Well done Mr Alhadi.....but what kind of parents still have a pitbull dog as a pet?

[mrsruffallo]

Thank God for this man walking past...but really shouldn't all parents be thinking hard about having these kind of dogs in the home?

clearly. they should obviously add "dog ownership" to the list of criteria on which to exclude perspective adopters.

when it's not out of the house. blind people can navigate their own homes without guide dogs you know. But clearly you don't know.

guide dogs work out of the home. when at home they are just dogs. when the guide dog gets home lead and harnass is removed and guide dog is just a dog dog.

"You obviously mix in very different circles from me."

Not just ignorant but a patronising snob too.

I certainly do mix in very different circles to you. I mix with rescue owners, rescuers, vets, vet nurses and other responsible, decent human beings. Not with twats who dump their dogs when they have kids. I have higher standards than that.

I do however work alongside and with scores... literally scores... of rescues across the country and find rescue places for unwanted dogs like the one above ("nice" middle class family, I'm told) and abandoned dogs.

But mix with them? No more than I'd mix with you or your companions. I have very high standards.

And if the people you know didn't "resort to" rescue then they didn't rehome responsibly because there was no rescue back-up... nowhere for the dog to go should the rehoming work out.

Another example of your breathtaking ignorance.

** Correction - that should read, "But mix with those who rehome their dogs for no good reason?"

Have to say Butterfly that you have certainly changed my mental image of Pit Bulls, and my dh's too, with your youtube link.

Our Staffy is erm, not exactly the bold, boisterous type - she is scared wary of the ironing board, bin bags, but does love to lick the postmans legs. And silky knickers

She would definitely lick a burglar to death. I am quite certain though if anyone attacked me or dd, it would be a different matter. Then I think we would hear her growl for the second time in her life...

Guide dogs, if I'm not mistaken, are often given to families to train and may be homed to families at the end of their working career, is that not correct, WannaBe?

(nemofish*, pst.... do you wanna bit of Staffie porn?

These two are not rescue dogs but staying there for just a month as their owner is abroad and their pre-arranged carer ran into difficulties with his landlord. Aren't they gorgeous, especially the blue boy?

"Of course most dogs never go on to attack anyone but when an attack happens it is absolutely devastating for all involved. The child is maimed (or worse) and the dog ends up being put down. With the best will in the world, it isn't possible to predict which dogs will turn on children - otherwise these attacks simply wouldn't happen."

Of course most people never go on to attack anyone but when an attack happens it is absolutely devastating for all involved. The child is maimed (or worse) and the adult ends up being imprisoned. With the best will in the world, it isn't possible to predict which adults will turn on children - otherwise these attacks simply wouldn't happen.

Fixed it for you.

Seriously, life is not 100% safe for anyone, adults or children (and most of all dogs, sadly). Dogs are part of society and part of families and do not deserve to be kicked out of their homes on a whim. Sometimes dogs hurt people, true. But not at anything remotely close to the rate at which people hurt both dogs and other people.

Of course no one wants their child to be bitten or their dog in danger of being punished with death, and it's terrible when these things happen. But I struggle to think of a single case where a child has been seriously hurt like this and there wasn't some very bad irresponsible parenting and dog ownership behind it. Those are the things to tackle and raise awareness about, not demonising breeds of dog or spreading panic about how all 'sensible' parents throw their dog out like rubbish when their PFB comes along.

And why not try having some opinions of your own, instead of just 'well, my husband says...'.

that's right. They are often puppy walked by people with children, while they are in training they live with voluntary boarders who often have children, and of course often the owners have children.

I personally keep my guide dogs when they retire, my ds would be absolutely devastated if he had to part with them.

guide dogs are as much a part of the family as any other pet dog, it's just that obviously they are working dogs in the sense that they're working when out, and socially they're expected to be well-behaved (although tbh I don't think that would go amiss with some pet dogs too).

'as you would know if you owned one' Wannabe are you pretending to need a blind dog again...just to argue with MummyGil. Shame on you...

and contrary to the belief of some they don't help with the housework or the cooking! (and yes I have been asked that).

oh yes baby, I faked my blindness just so I could take my dog to work and then subsequently into the playground. How all those consultants have been fooled is just remarkable really, I'm just so good.

