Great Dane now on the attack - please can we do something? *Distressing content warning*

@GoneTillNovember

I'm sorry you're struggling with comprehension.

what exactly is ridiculous about owning a Great Dane??

Their sheer size means most people have absolutely no way of controlling one should it lunge or attack.

I hate seeing people out with dogs who weigh more than they do and that they stand no chance of holding back.

I have two dogs and I love them dearly, I also have two children , if my dogs hurt a child, mine or anybody else's, that would be it put to sleep no questions.
I'm frankly amazed that anyone else could think differently, a human child is more important than a dog!

If you want to muzzle dogs outside of their property and not have them near play parks or anywhere children are then we as a society need to find places for them to exercise. In the US dog parks are common, a lot less common here.
Do we say nature walks and country lanes / fields are for exercising dogs and therefore the general public without dogs cannot go (and no children at all)?

If we are willing to give up some green space to develop dedicated dog spaces then great, but I doubt most people would be happy to lose their local nature reserve or local playground to accommodate

I hate seeing people out with dogs who weigh more than they do and that they stand no chance of holding back.

I do agree that this is an issue. So many people forget to consider how they would manage certain dog breeds, before they go out and get them. I think it's one of the biggest things people should consider - if my dog pulls on the lead, or lunges, can I manage that dog?

There are two lovely elderly couples in our town who have recently purchased puppies from breeders. One is a german shepherd, the other is an english mastiff. I think the owners must be in their 80s? I really don't think it was remotely ok for the breeders to sell the pups to these couples, but the people themselves should also have considered if at 80, they could manage these dogs (they can't).

it's come to a point where I think that keeping any dog on leads in puplic places should be mandatory. and that dogs should not be within 500m of a play area in a park.

I agree. I also now think dogs should be muzzled. People's safety is more important than a dogs comfort. The Great Dane should be put down. He's bitten a child.

No human should be able to inflict such damage on another human, but they do.

I also won't excuse the situation, but those demanding severe restrictions or punitive lives for all dogs seem to fail to understand that those who don't care won't do any of it. It is those who are responsible who will pay the price. I'll also point out that we have no idea what actually happened - there is no information at all in that article. Just this morning I had to stop a child of about 5 or six running straight up to my service dog to touch him without asking me first. And before now I have literally had a child run up to my dog and try to hit him with a stick - TWICE (once after being told not to!).

It does strike me that in a pet shop if you are the owner and have a dog in there, then having a guard in place or some such arrangement is a good idea - you can't guarantee to be conscious of what your dog or other people are doing all the time when your attention is on something else.

But these are all comments about being reasonable, and the language in the OP simply screams that they don't want a reasonable conversation anyway.

Tail wagging doesn't necessarily mean that a dog is happy. So many people aren't tuned into how their dog is feeling.

I'm not sure what the solution is. There are many responsible dog owners. GDs don't tend to be aggressive and the ones I've met have been bomb proof with kids.

Re: the size/weight issue. A good breeder should indeed be ensuring that who ever is buying the puppy will be able to handle the full grown dog.

However i believe that the statistics still say that the labrador is the breed with the highest bite risk in this country. With bull terriers and border collies alongside them. This is down to how common they are of course, but also means that it's not always about size/weight. It's about situation and opportunity.

I think apx 20% of all attacks occur in public, but i can't find the link.

I think the wearing of a muzzle stopping 1 in 5 bites is well worth it.

People shouldn’t be bringing their dogs to work especially with different people coming and going.
I’m a dog owner, lover and previous dog walker and I adore dogs but I am getting pissed off with the amount of people purchasing dogs and having no idea about dog body language etc and treating them as humans or worse like live soft toys. Dogs, like any other animal are unpredictable and a wagging tail is most definitely not always a sign the dog is happy. My rescue will wag his tail in different ways and a short, quick wag is a warning sign, I liken it to a rattle snake shaking it’s back end before it strikes.
And I can not tell you how many people lunge in to pet my dog because he is so cuddly looking, even though he has a yellow anxious lead, I will tell them not to touch him but they still do it!
That poor boy will probably have a fear of dogs from now on but personally, when my kids were younger I never let them pet any dog, even the most gentle mutts have off/poorly days.

