Neighbour’s XL Bully

[Dente]

My neighbour has one of these dogs, which to be fair I always on a lead, but I’m so bloody scared of it when I am out walking my dog. He says it’s friendly and our dogs have sniffed each other and he while on leads, but I just feel so uneasy. I feel that if he slipped and that dog got loose it would be such a danger to everyone around. The area I live in is mainly families with young children and I just can’t understand why someone would get this kind of dog?

I understand all dogs can be aggressive, but all dogs don’t have this power and muscle that means they can easily kill!

The problem is the people who own these dogs don’t care about legislation or muzzling or keeping them on a lead. They aren’t going to attend training nor are they intelligent enough to recognise the danger (or care about the danger) or recognise the body language of the dog they own. Plus bull breeds give very little warning in the first place, it’s genetically bred into them.

I mean anyone who owns a dog who’s ears have clearly been hacked off with scissors does not have ethics or the law at the front of mind.

So putting in place all of these measures is a waste of time because the people who follow it aren’t the people it needs to be aimed at.

That's very dismissive of evidence, which shows some breeds are more dangerous than others, including the XL Bully breed. Ignorant at best.

OP, I agree with you. Why anyone would get one, I don't know. They should be outlawed.

In addition to this, more responsibility needs to be on breeders to sell their puppies to appropriate homes.
An 80 year old couple is not a suitable home for a mastiff puppy (yes, I have known this to happen).
It doesn't matter if they have had a mastiff before.

Bloody hell Chesney, 2 XL Bullies and a Cane Corso in a small flat...What could possibly go wrong?

Can I ask if the posters that say they're lovely family pets/ gentle giants read the link regarding the couple in Rotherham? They had raised their 2 XL Bullies since they were puppies (so no past trauma), never shown any aggression before, looked like they lived in a large house. After two years of them being family pets the poor woman came home at 10 pm and was killed, her husband had very serious injuries trying to save her and get the dog off her. It very nearly killed him too. I've never seen that kind of news about a labrador, spaniel or terrier.

YANBU OP

The dogs do look intimidating but it's all down to training and breeding. We have a working cocker spaniel and a Belgian Malinois. When people see our female Belgian Malinois when we are out walking they panic and scramble to get their dogs, literally almost falling over to
scoop them up. We were always shocked at first wondering what was going on but now find it hilarious, she literally couldn't care less about other dogs and is happily playing with our spaniel.

She's the most friendliest and loving dog. She's better with kids than our spaniel, she'll take the bashes, the kicks and being run over with kids toys where he grumbles.

She's from an amazing breeder so she's stable, she's been brought up with very young kids and socialised, she's trained.

You can't penalise all dogs because some owners are lazy and unprepared.

Don't hate me but maybe some kind of license system needs to come back (not one that means wealthy people can just pay and be done with) but one that requires a test and skill to prove you can handle and have knowledge of a bigger breed? Throw in things like mandatory socialisation/training courses for puppies.
If you can't afford it, then realistically you can't afford a dog.

Xer I do think that’s a really good idea. Not a pay and you’re ok thing but a test. Legal responsibilities, basic knowledge of training etc.

I agree with you Xer. I suggested it when they did the dangerous dogs act inquiry as they acknowledged that the act is ineffective and hasn't lowered dog bites. They decided not to change it (defra were ignorant to the evidence provided).

Another difficulty there though, is that dog training and behaviour is also unregulated. So they'd need to sort that out at the same time otherwise the training and life skills work might count for nothing, if people go to somebody rubbish.

People who own these kind of aggressive dogs, knowing about the risks and the public anxiety, obtain them partly because they get a kick of seeing others scared or because they don’t care. One poster has already said they find others’ scared reactions ‘hilarious’.

Anyway I am glad that nobody I know would dream of owning such a dog. I certainly would not visit them or go for a walk with them if they did.

But this is the attitude that is wrong. You find it hilarious that your dog is intimidating others. Can you not understand that 'others' do not know your dog and, therefore it presents an unknown risk?

Also I find it hilarious how people of potential dangerous dogs always believe they are so friendly. They are friendly to you and your pack but, if someone poses a threat to your pack things can change.

I appreciate that you've done all the right things to mitigate against any potential danger but, there will always be an element of risk. I make sure I put my spaniel on a lead when there are smaller dogs, children or elderly people because he is a risk at licking people to death if he is shown any sign of affection. If you were to put your intimidating dog on the lead then these people wouldn't have to scramble to put theirs onto one.

Sometimes it's how the owner is seen handling such a "beast" aswell Spicy
Like "He must be really strong managing a dog of that strength" 🙄 which is quite pathetic actually.

