Reasons for owning large, dangerous dogs in the city?

[JK400]

So I was walking down my Toronto neighbourhood the other evening, and off one of the side streets comes about a 5 foot tall, 40 year old woman who looked like she weighed about 120-130 pounds. She was holding one dog that sort of looked like a pit bull only it was larger (had a muzzle on) and another large beast of indetermined breed that looked like it could bench press more than I can, and I'm a fairly strong dude. She was about 20 meters in front of me when her dog (without the muzzle) turns around, starts barking wildly and begins dragging the owner in an attempt to reach me. The good news is she managed to keep it under control until I took a detour on my walk.

This got me thinking though...what purpose is there of owning these large, dangerous dogs in a city? The situation I described above is as about as passive aggressive as you can get, and I'm sure that lady and her dog are scaring, annoying or possibly even injuring innocent members of the public. I can't imagine the dog is very happy either. It looks ferocious and angry when being on a walk and I'm sure it's frustrated when it's inside the house as well. If the argument here is for protection...well the sad thing is, a dog isn't going to stop someone who really wants to do damage to you or your property, period. You're more likely to end up having these beasts attack an innocent member of the public and have it taken away before it has any chance to be used as self defense. So what's the point? What's going through these people's heads?

[jandumm]

I think your posts all over the forum make it pretty clear that you've had some run-ins with some dogs and generally don't like dogs too much. Starting a "dog hatred thread" last year sums it all....We get it...you don't like dogs.

It's getting a bit old though - I don't think you're starting this thread to have a reasonable discussion....so I hope people don't bother trying to reply to you.

Evidence below......

http://forums.redflagdeals.com/dog-h...thread-997981/
http://forums.redflagdeals.com/merge...wtf-1168465/2/

[JK400]

Yeah, whatever. If you don't have anything to add to the discussion it's YOU who shouldn't be posting anything, instead of digging up posts that are roughly two years old. FWIW I don't really care for dogs either way, and I expressed myself wrong in the "dog hatred thread" (which is almost two years old now, seriously). I should have titled it "irresponsible dog owner hatred thread", don't really care about the dogs either way, it's the irresponsible dog owners who are causing the problems.

[Narci]

Don't hate the dog, hate the owner.

[JK400]

Don't hate the dog, hate the owner.

That's what I just said. I realized I made a mistake by judging the dogs (listen to that, "judging a dog", it even sounds stupid) and I'm big enough to admit I made a mistake by blaming the dogs instead of their owners who are to blame.

Please ignore thread derailers like jandum and refrain from bringing up 2 or 3 year old irrelevant posts. If you want to discuss the topic at hand great, if not please save your comments. Thanks.

[amz155]

This got me thinking though...what purpose is there of owning these large, dangerous dogs in a city? The situation I described above is as about as passive aggressive as you can get, and I'm sure that lady and her dog are scaring, annoying or possibly even injuring innocent members of the public. I can't imagine the dog is very happy either. It looks ferocious and angry when being on a walk and I'm sure it's frustrated when it's inside the house as well. If the argument here is for protection...well the sad thing is, a dog isn't going to stop someone who really wants to do damage to you or your property, period. You're more likely to end up having these beasts attack an innocent member of the public and have it taken away before it has any chance to be used as self defense. So what's the point? What's going through these people's heads?

You sure about all that?.

You are making a lot of assumptions and then asking for reasons why your assumptions exist. There are many reasons people choose to own dogs. There are many reasons that people continue to own dogs with behavioural issues. I wonder why people bother to acquire certain breeds but really its none of my business nor anybody else's.

[JK400]

You sure about all that?.

You are making a lot of assumptions and then asking for reasons why your assumptions exist. There are many reasons people choose to own dogs. There are many reasons that people continue to own dogs with behavioural issues. I wonder why people bother to acquire certain breeds but really its none of my business nor anybody else's.

Yeah...you took my post out of context, then only highlighted the assumptions and left out the parts where I justified my assumptions, real cute. Like I said, if you don't have anything worth saying...

And it is my business if the dog is trying to get at me and intimidating me. Who the hell are you to say what's my business and what isn't anyway?

[Narci]

That's what I just said. I realized I made a mistake by judging the dogs (listen to that, "judging a dog", it even sounds stupid) and I'm big enough to admit I made a mistake by blaming the dogs instead of their owners who are to blame.

