If your dog is aggressive, bloody muzzle them!!

[Willprobablycauseoffence]

This is not an anti dog thread - but a ‘people are fucking stupid’ thread.

I just watched a grown man be dragged to the ground in the middle of a sodding A road by his aggressive, out of control, dog. Both were nearly hit by a car. The dog was lunging, snapping and snarling at another dog who was just walking along the pavement on the opposite side minding its own business.

The aggressive dog was doing all it could to get to this dog and pulled the owner over as a result. I hate to think what would have happened if the lead had been tugged out of his hand or the dog slipped its collar. The innocent dog almost certainly would have been horrifically injured. It was luck the owner didn’t let the lead go as he fell, not skill.

why the hell do people with aggressive dogs not muzzle them?! I don’t care if your dogs a bloody chihuahua or a Cane Corso. As someone left with a permanent scar as the result of a pug attacking her, I am so sick of any dog owner with an aggressive dog just blithely carrying on! Don’t say ‘my dogs little so it’s fine,’ because if your dog is aggressive - to cats, dogs, children etc, you should bloody muzzle it!!!

Would a muzzle have made a difference though? It would still be able to do the lunging and pulling.

Agree there are a lot of fucking stupid people around. There are also a lot of dog owners. By default, some of the dog owners are fucking stupid.

So much anger.

to be fair, if I'd been permanently scarred by an animal, I'd be angry too.

@GenieGenealogy yes it would if the dog broke free. Without it, it would have caused significant and damage

And that’s the point. All aggressive dogs should be muzzled. It’s negligent dog ownership to not muzzle your aggressive dog and even worse to yell ‘it’s okay!!’

@Dangermoo well as I have a permanent facial scar from a pug attacking my child and trying to get it off, I’m well within my right to be angry at these negligent owners.

People muzzle their dogs if they scavenge. Why can’t they do it when their dog has aggression?

If my dogs were aggressive, I’d muzzle them in a heart beat for their safety and for other dogs.

double posted

A dramatic, OTT OP, is what I see. Dog seeing another dog and exerting its masculinity.

As the owner of the calmest lab to ever walk the earth, I don’t disagree Op.

Lunging, aggressive dogs are out of control, even on a leash. I don’t want them threatening my girl nor any other living thing who gets in the way .

Looks like we found the local aggressive dog owner apologist.

And OP is right. People muzzle their dogs for a variety of reasons, but it does appear that those with aggressive dogs think they are exempt. Any aggressive dog should be on the lead and muzzled as a bare minimum. It’s not hard. It’s pretty easy actually.

Although, judging by what you’ve written you seem to know surprising little about dog behaviour. Aggression like this isn’t normal. And it shouldn’t be normalised be nitwits who don’t have a clue

Was it aggressive or hyper. I could say the opening line to your post is passive aggressive. It's an AIBU thread, is it not?

I bit you think XL bullies are ickle fur babies too.

You're assuming it's one of those dogs, are you?

Completely agree, op. My then 3yo dd was bitten below the eye - by a small yappy thing as opposed to a big and obviously aggressive hulk of a dog. She was so lucky its teeth narrowly avoided her actual eye. Why the owners thought it was appropriate for it to be running around a campsite among children is beyond me. Dd is still terrified of dogs, despite our best efforts to convince her that they're not all like that (my sisters have both owned dogs, as have I in the distant past).

The OP says the dog was big enough to pull its owner over into the road. That is obviously a big, strong animal.

@Dangermoo I know what an aggressive dog looks like and a dog lunging on its lead, snarling and growling is aggressive. But by all means, carry on. Looks like no one believes the nonsense you’re spouting anyway.

I have a lunching agressive dog, he’s harness and training lead walked in the countryside far far far away from anything that causes him stress.

He’s a guarding breed and was attacked badly as a young g dog, we work with trainers and manage his life to keep stress low.

People should be adjusting their lives to work with these dogs, I agree muzzle but also walk them early morning, late evenings away from parks and busy places.

