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

Owners like you are a great example to others.

@SorePaw I'm sorry you are in total denial

The CCTV will show the truth of what happened so I'm not making any assumptions in this case.
But parents need to know that children must never be allowed to approach and pat a dog.
An exception can be made for the family dog as long as under very close supervision and parent is aware of dog body language.

Ridiculous- so people can’t have their perfectly safe and lovely dogs chase a ball in their local park, when they’re harming nobody?

Put them all on leads and stop the nonsense of dog friendly cafes, shops etc. Yes most are behaved, but there always one yappy/agressive/barking/biting dog. Absolutely sick of dogs having more rights than humans!

I don't think practicable or even desirable to insist that all dogs should be muzzled and kept on leads while out in public. Some people live out in the country where they barely see another soul when walking their dogs. Plus, of the many recent dog attacks, a lot have occurred in people's homes or gardens. Perhaps there should be more banned breeds - quite why anyone needs to own one of those mutant American Bully XL things is beyond me - but Great Danes? Until this incident I was under the impression that they're big, dozy things.

It seems to me that the most serious issues around dangerous dogs have occurred since the Covid lockdowns and the explosion in dog ownership. Lots of people got dogs who'd never owned one before, puppy training classes were shut and now a lot of those new owners have had to go back to work, so you've got a perfect storm of inexperienced owners and poorly socialised dogs who might now be cooped up at home all day on their own. I don't know what the solution is.

I think a lot of people are desensitised to what warrants a bad bite because it is so common now for people to be killed or have half their face ripped off. I think this is dangerous In itself as I would counter that any bite to a child’s face is definitely in the bad bite category. I am a dog lover but things are definitely out of hand with them.

They don't, if that puts your mind at rest.

There are too many dogs around now, and too many living in close proximity to humans. Dogs are animals, they’re not humans, so they shouldn’t be in shops, cafes etc. It’s hard to teach young kids to be careful around dogs when they see them everywhere so assume they’re safe. And owners forget that their beloved pets are not humans, and if they leave them to wander around a pub or whatever, they may get annoyed and bite someone.

https://www.bmj.com/content/381/bmj.p879

https://deframedia.blog.gov.uk/2022/10/06/defra-response-to-reported-recent-increase-in-fatal-dog-attacks/

CleverLilViper it's a rising problem.

And yes, so is knife crime. Something which also needs tackling. I don't know how you're managing to conflate them

Right, but carrying a knife in public is illegal even if you don't use it. And if the teenager does use it, they are punished and the knife is confiscated. Most people think it's a good thing when the teenager and the knife are removed from the streets.

The idea of removing XL bullies (or their knife-equivalents, i.e. by muzzling) from the streets, though, gets a different reaction. Why is that?

I used to have Great Danes also and I agree that this is incredibly unusual behaviour.

That's right. Their safe and lovely dog can't chase a ball in a park which isn't a designated dog area.

For the sake of preventing dog bites.

Because there's no way of having a certificate saying 'My dog is safe and lovely'.

I'm a dog owner - and despite spending a fortune on training and behaviourists, my dog is reactive, anxious, territorial and not good with strangers or other dogs. Therefore, she doesn't go anywhere where she might end up in a situation where she feels she has to protect herself, or where she is in close proximity / a risk to to other dogs / people. We rarely have visitors, no-one walks her apart from me and DH, we only go on holiday in the UK to remote cottages and once there only venture out to quiet places where we are unlikely to encounter anyone. I know a lot of people like us, who understand their dog and what they can manage, and what they can't, and restrict their lives accordingly.

IMO the issue is that so many people now have dogs, who know absolutely fuck all about dog behaviour and body language, don't bother with any training, and just think their dog should slot into their life, and go where they go, and it's ok because 'he's friendly'. No allowance for the dog as an individual, or recognition that many, many dogs have issue and are not the perfect happy waggy family pet, and therefore need to be managed differently, and that may mean that you can't always do what you want all the time.

I personally don't have an issue with happy calm well trained dogs in public spaces, but I do have an issue with owners that take clearly unhappy / stressed dogs into those spaces, as even the best behaved dog can snap in a situation it finds scary. And as a dog owner, it's your responsibility to learn your dogs limitations and trigger points, and act accordingly.

Just on our estate there are a number of dogs that are walked daily past our house, whose body language and behaviour show they are clearly struggling with being on a lead and walking past other dogs, at least once a week there's some kind of scuffle or altercation, which the owners just laugh off. Nope - that dog should not be being walked on a lead at lunchtime in a built up busy area with a lot of other dogs also on lead, it needs to be exercised in a secure field or walked at 5am or on a quiet industrial estate.

I really think that we need to re-introduce the dog licence, and also make some kind of basic training mandatory for both owners and dogs. Probably completely unachievable though sadly!

The general public don’t need to be dog experts - they do however need to teach their kids not to touch/pat others people’s dogs. They also need to very closely supervise their kids around any animals. Dogs are not toys.

I have a dog who is not course well trained ;)

but I would welcome all dogs being muzzled it would take the stress factor out of walks with other peoples out of control dogs as at least they can’t bite me or my dog

but sadly as with everything, the responsible people would follow the rules and they aren’t the ones with untrained dogs 🤷‍♀️

police where I am don’t even have resource to investigate crime let alone check people have muzzles on their dogs

Of course well trained*

“Put them all on leads and stop the nonsense of dog friendly cafes, shops etc. “

The real reason for the thread. 🤦🏼‍♀️

I would more outraged about knife crime, paedophilia, online bullying and the resulting affects, any number of things in fact.

No law gives more rights to dogs than humans.

You shouldn't own an animal you can't confidently remove from a dangerous situation. Can you pick up a great dane? No. That makes you stupid to own one.

I wouldn't have a dog I couldn't confidently control if things got out of hand because I have two children. My friends children/grandbabies come to my home on a regular basis. Yeah accidents happen, you need to minimise the risk. Dogs have bad days like us all. It's also how their raised and their temperament but nothing is going to change when you have the likes of XL bully breeds and cane corso dogs with owners who struggle to walk them down a road, never mind pulling them off someone in an incident like in the OP.

Ridiculous- so people can’t have their perfectly safe and lovely dogs chase a ball in their local park, when they’re harming nobody?

Sure, in a dog park or in your back garden.

Precisely which law do you propose is changed? And to what?

And how do you foresee that making a difference?

There's a different mentality nowadays with dogs. I was brought up with dogs my Gran had a sweet Staffordshire bull terrier . We never humanised the dog or expected it to do human things. She wasn't allowed off lead in parks with dc , or to jump up. People are dragging their pets round expecting them to enjoy going shopping/ busy restaurants. They see it as a fur baby. Off leading is much more common now if your dog doesn't have perfect recall or jumps up on people leash it. I think covid has caused an explosion in irresponsible dog ownership.

Well it certainly feels like it when you see them roaming about in shops and cafes, and constantly read of attacks. What do you suggest to eliminate fatal dog attacks?

@FixMyEyebrows I'm really interested in this, I often see people letting their children pet dogs and I'm thinking the dog doesn't look happy but I don't know enough to say anything. The pic on the left is fairly clear to me but the photo on the right is more tricky, could you elaborate on what you're seeing? Thanks

Well I'm with you. I would ban all dogs (except working dogs).