People can be incredibly stupid though, @ThisGirlNever . I had a dog that hated kids running up to them, and would put herself between said child and my other dog, and bark and lunge towards them. She was fine if they approached at walking speed.

I couldn't tell you the number of times I've had to ask them to stop, and approach slowly, only to have a parent tell me that it would be fine, because their child was used to dogs, be ignored and then had said parent have a go at me because my dog has startled their child. And people don't seem to realise that just because a small dog looks like a cute cuddly toy doesn't mean you can treat it like one (lakeland terriers really do look like toys, especially when they're young Lakie puppy).

(Should add, it was all bark, no bite and she never bit anyone in her entire 17 years).

Some dog owners were no better though. My tiny bitch once sent a massive male boxer packing with a perfectly timed and targeted warning "air snap", and the owner got quite arsey, despite the fact that it was his dog that was out of control and I'd asked him to call him back.

I get it sounded arrogant that I now find it hilarious that people panic when they see my dog coming but it's come after shock and concern. I was always wondering what the matter was and quickly calling the dogs back to walk by the side of us. The judgement you receive by just being out walking what other people perceive as 'aggressive breed' is insane. She wouldn't be off the lead if we couldn't control her or she once even showed the slightest bit of aggression.

I've found smaller dogs to be much more aggressive than the dogs who get a bad reputation. A Jack Russell once went for our Belgian and she ran to me for support.

I understand not everyone is a responsible dog owner, not everyone puts the work in finding a good breeder, socialising and maintaining training. My partner even worked with Belgian Malinois in the military so we know what we're doing but others can't say the same. To me it's definitely always the owners/breeders fault.

I believe tigers can be really friendly and, with the right sort of training, can live with humans quite amiably.

However, I would never trust one because it has a natural, innate instinct to predate and it is several times larger and stronger than me, has very sharp teeth and claws and, well the species has a bit of a reputation for killing people now and again.

XL bullies are probably just as friendly and loving as any other dog. However, they are derived from a breed that was selectively bred to attack and fight an animal several times its (impressive) size and weight, often to the death. They are also much stronger and heavier than me and have very sharp teeth and claws. Added to that, the breed has a reputation for killing people, now and again.

I would never trust a dog of that breed (just as I would never trust a tiger). However the XL bully is a dog that can be owned legally, so I think I would just give it a wide berth and maybe remind the owner that a dog should be muzzled when it goes out in public..

That’s just appalling. Those dogs should be seized and put down.

The article I linked to isn't just tabloid fodder.
It was a link to an article documenting a court case where two people went to prison for owning/ being in charge of a bully called beast that killed a 10yr old boy.
All the whataboutery saying you are more likely to be bitten by a Labrador or a spaniel please show me a link where an older child or adult has been killed by one please.
I am aware that babies have been killed by JRT but would suggest an older child or adult would be able to overpower a JRT or most larger dogs.
Sadly people don't learn as a woman in the same town has died after being attacked by a bully too.

www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/woman-dies-after-dog-attack-25798405.amp

The apologists can argue all they like but I will never change my mind about these dogs.

To those who are looking at the stats through a single lens, you are being very shortsighted.

So, 50% of dogs causing fatalities are bullies. But we know that there are contributing factors that cause bias in any stats. These are likely to be around unethical breeding, poor training and handling, mistreatment etc

You cannot look at stats in a black and white manner.

Surely unethical breeding, poor training and handling and mistreatment are phenomena that affect all breeds to some extent. This is not specific to bullies.

So how come it's not reflected in outcomes for other breeds? Why do these issues only translate in bully deaths?

Your argument is very very weak, sorry

Cropping is disgusting. I'd like to see legislation making it illegal to own a dog with cropped ears unless the owner has paperwork verifying that it was cropped when they got it, eg from an accredited rescue.

People would stop docking if it meant they couldn't sell the dogs.

YANBU, this is the kind of animal that would make me want to move house or, at the very least, make sure I had very strong, very secure, very high fencing around my outdoor space.

The counfounding factor is that you can't tell if it's the dog breed or the type of people attracted to that type of dog breed

( on average )

Agreed.

I'd suggest installing 8ft high reinforced feather edge fencing, with barbed wire at the top and concrete gravel boards, sunk into the ground at the bottom. You need to ensure there is zero chance of the dog digging under the fence.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ListofffataldoggattacksinntheUniteddKingdom

Because the breed is disproportionately impacted by these compared to other breeds maybe?

christ, you have to dig deeper than a blanket 50% of X means Y.