Ignorance!..

arybvtcw0eolkf

Myself and my daughter took Jericho for a walk on Portmarnock beach this morning. Jericho was delighted and at only 11 weeks old now almost took us for a walk!.

He'd a brilliant time in the breaking waves and discovering that salt water, sea shells and crabs all taste horrible.

So at the end of the walk I brought my daughter over to the Spar shop for a little treat (for my daughter) and so I held onto Jericho outside.

Being a puppy he drew lots of smiles, then one lady walked over to pet him.

Of course she was met we a big staffie grin, Jericho was delighted by the attention (he loves the limelight!).

"Ohhhhhhhh, he's absolutely beautiful", "What breed is he?"... "A Staffordshire Bull Terrier" I replied.. Jeeze she couldn't pull her hand back quick enough "Oh, one of THOSE things" and walked away like "absolutely beautiful" little Jericho would rip her apart in seconds.. :mad:

Poor ol' Jericho cried after her

eve

Unfortunately this is exactly what I predicted to a few friends when I first heard what Dublin Council were planning. People will listen to what's being said and they will immediately brand every dog on the list as being dangerous. It will also back up and re-inforce a fear that a particular person may have of a breed.

My only experience with any breed on the list is with German Shepherds. My aunt has had several and my partners extended family have/had several. He has never had any problems with them and the 2 that are in the family are lovely, though one is a bit too boistrous for me. However my aunt has not been so lucky. She has one male who is very good an well behaved but she has also had 2 females at seperate times and each one killed one of her cats. One did it out of jealousy but I don't know what the other ones reasons were. One female came to her as an ex-guard dog but the other was raised from a pup and had never shown any violence.

My experience with dogs is fairly mixed. It generally takes time for me to trust a dog. I really have to know them to trust them. I have been around dogs on list and felt completely safe and been scared of other dogs that are not on the list. It really is down to the environment, temperament, the owners, etc. Every animal of the same breed will not have the same characteristics.

Gillie

The one I always get is:
"What kind of dog is that??"
"A German Sheperd"
"Well at least its not one of those dreadful Alsations!"

Sigh!

tallus

Apparently the name was only changed to Alsation around WWII because they came from the Alsace (spelling?) region and the brits used them and didn't want to have dogs with "German" in the name.

arybvtcw0eolkf

tallus wrote:

Apparently the name was only changed to Alsation around WWII because they came from the Alsace (spelling?) region and the brits used them and didn't want to have dogs with "German" in the name.

Sort of like 'Freedom Fries' then!.

Gillie

Yep.

I believe it was around WWI though!

I always refer to him as a GSD though!

peasant

tallus wrote:

Apparently the name was only changed to Alsation around WWII because they came from the Alsace (spelling?) region and the brits used them and didn't want to have dogs with "German" in the name.

WWI, actually

Alsace was still German then, but sort of tending towards France, so that made it even better.

The English royals changed their names at that time as well ...from Battenberg to Mountbatten and from Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor

So the German Shepherd had good company

comongethappy

I know - some people are just so uneducated about animals! I was telling a work mate about a dog I'm planning to get next year - the shiba inu. She wasn't familiar with it at all so I said it kind of looked like a smaller version of the Akita. She went on to say that Akitas are dangerous (her uncle had one that attacked other dogs), and I tried to stop her then and there and say that no dogs are dangerous, it's just they can become aggresive when owners don't know how to handle them. She went on to disagree... but I just didn't say anything else. I figured I wouldn't start a heated arguement in work. Her final words were don't get a Shiba, because they are vicious like the Akita. Left me fuming- they are two different types of breed! I tried to explain this, she didn't get the picture. Some people will never learn I guess

Nala

comongethappy wrote:

She wasn't familiar with it [Shiba Inu] at all.

Her final words were don't get a Shiba, because they are vicious like the Akita.

So despite the fact she has no knowledge of this dog she somehow knows it'll be vicious because it looks like an Akita? She sounds like a genius.