Dog bites

[dazie]

I know several of us in here have been bitten by dogs at one time or another.

If you know, what breeds have bitten you?

I ask this because I went to look at a mobile home park today, as a short term living arrangement solution.  They only allow one pet, so that knocked us right out, but then the lady asked what kind of dogs we have.  I said "German Shepherd and Great Dane."  She said that they don't allow German Shepherds anyway, or any Pit Bulls.

WTF.  I have been bitten by poodles, chihuahuas, and corgis but never in my life (and this included several years of kennel work) have I been bitten (in anger) by a GSD, a pit, a rottie, a doberman, a dane or any other "vicious" dog.  Yes- Goosey "bites" me all the time, but it's more of "Hi Mom!  Let's play!" than anything else.

As we drove away I was fuming, and Kate wanted to know why.  I explained to her that the lady basically said the canine equivalent of "all black people steal" or "all people from Mexico are lazy."  Once she understood- she said "Well that's just stupid."

[nishi]

i've always been bitten my mutts, but that says more about the company i keep than anything else....

we have an ordinance (currently much contested here) that names pits and german shepherds (as well as a few others that i don't remember) as dogs who have a higher rate of historical biting. my guess is that it's because of the kind of people that tend to own dogs that are trained, at times, to either attack or fight.

the only purebred pits i have met personally have been very sweet; likewise shepherds. but because those breeds have been so HEAVILY overbred, there are some bad strains and you end up with some dicey dogs owned by dicey people.

i'm not in any way saying that i agree with either our ordinance or with that person you were talking to. but the breeds that were singled out for our ordinance were named because they were the breeds most frequently named when someone ended up at the doctors' or the hospital with a dog bite. my brother is still missing a noticeable chunk of his calf because of a german shepherd bite.

it makes me sad, because i love shepherds especially.

on the other hand, the people that live behind me own a polish shepherd - which is the spitting image of a german shepherd, i don't know what the exact differences are - and i would bet a great deal of money that if so much as one of my fingers was over the fence, it would be bitten off.  she's very sweet and EXTREMELY territorial. she was getting a little bit better, but they adoped a new puppy and she has become, if anything, even more fierce in order to protect the puppy. it's a little unnerving.

my guess is that little dogs - chihuahuas, poodles, all that - bite more often, because they're more highstrung, but they don't do nearly as much damage, and so people don't end up going to get stitches. if a big dog bites you, you've got a problem.

[dazie]

I think I'm going to say I have an "Alsatian" instead of a GSD.  Same dog, one's the Brit name, one's the name everybody else uses. 

[nishi]

perfect!!!

[ReBurn]

I've been severely bitten by a chihuahua, a german shepherd, a black lab and a bulldog. The chihuahua bit me when I was a baby and it required my lip to be stiched back together.  The black lab bit me when I was five. I climbed over a fence and the dog attacked me, requiring twelve stiches and a skin graft to my side. He tossed me like a play toy. The german shepherd and the bulldog attacked me at the same time. I was about 8 and I was getting my dog out of a neighbor's yard so that he wouldn't get attacked. I had just gotten him out and was closing the gate when the guy opened his door and let the dogs out. The bulldog grabbed my arm and I got a puncture wound that required 6 stitches. The german shepherd grabbed me by the leg and dragged me. That left three holes that required about 20 stitches total to close.

I have scars from all of the incidents.

[BigDun]

My wife was bit in the face by a Dalmatian. The dog was just sitting with her owner on the front steps of their house and my wife looked into its eyes and it leapt up and bit her. Fortunately, it missed my wife's eyes and the wound didn't require stitches.

[Alice]

I've never been bitten by a dog, other than puppy bites when we had the 8 puppies around for a few months.

*knocks on wood*

[swolt]

I got bitten by a little black dog when I was little. I have no idea what it was. I was being mean to it and I know I deserved the bite. I don't even remember what I did, I just knew I had deserved it.

I had a German Shepard several years ago. She was very sweet and I don't think she would have ever hurt anyone.
She caught a bird and choked on it. I tried to give her mouth to nose (like I had seen on ER) and rushed her to the animal hospital but she didn't make it. That is why I don't know if I'll ever own a dog again, because I know if I had been paying attention she wouldn't have died.

[Beefy]

German Shepard attacked me when I was a kid.  Ripped my face up.

[meredith]

Never had a dog bite - well a real bite.  And I've pulled apart a few fights in my time.

[nishi]

considering how many dog fights i've broken up, it's astounding i haven't gotten any bites requiring stitches. big puncture wounds in a couple of instances, but that's it.

being bitten on the face was probably one of the 5 scariest things that has ever happened to me.

[Gamplayerx]

I've never been bitten by a dog.  Little boy got his face bit off by a german shepherd in front of me when I was little.  My boss owns a bunch of mobile home parks.  German shepherds, pit bulls, rottweilers and chows are not alllowed.

[Alice]

Chows are some mental dogs.

[JJ]

A guy I know (I've talked about him here before) got his face ripped up by a dog real bad when he was about 2 years old.

He gets more girls than you can possibly imagine.

[nishi]

German Shepard attacked me when I was a kid.  Ripped my face up.

A guy I know (I've talked about him here before) got his face ripped up by a dog real bad when he was about 2 years old.

He gets more girls than you can possibly imagine.

hmm.

[Alice]

German Shepard attacked me when I was a kid.  Ripped my face up.

A guy I know (I've talked about him here before) got his face ripped up by a dog real bad when he was about 2 years old.

He gets more girls than you can possibly imagine.

hmm.

[Jessie]

German Shepard attacked me when I was a kid.  Ripped my face up.

A guy I know (I've talked about him here before) got his face ripped up by a dog real bad when he was about 2 years old.

He gets more girls than you can possibly imagine.

hmm.

Pimpin!

I was bitten by a black lab when I was 15 or 16.  He ripped two holes in my thigh.  Thank god I was wearing jeans, or I probably would have had some serious damage.  I ended up only needing a few stitches.  He was mad at me for taking my girl dog in the house, because she was in heat. 

My brother had the tip of his nose ripped off by a collie.  The dog jumped up and caught him on the bridge of the nose and inside of his top lip.  That was pretty scary.  We'd known that dog for years, too.  I don't think we ever knew what prompted that attack.

The same brother was bitten on the ear when we were really little.  I think it might have been a dalmation, I just remember him being big and white.  I think my grandparents had him put to sleep.  He must have been a really aggressive dog, because they LOVED their animals.  I was really little when that happened, so I might not be remembering it right.

Now, my mom's daschund has bitten me and Timothy, and would rip your arm off if she could.  She's a real bitch if she doesn't know you, doesn't like you, or you move too fast around her.  She's little though, so it just leaves a nasty bruise.

Timothy's grandma had a Rottie that was the absolute sweetest dog ever.  When the cat had kittens, she tried to nurse them, and then would carry around a stuffed animal and mother it while they were around.  She was awesome.

[VikingJuice]

I've never been bitten by a dog but I've been hit on a by a bunch of them!!