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Should ALL dogs be muzzled ?
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
............when out in public areas ?
When I was away recently we went to Fantasy Island just outside Skegness. Its a funfair with quite a large market. This place is very busy with thousands of people. Many people had dogs from little lap dogs to big alsations.
As we were walking round the market we saw a Husky, a very nice looking one to be honest. He was on a lead with his owners just having a pleasant walk around. Suddenly out of the blue a staffy just attacked the husky, that noise they made whilst fighting was terrible. Bear in mind as I said earlier its a very crowded market with lots of children.
The staffy would not leave loose of the husky and the growling was not very nice to hear, neither was it nice to see the blood on the huskys legs.
Eventually they did get the staffy off the husky and started walking away. The husky owner found a tooth on the floor and initially thought it was his dogs tooth but it wasnt it was the staffys.
So my question is :Should all dogs be muzzled when in public places especially places which are full of pedestrians ?
This scared the shit out of my 8 yr old Daughter, she was frightened in case we saw the staffy again. She does actually love dogs, but that episode really did give her a fright.
When I was away recently we went to Fantasy Island just outside Skegness. Its a funfair with quite a large market. This place is very busy with thousands of people. Many people had dogs from little lap dogs to big alsations.
As we were walking round the market we saw a Husky, a very nice looking one to be honest. He was on a lead with his owners just having a pleasant walk around. Suddenly out of the blue a staffy just attacked the husky, that noise they made whilst fighting was terrible. Bear in mind as I said earlier its a very crowded market with lots of children.
The staffy would not leave loose of the husky and the growling was not very nice to hear, neither was it nice to see the blood on the huskys legs.
Eventually they did get the staffy off the husky and started walking away. The husky owner found a tooth on the floor and initially thought it was his dogs tooth but it wasnt it was the staffys.
So my question is :Should all dogs be muzzled when in public places especially places which are full of pedestrians ?
This scared the shit out of my 8 yr old Daughter, she was frightened in case we saw the staffy again. She does actually love dogs, but that episode really did give her a fright.
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Comments
The rest shouldn't own dogs.
Also, in my opinion, you're making dogs look scarier than they are by forcing owners to have their dogs muzzled whenever they are outside.
The staffy just attacked.
And all cats should be muzzled as well. Every responsible rat supports this idea.
Exactly!
It's no the breed of dog that's important anyway it's the owners who have the biggest influence on a dogs temperament. I believe that the owner is responsible for the dogs behaviour - that means they must be responsible for whether the dog is muzzled or leashed. If they misbehave it's the fault of the owner - not the dog.
I'm quite confident taking my Staffy out on the forest without a lead or muzzle.
There are some people who are just plain scared of any dos. As far as I can see it's their 'problem' - not mine and certainly not my dogs problem.
So why do you think this staffy attacked ?
It had obviously walked round the market because where it happened was over half way round. There were many dogs there that day. The staffy just attacked, Im wary of dogs that are not on leads so walking round there I did not feel that i need to worry because the dogs were on leads.
Because animals are territorial. Dogs of the same sex will quite often confront each other and that's natural. It's the responsibllity of the owner to ensure that it doesn't misbehave.
I'm pretty sure my dog would involve herself in a fight if she met a certain type of dog and it's my responsibillity to make sure that doesn't happen. In built up areas it makes sense to keep the dog leashed for her own safety as much as any one elses. When I'm on the forest I let her run free and it's my responsibillity, I'm confident that I've trained her well. None of my dogs have ever let me down.
My point is that dogs need not suffer if the owner is responsible. We do not need laws to ensure that every dog is muzzled.
I get very angry when people comment on the breed of my dog and yet obviously no so very little about them.
But as I say both dogs were on leads. If your dog had a go at another in such an area I wouldnt actually blame you.....its not as though you would say 'have him'.
See what im saying ?
Both owners were probably looking at stalls initially, until they felt the dogs attack. So what im saying is in areas like this where there is a chance that a dog could attack another would it not be safer for everyone to have the dog muzzled?
I understand what your saying about the owners having influence on the dog and about the way a dog gets brought up but even when this happened they couldnt seperate the dogs immediately. I know dogs are territorial and dogs will confront each other, thats were early puppy socialising is a great asset for dogs.
Anyways another question you may answer (if you can). The staffy lost a tooth so as your probs aware it wasnt just a little bark at each other, how would that affect the dogs afterwards ? Would they be more prone to fighting in the future ?
As you have just saidi the owners wern't paying attention.
The responsibility lies with the owner. I am always fully aware when I have my dogs with me - just as I'd be aware if I had kids with me (for their safety and to make sure they behaved).
If I felt my dog was enough of a risk I'd muzzle it. If an owner fails to take appropriate precautions then the owner should suffer the consequences, not the dog.
If someones little kid misbehaves then I think he responsibility lies with the parents. I don;t see much difference. I wouldn't insist a kid is handcuffed and tied to it's parents at ALL times in public.
