sandgrubber

That is really sick. I agree!!!! That is a really disturbing statement Try another scenario. The dog's owner has been robbed a couple times. He, rightly or wrongly, blames 'blackfellas'. Any time a dark skinned person goes by and the dog hits the fence, he tells the dog 'good boy', and he laughs when the local refugee community shows terror at his dog. The dog has been out on a few pig hunts, and has poor bite inhibition. Oops the gate got left open. If this is what happened, in my opinion the guy is guilty of both a hate crime AND murder (ok, involuntary manslaughter). Can't blame the dog. The above is just fiction, but, I think, more plausible than your scenario. PF is right . . . the owner is the problem. There are instances of dogs killing children, but it's almost always a child wandering into the dog's yard; occasionally some horrid result of not properly introducing the dog to the baby. I think you'll have a hard time finding even a single incidence in the dog attack statistics of a dog going into a neighbour's home, killing a child, and harming other people. That is absolutely unforgivable.

All the sadder cause the poor woman and family were refugees from a place where tragedy is everywhere. First a house fire, then the loss of a child, plus mauling of herself and another child. . . in a place she fled to because it was supposed to be safe. I hope she's getting the support she needs. Not a nice thought, but I wonder if the owner had trained his dog to go for dark skinned people. In my days in WA, I noticed that this was not uncommon (you can find it in some places in the US, too). p.s. I despise the habit of newspapers of inserting a stock photo of a dog in such stories. Would they insert a stock photo of a criminal into a story of a crime?

Working on it. Good. Didn't want to be accused of anthropomorphism, but my reading is 'grieving and lonely' more than separation anxiety. Dogs are social animals and some take the loss of a companion pretty hard.

Some reports say 125 lb woman and don't give the dog's weight. Methinks none of the reporters saw the dog and somebody got the facts confused. Then somebody else copied the error and soon it was all over the place.

Setting up a task force is a recommendation for business as usual, while tossing a worthless reward to some constituency. No teeth, and often bite inhibited to boot.

Not all animal testing is bad. Hope that good results here add to understanding, and eventually to better health for both dogs and humans. On the other hand, what sort of dick head would leave a dog on a burning-hot roof for 10 hours!!!! Poor dog . . . pads burned off . . . even nipples burned from trying to give the paws some respite from the burn. Then the sub-human a##-hole was brazen enough to leave the dog in a shelter. Shame!!!!

Deeply tragic. Not only has the guy lost his family, it must be crushing to have worked hard against BSL and then have this happen. Not to mention being the focus of media attention. Much as it would be good to have all the gory details, I think the guy's privacy needs to be respected. Sounds like a one-off to me, and, unless the necropsy turns up something wrong with the dog, I don't think there's much to learn from this horrible case.

Get her a friend?

Too true, I've just had someone telling me that SBT and APBT are basically the same breed Had someone on here argue exactly that same thing - however that APBT, AM Staff and STafford were all the same breed. Hope the truth is found soon. Poor family There will always be lumpers and splitters. That's taxonomy for you, whether you're dealing with Eucalyptus or molluscs, or dogs. And lumpers and splitters will always disagree. In a way, they're all the same. In another way they're all different. I'd say Americans have good reason to define the American pit bull. Here (in the US) we have the registered type, and the street-bred type. Far more or the latter. I find it moving that the husband puts no blame on the dog and will bury the dog's ashes with his wife. Unless, of course, he somehow engineered the whole thing (I've read too many detective novels) and it was actually a murder. But, as in the best side of a detective novel, you need to suspend judgement until the end. And understand that in the real world, it may be necessary to suspend judgement forever, cause no clear answers come out. But who gives a damn what us voyeurs think anyway?

I appreciate good recall. It's critical for retrieving . . . and for allowing the dog to go off line. Don't specially like the dog. I have nothing against tall, lanky Labs, and if you want to do dog sports, especially agility or jumping, with a Lab, I'd say they're great. But they are far removed from the original Labs . . . I suspect they come out of outcrossing done to get better performance in retrieving trials that included fence jumping, and where speed was critical. As for the 'old' part of 'old fat Labs'. All breeds get old. Labs are inclined to thicken with age. Attached are a couple shots of early Labs. Photography wasn't great at action shots in those days . . . so no surprise that they're oldies and stationary. But to the best I can figure out, the Lesser St. John's dog, from which the Lab was derived, was solidly built, and endowed to work in cold water. I've spent an hour trying to attach two .jpg files showing early Labs. I'm going to post this without them and try to put the photos in a second post. p.s. OMG the photos showed up in the post. The first is 'Nell', said to be the first photo of a Lab . . .1856. The second is BuccleuchAvon, 1885. Lab historians agree that Buccleuch Kennels was the central kennel in the establishment of the Labrador as a breed.