That's simply inverted snobbery and possibly a deliberate misinterpretation of "different circles". You obviously have a great deal of personal experience of people dumping their dogs. I don't know any people like that. The people I know rehomed their dogs with consideration. None of the rehomings failed to work out. In any event a rehoming to a family member which didn't work out would place the dog in exactly the same position it had been in before so why should it go to a rescue centre first? Can't wait to tell my cousin how irresponsible she was when she gave her dog to her sister without recourse to a rescue centre. Too funny!

Real life calls so good luck to all of you. I sincerely hope none of your children have to pay the price so many others have.

"fuckwit" "moron" "snob"
nice

Of course there are good stories about pit bulls, they were nanny dogs too.

Well looked after Staffies may be friendly but their muscled jaws just give me the shudders. Just because you can never 100% know that they won't go for you. And if they did it would be BAD and you'd have no chance of avoiding serious injury.

Sorry, but for me that's enough of a good reason not to have them as pets. Same goes for Rottweilers, and any other big muscular dogs for that matter.

My own terrier got knocked literally flying by a playful Staffie puppy in the park, it didn't mean any aggression at all but it was still bloody scary seeing it hurtling towards us.

Yes agreed, I'm not keen on them either tbh. They are big strong dogs who you wouldn't want to get into an argument with.

"The people I know rehomed their dogs with consideration." Not if they rehomed them purely because they were going to have a baby they didn't. Consideration would have been to not get a dog in the first place if they felt it should be rehomed on the arrival of children.

This is why rescue centres are so overflowing, because idiots like the ones you clearly associate with don't think before getting a dog in the first place. A dog is for life and all that, not just till something better comes along.

And that is precisely my philosophy with my guide dogs - I don't want ds to grow up thinking you keep a dog until it's useful purpose runs out then get rid of it and get a new one. Obviously I appreciate that some guide dog owners can't keep their retired dogs for whatever reason (if they work full time for instance or if there is already more than one guide dog in the home, if both partners have one, for instance) but I think that people are too quick to view animals as disposable.

How often do we see threads on here from people saying "Oh, I don't think this puppy is working out," and then the hoards of people coming on supporting the op's wish to rehome it.

If people just thought about what they were doing before they did it then perhaps there would be less rescues out there.

thing is it's about preference isn't it.

I wouldn't have a staffy because I don't particularly like them. I wouldn't have a rottweiller because they are big powerful dogs and I would worry that I couldn't control it should the need arise.

But there's a difference between me saying that I wouldn't want one of these dogs and saying that no-one should have one.

Lots of people don't like labradors because of their destructive nature. Yet I don't imagine people would agree if someone said "having labradors is just unfair because it pushes up insurance premiums for all of us."

I don't think it's sensible to say "responsible people rehome their dogs when they have children". Why would they do that - in case the dog attacks the child? By that logic, you'd be getting rid of your car too in case a crash kills them. I'm willing to bet all the money I have that far far more children per thousand population die in car crashes than they do from dog attacks.

OK, so the analogy is flawed because cars don't control themselves, but you see where I'm coming from.

I do feel immensely sorry for the SBT as a breed - it is, in my opinion, massively demonised by the media. Whenever a news story breaks about a "pitbull-type dog", you can bet your bottom dollar that the accompanying picture is of a SBT. It's a shame - there's a minority of idiots out there who use this breed as a weapon, or a show of force, and wrongly too because as has already been pointed out, they have been bred to be human-friendly. Bad breeding, bad training, bad ownership - that's what it boils down to. And bad laws that allow idiots to own these dogs in the first place.

By the way, I'm not commenting on this story in particular as I don't know the details of the owner, the situation in which the attack took place etc. But if an adult had to break in to rescue the child, then it's fair to say the child had been left alone with the dog - that's quite simply the first rule you do not ignore, no matter how soft your pet is.

WannaBe speaks absolute sense about the responsibilities of a life-long commitment to owning a dog.

I've been a dog owner for years, I just wouldn't want to own one that could physically overpower me (or anyone else).

I also can't stand it when you see people getting dragged along by their large (badly trained) dogs - who are within an inch of escaping from their leads and dashing out onto a busy road or somesuch.

I wouldn't BAN large breeds of course (if I was queen of the world ). And of course some working dogs like guide dogs and police dogs do need to be physically larger. But the risks of owning those are mostly offset by their training.

DooinMeCleanin, thanks for putting my pic up