True, I hear what our saying. However, a kid wont scar someone for life like a dog could ?
yeh but it's the same principle in theory, dogs are curious little animals, i dunno how their minds work, one minute they're all cute and friendly, next minute they're screwing the local bitch or having a fight. maybe dogs are like humans, its all about competition, humans regularly pick fights for no reasons, i'm gonna shut up now cos i know nothing about dogs.
OK.
But a kid might do something to hurt or scar themselves.
The point is as an owner you should be as aware as a parent would be and situations like you descibed shouldn't occur.
My dog doesn't need to be muzzled just because some other owner fails to be responsible for their own dog.
It's like saying lets ban alcohol just because some people drink drive.
i think it is wrong to draw analogy with handcuffing humans because...
however, i would put restrictions on dogs in certain situations - if it's a really busy, public area with a lot of kids, like a market, i would welcome a ban on dogs rather than muzzling. i think a lot of dogs get quite stressed in situations like that.
my dog would get very traumatised with a muzzle on, so i'd rather leave her at home.
Kids cause thousands of pounds of damage every year in vandalism and petty crime. It's not every kid though is it?
Some kids have a tendancy to run away because somewhere they think it's a great idea. They might run into a road and cause an accident, someone's death even.
Dogs that are dangerous need to be muzzled. Owners should take responsibility. That staffy should probably be put down, what if it'd attacked a child?
You can't muzzle them all, it's just ridiculous. It's like saying all men between the ages of 14 and 25 should be locked away so they don't fall into the criminal culture.
Yeah, thats a good point.
Of course its not, but lets assume you have a Son/Daughter, you were like us just strolling round a market and suddenly a dog attacked another. Now what if my Daughter had been harmed in that situation ? We were right next to both dogs, she could have easily got caught up in it......I did get her away as quick as I could so she didnt get hurt, but what if ?
I dont walk in public places expecting to witness what I did and my point is that it shouldnt happen. As Kaff quite correctly pointed out maybe banning dogs from public areas as big as this would be the solution.
So dogs can't go in fields? or woods? Because they're bigger than where you were?
Perhaps instead of size you should have said populated. How about no dogs like no smoking?
Will you please read my posts and stop coming back with silly arguments. (as this) means public places like markets/funfairs like where this happened.
You didn't say that though, you said public places, which could mean anywhere.
Im talking about something that happened at a market where lots of children were. Ive stated that it was very busy so I thought you would be intelligent enough to understand that when i said meant exactly that and not mean fields or woods.
So exactly that size? Defined by exactly the number of square centimetres that were taken up by this market?
Size and population density are different things. Instead of being annoyed that I'm being so anal, why don't you discuss the suggestion I made, which is no-dogs like no-smoking, as some areas are less suitable for dogs than others. This already works in childrens playground for example.
Hold on, give me two hours or so and I will drive down and measure it for you
It was a large market with a large funfair. One of the largest markets in the UK apparently..........so work that one out for yourself.
My point is not how large it is or not, but that you're defining an area that dogs should be banned from by the size of where you were not by crowd density. If you got a section of countryside the exact same size as this place, you may not find more than three people in it.
but im not talking about the countryside. Sheesh you are really hard work.
I am very hard work. You didn't state that you weren't talking about the countryside. Which is why I suggested that population density or no-dogs like no-smoking would be a better measure than sheer size.
My boyfriends dog is alway geting attacked the vet has put this down to the fact he has not been castrated the dog can smell testosterone on the dog and thinks he wants to fights, it comes down to scents.
However on more than one occassion the dog has been attacked by dogs whos owners have had them off the lead or in one occassion, an owner had paid a group of children to look after a dangerous dog and he attacted my boyfriends dog, this to me is not always the dogs fault, its the owner who should be looking after the dog.
I do not agree that my boyfriends dog who is very harmless should be made to wear a muzzle, it reminds me of "lady and the tramp" it really is not fair and dogs who have been trained and well cared for should not be subjected to that.
However becky i do agree when it happens its awful, and something should be done to prevent it and to muzzle all dogs it would help slightly, but the chances are people with violent dogs may keep the muzzle off anyway meaning that there is no result anyway, to admitt it if an owner does not care if their dog atacks anoether they wont spend money to muzzle it!
in that case it was VERY negligent for the owners to take the dog there, surely it would be better to leave them at home, and to take them out later when they can run around properly. Its like when owners leave their dogs in parked cars, its so cruel, it would be better to leave them home with the radio on, and a drink, if they had a garden a dog flap would do the trick fine, why make the dog suffer because they want to be selfish?
yea she didn't state that she wasn't talking about the countryside but if you used your common sense then you'd realise what she was on about, sometimes people just argue back at something for the sake of debate, even if they know it goes beyond grounds of common sense, not saying you do it all the time, you've made alot of intelligent posts, just think before you start making a debate over something so trivial.