Pittbulls kill 2 year old and 5 month old

[TripleThreat]

Two young children are dead and their mother suffered major injuries after two family dogs attacked a baby and toddler outside their West Tennessee home.Kirstie Bennard, 30, suffered critical injuries when she tried to intervene in the attack on her 5-month-old boy, Hollace Dean, and 2-year-old girl, Lilly Jane, family and police said.

"She put her body on top of Lilly’s to try and protect her after the attack started," Bennard's uncle by marriage, Jeff Gibson told USA TODAY on Saturday. "Both (dogs) started attacking her while she lay on Lilly."The two children were pronounced dead when officials arrived at the home, the sheriff's office reported.

It was not immediately known what provoked the mauling.The mauling, Gibson said, lasted about 10 minutes.The dogs – two pit bulls that belonged to the family – were euthanized at Memphis Animal Services Thursday.

The family owned the pets, Cheech and Mia, for more than eight years without a violent incident, Kelsey Canfield, the mother's best friend, told Fox News.

"I can promise you those children were her world, and if there was any inkling of danger, she would have never had those dogs near her kids," Canfield told the outlet. "Those children were everything to them, and they just have a really long journey ahead."

Full Article: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ng/8219201001/

How do you feel about PittBull's? I posted this because my wife shared this story with me and my son was just recently participating in a "read to sheltered dogs" event where you could adopt a dog (I know brilliant).

I've heard the arguments that PittBull's get a bad wrap, but it seems time and time again they are the focal point of dogs who do these horrible acts.

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Yeah - I over-research the hell out of most things and really thought I had done so with my rot. But I still hadn't really prepared myself for him.

Grand champion lines from serbia; spectacularly bred dog (Thunder Mountain actually breeds his littermate as one of their two dams). But he's the alpha from the litter and comes from REALLY high drive lines. So he's very very affectionate but it can be on his own terms sometimes. He's not a dog who, when he's laying down, you oughta walk over to him and rest your head on him like he's a pillow.

We've trained him to simply walk away in those situations where he's uncomfortable, but there's not a ton you can do to get rid of the underlying drive. And you can't come down hard on him for growling either because that's how he communicates - if you train a dog who gives those little guttural grumbles not to do it - he won't. And that doesn't mean anything other than he's simply not gonna warn you before he gets pissed off.

I spent a solid 18 months trying to hammer a square peg into a round hole with mine and it got to where myself and the dog openly loathed each other. It wasn't a path to continue down. But once I learned how to guide him and allow him to still have agency (because he's still a sentient being; free will is still a thing there), I understood better how to train him.

Now he's my freakin' shadow; dog loves the hell out of me. But it took some doing and a completely different approach than what I'd done in the past.

Gotta put the work in with dogs like those.

And I also think my Rot is different. We have a couple folks on the board with dogs from this breeder and from different lines (mine was their first european breeding) and they're evidently super sweet. Dogs have personalities of their own - it just is what it is.

Did you get him as a pup ? A one year old can be a little harder to get under your belt but getting an 8-12 week old pup generally has no compatibility issues.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Bob Dole

I had a Radio Ranch Rottie back from 90-96 then lost her in the divorce. First dog I owned that wasn't a bird dog and a lot harder to train.

Exactly.

I finally figured out that bird/sport dogs listen/learn because they want to. A high drive working dog is going to listen/learn because he realizes its in his best interests to do so. The desire to please w/ a sporting dog is orders of magnitude higher. Once they understand what you're trying to tell them, they'll move heaven and earth to get it right.

With working dogs, they'll understand what your saying and still kinda think "eh - why the **** should I do that?" So you have to be insanely consistent with enforcement/incentive and over time they'll stop questioning the 'why' of it and settle into a really good equilibrium. And at that point I find them easier to train than sporting dogs because they have better focus and a better attention span.

I didn't necessarily think one was any harder than the other once I understood the necessary distinctions in approach. But man, they really couldn't be much different.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Hog's Gone Fishin

Did you get him as a pup ? A one year old can be a little harder to get under your belt but getting an 8-12 week old pup generally has no compatibility issues.

Yup - 8 weeks old.

He was fine until about 9 months old and the testosterone kicked in. And since I'd been training him like a sporting dog to that point, I wasn't prepared for him to hit a rebellious streak. When he did, we were simply at loggerheads. There was a genuine confrontation about every day and I stupidly started seeking them out to 'break' him of it.

My own fault - I needed to be a more versatile trainer. It was a situation where I thought I knew everything there was to know but I clearly did not. I will openly concede that I ****ed that up and set myself back probably a full year.

At this point, however, I'm convinced you could give me a 9 year old wild timberwolf an I'd be able to whip it into shape.

[Red Dawg]

Originally Posted by Easy 6

Pitbulls make up less than 6% of the dog population, yet are responsible for more than 80% of dog related human fatalities in the US

I don't give a damn what anyone says, I wouldn't trust one of those ****ing dogs for one second

This. Kill them all.

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

My STUD Rott retrieved better than my Yellow lab. LOL

He was so loyal. I could put him in the back yard and give him the "SIT" command by hand signal. Go in the house and come back out 30 minutes later and he'd be sitting right there with his tough hanging out waiting for me.

