Graycap23 said:

4 the owner to get shot like Old Yella?

i'm glad your niece is okay.

btw, how on earth did she end up "going to give the akita a hug"? was her mom nearby?

Harlepolis said:

I even think twice about going to houses with pets. I have never been an animal lover, although I have lived in houses in the pass where there were dogs and cats, but they weren't mine. The only pets I will keep are gold-fish and I have a soft spot for tortoises, but they would probably outlive even my grandkids!!

I have seen the damage animals can do, both dogs and cats. I have a young son and I don't want to go to someone house and always have to be on my guard, just in case a dog or even a cat ponces on me or my son, I want to feel comfortable in my surrounding not on edge all the time.

Oh my! your poor lil niece...so glad to hear she'll be ok.
as for the dog....how can he hide it? aren't the authorities involved?
I think a dog either has it in him to attack or not...I really don't buy the "once they learn to attack a human" biz...it really just boils down to timing...and the only way you find out is when they attack....after that, you know it's not if they do it again...it's when. Unfortunatly that spells BANG! for poochie.

Cinnie said:

Chilli, so sorry to hear that but glad your niece was strong in that tough and scary situation and I'm glad she's doing better. 's

we have 2 older dogs and a brand new puppy. I NEVER let young children or kids that my sheltie does not know around his head or face. BAD MOVE!!

Being a dog owner is a big responsibility. THey are like kids, they need to me monitored all the time.

I hope your niece feels better soon

What a brave girl.

Hope she feels better soon.

Hell yeah.

First, I want to say, that it is absolutely terrible what happened to your niece. I hope that she realizes a full recovery and can move past any fear she may develop. Being attacked by an animal is something no child should have to experience.

I have had dogs all of my life. I've had aggressive dogs, I've had wimpy dogs. I've had dogs that I thought were wimpy turn out to be aggressive, and I've had aggressive dogs back down when I least expected it.

When a child is involved, all bets are off. You don't take the chance. There are too many variables and the fact that the mere size of a child puts her at face level with a dog is a nono -- especially since in dog language, eye contact is often considered a challenge.

The sad part about this is that people forget it's an animal, and that it has a sense of territory...pet or not. Additionally, you have no way of knowing how or even if the dog has been properly trained. Its not going to be popular for me to say but BOTH THE OWNER OF THE DOG AND THE ADULT WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CHILD ENDANGERED THE CHILD.

If I came to a persons home with a dog, and they refused to remove the dog from the reach of the child, I would leave the situation with my child. When people come to my home with small children, I put my dog away. It's a two way street. The one least responsible for the attack is the dog--it is an animal folks---and it is doing what animals do. Most people I know would go balistic if someone they do not know got directly into their face and hugged them--kind act or not. We cannot treat dogs as if they do not instinctively have moods, fears,instincts and boundaries. And the older a dog gets, the more boundaries he/she develops, the more moody.

An attack on a child, does not always mean a dog is overly aggressive. It can and often does mean that the adults around were not taking care of their responsibilities.
[Edited 11/9/09 23:05pm]

XxAxX said:

Seriously, I was wondering the same thing--just like they were not allowed to run accross the street, my children were not allowed to run up to dogs. When certain dogs go by me on a leash, I signal owners to pull the dogs in when I go by with my children. I have disciplined my own children for trying to reach their hands to pet animals that were not their own. Akita's are not known to be cuddly and are one of the breeds I am extremely cautious with just because of their general reputation. I googled akitas just now and this is what came up.....

http://www.akc.org/breeds/akita/
....."Although known to be a quiet dog (they are known as the "Silent Hunter" in Japan), the Akita has strong guarding instincts and will sound the alarm if an intruder breaks into their house. Akita temperament can range from calm to bouncy and aggressive, so the breed should always be supervised around small children and other animals. Akitas like to be "pack leader," so obedience training is also necessary for a harmonious household..... ".

People have to realize that certain breeds have personality traits.....and that can be altered drastically based on the training and treatment of the dog, good or bad.

This was a terrible, terrible accident. Sadly, it was preventable...and the dog shouldn't be the central issue....the owner and caretaker made some key oversights.
[Edited 11/9/09 23:19pm]

That's a little unusual behaviour of an Akita, but then again no children should be unsupervised when there are dogs around of any breed and age. I'm sorry this happened to ur niece, I know how she feels as I was mauled by a german shepherd K9 when I was 5 or 6 years old. It was a terrible experience and I still have scars but at least that dog was put down immediately. It didn't deter me from owning and being around dogs which is great, I moved on from that experience, time is everything. She will be fine I hope they find the Akita.

wow am glad ur niece isok. what a brave gal, id be freaking out.

keep us updated, love M

I am really sorry for what has happened to your niece and i really do wish her to recover well, but why does everyone wanna put the dog down? I have never been bitten by a dog nor do I know anyone who has really been bitten badly, so maybe if I did, my views would have been different, but why does this mean that the dog is bad and should be shot? The child might have done something it viewed as threatening and just defended itself. They are either made aggressive by te owners and then the owners are the ones to blame, or they attack cause they are hungry, or they just defend themselves cause they feel threatened.I don´t believe that dogs attack others for no reason.
[Edited 11/10/09 10:03am]

dag said:

They are put down for any number of reasons, one being type of breed and another being that once the dog has caused this to happen and cannot be resocialised or re-trained, it will attack again. When a dog gets angry or agitated it can attack, it can also be driven by fighting over territory. Many dogs like to keep their own personal space and if someone they are not familiar with comes into their personal space they will automatically become defensive and try attacking in order to fend off what they consider a threat and dogs just like human beings have a certain tolerance for being agitated. As a victim of mauling I can understand why they are put down, and do not disagree with it being done.

some dogs ain't right in the head.
but then again some people ain't, either.
that's why you shouldn't approach strangers, or strange dogs

PanthaGirl said:

Yeah, you stated some more reasons as to why they attack and it is obvious that they do have a reason. But I don´t agree with it being done. If you have a dog that does it once, you just know that you have to be more careful and not have in this case, for example, children play with it. You could just try to avoid some situations. I don´t think that if the dog attacks once that it means that it has turned into a killing monster that needs to be put down. I think that would be a real rarity to have such an agressive dog by its nature. I think the owners are 99% to blame when it comes to real aggresive dogs. Let´s have them locked up or something.

BklynBabe said:

See, whenever you hear some horrific story about a dog attacking someone "just like that" in the street, you later find out that the dog was abused, beaten etc. Once there was a story on the news that some dog attacked a lady who was waiting at a bus stop and had some bags full of food. Well, it turned out that the dog has not eaten several days because the owner would not feed it, somehow ran away and of course, when he saw a lady with bags and smelled ham, it wanted some. If the lady starts panicing, of course, it will attack.
[Edited 11/10/09 10:43am]

dag said:

I've met some dogs that just weren't right...and protective ones, and territorial ones, and abused ones. Some dogs, just like some people, have all the privileges and still ain't right.