[lit-ideas] Dogs that can rip your face off

Eric,

In view of your second note adding the paragraph about the man having part
of his face ripped off by a pit bull, I?ll add that while I want a dog to do
certain things, I take responsibility for certain things as well.   People
do raise put bulls to be vicious; so I do my best to prepare for that.
Since carrying a gun in the city limits is illegal, I carry a Buck-type
knife with a blade under the legal limit of 3 ½ inches.   I hope I never
have to use it, but if something like your experience occurred, I would.  

The river where the dogs chase rabbits is outside the city limits; so I take
a gun with me when we go there.  There are coyotes and wild dogs down there
from time to time.   When Ginger was young and I first began letting her run
off leash I was especially concerned about the coyotes I could hear howling
down at the river.  Ginger would chase rabbits but she would also chase wild
dogs.  How wild they are is debatable, but that?s what we call them.
People dump unwanted dogs down there in preference to taking them to the
pound; so they probably aren?t too wild.  Sometimes we see them in packs.
At other times we see them separately or with just one other dog, but Ginger
doesn?t care, she sees a chance to play with a new dog so she takes off
running after them.  The dogs see this big girl coming toward them at a high
rate of speed and they take off.  They don?t want to hang around and see
what her intentions are.  After she learns that they don?t want to play she
stops, watches them recede to tiny dots and then returns.   ?Well, you sure
fooled them,? I tell her, patting her affectionately on the head.

A few times she encountered coyotes.  The first time was after I?d acquired
Sage, but she was still a puppy; so I kept her on a leash.  The coyote
crossed our path and Ginger chased after it.  ?No, no, stop,? I yelled to
Ginger who had never learned that command.  She chased the coyote into the
brush.  Sage and I hurried ahead and then on a trail down on the river we
saw the coyote coming back the other way with Ginger still in pursuit; so we
headed back the other way as well.  A few minutes later Ginger came back
with what looked to me to be a big satisfied smile on her face.

The most worrisome time down there occurred when I had Trooper and an old
blind and deaf German Shorthaired Pointer named Heidi.  She wasn?t totally
blind and deaf and this was before the time when I decided I needed to keep
her on leash.   I parked the Jeep and let the dogs out.  Trooper went
running on ahead.  Heidi moved ahead more slowly.  I took a few minutes to
put a gun on my belt and then shrug into my knapsack.  When I locked the
Jeep and looked up the river (which was dry by the way) I noticed Trooper in
the midst of a pack of wild dogs.  There were 20 or 30 of them down there
and while Trooper exhibited no fear he looked as though he decided he had
made a rash decision to run down there toward them.  

Actually, I was more concerned about Heidi who seemed to be heading toward
the pack without realizing it was there.  I hurried toward them and before I
got there, Heidi got a whiff of the pack and stopped.  She waited for me and
then got behind me.  I walked quickly toward Trooper and he began walking
(not running) toward me.  Most of the dogs saw me coming and moved away, but
a few stayed to give Trooper a bad time if they could.  They tried to get
behind him.  He wouldn?t permit that and would whirl to face them.  As I got
nearer even these remaining larger dogs moved away until there was just one
which looked something like a cross between an Akita and a Malamute.  It may
have been the leader of the pack.   As I got to within 15 or 20 feet of
them, the Akita too veered off and followed his pack.  

Trooper then came over to me wagging his trail and then made motions that
indicated that he wanted to chase the pack.  He would run a few feet toward
the pack and then look back at me.  ?No, you dumb dog,? I told him.  ?We?re
not going to do that.?

I never took the gun out of the holster and never want to, but I think it is
my responsibility to be as prepared as the law will allow to protect my
dogs.

A small defenseless cuddly dog wouldn?t suit my life style.   I suspect I am
like primitive man in that and reject Irene?s Revisionist view that the
primary early interest in a dog was as a pet.    We may be down at the river
and there is no one else down there that I can see.  At one time this river
was called a ?body dump.?  A few dead bodies had been dumped down there.  It
hadn?t the reputation of Lytle Creek, but it was something to be aware of.
Also, we shouldn?t be surprised to encounter coyotes or wild dogs; so I
should select a dog who could deal with these possibilities as much as a dog
can ? and then do my best to be able to handle the rest.  

There are some dogs that have been bred to take on the shape of babies so
women can cuddle them perhaps in lieu of having an actual baby, but I think
these breeds have only come into existence in the last 150 years or so.
Maybe they?ll serve a useful purpose in reducing the human population.   But
if you look at all the older breeds, you will see that they all had a job to
do.   Britain apparently had a long standing problem with rats.   A whole
classification at AKC dog shows is devoted to these rat catchers, the
Terrier Division.    Hounds were developed for hunting, Mastiff type dogs
were used to guard the manor and stop poachers and herding dogs took care of
the herds and flocks.   Only recently have certain people bred the useless
cuddly dogs that have no other purpose in their ancestry but to be pets.  

I am working from memory here and it occurs to me that there are some small
cuddly Chinese breeds that may argue in favor of a strictly-pet sort of dog
older than 150 years, but perhaps this just means that the Chinese reached
periods comparable to our modern decadence sooner than we did.

Lawrence Helm
San Jacinto

>>Eric, what breed of dog did you have that was attacked by the pit bull?

German Shepherd-Doberman mix ... very gentle. Dogs are always on the leash
in NYC unless in a dog run. She was a rescue I had trained for several
years.

The suddenness was part of the trauma. She was playing with the pit bull in
the dog run. Next second, a yelp, the pit had her by the throat. I ran
toward the locked pair. By the time I got there, my dog was silent.

Grappled pit down and locked it with my dog pulled down still in its grip. I
spear punched its temples and nose. It seemed timeless ... horrible to be
wailing away at an animal with all one's strength to no effect.

More horrible to realize that even after I had knocked it out, it still kept
its death grip. 
Started eye-gouging with thumb and index point, and its involuntary reflex
from being gouged finally -- how many years had gone by? -- forced its jaws
open.

Only then did I hear the other people in the dog-run screaming at the lady
who had brought the pit bull. My dog was crumpled in the wood chips for a
while panting in a whining rasp tone. I carried her home in my arms. She
never played with other dogs in the dog run again.

A week or so later, a friend sent me a news clipping of another man, this
time in Brooklyn, who had been involved in a similar fracas. He was unlucky.
The pit bull tore off part of his face while he was defending his dog.



Eric

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