My son has a Pit Bull female that killed our 17 year old house dog. What can we do to stop this from happening again?

Question

Hi,

    My son has a staffy cross, not sure what the cross is, but she is mainly staffy to look at. He had two dogs, the dog that was attached by the staffy was a border collie named Jess, she was 17 years old. Molly, the staffy, is 5 years old. They were alone in the house together, when Molly attacked and so severely injured Jess that she had to be put down. Molly must have thrown and shook her around. The injuries that Jess received were horrific, to her throat, her lung was punctured and the rib that would have covered her lung was missing. The vet also suspected her pelvis was fractured, and it was at this point that it was requested of the vet that he put Jess to sleep. She did not deserve to die this way nor for that matter, any dog/child etc.

    Jess had always been a quiet, gentle dog, never showed any aggression to anyone.

    My son asked me to try and find some information on the internet relating to the above attack, and if you can to please give an opinion at to whether, his son, who will be turning two in June is in any danger from Molly. I know that perhaps you can`t give me a direct answer at to whether Molly should be put down or not, but perhaps with letters that you have received there may have been similar experiences. Could Molly attack again now that she has been "blooded" so to speak? It`s just very hard to know what to do, putting Molly to sleep won`t bring Jess back to life, but by the same token if Molly should attack again, how does one forgive one`s self for giving her a second chance?

    And that is why I`m emailing you, as my son , and myself included, just don`t know what is the best way to deal with this situation. I hope to hear from you soon.

    Regards,
    Shirley

Accepted Answer

I feel badly for you and this poor dog. Can you imagine what the last minutes of life were like for this very old dog? To end 17 years of life in this way is a terrible thought.

I will guarantee you that it is not a matter of “IF” this dog will fight– it’s only a matter of time and "WHEN" it will happen again.

Dogs like this need to be totally isolated from other dogs. They can never come into contact with animals. This needs to be accomplished by keeping them in secure dog kennels, secure dog crates and through the use of very solid dog training that results in the dog being 100% under control even in the face of the most sever distraction (i.e another dog that is challenging it).

Read the article I have written titled DEALING WITH THE DOMINANT DOG. You can find this article in the list of training articles on my web site. I believe you will find the answers you need in that article or in the Q&A section of my web site. There are simple solutions to these problems. The Question on Dog Fights is if you are willing to do the work necessary to make the changes that will fix the problems.

A dog like this needs to be trained with an electric collar. I use a DOGTRA 1700NCP.

If you would like to learn more about the principles of obedience training a dog, read the description for my Basic Dog Obedience video. You will probably find that you have not had a clear understanding of the steps of training a dog must go through before it can be considered fully trained. You can also read why I am not a fan of taking an untrained dog to obedience classes. I think if you read the testimonials on that tape you will see that my customers feel the same way.