ops . . .didn't read carefully, he's a she . . . and it may be significant that the dog is papered. Who knows. The dog may be stunning and a good example of the breed. If this were my relative, I'd encourage her to do it right if she's going to do it. Do the tests, do a bit of showing, end up with a dog that merits being studded out, and might even bring in a good stud fee. And if the health tests show he's not fit to sire, off go the nuts, cause you don't want to end out sued . . . or shamed . . . for passing on hereditary diseases. Ditto others. Rottis are prone to serious hip and elbow problems, also entropian and ectropian. In OFFA stats, 40% of Rottis have OCD (third worst of all listed breeds) and ~20% have HD.

Thanks for posting this. Don't know much about the UK dog scene. Sounds like a great guy who did a lot of good for the dog world.

I agree that we should wait to see the coroner's report. . . . and the necropsy results on the dog. But I've never heard of the news source, and not ready to believe it over other, better established sources. If the ladder story is true, I don't understand why the husband isn't endorsing it? He loved the dog enough that he's having the dog's cremated ashes buried with his wife. If the dog is innocent and the police framed and shot his dog, you'd think he'd speak up. Especially, given his support of Bad Rap, etc. p.s. Clicking a few more buttons shows that examiner.com employs citizen reporters, and the woman who wrote the linked story is a pit bull advocate. She calls herself "Pit Bull Examiner". She doesn't live anywhere near the Pacifica CA, and is unlikely to have inside information other than that coming through pit bull circles. See: http://www.examiner..../cindy-marabito edited to add further information on story source

Just seem wrong to take a breed that was bred for a soft mouth and train it to bite and pull. Like putting staffies on a racetrack (ok, that's great for a laugh) . . . or having a daschund pull a cart (that would be pretty funny too). I know it can be done. I've had puppy buyers who allowed the Lab puppy to play run/chase in the land shark phase of puppy development and ended out with a dog that bites hard in play. I'm sure that 'get the bad guy' can be presented as play.

See what others are charging . . . raise or lower depending on the quality of the litter and how many inquiries I'm getting. Ie, like a typical capitalist.

How about, only breeds with <3% incidence in the latest statistics need to be tested? It doesn't fall along big/small lines. Some small breeds have awful scores, ie, pugs. OFFA lists six breeds as having <1% incidence of OCD. It would be silly to require elbow testing in these breeds. see: http://www.offa.org/stats_ed.html In general, I think the importance of testing is some product of the probability of the dog having the condition and how horrible the condition is, moderated by some factor describing the accuracy and expense of the test. HD/OCD, in my book, is pretty awful, but radiographic testing is only moderately good at predicting whether a dog will be clinically affected, inheritance is complicated, and the test is fairly expensive and intrusive.

