Questions concerning unprovoked dog attacks that YOU have personally witnessed----?

Question

In this thread--

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AguPOd3q19cszQdYYaIPFPjty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20101118085923AAoZz67

We had posts from people who either had been attacked by a APBT or seen an attack commited by an APBT on people. (a lot was on other dogs too though)

Anyway, I was just curious what other dogs people have seen to attack people with out provocation.... be it a Chihuahua, a German Shepherd Dog, a Shetland Sheepdog, Shih Tzu or a Rottweiler.

Just interested to see what people would have to say. I personally have never witnessed a bad attack from a dog on a human in any animal other than a very unsound shih tzu I had (he had a screw loose somewhere in his brain, very sad story).

Answer 1

You really can't tie this to any breed. Breeding, yes, but not a breed. "Bully Breeds" are actually less likely to have any form of human aggression when properly bred. This is a result of them being handled by strangers when in the fighting ring. Dogs that would turn on the handlers weren't bred. The problem is that we've messed up the breeding, crossed them with breeds that have low bite inhabition and created problem children. IN ALL BREEDS. In my life and as a dog trainer, I've been bitten 5 times but only attached once. I was attacked by a St. Bernard of all things. I had a big chunk of my face sewn back on as the result of a shar pei mix and the rest have all been labs. Not the labs of my youth who were 90 lbs, slow and a little lazy but today's labs which are 75 lbs, pointer muzzle sometimes with those telltale white blazes (some cattle dog snuck into the mix maybe?) We as humans want everything and want it cheap so we end up supporting back-yard-breeders which do not give a damned about temperament when creating dogs for profit.

Answer 2

I most certainly see the logic of what you say. I also see the logic of people who say they do not care why the dog attacked them or their dog. We can analyze this until hell freezes over, but the crux of the matter is any sort of unprovoked offensive (not defensive) aggression, territorial or protective behavior in public is not acceptable. Of course the law says dogs can't run loose, but we all know they do and that is bad owners & not necessarily bad dogs. The problem is when both the owner & the dog are bad. In my eyes, if the dog is loose in the street and it thinks my dog & I are invading his territory, well, that dog has a serious issue as it has a screw loose when my dog and I are not doing anything. If the same dog nails you when you climb into the owner's back yard or you try to attack the owner, well that is another situation entirely and I do not fault the dog. I agree to some extent it is not necessarily an "unstable dog w/ a bad temperament", but it is a dog whose concept of territory is inappropriate, just like if I call the police to arrest you for trespassing in my yard when you are on my neighbor's yard. Dogs, particularly in urban & suburban settings, need to be able to clearly define what is their territory & that the whole world does not belong to them & the vast majority of them are able to do this and correctly perceive what a threat is and isn't. That ability is highly key when training protection dogs. The dogs that can't do this are dangerous, very dangerous! Many of them can be helped w/ appropriate training as all they are doing is inappropriate resource guarding, but the people that have not bothered to train their dogs or keep them on their property are not likely to lift a finger as it is easier to blame the dog/person that got attacked. I have always said training dogs is easy & training people is hard, but there are few who are going to want to take in dogs with a "history" & try to rehab them and the people that own them now are not going to do it. I suspect many of these dogs wouldn't have a problem if they had been properly trained in the first place. A fence does not really cure the problem either, it just keeps the dog from showing you how bad the problem is.... until it gets out one day.

Answer 3

I haven't witnessed any unprovoked attacks however I have witnessed provoked attacks.For example one summers evening about 2 years ago I was sitting on a park bench and noticed a small child poking a stray dogs eye with a stick.The dog gave several warning growls and a passer by told the child to stop but this kid still continued to poke the dog.As you can imagine after a while the dog got tired of being poked and hit with a stick so it lunged forward at the kid which of course made the child run away crying.

Answer 4

This is a difficult question to answer. Yes, I've been bitten by just about everything at one time or another...and seen other people attacked as well. But...one person's idea of "UNprovoked", may not be the same as another. A dog that attacks because it is afraid, is ALWAYS unprovoked in an "active" way....yet the DOG felt threatened. I consider 99% of bites unprovoked, and blame it on "lack of understanding" from the dog..... "breakdown in communication"...F'd Up dog...etc.

Answer 5

I have never witness an unprovoked dog attack on human.



I have been bitten by my own dog but he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour, so while his behaviour which had become increasingly erratic understandable, he was euthanized immediately post diagnosis because he would have posed a real threat to my safety & anyone who had come to my home.



Dog bite incidents resulting in death or serious bodily harm per head of population are rare occurrence, even if the media would have it otherwise.

