Dog Kills Person: Is Breed Specific Legislation the Answer?
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A women in Nova Scotia Canada was tragically killed by one of her own dogs, they were both Pitt Bulls. A government representative suggests Breed Specific Legislation. Find out what Dr Jones’ thinks, what happened, and who the real problem is.
Breed specific is not the answer. Back in 1990 here in my city we formed a group called The Responsible Animal Owners Of Tennessee to fight breed specific because in our city not only were they wanting to ban Pit bulls but all large breed of dogs and even if a dog appeared to have in its appearance a square head, I have worked in veterinarian medicine for 22 years and showed dogs in conformation and a dog breeder and a Trainer, I’ve got over 35 years experience working with aggression and dangerous dogs and I spent many years working with these dogs to understand dogs and why they become aggressive and even to the point of harming or the reason that drives a dog to the point of killing a human and I’m in the process of writing a book about it and my hands on experience in the field of aggression but before I go into a short explanation explaining it I won’t to say that these laws on banning a breed should not be allowed to happen because once you start allowing the government to step in and start telling you what you can or can’t do is again your constituents rights and theses bills are usually written in ways that can be misleading and they can always go back and add things to this bill and you want and can’t do anything about it because it’s a bill that has already passed we had a Constitutional lawyer to handle our case which we won in court by that it is against the constitution to tell a person that they can’t own property and our dogs are considered property. The breed Pit bull has been made out to be something that it is not because any dog has the potential to be aggressive and any dog can attack and the reason for this is people have no knowledge or don’t even educate themselves about the animals that they decide or make a decision to own as a pet because owning any animal comes with a lot of responsibility the care and time it requires and to be the responsible owner because you are responsible for others to keep them safe from being harm, the safety of that animal to keep him from being put in situations that would keep him from harming people and your responsible for what you allow the animal to do in which the animal could be killed or seriously injured because no matter what the outcome of a situation the animal has to pay the consequences of you not being a responsible owner animals is a lifetime commitment and like I’ve always told my children that to think about what decision you make in life because you have to answer for those decision and be responsible for your decision you make so you don’t throw your dog away like garbage because you don’t want him anymore, if you can’t be responsible for the pets you decide to get how are you going to be a responsible parent to your children and care and educate yourself and committee to all that child needs if you can’t commit to any other creature and be responsible for your decision you make life isn’t easy and nothing in life is for free but you have to be responsible for your choices you make. People don’t understand dogs and to understand them you have to understand we’re they come from and what they are I study everything about canids and most are very social animals that live in a tight family group and strong bonds with each other and the thing that change some of the behavior of our dogs from there wild cousins came about with domestication, it made a predator to have no fear and flight is not even a decision they make because they just run right on in to confrontation and a animal that is in confrontations will not make it long in the wild and fight only knowing that they are going to win the situation because Mother Nature see that only the good and strong genes are past on for survival of its species and smart enough to be able to stay alive to past on their genes. Aggression is a survival mechanism all living things on this earth has it and with out it you wouldn’t be able to survive but it is part of the dogs communication and is used in many ways to enforce ones status, in pain to enforce what he wants and to keep it, to protect what is his and what belongs to him his pack and territory, to keep order and peace among members of the pack and who breeds in the pack. The wolf is the only canid that expresses aggression more so they any other wild canids but they all express aggression in some way or form to keep order and to enforce that the Alpha’s are the only ones that breed. Alpha doesn’t mean leadership, aggression, dominance, boss . Alpha means Mother and Father and in the pack are the offspring of them that they produce once a year or may skip if food has become scarce and not available. When I started working with aggressive dogs I started to notice that Appling training and corrections heightened the aggression in the dog and was not going to back down so I came to the conclusion that what this animal is seeing and his respond is meaning something different in his eyes from the eyes of a human and no animal is going to attack or become aggressive for no reason and that is if he is challenged or threatened and how a dog proceeds a situation as a threat or challenge is not always seen the same way in the eyes of a human some of these dogs that challenge their owner are dogs that usually have strong prey or protection and dominant and are very confident to the point of expressing no body language at all and are calm and appear OB will not vocalize but confident is written all over him and this dog knows he is going to win this type of dog can be considered a dangerous dog, he will not back away or move to avoid a blow but will become highly aggressive if you are challenging him these dogs know no fear, nervous of steal and other dogs will avoid or not even enter a room even with him crated in a cate and no eye contact. Most people don’t even know that sound is seen as threat or challenge that is why the dogs aggression is heightened to out of control by the fight which is movement and the screaming from the person which causes the attack and at this point the dog is out of control and will even attack the owner in attempting to get his own dog off any sound going on in the background will heighten the aggression on the person he is already challenging even in my 30 years of experience when a dog that could be dangerous to see that animal means business will make me want to crap my pants but I know at that point I’ve got to turn fear off anger, slow my breathing down to lower my heart rate because he can here your heart your breathing and sense of smell and fear or anger puts him in charge of the situation, when you actually lower your heart rate and breathing and become calm you will actually see the aggression lower and you have to be very in tune with your body language because the smallest movement in the wrong way could be bad news for you, I stand very still calm no fear or anger and stand my ground at that point will release his bite on you because he then see you as his self confident and respect you. Theses dogs at the age of 6to 8 weeks of age are dominant and will start to show protection of property and all the socializing will do nothing he will be aggressive at this age and never let anyone approach or touch him they will offen display behavior as standing like a statue with calm some submissive signaling but his eyes tells all aggression pupils dilated with a green or red in light this is a young aggressive puppy who does not know how to handle the situation the aggression of challenge owner will start at the age of 3 year which is beginning of maturity and becomes more serious at full maturity 5to6 years of age.