I don't think the story is fishy. They're doing necropsies, etc. to make sure the dog wasn't rabid. The SF Chron is a reasonably good paper and I don't think they'd run the story if there were major doubts. http://pacifica.patc...-pregnant-woman See also the San Jose Mercury's coverage. http://www.mercurynews.com/san-mateo-county/ci_18671143 Pit bull mauling of pregnant Pacifica woman remains a mystery By Joshua Melvin and Lisa Fernandez A day after the family's pit bull fatally attacked his pregnant wife, Greg Napora said Friday he doesn't blame the dog. He even plans to bury his spouse, Darla, with their pet's cremated remains in her casket. "They are the most loving animals I have ever had in my life. Whatever happened right now was not the breed's fault," said Napora, who found his wife dead when he returned to the couple's Pacifica home from his construction job with plans to take her to lunch Thursday. "It was just a freak accident." Police shot and killed the dog, named Gunner, when they say he approached emergency workers, but Greg Napora said Gunner didn't charge them, as was reported by some media outlets. Horrified neighbors left flowers in front of the tiny white house on Reina Del Mar Avenue, where a "Beware of the Dog" sign hung from the fence. Darla Napora loved her dogs -- 2-year-old male Gunner and a 6-year-old female pit bull, Tazi -- family said, and was an avid supporter of Bay Area Doglovers Responsible About Pit bulls, or Bad Rap, which seeks to change attitudes toward the polarizing breed. She was also ecstatic about being pregnant with the couple's first child, said her mother, Sandy Robinson, of Seattle, who described Darla as the "heart of the family." "She was the one who held the family together," Robinson said. Greg Napora said he does not know why Gunner, who the couple had raised from a puppy, attacked his wife. Investigators also have no idea what may have led to the attack but hope an autopsy of Darla Napora and a necropsy of the dog will give them clues. Greg Napora said he left for work about 8 a.m. as his wife was asleep with both dogs in the bed. When he arrived home about noon, he found the dog standing over her body and made a frantic 911 call. Greg Napora declined to discuss what happened next, but police said his hands were cut while wrestling the dog into another room. Neighbors reported seeing him screaming and covered in his wife's blood as emergency crews worked to save her. Pacifica police Capt. Dave Bertini said investigators have some theories about what happened but are waiting for exam results, which they hope to have back in a few weeks. Police said, however, they have no reason to believe foul play was involved. "But you never know, so that is why we're waiting for the reports to make sure we didn't miss anything," Bertini said. Peninsula animal care officers took custody of the couple's other pit bull, Tazi, and are examining her as part of their effort to piece together the attack. Police said that dog was not involved in the woman's death. The two dogs may have had a fight, said Scott Delucchi, spokesman for the Peninsula Humane Society. But he said it was also possible that Gunner was provoked by something getting in the way of food or a toy he wanted. "We don't know what triggered this," Delucchi said. "Nobody knows." The family wants to get their surviving dog back as soon as possible. "Tazi is kind of our rock. Right now we need her back," Robinson said. "It's what Greg has left right now." ...

If the family member is into the macho thing, and the dog is big and muscly, I'd say 'good luck'. A Rotti breeder I know complains (or is it bragging) that he often gets approached by people with other 'tough' dogs . . . mostly mastiff crosses . . . to use his dogs. He's a Pedigree fanatic, and tells them to shove it. Unfortunately, someone who doesn't give a hoot about Pedigrees and doesn't health test . . . and sees the dog as an extension of his masculinity, is likely to think it's cool to sire a lot of pups. If I were you, I'd push on health testing, though.

It looks to me like Duke has been taught "Protection" as a game (tail wagging, no barred teeth). This is the only way you should be able to get a Lab to approach such things. The Lab's job in society, and the widespread love the breed inspires, are associated with gentleness. . . . I hope Duke is a one off and doesn't start a trend. As for the associated links, the 'Terriable Lab Attack" (of a stuffed animal) is more typical.

I only wish that the 20 year lifespan was the norm, not the exception. We could breed for longevity if we had anything to go by. Why doesn't the Pedigree keep track of deaths as well as births? I know it's hard. But I'd love, when choosing what dog to use, or what pup to buy, to be able to look back through the grands and great-grands and see whether the lineage was long lived or short lived. It really pissed me off to realise that the Canine Assn' has thousands upon thousands of dead dogs on their books and doesn't seem to care. edited immediately to fix oversight.

I think it's outright cruel. Poor dogs are obviously hungry. Teasing them so for human amusement is awful.

For some opinionated commentary and juicy background, see: http://pedigreedogsexposed.blogspot.com/2011/08/facebook-ghosts-and-ghouls.html

I answered N/A to all questions. Health testing and showing are not the only criteria for quality dogs . . . what about working dogs? What about temperament? It matters a lot to me what the facilities are like, and how many people are around to look after the pups. Some show people do some awful things to win shows . .. despite lots of health testing. I don't much trust the regulators . . . and think we have to be careful about what we ask for.

More and more DOL posts center around a YouTube link or other video clip. I have a slow, wireless connections. The phone company calls it broadband, but it's slower than dialup most of the time. I find these links frustrating. Just curious to know if others are having this same problem. Misery loves company .

An interesting concept and it certainly would be of great benefit to a stressed child but I can also see "the can of worms" and a potential bias issue. Although not ALL jurers would be dog lovers so the impact would be divided I guess. One would need to take this into account when selecting a jury. I thought children didn't have to testify in a courtroom situation because of the undue stress and could be hooked up via a video testimony????? I don't understand the need for testimony in an open courtroom. If the father raped and impregnated his daughter, there should be DNA evidence. But given the system felt a need for testimony, I can see why the girl would need all the emotional support she can get. I'd say that Rosie wasn't a bias, but rather a counter bias for the inherent trauma of a girl having to testify against her father.