tobie

Everyone has a different opinion on what they think is ok and what they think is not and I am not going to lose sleep over anyone having a different opinion to me. Every dog and every situation is different but in general yes in my opinion it is very irresponsible to tell a child to take food from a dog as the slight chance that the child could get bitten is simply not worth it. Fair enough you can risk being bitten yourself if you beleive you can trust the dog but if your child was bitten was it worth it. I think everyone would agree that no it was not. Anyway I have kids to get to bed and animals to feed.

No Stonebridge I am not refering to your post I am simply replying to Poodlefans comments. I do not have the time to read everyones posts as I am looking after my young children all day and only skim over the forum when I have a chance and even then I have at least one bub hanging off me. I think there is a big difference between experienced dog people and the average person who has no idea about dog behaviour. The average inexperienced person are whom I am referring to.

Sadly many people do, they are the same people who PTS the dog for snapping after it has been run over by kid on a rideon toy, cut with scissors or had things jammed down its ears. We have people walking on this planet that believe a dog should put up with anything their kids dish out. Every year dogs die because of the unreal expectations we as a society have. Sadly I know all to well how stupid people are with there pets as I work in animal welfare and have done so for many many years but risking a child like that is just plain child abuse. Since having my own children and feeling so protective towards them I can't imagine risking there safety or even the life of my dogs as I'm sure my partner would kill them if they bit our kids. Gee, I might go let my 9kg baby take a bone off my 50kg dog and see if my dog sees her as the leader. I will let you know what happens.................Joke.

it means you don't mind if people break the rules and cheat just want to add I don't mind showing against any dog........ neutered, spayed, with a false tail, whatever.......... that is not my point, my whole objection to this is they're breaking the rules. I guess you are correct. It is cheating and overall I am against cheating as the line has to be drawn somewhere so that things are fair. You got me thinking and I thought that if I found out a dog had beaten my dog and I found out that the owner had cheated in some way I would be pretty upset because cheating is cheating and we all know the rules. I guess when it comes to showing and neutured animals I wish there were more oppurtunities for desexed dogs to be shown as I would prefer to desex my dogs as I do not want to breed. I really love showing but my bitch is a nightmare when she is in season and for months afterwards. Which could be avoided if she was desexed but I do not want to give up showing as it is fun and a great social event for us.

As this thread and others on the forum have demonstrated, there are people who think allowing a child to interfere with a dog's food reinforces the child's higher place in the pack order. IDIOTS. If only people would use there brains. What happens when this idea fails. The child gets bitten. I have seen enough idiot owners at my work but have never heard such a stupid and risky thing to do to a child. Dogs do not see young children the way they see adults. Sure enough the dog gets put to sleep or dumped at the pound.

Poodlefan I agree with everything you have said. Of course this could have been prevented and I can only imagine how badly this poor childs parents feel. I just can not even imagine the dumbest person on earth thinking it is ok for a child to play with any dog that is eating. This is just such a sad thing and I hope the media have it wrong as usual.

Just wanting to clarify that I would never do it as it is against the rules but I wouldn't care if others did it unless it gave the dog some kind of advantage against my dog which I don't think it would in my breed. Actually I'm not sure how I feel as I think it is dodgy if a big time breeder is doing it but if its a person with one dog thats just showing everynow and again for the fun and has no dodgy intentions I don't care. Is that hypercritical?

Cybergenuis I don't want an arguement, I think everyone is entitled to an opinion. I just feel very sorry for this child, family and dog. I deal with dog attacks all the time in my job and see how often the media get the report wrong and then people jump on the bandwagon making there own judgements. This is why laws were brought in banning certain breeds to satisfy the people making all the complaints. I think its wrong to kick people when they are down. This family must be going through hell and awful feelings of guilt. I just think if they were to read all these comments from people they do not even know that they would find this extremely upsetting when they are all ready going through enough. You have to remember the majority of people do not work with dogs nor have any knowledge of dog behaviour nor do they really care. I think education is far better than critisism. I have dealt with cases were very responsible dog owners have ended up in awful situations because of accidents. Imagine if your dog escaped your yard because the wind knocked the fence down and your dog was eating rubbish near where children were playing in a park and your dog bit a child. Who is at fault. Legally you are however do you think this makes you an irresponsible dog owner. I am interested in what you think because I would have to declare your dog dangerous if you were in NSW. Leaving you the option of your dog living in a Dangerous Dog enclosure which I do not beleive is very humane or you could opt to euthanise the dog.

It is unethical however I personally wouldn't care if the dog that my dog was up against was secretly desexed. Quite frankly if they do not intend breeding from the animal I don't think it matters if they are desexed or not. I wish we could show in any class with a desexed animal as I do not intend on breeding from my bitch but enjoy showing so I would prefer her to be desexed but can't if I wish to continue showing her. I wonder if more people would show there dogs if you were allowed to show desexed animals. Who knows it may be a way to get more people interested in showing.

I think that it's really sad that so many people instantly judge what has happened to this poor child, family and dog. For all everyone knows the parents could be responsible with the dog and child but a tragic accident simply occured. Anyone with children knows how easily children can get into trouble very easily before you have a chance to stop it. We all do our best to prevent and protect our kids but accidents do occur and sadly some accidents have really serious consequences. I can't imagine how that family must be feeling. And so many people get on here saying what awful parents and pet owners they must be. You should not judge without knowing all the facts. The problem with this world is that so many people think they know everything and are better than everyone else and awful things would never happen to them. I think this is why certain breeds get bad reputations because so many people judge and have no idea. My own dogs are well trained and I always supervise my children with my pets so god forbid anything like this would ever happen to my family and I pray that it never does. All I can say is I wish this family the best and I hope the child is ok.