No Michael, I made no confusing statements whatsoever.The responsibility of a dog falls fairly and squarely on the owner. There are many situations where a dog may nip somebody. We had a fabulolus Jack Russel that was ball mad. Children playing in a park with a tennis ball him, it all depended on the age of the child. If the child was say 4 years old or under, he would lie down on his tummy, crawled back slightly and waited for the child to throw the ball. He would catch and and bring it back to everyones delight. If the child or children was/were older, for example boys aged 12 or above, and they taunted him by not throwing the ball, our dog would try and catch the ball. He sometimes would nip a finger or two while attempting to get it. That is no fun, it is not life threatening, and it is the responsibility of a dog owner, ours in that case, to have that child seen to. The dog is punished and I can tell you, the dog knows.If somebody is walking along the road with his dog and the owner is either attacked, robbed or assaulted, the dog will bite. Who can blame them! They are defending their owner.That is a world appart from an untrained dangerous dog attacking with no provocation or mauling a person; it is a totally different thing. And this is when the dog is put down. As is in the recent case when somebody was breading dangerous dogs and had 14 dogs in a terraced house and one of them mauled somebody next door...... So, please, do watch last Sunday's Countryfile to hear a farmer being interviewed about dogs attacking livestock. You may learn something.
Ivonne Holliday ● 800d