Amax-1 Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 (edited) http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/police-dog-bites-melbourne-man/story-fn3dxiwe-1227017653616?nk=98066a6b5675dba9d92dc2824ea91502 A police dog was tracking on a long lead searching for an offender when the dog turned a corner where a civilian man was present and tried to pat the dog. The dog bit the man on the arm and hospitalised him the report concludes. The handler will have some explaining and some lengthy paperwork to complete for why the dog was in a position to bite a member of the public Edited August 9, 2014 by Amax-1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VizslaMomma Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 (edited) ......... Edited August 9, 2014 by VizslaMomma Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frufru Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 mmm do you think he asked before he patted??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelpiecuddles Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 What sort of silly person pats a working police dog. Probably pats guide dogs too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VizslaMomma Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 mmm do you think he asked before he patted??? Around a corner? The Police dog was on a long tracking lead. His handler was NOT on scene. Arrived after the fact Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VizslaMomma Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 I don't think you can really blame the victim here. The handler was out of sight and it probably didn't even occur to the person who got bitten, in the few seconds between the dog rounding the corner and patting it, that the dog was working and shouldn't be patted. Surely the onus here is on a trained police dog to not bite members of the public unless it's in the line of duty. What about the fact the Police dog was doing its job? He was seeking an offender and was in full drive to try to carry out his duty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VizslaMomma Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 It was doing its job but that doesn't make it okay for it to bite a random member of the public while doing that job. The person it but wasn't the person it was tracking and if it is likely to bite anyone who gets in its way, then it should never be allowed out of sight and control of its handler. I wonder if you have any concept of a working line of dog in full drive to carry out an order by its handler? The dog was on a long lead. That is allowed ( at this point) in terms of what the dog was doing. We do not know much more about the age of the dog, its time in the field. Might it need refining of its training? Possibily. Without having more info of all the facts, i would not offer more thoughts. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simply Grand Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 I don't think you can really blame the victim here. The handler was out of sight and it probably didn't even occur to the person who got bitten, in the few seconds between the dog rounding the corner and patting it, that the dog was working and shouldn't be patted. Surely the onus here is on a trained police dog to not bite members of the public unless it's in the line of duty. What about the fact the Police dog was doing its job? He was seeking an offender and was in full drive to try to carry out his duty. It was doing its job but that doesn't make it okay for it to bite a random member of the public while doing that job. The person it but wasn't the person it was tracking and if it is likely to bite anyone who gets in its way, then it should never be allowed out of sight and control of its handler. Exactly Snook! I agree it was kinda dumb of the man to pat the dog but who knows what the circumstances were. Chasing an offender doesn't justify a police dog, or police officer for that matter, injuring innocent members of the public. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simply Grand Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 (edited) It was doing its job but that doesn't make it okay for it to bite a random member of the public while doing that job. The person it but wasn't the person it was tracking and if it is likely to bite anyone who gets in its way, then it should never be allowed out of sight and control of its handler. I wonder if you have any concept of a working line of dog in full drive to carry out an order by its handler? The dog was on a long lead. That is allowed ( at this point) in terms of what the dog was doing. We do not know much more about the age of the dog, its time in the field. Might it need refining of its training? Possibily. Without having more info of all the facts, i would not offer more thoughts. Thanks I'm sure it's great comfort to the man who was bitten that the dog was in drive. And being on a long lead may be allowed but I highly doubt biting members of the public is! Edited August 9, 2014 by Simply Grand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VizslaMomma Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 I'm sure it's great comfort to the man who was bitten that the dog was in drive. Two sides to every story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelpiecuddles Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 I don't think anyone has said that it's fine and dandy that the bloke got bitten but I sure as hell wouldn't be sticking my hand out to pat a german shepherd(or any other dog) that popped around a corner attached to a long lead, especially one that would have had it's head down and been on a mission. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simply Grand Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 (edited) I don't think anyone has said that it's fine and dandy that the bloke got bitten but I sure as hell wouldn't be sticking my hand out to pat a german shepherd(or any other dog) that popped around a corner attached to a long lead, especially one that would have had it's head down and been on a mission. How do we know what the dog was doing? Maybe it was sniffing around trying to find a scent and the man had no idea it was in working mode. Edited August 9, 2014 by Simply Grand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelpiecuddles Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 I guess it's hard to judge without having actually seen the incident. I can't help but wonder whether the dog may have had it's head down and been very focused and the stranger has given him a rub on the shoulder blades or something and the dog got a fright and snapped. Who knows really, sometimes it would be so much easier if they could talk!