Interesting Comparison From NCRC

Karen Delise of the National Canine Research Council posted some interesting information on her site recently. It's a spreadsheet of the dog-bite fatalities from 1974, a year in which German shepherds and St. Bernards were responsible for the majority of fatal dog bites. There was a Golden retriever, a dachshund, two border collies, and a lab on the list that year, too, by the way.

Per Delise:

An examination of the fatal dog attacks that we have been able to identify that occurred 25 years ago demonstrates the point that we have been trying to make for years, and that earlier researchers into fatal dog attacks made: that the breeds of dogs involved in fatal attacks change over time.

What does not change is the circumstances surrounding the majority of these incidents: chained dogs, unsupervised children with unfamiliar dogs, and reckless behavior on the part of some adult victims.

It's nice to see someone out there evaluating dog-bite information in a non-hysterical way.

Don't These Kids Have Parents?

This story is from Orlando

Two boys, ages 10 and 12, arrested for dogfighting. They told police they saw dog fighting on Youtube and decided to do it themselves.

Police got to the house and found dogs sitting in feces, injured dogs, and an emaciated puppy. The mother told police that the kids were bad and needed to go to jail.

But at 10 and 12 years old, shouldn't the parents be the ones answering for all the abused and neglected dogs in the house? And shouldn't an adult be the one answering for both the cruelty to the dogs' on the premises and failing to supervise the kids?

Maybe the story isn't complete, but it seems to me that some parents ought to be answering for the problems at this house.

New Year, Old Dogs!

Well, not old. But getting older. I realized recently that Tucker is well into his fourth year, Doc is well into his seventh, and crazy baby Button has managed to make it into his first full year. Crazy. Around this time last year, I was just bringing this tiny bag of bones into my house. Now he's been with us one full year . . . which means he's got to be about 14 to 16 months old now. I have had so many serious concerns about his temperament (and to some degree his health) that made me wonder if we'd get to this point. But he's a little trooper, and because he always kept trying--trying to understand, trying to be good, trying to be brave. I've seen a lot of scaredy dogs in my day, but it's interesting and endearing to me to see one with as much heart as Button. Even when he's petrified, he doesn't ever quit trying to work out problems. We've worked a lot with him over the course of the past year, and we know he'll never be perfect, but really, what dog is?

A couple of shots from the winter.