Perth Woman Attacked By Her Own Dogs

[Deeds]

https://www.9news.com.au/national/perth-woman-attacked-by-her-pet-rottweilers/6e885056-77a1-40eb-9687-23451fc92d5c

[Amazetl]

I wonder what happened to start this. Were they playing and play turned into aggression? Were they guarding something? Was it possessive behaviour? Had there been any indications beforehand to her or anyone else? Where were they bred? What are their lines? So many unanswered questions. Would it be educational to behaviour test the dogs? Do they do that or do they just put them down and be done with it? Aggression has no place but it seems so quick that these dogs are destroyed and questions still remain. 

 

For instance just how many other people have dogs related to these dog lines? Just how many (petite) women (or children) have two really large powerful dogs like this? What would they be thinking right now as they cuddle their dogs. There should be some sort of review on why these things happen and how to prevent them. 

[Dogsfevr]

2 boys having a fight she tried to separate .

The dog shot there wasn't a choice .

 

You read on DOL all the time people asking about a second dog want same sex ,people on here fully support ,the people with knowledge point out management issues and being smart the do gooders come back with you won't have problems,ours got on great yadda yadda without understanding the breeds ,scenarios  & lifestyles people wnat to bring them too.

Small suburban yards ,rarely walked and management can be hard and some people won't accept it .
Sad part is the breed will get blamed & all the do gooders will come out of the wood work often the same ones that also suggest getting 2 same sex.


 

Edited September 20, 2023 by Dogsfevr

[Amazetl]

Very true about suburban yards and management.

 

Sorry, I was referring to how they were both later put down, not the shot during the attack. 

[tdierikx]

On 18/09/2023 at 6:39 PM, Dogsfevr said:

2 boys having a fight she tried to separate .

 

Our human instinct is to do something to stop such things, but sometimes it's just not possible if the dogs have entered that stage of intent to harm each other, or anyone/anything else entering the sphere of said fight.

 

As I have said before in other dog-human attack stories/posts, there is often some factor that led up to the outcome... nice to see that follow-up reporting is actually advising of some of those factors in recent reports - unfortunately most people will not read follow-up reports that "explain" what happened, rather focusing on the first report and yelling for bans based on no facts at all... grrr!

 

T.

[Amazetl]

There was more information too that when the neighbour was hitting the fence trying to help, one of the dogs was jumping up against the fence barking at him. So if the second dog was doing that, when did he start? Did he go back and forth attacking and then guarding at the fence? Or was he scared and confused and adrenaline driven? Things we won’t probably know. 

 

It’s so terrible, it seems they were close with their owner but whatever happened that day between the two dogs… did they know what they were doing? I don’t suppose it makes much of a difference. It would be good to learn the most effective way to stop it or not get involved etc.

[DogsAndTheMob]

Reports that at least one of the dogs continued to attack the owner until shot by police makes this seem very different from the typical dog fight to me. I’ve witnessed several dog fights over the years and even separated the dogs in a few fights. I know that dogs are adrenaline-driven in those circumstances and may accidentally bite people trying to separate them, but the only dog I’ve ever seen redirect towards its owner had severe temperament problems. To the contrary, I’ve seen dogs turn, snarling, towards the people separating them, then immediately switch into appeasement behaviour when they saw that they had snarled at people, not the dog they were fighting.

 

However, I don’t think Rottweilers or Rottweiler breeders generally should be held responsible and I wouldn’t rush to blame even the breeder of the dogs involved. There are so many other factors that may have led to this tragedy from simple lack of understanding of dog psychology to deliberate incitement of aggression (not necessarily by the owner).

[Diva]

My experience is pretty much the same as DogsAndTheMob.  Being redirected onto is just nothing I have ever had to worry about, and I have had big fast high prey drive dogs for 40 years. Including raising entire males together. 

The dogs in these attacks that not only bite their owners but maul and try to kill are so far out of my experience that they sound like a different species. And I will be up front and say it does make me very wary of their breeds, as well as wondering what else is going wrong to create these terrible outcomes. 
 

When I heard of this case I assumed she hadn’t owned the dogs for very long - but that isn’t the case at all. So I just don’t understand it. 

[tdierikx]

I'd had multiple male and female Rotties over the years who cohabited perfectly fine... until the 2 that decided not to... and neither of those 2 were purebred Rottweilers... in fact the main aggressor wasn't even the Rotti cross, it was the Labrador. Both were female and desexed.

 

I understand fully why the incident(s) between them started, and when they continued to hate each other, I made sure they were separated at all times. It's not really rocket science to realise that a problem won't fix itself, and when all attempts to retrain them to not hate each other don't work, separation is the only solution really. Rehoming was not an option in either case for me, as how could I choose which of my beloved pets would have to leave? For me, separation wasn't as onerous a task, as I live alone, so no chance of anyone making a mistake and letting them run together.

 

Unfortunately, not all pet owners are fully clued into signs that their pets may not be getting along as famously as they think... and then some major incident occurs, and the owners end up saying "there weren't any signs", but there probably were plenty of signs, just the owner didn't understand what those signs were until it all went pear-shaped.

 

T.