Answer 6

I have seen several UNWARRANTED attacks, dog did not like the way a person was standing, not liking a correction, not wanting to perform a jump and biting the handler instead, many of those, and they all belonged to either dogs that should have been dead long a go, or, they had the wrong, inexperienced macho handler that could not handle a dog of that caliber. Hope I helped.

Answer 7

I was bitten by a GSD without any provocation when I was a teenager. I walked up to someones front door, and knocked on the door. I saw the dog lying beside the door, but he made no move toward me, so I just spoke to him and then ignored him.



I waited several seconds for someone to come to the door, and the dog did not move. Then he suddenly leaped toward me and grabbed my leg. To this day I have no idea why....I was just standing there quietly. He mostly got jean leg....no serious injury, but it made quite an impression on me because dogs do not usually bite me. :o)



When I was 16-17 I saw someone severely mauled by a St. Bernard. I was working at a stable up in the mountains, and someone who worked for another stable came by. He had a St. Bernard he found a few days before, and he was sitting on the ground beside the dog when the dog turned on him, grabbed his face, and shook him. Then the dog released him, and did the same thing again. Needless to say, the kids face was destroyed. :o(



Again, I dont know why the dog did what he did....they were just sitting there. I dont know what ever happened to the dog, because I was focused on getting medical care for the boy. I would imagine he was destroyed.



Those two stayed with me, because there was no apparent (to me) reason for the attacks.



Ive been bitten many times by chis and pom mixes, but they had an obvious reason for their bad behavior.

Answer 8

I have seen a beagle that for some reason has decided that he dislikes certain men.



He does not actually "attack" but he does stand at th feet of these certain people and howl (apparently viciously) at them.

The owners have yet to notice a pattern, or similarities between these men that he dislikes. But they could be standing there totally innocent and the dog would just go after him.

And other men, he absolutely loves and will charge right up to them for petting :-/





That's as far as unwarranted "attacks" on humans I 've seen

Answer 9

Unprovoked..



A large breed dog. Might have been a purebreed, I have my guesses, but it could have been a mutt. I wasn't paying that much attention, more concerned over the teenager it had in its mouth to be honest.



My brother and I were both mauled by a medium sized mutt. We have matched scars on our faces.



I've been bite by pure breeds, but it was never unprovoked. Redirected bit from a GSD that was fighting with my dog. I stepped on my sheltie and she nipped my face (I was falling down, I honestly think she was going to give a warning snap and didn't mean to make contact).

Answer 10

When I was 5 years old my parents mixed breed dogs were on our porch and I walked up to the door and one of them Bit me. All I did was walk up to the door. I do not believe in unprovoked dog attacks. I was just very young and did not recognize the dogs' body language at that age.

Answer 11

Well, i haven't. But my friend has.. I was there to witness it. We were at one of those farms where you can feed the goats :-) and a German Shepperd was there and it ran attacked her and nearly bit her whole face off. She was in the hospital for days. :-/ I have a German Shepperd that is actually a big baby. She's really sweet and wouldn't hurt a fly.

Answer 12

PBT illegal in uk, but lots of people have staffordshire bull terriers as 'status' or 'weapon' dogs. My very gentle lurcher was badly bitten by a staffie that came from nowhere and attacked her,I was also bitten fending it off, then when the owner finally appeared (a not very sweet old lady) she accused me of starting the fight.



Thats my experience

Answer 13

I was bit by a illegally kept American bull dog when i was 12. I think it was excited but it wasn't looked after properly. I think any attacks are caused by the owner rather than the dog.

Answer 14

I have only been nipped by my friend's Yorkshire Terrier. My dog was playing with her and she started barking and biting him (unprovoked, a few minutes earlier they had been peacefully playing together). So I bent down to take my dog away to stop the Yorkshire Terrier barking at him and she thought I was going to hurt her (she is quite scared of people bending down to touch her). She nipped me while I was picking up my dog, but it didn't hurt. It wasn't even a bite.

Answer 15

notyou is wrong, its the complete opposite of what they said. there have been studies on it as well as with other breeds. as an animal behaviorist i know that no animal ever attacks anything without a reason. its just that most people don't know what that reason is and therefore assume that it was for no reason at all and was totally unprovoked. look at these websites i found about pit bull myths and facts

http://www.thedogpark.com/articles/dog-breeds/pit-bull-breeds/pit-bull-myths-and-facts.php

http://animal.discovery.com/tv/animal-witness/michael-vick/pit-bull-myths-quiz/

http://hubpages.com/hub/Truth-About-Pit-Bulls



on dogs 101 they said that pound for pound the bull terrier has the most muscle than any other dog

Answer 16

There are more attacks and fatalities caused by pit bulls than any other breed of dog.