All over the world the cry for ending real dogtraining (pp-ring-shutz etc) is growing. Thier main argument is the danger involved in having a dog trained to bite.

With the exception of these dogs doing thier job <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> and trainingaccidents (decoy put in hospital etc) I haven't heard of 1 real accident with these kind off dogs. Does anybody know off such an accident?

Greetings

Johan

The only accidents that I have ever heard of are from untrained dogs living households with inadequate family/dog structure and/or living conditions. Just thought I'd give some input from the opposite side of the spectrum in defense of a properly trained dog. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Well,

There are always a handful of documented accidental bites on non-suspects from Police Work Dogs here in the US each year (usually due to handler error, etc). Are you counting those? Or just civilian PPD's?

Johan et al.

I don't think there is evidence of a negative correlation between sport bite training and increase in risk of bites to the public.

Before starting schutzhund training with my family dog I did research. Here is the gist of what I discovered:

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control have written that from an epidemiological perspective, the public health risk of injury from dogs is bites to the faces of children resulting in physical and emotional trauma. Most are neighbourhood or family pets.

The Delise text on fatal dog bites discloses no relation between training for dog sport involving biting and fatal dog bites.

The "attack trained" dogs that are a problem for causing fatalities are those trained in defence, without control through obedience.

A typical dangerous "attack trained" dog is a tethered junkyard dog : tethered (risk factor), on its own territory (risk factor), unsocialized or socialized to dislike people (risk factor).

The risk factors are not related to bite training. There is no inference to be drawn here to risk from sport dogs.

Once participating in a Schutzhund Club it became apparent that the "acculturation" to the sport is very good for safe dog keeping: use of kennels, a culture that "corrects" dog handling that results in loss of control, and a realistic learning of the true nature of dogs in particular around children, and a teaching of a dog to pay attention to its handler and not be dog aggressive...

I think the Club aspect of dog sport is very helpful for mitigating the risk of some dog/handler combinations. Also, I have seen combinations that on the field were challenging (timid inexperienced handler with high level GSD bitch), that off the field were surprisingly benign.

I think that confining protection training to specific milieu is a major risk reducer for sport bite training, as most sport dogs associate biting with very specific conditions/locations.


rgds, andrew may

This boils down to the same stupid sheeeet <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> as with handguns. It is the owners who are the problem; it is made worse by the tree hugging mambie pambies who try and treat every animal ,not just a dog, as a pet( anthropormorphism ) . I need as much money as Ophra so I can buy my own island


I was bitten 7 different times when I was your friendly " cable guy " and not once was I bitten by a trained protection or sport dog. Chows were the worst breed then followed by all kinds of those little yap dog breeds

anectdotal evidence: there's a family in my little town that goes thru a dog every 2 yrs. it's a large family (6 or 8 kids), ages from 23-4 yrs right now. they always get a pit or a rott (or cross of these 2 in some way shape or form), they mostly chain it out in the yard where the poor thing is teased unmercifully by the kids, the parents either don't or won't stop the kids, the dog bites not only their kids, but neighbor kids, the dog gets shot.

they currently have a young pitX, who i think has a life expectancy of (maybe) 12 more months. they resent anyone (ie, me) giving suggestions about how to change this cycle. but i think i tend not to be so diplomatic when it comes down to it (but i DO TRY <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />.

unfortunately, i believe that they, or a neighbor, is going to end up with a severely injured, if not dead, child, before they give up on dogs. it's the OWNERS, not the dogs.