Scream!!

[Veronica]

Yep - the dog can't help it's breeding or lack of training. Blame the clueless owners.

We came home yesterday from our ride to find a stray pit bull roaming the neighborhood. He was as friendly as can be and not afraid of the bikes. He knew "sit" and was apparently crate trained since we put him in Greta's old crate while waiting for his owner. I don't know how people can be missing their dog for hours and not notice. But Greta, in spite of being a large Rott, was a house dog. She was never away from the pack for very long. I suspect this guy was left outside and got freaked by the New Year's Eve festivities.

V.

[Yasmin]

[QUOTE) find a stray pit bull roaming the neighborhood.
V.[/QUOTE]

Pit bull terriers are banned in Australia because there have been too many attacks & killings with this breed. Are they freely available in the States?

[massbikebabe]

Yasmin;

Yes, pitbulls are still available in the U.S., but I am afraid that we also may see a ban one day, mostly because of the irresponsible owners of these dogs. Unfortunately, they have become a trophy dog for the knuckleheads in our society. It is very sad because my friend has two of the cutest pit bulls in the world. She is single and often travels, so she brings her "girls" along to remind weirdo's that she is not alone. It would knock me right down if her "babies" ever attacked anyone...but I am sure they would respond if someone was messing with "Mommy".

I have a bichon frise who loves to hang with the 2 big girls...but then again my bichon is very pretty...but not very bright

karen

[CorsairMac]

I'm with you Karen! I carry 2 scars on my face, one from a bassett hound and one from a dachshund, both owned by me and both the nicest dogs you'd ever meet. I never had problems with Rotts, Dobies or Pit Bulls but they use all 3 and more here in NM for dog fighting ( illegal as all get out but they still do it - which btw cock fighting IS legal in NM, just as an FYI). So the breed as a group gets the bum rap.

I agree that Goldens as a rule are very gentle, sweet creatures but I never take chances with dogs, you just never know how THEY see YOU! especially if you're on a bike moving Away from them. There was a loose Bull Terrier on the bike path yesterday, seemed friendly enough but very skittish so I just got off the bike and put it between me and the guard rail and kept hold of my water bottle. The Terrier kept trying to circle in behind me and I just wasn't sure what he wanted. He eventually gave it up, guess I was just walking too slow for him!

[bikerz]

I have a rescue pit bull - Simon - he found me at a Bart station - came running up with the biggest pit bull smile on his face. He was 20 pounds underweight, un-neutered, and pretty scarred up. Our vet thinks he may have been used as a bait dog.

Anyway, he's now neutered, knows lots of tricks, and is about the sweetest dog I've ever met (I grew up with big dogs - alsatians, dobermans, mastiffs, danes, etc. and he's the sweetest of the bunch). He's wonderful with kids, cats and humans - a goofball who loves everyone he's ever met. We NEVER take him to dog parks or let him loose anywhere but in our own very well-fenced back yard because even though he has several doggie pals, he doesn't like all other dogs unconditionally, and it is totally and completely our responsibility to never let a situation develop between him and another dog.

Having known Simon and many other pit bulls, it makes me so angry and sad to think what has been done to individual dogst o make them turn on people - aggression towards people is completely outside of the "breed norm". Unfortuntely, dog aggression is part of the breed, and owners have to be aware and responsible about it. Here in Oakland there is a terrible epidemic of back yard breeding and irresponsible ownership of pitbulls, and the dogs are being used as some sort of male-member-extender. It's such a sad situation.

For anyone who is interested in pitbulls, there is a great pit bull rescue and informational organization called BAD RAP (http://www.badrap.org/rescue/index.cfm). Beware - VERY cute pictures!

I think for most people, once they meet a well behaved, well socialized pit bull, they never look at the breed the same way again. But I agree with karen - I'm afraid we will start to see breed specific legislation and possibly even an outright ban, and as long as there are criminally negligent people with dogs that maul children, it's hard to argue against such drastic measures.

Whew! Sorry - I had no idea when I started that I was going to write such a long post!

[TrekChick]

It happend to me, too!! I literally laughed out loud when I read your story, Nanci!! An uncontrollable, horror-flic/slasher-movie scream escaped my mouth last summer while riding the tandem with Hubby. We were being chased by TWO chow-mixes. We were coming up to a freeway overpass, and some of the other riders in our group were already on the other side of the overpass waiting for us at the stop sign. We could not see each other because of the hump in the road, but they HEARD me very LOUD & CLEAR! Of course being on the back of the tandem, the dogs were closing in my ankles, not Hubby's. I was just getting ready to click out & punt, because they didn't stop at MY scream, but they finally got too far away away from home, I guess, and turned back. I was shaking so badly afterwards. They almost scared the pee out of me! And I'm a dog-person!! The first dog I ever had (Nanook) was a 150-lb Rottie/Shephard mix - he LOVED to go MTB'ing with me! Then I had a 90-lb Wolf/Husky (Kodiak). Right now I have two "little" dogs - a 70-lb mutt (Brodie) that looks like a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, and a 55-lb Shephard/Queensland mix (Chester), and also two tortie cats (Maggie and Itty-Bitty-Kitty).

There are several known-to-be-loose dogs on two or three road rides that I can think of. We even named one of the hills out in our MTB area "barkin'-dog hill" because I got chased by two dogs. The big black lab was wagging his tail while he was barking, so he didn't scare me too much, but the little, teeth-bearing, ankle-biter mutt had me pedaling for my life! Unfortunately for me, I'm the slowest! If only there was one person slower than me, then I wouldn't be the weak gazelle..... Oh well...

Stay safe! Good Luck!
~~~TrekChick