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelpiecuddles Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 That was my point exactly SG, would you walk up to a german shepherd who's owner wasn't in sight and pat it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelpiecuddles Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 Saying the person who got bitten should have used more common sense isn't the same thing as saying it's OK he got bitten. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simply Grand Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 That was my point exactly SG, would you walk up to a german shepherd who's owner wasn't in sight and pat it? Depends on the circumstances. I wouldn't have under these circumstances. But I'm considerably more dog savvy than the average person, as are many DOLers. Plenty of people have very little knowledge and interaction when it comes to dogs and assume that all dogs are happy to be patted. We've all seen or heard of people doing dumb things around dogs and obviously a police dog is capable of doing some real damage so there needs to be a way of avoiding situations like this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amax-1 Posted August 9, 2014 Author Share Posted August 9, 2014 (edited) I don't think you can really blame the victim here. The handler was out of sight and it probably didn't even occur to the person who got bitten, in the few seconds between the dog rounding the corner and patting it, that the dog was working and shouldn't be patted. Surely the onus here is on a trained police dog to not bite members of the public unless it's in the line of duty. ETA: What if it was a kid that was standing around the corner and tried to pat the dog? I imagine the dog would have had the same response and that just isn't good enough. If the dog was on the offenders trail, it should have ignored the stranger (wrong scent), so it was probably on a random search for anyone and could have been possibly been dragging the long line and was some way in front of the handler. It was the handlers fault the man was bitten as he/she didn't have proper control of the dog in a public place where innocent people can suddenly appear. Police dogs are trained to bite with as much force as the dog can muster and to hang on.......so the poor man bitten is no wonder he was hospitalised by the injury. The handler will be on the mat for this error of judgement and won't be taken lightly internally. I wonder if you have any concept of a working line of dog in full drive to carry out an order by its handler?The dog was on a long lead. That is allowed ( at this point) in terms of what the dog was doing. We do not know much more about the age of the dog, its time in the field. Might it need refining of its training? Possibily. Without having more info of all the facts, i would not offer more thoughts. To certified as a police dog, it has to be able to abort an apprehension on command off leash and do it reliably, they will all abort as a priority training exercise to safeguard the innocent but having said that, if the handler looses sight of the dog as in this instance, biting an innocent person can happen. Edited August 9, 2014 by Amax-1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ams Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 I know of quite a few instances where officers have been bitten by a police dog after an offender has been apprehended. I know of instances where the handler has been bitten. Both dogs and handlers are still working so the repercussions aren't all that dire for either one. They are DOGS not MACHINES. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amax-1 Posted August 9, 2014 Author Share Posted August 9, 2014 (edited) I know of quite a few instances where officers have been bitten by a police dog after an offender has been apprehended. I know of instances where the handler has been bitten. Both dogs and handlers are still working so the repercussions aren't all that dire for either one. They are DOGS not MACHINES. Yes, many an officer at the scene has been bitten by a dog especially in the old days when mostly defence driven dogs were used trained in defence......they were pretty aggressive and if you got in their way the dog would often choose the closest person to apprehend and may not always be the bad guy. They are much better now days with improved training techniques allowed the use of more stable dogs. Handler aggression used to be caused by correction based training methods where some dogs in the height of fight won't take harsh corrections thinking that the handler is challenging them. Reward based training has dramatically reduced handler aggression issues from where they used to be in the old training methods. Some dogs in tracking are driven to track for a bite so good for apprehension of offenders, but not so good in search and rescue where the handler must be extra vigilant in maintaining control in tracking scenario. Edited August 9, 2014 by Amax-1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaz92 Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 It's interesting to read all of your comments regarding this, however - do not believe everything you read in the papers. My husband (the victim) did at no time attempt to pat the dog in question. He was walking on a public nature path when approached by a running dog. In surprise at seeing the dog, he muttered "Hello puppy!" at which point the dog lunged at his arm. The dog's handler was not in sight at this point, and caught up quickly - but the damage had already been done. He was simply a person walking in a public place who was attacked by a police dog. There was no attempt to pat or interact with the dog in any way. The police have issued the press release, as no-one from the media have spoken to my husband. He required 2.5hrs of surgery to repair the damage done to his arm and remained in hospital for 3 days. He does not hold the dog responsible for the incident (we are dog lovers & owners ourselves), but is now extremely disappointed with the police for their attempt to "cover their butts" by implying that the attack was in some way his fault. I wish to make no further comment, except to say that we are currently seeking legal advice before making a formal response to this slanderous claim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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