpursuit]

sure, most of the dogs at work are approachable, with handler at there sides..alot consider the bite work a game, and it just carries over to there job, although they still percieve it as a game.

 

[2dobies]

Oh man, both your stories were scarey! My neice was bitten in the face by a little poodle-mix when she was 4 yrs old because she got up in the dog's face while it was sleeping. She had to have about 20 stitches around her eye and down her cheek. I am reasonably sure that my dog wouldnt bite a child (no one can be 100% sure!) but I still make sure that an approaching child is aware that she is a big dog, has big teeth and nails, and that they should respect any dog and not run up on it. We have lots of small kids in my neighborhood, and they all want to run out and pet Dar and Sasha when I take them walking, but I have taught my dogs and the kids here to 'respect' each others' space. It works.

 

[Lexus]

Geez, those stories give me the chills..... I've never experienced anything serious, but have been tagged a few times when I worked for the vet. Not a big St. Bernard fan b/c of it. Of all dogs to not like huh?

 

[Gracie's_Mom]

I have never been bitten, but my brother has...

When my brother and I were little we had to stay at a friend of my parents house for a few weeks. We were having some work done on the house and couldn't stay there for a few weeks.

This friend had 2 dogs, a big dog and a small dog. Both were great dogs for the 2 weeks. The third week, Sean (brother) went to walk the big dog, like we had done for the last 2 weeks. Sean bent down patted his leg and said heel. The dog came running over ready to go for a walk. Sean went to snap the leash on the dog and the dog jumped up and grabbed Sean's arm. The dog threw Sean to the ground and drug him few feet. The dog kept bitting Sean in the same place every time. (I was sitting on the tailgate of my dad's truck screaming this whole time.) Every time the dog would shake his head Sean would move right along with the dog. My dad came running and got the dog off of my brother. We loaded Sean up in the back of my dad's truck and took him to the hospital. That is all I remember of that day.

Since then I have had a huge fear of dogs. I was right around 5 at the time, and Sean was 7. Even to this day I will not approch dogs that are walking, if you have a dog I will not even pet the dog unless I feel safe and secure. By the way I don't know what kind of dog this was, but I can find out and let you all know.

 

[poodles&adobie]

My dad was attacked by a German Shepherd when I was little, we went to look at a piece of property and luckily he told us to stay in the car while he looked, so he was looking around the lot and the neighbors GS attacked him, the dog kept trying to go for his throut but dad kept shoving his hand down the dogs throat so he couldn't get him. Needless to say it ripped his hand up pretty good. The lady came out and called the dog off and we went to the hospital for stitches. Could have been alot worse...... I think this story has something to do with dad not wanting me to have a Dobe...Scared of mean dogs??

 

[TracyJo]

Geez, those stories give me the chills..... I've never experienced anything serious, but have been tagged a few times when I worked for the vet. Not a big St. Bernard fan b/c of it. Of all dogs to not like huh?

LOL I don't think Stephen King's "Cujo" helped the breed much either!