Please ignore thread derailers like jandum and refrain from bringing up 2 or 3 year old irrelevant posts. If you want to discuss the topic at hand great, if not please save your comments. Thanks.

You got all that from my short post?

I don't know you. I have never seen you post.

Your jumping to assumptions about my post.

The point of my post was that owers need to take responsibility for training the dogs thay have.

Any breed can be agressive if not trained properly. I've been attacked and actually bitten by small dogs and big dogs equally.

[JK400]

You got all that from my short post?

I don't know you. I have never seen you post.

Your jumping to assumptions about my post.

The point of my post was that owers need to take responsibility for training the dogs thay have.

Any breed can be agressive if not trained properly. I've been attacked and actually bitten by small dogs and big dogs equally.

You're damn right I'm jumping to assumptions. Can't trust the trolls who hang out on the pets forum (by the looks of it, this place is dead and just a breeding ground for trolls and should probably be closed).

Anyway join the club in being bitten by a wide variety of dogs, but that isn't the point of the thread. Please refrain from 'pulling a jandumm' by derailing the thread. Thanks.

[Narci]

You're damn right I'm jumping to assumptions. Can't trust the trolls who hang out on the pets forum (by the looks of it, this place is dead and just a breeding ground for trolls and should probably be closed).

Anyway join the club in being bitten by a wide variety of dogs, but that isn't the point of the thread. Please refrain from 'pulling a jandumm' by derailing the thread. Thanks.

Your pretty funny..troll..derail..the only one derailing is you by making assumptions about my first post on this thread.

I didn't even read jandumms post before posting.

[zonetbh]

I can't think of one. I love large dogs and will have one later in life when I live in butt***** nowhere because im old and annoyed with the traffic and busyness of the city. However as long as I live in Toronto, I won't be owning a dog. I'll never be able to afford a 10 million dollar home that has a huge backyard and is 2 minutes from a subway line, so its just never happening. Its not fair to the dog or me to have a big dog in a little house in Toronto, in my opinion.

[amz155]

Yeah...you took my post out of context, then only highlighted the assumptions and left out the parts where I justified my assumptions, real cute. Like I said, if you don't have anything worth saying...

And it is my business if the dog is trying to get at me and intimidating me. Who the hell are you to say what's my business and what isn't anyway?

You should take your own advice

Or keep going on and on....it's quite amusing watching your irrational reactions to everyone's posts. May you cross paths with many large dogs today so that you can piss and moan about it later.

[hagbard]

Dogs have more rights than humans. You can thank the political power of dog owners for that.

[jenblaze]

I live downtown and in my area is a large rottweiler who walks with a muzzle on. He looks extremely intimidating, but it's probably one of the more gentle dogs I've seen. The dog's never bitten anyone/anything ever, but the owners put a muzzle on him so other people walking past him feel a bit safer (they've been heckled by strangers for no reason). The point is that you can't write off the breed/size of the dog simply because they have a bad reputation.

Dogs are companions. People who own dogs, love them like family. To say that just because you live in the city, you shouldn't own a large breed dog is ridiculous. Large breed dogs can thrive in a city environment, as long as you give them lots of exercise and training. In my local dog park the dogs get lots of socialization and exercise. I personally feel that living in the city my dog gets more socialization with various people and dogs than in my old suburb that had no off-leash parks nearby.

Perhaps the dogs you saw were rescue dogs, and the "angry" one was overwhelmed (due to lack of exposure). I get that some people are afraid of large dogs, and in a city environment are harder to avoid. I just don't think it's fair to pass judgement on the owner or the dog, before knowing the situation.

You also have to remember that you are posting in a PETS forum, where several people own and love dogs. You can't expect to post generalized angry posts and not expect people to get upset.

[cheaper_than_cheap]

"Dangerous dogs" come in all sizes, not just large. There's not much valid reason to own a "dangerous dog" unless you're in the process of rehabilitating it, IMHO. Whether you're in the city or not is irrelevant.

The BEST thing for you to have done in that situation would have been to take 10 minutes and ask the owner if she would like some help getting the dogs more used to strangers. Then you would approach and/or walk past a few times while she practices keeping the dogs calm. You leaving the situation while they're in that excited/aggressive state is a reward for them and just compounds the problem.

Another $0.02, which you probably won't like - if you're seeing this kind of behaviour a lot, maybe you need to look in the mirror as well? If you are tense and staring at the dog expecting it to go ballistic, they can sense that and it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Dogs have an uncanny ability to sense how you feel about them.