Kids and Dogs... Another Bite That Could Have Been Prevented

A TWO-YEAR-OLD girl has been bitten on the ear and head by a long-haired labrador after she took away his bone on a country property in Victoria's north.

Was this a pit bull? No. Was this a Rottweiler? No. Just an average dog in an average town doing what dogs do.

Dogs and small kids SHOULD NOT BE LEFT UNSUPERVISED. This type of situation, where the kid takes the dog's bone is a sure fire way of triggering a bite. Small kids should not be messing with a dog's bone, and parents need to be aware of this and put the bones away when the dog and child are together. Similarly, kids need to be kept away from the dog's food bowl when the dog is eating.

Yes, I know you can do all kinds of training and socializing with dogs to try and prevent this kind of thing. But, you are still messing with nature and you are taking chances that you shouldn't be taking.

Watch dogs play sometime and see what the rules of the pack are. All the training in the world won't change the fact that dogs are dogs.

Off Leash Park Hazards

A greyhound was fatally injured in a collision with another dog at the off-leash park in Sequim.

I am sure there are a lot of unreported injuries at off leash parks. Some dogs and activities bring a lot of risk to some dogs. For example, some of the large breeds have a tendency to run and smash into the sides of other dogs, which can blow out the knee joint of the dog that was hit. I know a breeder who does not let her large breed dogs play at full speed together for this very reason. With smaller dogs, say under 70 lbs, this isn't typically a problem. They are more agile and usually have quicker reflexes. You just have to watch what is going on in such a situation and get your dog out of there if you see something that looks risky.

I am not opposed to off leash parks, just so you know... It is just that they are unregulated and managed by novices who might not see the risks before it is too late.

Communism... Doncha Love It?

Outraged that his Internet posting about dogs had been banned, Chen Yuhua wrote to the mayor of Beijing. No answer. He wrote to the city council. Still no answer. When all else failed, he consulted a lawyer, studied China's civil code and marched into court with a lawsuit... it was also a sign that, beneath the ever more prosperous surface, some of China's educated elite may be growing impatient with a one-party authoritarian system in which anonymous bureaucrats decide what movies, plays, novels or social commentaries are safe enough for public consumption. Chen's posting was an attack on the Beijing municipal government's regulations barring any dog over 14 inches high and restricting each family to only one dog. These rules are unreasonable and are enforced arbitrarily, he contended in his essay. "It is so funny that people may have a 35-centimeter-high dog but may not have a 36-centimeter-high dog," he said. Criticism of government policies and nonconformist political views, however, are not taken lightly in China.

China is a great nation, and I highly respect the Chinese people. Hopefully, they will throw off the chains of Communism soon. This is how silly it gets when you try to over-regulate people. We even see this kind of garbage here in the good ol' free US of A... proposed pit bull bans, stupid anti-barking laws, and on and on. No one likes a world run by a bunch of busybodies.

Case in point...

"Subject: Barking dog

Dear Sam,

Hello. Wondering if you have any ideas for the following situation? I have a neighbor behind my house, who happens to be a deputy sheriff who do not want my dog to bark AT ALL; and has nearly gotten me a MISDEMEANOR with potential jail time, because of my barking dog. I have a 5 year old dog who is mainly an in-doors pet. I adopted her from the dog pound 4 years ago. This dog barks when the door bell rings, when hears someone comes into the yard, loud noises etc) and has a rather loud bark. --I don't believe it barks excessively or constantly, nor any of my neighbors, except for the one deputy neighbor of mine. Who called the police to my home 7 times since I moved to the neighborhood, left nasty notes at my door, and ultimately landed me in court to face a poss. misdemeanor, which I fought and got dismissed. I've tried citronella sprays, shock collars, anti-bark devices, correcting the dog immediately when it barks etc. Despite all that an my best efforts to keep her quiet, the dog still barks (though not excessively) for the above reasons... What else is there to do?? I am at a point that I am about to take the dog back to the pound. My kids are in tears every day about it, and that is not really what I'd like to do, but this neighbor has managed to harass us constantly that we live in a continued stress and worrying that the dog may bark. I've heard about a surgery where the dog's vocal cords can be removed. Is that recommended in a case such as this?? And, what is involved with doing that?? I would appreciate your advice."

I'd do what this guy did in China... Maybe it will work here. Banning barking and making it criminal is no different than banning dogs. Dogs make noise, folks. Get used to it.

The Cause?

PRESCOTT, Ariz. -- A Paulden man slit his dog's throat after complaining that the dog was staring at him, then assaulted the deputies trying to arrest him, the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office said.

Drugs? Mental Illness? Who knows what causes people to do things like this. I wonder how many pets suffer at the hands of people who are addicted or who need professional psychiatric help.

Dogknapping!

A Yorkshire terrier snatched from the arms of its 13-year-old owner in Hawthorne remains missing four days after the theft. Hayes' daughter was walking home with two friends about 3:30 p.m. Friday in the 4200 block of 116th Street when they were approached by a woman who asked to see the dog, named Lil-Man. Ishii said it is uncommon for dogs to be stolen right from an owner's arms; pet thieves usually take dogs from backyards. However, recently there have been a string of pet thefts in the Los Angeles area, including an incident last month at a La Mirada pet store.

Most crimes like this are to support a drug habit or some kind of organized crime related to drugs, is my guess. I wrestled for a long time over whether or not to legalize illegal drugs. After seeing what it does to to people, knowing of people who have died, and how it affects society, I am solidly convinced that illegal drugs should stay illegal.

I know that people can get into desperate straights in life. I know that young people can do dumb things to try and fit in, and abuse drugs and alcohol. And I have compassion for them. Yet, once hooked, they harm themselves and others. The greater compassion is to not enable them to further injure themselves or others.

(By the way, notice that dogs are increasingly being stolen in LA, and what filth happens there eventually moves out across the rest of the country. and mostly from back yards. Don't leave your dog unsupervised in the back yard, especially if it is a purebred or pit bull!)

What About Prong And Chain Collars?

Some things in dog training don't make sense to a novice. There are a lot of things like that in life.

Dog killer gets 30 days in jail

During the trial, jurors heard testimony of how one man held down the miniature Yorkshire terrier named Gizmo while Crawford got a running start and kicked the animal high in the air.

What kind of person do you have to be to do something purposeful like this?

Freak Accidents

Firefighters said a grease fire that left $50,000 in damage to a Topeka home erupted after a dog shut a woman out of the house while fish was frying on the stove.

Sound like something that can't happen to you? I know of a similar situation that happened to someone I know earlier this year.