Good Dog/Bad Dog
A couple of days ago, a Louisiana Catahoula Leopard dog attacked a 10-year-old girl playing in its backyard. From what I can gather, the girl didn't live at the house. There wasn't more than a mention of it on the news and I don't know all the details, but the girl will survive the attack (the dog bit her on her neck and face). The Catahoula hound who bit her, however, and its companion Catahoula (who did not attack) were both euthanized by Animal Services. The owner of the house was taken to the hospital with some ailment caused by the attack (her own panic attack, perhaps).
What really bothers me about this situation (and many other tragedies like this) is that this girl (I don't know if there were other children with her) was allowed to be in close proximity with these dogs totally unsupervised. I don't know whether the owner of this house even knew that this girl was in her backyard. But if you have dogs in your backyard and there are children in the neighborhood, there should be locks on the gate. Every animal has a touch of the wild within; this makes all pets unpredictable. Little girls can let out very high-pitched squeals that set my teeth on edge; I can only imagine what that does to the sensitive hearing of dogs. When my visiting niece was about 9 and her brother about 7, they were roughhousing in the living room. My nephew was on top of his sister, bugging her like little brothers do and she was squalling like a rabbit caught in a trap. My Shepherd-Chow (then about 2 years old) suddenly started growling, showing his teeth, his fur rising in a ridge along his back. I told my nephew twice to stop what he was doing. He ignored me, so I quickly led Kodiak outside. A few minutes later, my nephew comes out into the backyard and wants to know why I brought Kodiak outside. Because, dear nephew, he was going to attack you. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what would have happened if I hadn't been there. I never left Kodiak alone with my niece and nephew until they were in their early teens.
You can say that Kodiak's aggression was caused by his mixture of dog breeds, but I say you can never know what any dog will do under certain circumstances. Those Catahoula hounds were wagging their tails shortly after the attack. As a spokesperson for Animal Services said, the dogs were merely protecting their territory and, once the threat was vanquished, they were back to being pets once again. In a way I can understand the reasoning behind the subsequent killing of these dogs for attacking the child, and I realize that this was a tragic accident, but I hate it when I see dogs euthanized for doing what dogs do -- protect.
What really bothers me about this situation (and many other tragedies like this) is that this girl (I don't know if there were other children with her) was allowed to be in close proximity with these dogs totally unsupervised. I don't know whether the owner of this house even knew that this girl was in her backyard. But if you have dogs in your backyard and there are children in the neighborhood, there should be locks on the gate. Every animal has a touch of the wild within; this makes all pets unpredictable. Little girls can let out very high-pitched squeals that set my teeth on edge; I can only imagine what that does to the sensitive hearing of dogs. When my visiting niece was about 9 and her brother about 7, they were roughhousing in the living room. My nephew was on top of his sister, bugging her like little brothers do and she was squalling like a rabbit caught in a trap. My Shepherd-Chow (then about 2 years old) suddenly started growling, showing his teeth, his fur rising in a ridge along his back. I told my nephew twice to stop what he was doing. He ignored me, so I quickly led Kodiak outside. A few minutes later, my nephew comes out into the backyard and wants to know why I brought Kodiak outside. Because, dear nephew, he was going to attack you. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what would have happened if I hadn't been there. I never left Kodiak alone with my niece and nephew until they were in their early teens.
You can say that Kodiak's aggression was caused by his mixture of dog breeds, but I say you can never know what any dog will do under certain circumstances. Those Catahoula hounds were wagging their tails shortly after the attack. As a spokesperson for Animal Services said, the dogs were merely protecting their territory and, once the threat was vanquished, they were back to being pets once again. In a way I can understand the reasoning behind the subsequent killing of these dogs for attacking the child, and I realize that this was a tragic accident, but I hate it when I see dogs euthanized for doing what dogs do -- protect.
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