Whew! Close Call with a German Shepherd

[Dutchess]

Quote:
Good idea. That's the next thing I'm putting right next to the door!

I prefer a paint ball gun. You can keep your distance and still be effective without causing too much harm to the dog. A club is too close to the culprit for my liking.

 

[gallopingfrog]

*feeling the need to defend* I agree with most everyone on here. It's all in the training. We have 6 German Shepherds, and while they may chase chickens (I'm sure...no chickens yet), we've never had an incident like the baby. We've had them snap a few times at the goats after getting butted, but not "going for the kill" stuff. Actually, now that I think out it...I'm sure my Millie would chase chickens - she caught a roadrunner once and attempted a jackalope (Ha! Just kidding - a jackrabbit), but I called her off. She listens extremely well...and when she gets the finger (NOT THAT FINGER!

) - the pointer finger that tells her sit or stay or go to her room (not my room, its actually her room. I just sleep there.) - she knows she in trouble! LOL

 

[chickened]

I play paintball regularly and have sent a few wandering dogs home riddled with paint (30 balls per second).
Quote:
Good idea. That's the next thing I'm putting right next to the door!

I prefer a paint ball gun. You can keep your distance and still be effective without causing too much harm to the dog. A club is too close to the culprit for my liking.

 

[dainerra]

One thing to keep in mind: in most areas shooting with a paintball or bb gun is illegal and would be considered animal cruelty. Someone posted on another thread that they received a citation and fine for using a bb gun on a neighbors dog.

 

[gallopingfrog]

Quote:
Well, in AZ, by law, if an animal comes onto your land and threatens your livestock, you can shoot them. Dead. Stems from the old west laws...we had to warn a distant neighbor of this when his lab kept trying to get at our goats. Haven't seen the dog since. Personally, I would not shoot a dog, dead, but the threat seems to be enough to get owners to take responsibility for their animals.

 

[Katydid2011]

I've had German Shepherd Dogs all my life - love them. They're used in police work, search and rescue, and as guide dogs because they are exceptionally intelligent, driven, and easy to train. As many have already said, it's people that have given the breed a bad name. GSDs are working dogs. They're not meant to loll around in backyards all day. People who breed them indiscriminately and fail to train are to blame for the breeds bad reputation. We've lost two chickens to dogs, small dogs, not our GSDs.

 

[dainerra]

Shooting to killo, yes legal in pretty much all 50 states. But usung a paintball gun or bb gun is considered animal cruelty in many areas.

Its a pretty basic law of self-defense - if you aren't worried enough to sh oot to kill then there is no real danger. That's a bit oversimplified, but the basic premise is the same.

The only point of paintball or bb guns is to cause pain severe enough that the dog won't come back. So many areas consider that to be cruel and no different than purposefully making a gut shot for a slow death.

 

[gallopingfrog]

Quote:
Exactly! We train ours to work with livestock (horses, cattle, and goats)....don't know about chickens yet though....Sort of the same thing with pit bulls, though I think now we're getting to the point that an aggressive behavior is being bred into some....becoming a genetic trait instead of learned behavior. Maybe a mental defect that runs in the breed.

 

[dainerra]

Quote:
Exactly! We train ours to work with livestock (horses, cattle, and goats)....don't know about chickens yet though....Sort of the same thing with pit bulls, though I think now we're getting to the point that an aggressive behavior is being bred into some....becoming a genetic trait instead of learned behavior. Maybe a mental defect that runs in the breed.

It IS getting bred in, mostly by crossing in other breeds such as mastiffs or cana corsos. Agression towards people isn't really a trait that a pit can be taught, it is just entirely against their nature. You might provoke an aggressive response in certain situations, but remove that and the pit is once again a friendly loving dog. Generations of bad breeding and selection for mean is starting to leave a lasting effect. Not to mention the public perception. A nip by a pit is always a "mauling" while an attack by a small dog never makes the news.

An example was a headline last year that read "elderly woman injured by pit". That is all most people would read, shake their heads and go forward with another bad thought about pits. Actually reading the article and the witness accounts told a very different story. The pit was out of its yard and offleash, true. The woman was walking two small poodle-mix dogs. The small dogs saw the pit across the road and started barking and running in circles. The woman got tangled and fell, injuring her ankle. The pit owner was cited for allowing their dog to roam, but there was no attack on human or dog.
Of course, "elderly woman falls over poodle" doesn't sell papers

 

[The Yakima Kid]

Quote:
I'm not offended at all. The problem is the owner not the dog; but stopping an attack requires stopping the dog. People by dogs for fashion, for defense, for companionship and don't bother to study the breed before bringing it home. And then they don't bother to discipline it or include it in family life. We had neighbors who had a Chesapeake Bay Retriever that was impossible because undisciplined, it became a problem - and there stupid solution was to confine the poor beast inside the dog house. When it got loose, you knew it.