Drive them to remote areas, the dog is stressed work with it, keep it calm and help it enjoy life. Walking a lunching agressive dog near roads and cars is just asking for issues.

I do wish small dog owners would take note, my other dogs are regularly snapped at by little dogs and excuses are always made.

Also work with a good trainer! I know it might not be possible to completely resolve it but I bet it can be improved with positive training. As well as being clearly dangerous, it must be horrible for the dog to live with that level of stress and hyper arousal.

I watched a documentary clip of dogs going toe to toe with a pack of wolves in the pitch black to protect their flock of sheep during the night. Dogs are fantastic animals, who fearlessly do exactly what they were bred and asked to do. Putting their "job" above their own personal safety.

But I do wish people would select breeds (and lines of breeds) to suit the environment they live in. This would solve a lot of problems.

While it might be possible to have xyz breed in a domestic setting - it takes a very very experienced handler to make that a success, so isn't going to be the right choice for a lot of people. Despite their best intentions.

YANBU that dogs who have ended up "agressive" should be muzzled when around humans. But there is a bigger problem of people not being realistic with the breeds they get.

Separately - I have heard some trainers say that all dogs should be habituated to a muzzle regardless, just so they don't freak out if it is ever needed in their life. Which is interesting....not something I've done with my poodle mix though. Not sure if I will... keen to hear if anyone has muzzle trained their normal (not aggressive) dog for the hell of it just in case.

I’ve had large breeds over 30 years. What people need to understand is that a dog can still bite through a muzzle. Many aggressive dogs I see have completely unsuitable muzzles which they could very easily slip or still bite through. Often it’s because people go for the cheapest ones rather than investing in a fail proof one which costs a lot more. It also would not have prevented what you describe, the lunging and pulling the owner over trying to get to another dog. You will often find people are in denial too about just how bad the behaviour is. My young large breed puppy was bitten by another dog twice and both times the owner said her dog had never done it before. I was then approached by multiple people saying all their dogs had been bitten by this dog and she tells everyone that he has never done it before, almost as if by pretending it’s out of character people will let her off. I also once got bitten when I got stuck between my adult dog and another dog that attached him. The other dog snapped its collar and chased us along a main road. It had a muzzle on. I still got bitten. What I’m saying is that it is not always as simple as ‘put a muzzle on it’ , especially when the owner is in denial, and even the ones who do use a muzzle often buy the wrong kind and still have incidents.

Spot the dog owner who thinks their little big angel wouldn’t ever do anything like that …

I think there are a lot more dog breeds that should be added to the dangerous dogs act, at least to the extent that should be neutered and the breeds should die out in a generation. So many lovely breeds that their worst case scenario isn’t death, to a child or other animal.

Unfortunately the Dangerous Dogs Act was a piece of knee jerk legislation that was hurried through and is not fit for purpose. That’s exactly what has been done with XL bullies though. They have been added to the list and have to be registered , muzzled and neutered but trust me when I say this , XL bullies will not die out. They will just be crossed again with another breed to look different in order to get round the legislation. Once the current generation is gone there will just be another similar type being bred to replace it.

Not assuming it’s one of those no. Although for it to be able to pull its owner to the ground it must be a large/strong dog.

My point was more that you are coming across a bit thick.

“Snarling people have snarling dogs.” Sherlock Holmes.

I think it's time a lot of rescues were more realistic about the dogs they re-homed and what constitutes 'a healthy dog', mentally as well as physically. (Obviously am making an assumption that this might have been a rescue, perhaps this one wasn't - am basing a general point on dogs I have seen locally really. All the dogs I've met like this have been rescues, though.)

Dog ownership should be fun for owner and dog, and walking should be a reasonably achievable pleasure, with training. It never is going to be for some of these dogs.

I’d much prefer it if people just properly socialised and trained their dogs and kept them on leads in busy places if I’m honest, including little fluffy wuffy who may not be aggressive but is a total pain in the arse jumping all over my dog.

far less stressful all round.

but then most dog owners are lazy and don’t want to put the effort in.