Both, they need to change y to he las but to penalise irresponsible owners as if they have commited the aggression rather than giving them a slap on the hand, a suspended jail term and a few hours of community service.

The ones that should be penalised the more are those wankers who rehome dogs to unsuspecting people knowing their dog is dangerous to boot. Those really need to go to jail.

And yes, with a bad owner, even a Chihuahua can turn into a nasty piece of shit able to mawl a child!

Poor child.

Not voted because you’ve made it really silly to be honest.

The family were about buying food for their own dog when this took place, doesn’t sound like they’re a dog hating family.

What do you want done OP? We domesticated dogs, so we are responsible. Posting MN constantly doesn’t achieve anything.

When I was a child a Yorkie mauled my ankle, I was terrified of dogs for years! , however what really irritated me was that people would laugh when I told them!
Like it was funny or didn't matter because it was a small dog!

Muzzle ALL dogs in public spaces. Human safety must take precedence - always.

Dogs are becoming an absolute nuisance. All dog imports from overseas should be banned. Special licence required to keep more than one dog. Walking more than one dog banned.

This absolutely 100%

Oh look here’s something you don’t see every day. A thread on MN fearmongering about dogs.

We can all argue till we're blue in the face about which breeds are right and which are wrong and who owns them and where should dogs be allowed on lead/off lead ect ect ect.

but 'Every single pet dog must wear a muzzle when not in it's house' has got to be a simple step in the right direction surely?

Pointing out another child has been injured is not fear mongering!
One child being hurt , is one child to many!

I think there’s a big problem with the anthropomorphism of dogs. The whole “fur baby” / buying a fashionable breed influenced by social media and ascribing human motives to their behaviour thing. I saw a random video on Instagram of a baby crawling over to a sleeping French bulldog and poking its anus, startling the dog. The comments were full of “LOL” and “SO CUTE” and “they’re gonna be best friends!!!!”. The few commenters who posted that it was dangerous/cruel/unhygienic were shouted down and called Karens 🙄

I don’t know what the answer is. I just try and keep my children away from dogs as much as possible.

I see far too many people locally in my park with dangerous looking dogs (the ones that require harnesses). A group of 2-3 men were exercising 3 dogs with harnesses in tennis courts the other day. I saw another dangerous looking dog in the park with teenage or early 20s couple with young baby.

I know of people who have dogs they use for fighting - on a nearby local estate, witnessed this before lockdown. No one dares to report them or get involved.

My family growing up have owned a Labrador, Weimaraner, and Afghan Hound (all very well trained and good breeders) and close relatives owned a Doberman (lovely soppy dog but a guard dog too) and other close relatives long and short haired German Shepherds. The latter relatives rehomed a German Shepherd that was either too interbred or had behavioural issues, the soppy long haired German Shepherd and the other one killed a family parrot when left alone. These were people who “knew” dogs.

I personally don’t trust many dogs. Even my nana’s first miniature poodle could be a vicious little bugger!

Any dog can attack. My DM was bitten (not too badly) as a young child by a Scottie dog in the street, made her scared of that breed!

Too many owners buy dogs and don’t train or research into them.

Very sad for this poor boy.

Poor child, that must be been very frightening for him.

But that dog bit for a reason.

As per usual, it's the sad faced story in the media and not the full story from both sides.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12019917/XL-Bully-Rottweiler-maul-Tibetan-terrier-called-Rocky-badly-owner-thought-dead.html

I think talking about it does achieve something.

There is never going to be adequate legislation to stop attacks happening in homes. But we can have something which protects us AND other dogs (and would have prevented this particular attack) in public.

It's not fear-mongering or frothing or dog hating.
I was a grate dane owner!

Oh come off it.

it’s sad the child was hurt but the way you lot go on every time is as if it’s an epidemic.

teenagers stab each other. Should something be done about ALL teenagers because of the actions of a few?

there’s countless threads like this on this site all fearmongering and all I think is thank fuck I wasn’t raised by any of you or I’d be terrified of every dog going.