[Hammock Parties]

has anyone ever had a pit jump a fence and attack their dog?

i live next door to a pit and he plays with my hound, running up and down a chain link fence...he's never tried to jump the fence and i don't think he would, but i'd never forgive myself if i just let them play and bark at each other and one day the pit snapped, jumped the fence and killed my hound

i know pits can jump out of the gym

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

Originally Posted by Hammock Parties

has anyone ever had a pit jump a fence and attack their dog?

i live next door to a pit and he plays with my hound, running up and down a chain link fence...he's never tried to jump the fence and i don't think he would, but i'd never forgive myself if i just let them play and bark at each other and one day the pit snapped, jumped the fence and killed my hound

i know pits can jump out of the gym

You should employ the classic antifreeze bowl of chicken for him to snack on.

NOT financial advise!

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Hog's Gone Fishin

My STUD Rott retrieved better than my Yellow lab. LOL

He was so loyal. I could put him in the back yard and give him the "SIT" command by hand signal. Go in the house and come back out 30 minutes later and he'd be sitting right there with his tough hanging out waiting for me.

Not surprised at all. My daughter and I walk to school when the weather is nice and she walks him out there. I'll take him off lead on the way back. Our house is on the water and the dam is about 500 yards from our place. So I put him in a sit on the damn and walked the rest of the way home. Went inside, put his stuff away, made some coffee and a breakfast sandwich. Went back outside to my deck and there he was, still sitting on the far side of the dam looking at the house. I shouted a 'free' call and he was off like a shot back to the house and up the stairs. Came right to his heel position and sat by my leg.

Working dogs are exceptionally attentive and you can do really great things with them when you figure them out. But you have to realize that their brains are in many ways like a muscle - you've gotta get them using parts of it that they aren't hard-wired to use. The biggest hurdle is impulse control.

So an exercise that I recommend for anyone is a delayed gratification drill. Find their absolute favorite treat (for us its pepperoni). Put them in a sit and then stand with the treat open palmed in front of you at chest height. Bring it down slowly and when they make a move for it, close your hand around it. Don't say anything - let them figure it out. Let them nose and lick for however long it takes before they give up. They'll sit back down and look at you when they do.

Once that happens, start moving it back down again with an open palm. Move slowly (like, a foot every 20-30 seconds) until you get to their eye level. At eye level for them it's gonna be hard for them to maintain their sit and if he jumps at it again, close your hand, come back up, rinse repeat.

Over a week or so you'll get to where you can take that all the way to their nose and they won't lunge. Then you teach them a 'look' command so they lock eyes and hold it until you release them. And when you do, they get the treat. Over time you make them hold that look longer and longer until you can get them stock still, ignoring the treat and looking at you for a command for at least a minute. I can get a pretty much indefinite look/hold at this point.

It makes them focus so much on their impulse control. And you do that drill with them for a month and you're working that 'muscle' in their brain to where they eventually become capable of doing exactly what you're saying. Mine will sit and stare at his food bowl for 20 minutes until I yell 'take it' from wherever I am in the house. Because I worked the hell out of his impulse control.

But the bottom line is that if you have a working dog that ISN'T a high drive dog, you probably don't have a very good working dog. Those lines aren't going to be very good. So you need to understand how to work with and train a dog like that.

They're just very different.

And if you're not someone that wants to deal with all that - cool. I ain't mad at ya. Just get yourself a sporting dog. You're probably never going to get the kind of focus you can get from a working dog, but the barriers to entry on training one of those is essentially non-existent because they want so badly to please their owners.

[loochy]

Ban assault pit bulls

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

Making me want to get another ROTT! Stop it Mr. DJ's Left Nut!

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by Hog's Gone Fishin

You should employ the classic antifreeze bowl of chicken for him to snack on.

NOT financial advise!

he seems like a good dog but now, i just don't know

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

Originally Posted by Hammock Parties

he seems like a good dog but now, i just don't know

He's a timebomb waiting to explode. Take care of it NOW!

[frozenchief]

Originally Posted by BryanBusby

Can only go off the report here, my man. But, it happens.

German Sheps are cool ass dogs but my wife wants another baby so there's just no way in hell there will be one in this house.

Shepherds are well-represented on the dog fatality list but they are also used extensively as police/protection/guard dogs. I have not seen any breakout of how many fatalities are from pets compared to working dogs.

And I’ve had a couple of mastiffs. They were great, loyal dogs and really mellow. Surprised to see that they are a breed of concern. Maybe mine were outliers but all they wanted to do was lie around the house, although they were really protective. Neighbor across the street had a pit that came into the street barking at my daughter and my mastiff came barreling down barking at that pit. I think those barks registered at the Tsunami warning center. But he was just the most loyal, faithful, mellow dog I have ever had and I’ve never heard of them being aggressive.

But it is odd how such a large percentage of fatalities can be attributed to one breed of dog that is such a small portion of the population. It’s like propensity for violence is a genetic trait or something.

[GloucesterChief]

Originally Posted by Hammock Parties

has anyone ever had a pit jump a fence and attack their dog?

i live next door to a pit and he plays with my hound, running up and down a chain link fence...he's never tried to jump the fence and i don't think he would, but i'd never forgive myself if i just let them play and bark at each other and one day the pit snapped, jumped the fence and killed my hound

i know pits can jump out of the gym

Had my Pitt jump my fence to go play with my neighbors kids. He is a little dumb, can really have only one thought in his head at a time, but damn if he isn't the friendliest dog I have ever seen. No signs of aggression even when other dogs are being mean to him.

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

Curios how big are Mastiff terds ?