DerRottweiler

You have no issues with an owner tying their dog up outside in a public space on a 35 degree day for 4 hours without water? Clearly, I was talking about the attack part.

How do we know, this isn't the first time the dog showed such behaviour? Maybe the dog just randomly snapped. We just don't know. I don't blame the owner based on the facts presented. The only thing that can be said with any certainty, is that the mother was wrong in letting her child near the dog.

I use these collars (and they are Rottweiler proof....which is saying something because they tend to just 'snap' or 'rip' them somehow). http://www.rogueroyalty.com.au/

He is an Aussie Cattle Dog. So far its happened across the road from my home and at the beach. At beach a dog ran up to him and they were sniffing each other, the other dog growled and then it was on,5 minutes later another dog came up and they were happy as larry with each other!! Weird... Now i dont let him off the lead, outside until he has been introduced to other dog with me there Have a think about what ACDs were bred to do - strangers (dog or human) aren't generally something that they would be expected to tolerate. If you haven't worked on a bombproof recall, now's the time. Your dog is less likely to get into spats if you can get him to return to your side when other dogs approach. Dogs differ, their attitudes differ and clearly your dog is not going to tolerate challenges from others. I think a professional could help you not only to read your dog (and others) but to give you some strategies to manage this perfectly natural behaviour. In the meantime, keep him away from strange dogs. And call the behaviour what it is - aggression. Accepting that that's what you're dealing with is the first step to managing it. You're not alone. Plenty of dogs aren't welcoming to any and every strange dog that comes along. As I said mature entire males and other entire males definitely tend to be more explosive. Dog is desexed. I think i called it that in my opening post... Indeed. I was thinking the same thing. That aside, some good advice in this thread though.

Even the OP story doesn't live up to your high standards of "protection" DerRottweiler. So if you have a story go ahead and share, honour us dog owners who have dogs that merely growl or bark at strangers around their homes...even little 3 kg dogs that clearly trigger your contempt I'd love to hear about SuperDog... I'm just being realistic. I have tissues for all concerned parties that would like to have a sook.

lol @ some peoples definition of protect. Believe it or not, most dogs will not protect their owners. This is even true for the traditional 'guard' breeds. Barking/growling at some noise/people doesn't amount to protection. The dog isn't being stressed/pushed, it isn't having its nerve/courage truly tested. Oh and who cares if a small dog protects you, it isn't hard to hurt a small dog lol. Try standing somewhere in a corner and have a confident aggressive person approach you with a weapon (that they aren't afriad to use on you/your dog whilst kicking your dog). Let's see how many dogs protect then. Probably only dogs that have been bred for protection work and trained accordingly to cope with stressful situations. Just sayin...

Royal Canin Rottweiler mixed with Roo Mince. Sometimes cans of PAL lol. Sometimes home cooked food, such as rice with chicken and vegies (which is his fav). Chicken wings/pieces.

As Lo Pan says, it is a social thing and is not necessarily indicative of inherent evil, or mental disorder etc. Take for example, that Dog Fighting is common in most of Africa, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India etc. It doesn't mean they are evil, it means their definition of animal cruelty is different. Dog fighting does not come within the ambit of cruelty, just like, boiling lobsters alive or killing a cow doesn't come within the ambit of our definition....

haha. I hope the GSD took a good chunk out of his leg....as a permanent reminder of his stupidity.

I watched this a while back. It is pretty depressing to watch, but, that's reality. It needs to be stopped.

They did, albeit implicitly. You may see it as an innocent 'fear', funny enough, there are never threads by n00bs about fearing poodles or SWFs. Jus sayin.

I never thought I would say this, but I can understand where the OP is coming from. They are not judging an entire breed, they have a fear because of a bad experience. Fears are rarely rational and to tell them they are less than sensible because of their fears is not all that helpful. Yes they are. I'll use simple logic to demonstrate. 1: My dog was attacked by a Staffy. 2: Therefore all Staffys must be evil. 3: My neighbours have big evil Staffys- they must be evil. As you said, the fear is not a rational one, but it is breed bashing.....it never makes sense nor is it ever rational.

Seems to me you are judging an entire breed, just because of one bad experience. Sounds like you are creating a problem in your mind, where an actual problem probably does not exist. Be careful on how you address your new neighbour, don't want to get off to a bad start by assuming the worst of their dogs.

I went to the Lost Dogs Home in Melbourne the other day (a very very depressing experience). All the dogs I saw were a cross of some sort, I did not see any well-bred pure dogs (I'm sure some do end up there, but if my anecdotal evidence is worth anything, they'd be a small minority). Educating the public is the key.

I feed my dog a lot of kangaroo meat mixed with his kibble and he has remained pretty lean and healthy all his life.

I go for a short sprint session each night, only goes for around 15-20 mins, but much more effective/tiring then say 1 hour or more of walking lol.

lol yeah because we all walk around with guns and cattle prods.....

Still weird if you ask me, even as a joke.

That is disgusting and weird. Furthermore, you can't officially marry a dog Naomi, so no, you can't marry a dog, but at the same time not marry a person of the same sex.

lol @ Andrew Bolt. lol @ Hippies. Two extremes.....what ever happened to the middle ground?

lol You need to learn to multi-quote cuz. Assuming you don't prefer single posts. Click the '+quote' symbol you see underneath each individual post you want to quote, once you have selected all the posts you want to quote, click ADD REPLY down the bottom...and there you have it, a single post, quoting many posts.

I don't get why people do this. I recently caught this old lady hitting my dog on the face with an umbrella (which he managed to grab and tear, having been trained to deal with being hit with objects). When I confronted her, she said she was scared (but she could have easily just avoided him, instead, she aggravated him). I told her that if she does it again, I'll simply let him out (I won't, but I obviously don't want this lady hitting my dog). One of my dogs functions is protection- he is trained to do so. This is because I've had someone that tried to steal my cars on two occasions, on the third he was caught red handed, I won't go into details, but let's just say I gave my dog a big juicy steak that night. Yes I have an alarm system, but that is not an immediate deterent. My dog is only out at night, or when nobody is at home.

Out of curiosity, how did the other person work out the exact details of the dog? I've seen fights at the dog park before, people usually just leave and there is no way you can trace them. If i was in such a situation, I'd leave too.

I don't see how this amounts to dissent against the establishment? Dogs are not banned in Iran. Therefore owning a dog is not a form of dissent. Pretty superficial article that is politically motivated in substantitaing an apparently strong anti-Government movement within Iran, i.e hence amounting dog owernship with wearing a 'green wristband'. lol. The Shah is gone people, get over it!

It is all in the delivery, be stealthy about it. You want to lecture, without them realising they are being lectured.