Hey Woofa’s,

Yesterday there was a story of an American Staffordshire Terrier Attack.

This story concerns me on many levels, I recently read that in our Town alone 160 Staffies were registered by Council, they are one of the most popular dog in our area.

Many of my friends have Staffies, including myself.   And it goes without saying as a dog lover, any dog attack has me asking many, many questions that usually go unanswered.

In this story it was the son’s dog who turned on his elderly parents.

The dog named Junior turned on the elderly wheelchair bound husband badly mauling him to death, then turned his attention towards the wife (so she could get him away from her husband).

She got Junior out into the backyard where neighbours were trying to help and apparently it went on for 45minutes!!!!

The daughter-in-law gave consent to have the dog put down.

This is an horrific story that breaks my heart in more ways than one.

As you can imagine there have been many, many social media sites blow up with some saying, all big dogs need to be banned, and others coming to the defence of the animal convinced something must’ve happened to make Junior, suddenly turn!!!!

As dog owners we are scrambling to get our heads around such a horrific event.

Please do not in anyway think I’m taking anything away from Mr Biancofiore  and the tragic end to his life because it’s truly heartbreaking!  This family have lost a father, a husband, a father-in-law etc, he was many things to many people and it’s horrific.

Sadly this isn’t a one off incident, there are reports of dog attacks and some end tragically.

What I do want to know is – What Can We Do To Better Understand These Situations So We Can Do Our Best To Prevent Them From Happening Again???

In all the dog attack reports I’ve come across in the media, the drama of it is reported but if there is an investigation, the findings are never reported.

A lot of dog owners have gone on the defence of Junior saying, ‘no dog ever attacks without being provoked’, or ‘no dog just attacks out of the blue, something or someone must have done something for it to do that’ or ‘there must be a chemical imbalance in his brain’ etc!

I totally understand where they are coming from and I’m trying really hard to stay neutral on this because I have a Staffie laying loyally at my feet as I type this.

On the other side of the fence you have either non-dog owners or smaller dog owners, or any dog owner who doesn’t have a Staffie or big dog, saying how horrific it is and yes the dog deserves to lose it’s life and all big dogs or Staffies need to be banned!!!!

It seems it’s one extreme or the other!

I have a million thoughts running back and forth from both sides of this.

From the age of 7 I’ve had Staffordshire Bull Terriers in my life (30 something years) and none of the dogs we ever owned or had in the show ring EVER attacked ANYONE let alone someone in the family.

However it’s not to say that some didn’t like cats, others loved cats, they each had their own quirks that we were aware of and respected, i.e. never put them in a situation that would’ve stirred them.

Billy doesn’t like cats, birds or small wheels, he’s been an only dog now for 3 of his 7 years so I’d even hesitate to have him off leash around other dogs (I’d work on training before I did this etc)!  Am I going to take him to a cattery or a skateboard park NO, because that will set him up for failure.

What I’m getting at here is these are known things about Billy, what’s the unknown?

What happened in Junior’s mind that caused him to snap?

MY UNDERSTANDING OF JUNIOR’S SITUATION!!

Dogs have a fight or flight instinct just like us.  They don’t plan a kill like a murderer would, they act on instinct.  If you can’t get away from a situation you fight your way out of it.

I see it in the Groom Salon in a milder form.  Dogs who are scared of the dryer or clippers and can’t get away (flight) because they are tethered in, will sometimes lash out at the clippers, dryer or myself.  I know it’s not from a vicious standpoint, they just don’t like what’s happening to them.

Junior had no prior bad behaviour or misconduct at all in his life, so why did he snap?

Someone said, ‘oh maybe if he’s an older dog his tail was accidentally run over by the wheelchair’ or the crutches spooked him’?

Yes maybe but for a dog with no prior misbehaviour or aggressive behaviour (that we know of) to turn aggressive and aggressive enough to kill?  Hmmmmmm!

I mean we’re talking about a pet dog who turned enough to get into the kill zone.

ARTICLES THAT MAY HELP UNDERSTAND THIS SITUATION AND OUR OWN DOGS BETTER!

VetStreet article on Aggression in Dogs!

ABC article on How To Prevent Attacks Like Mill Park!

Cesar Milan article on general dog attacks!

So from the many many articles (including those above) I’ve read on dog attacks or why dog’s attack their owners, they all generally say the same thing –

Dogs aren’t naturally inclined to attack humans unless they feel a threat to themselves or their territory!

Which leads me into asking, what happened to make Junior feel threatened or feel the need to protect territory?

A lot of the articles also mention how owners misread their dog’s behaviour when their dog is actually showing signs of ‘before attack’ mode, so to speak.

WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN?

Any dog attack is horrible let alone when someone dies as a result.

When any dog attack occurs ask yourself what can we learn from this?

What did we miss leading up to the attack, what was the dog trying to tell us beforehand?

Dogs don’t plan to attack it happens in the moment and is mostly due to fight or flight, fear based, unless they have been taught to attack.

It’s not enough just to own and love your dog we need to understand our dogs as well.

IN THE COMMENTS –  BELOW BILLY WOULD LIKE TO KNOW –WHAT YOU THINK OF DOG ATTACKS?  HOW DO WE PREVENT THEM, HAVE YOU BEEN ATTACKED WHAT WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE LIKE?

Cheers