What would your dog do if it was loose?

[plebayo]

I was watching Pit Bulls and Parolees and there was a situation with 4 loose Pit Bulls attacking a 17 year old. I understand pack mentality, and I understand if the guy was running away, clearly playing the role of 'prey' that a dog could be set off. However, what makes these dogs not have bite inhibition towards am adult HUMAN? What makes a loose Pit Bull go after someone? Also this incident happened in a park, so the dogs are not guarding owners or property. I can understanding biting a flailing child or even a baby, but an adult human?

I've read and seen on video other cases with Pit Bulls being loose and attacking people. Why do they do it?

When I was a kid we had stray mutts running around all the time. One day I spent like 4 hours chasing this Flat Coated retriever mix around the neighborhood and she finally let me catch her. I never once as a kid thought a loose dog might come after me and try to eat me. However it seems like it happens a lot. I know it isn't just Pit Bulls, but you hear about them the most because the media loves to tear the breed apart.

SO.

All of this being said then, what would your dog do if it was loose? Based off of the things you know about your pets, how do you think they would react?

I think if LiLo was loose and away from her home I think she would have her tail tucked and be fearful. I think if a person approached her she would get defensive and bark and growl, but if they charged her, I think she would bark but run away. If a person was walking away from her I do not think she would chase them, or even approach them because she doesn't like people she doesn't know and is fearful.

Seth has jumped the fence at my parents and has gotten out once with another person around. The guy was walking his 3 weenie dogs and he grabbed Seth by the collar. Seth's tail was wagging and he was more interested in the guy than in his dogs. I think if Seth was loose he would definitely come to anyone that would give him attention. I think if he saw a person walking by he would probably approach them. I think it is unlikely he would ever attack someone. He loves everyone and would just want attention.

I really just don't think that if my dogs got loose they would try to hurt someone. This is all obviously speculation but I just wondered, what do you think your dog would do if it got loose? Do you think it would try to bite someone? Do you think it would just become another dog bite statistic? Are we breeding Pit Bulls to be human aggressive?

[plebayo]

I guess I should ask too, are we just breeding human aggressive dogs in general, not just pit bulls? Are people just doing less with their dogs? Is the BSL causing people to get bigger badder dogs?

[iluvk9]

Darlene would be afraid of her own shadow if she was out there in the big, bad world.

I know you are mainly discussing Pit Bulls, but the only one I fear getting out is Lenny. The stereotype of "a sweet Golden" is a big mistake with him. He wouldn't chase anyone, but if they put a leash around him and tried to get him to walk with them (to their car or house?) or anything else he did not want to do, he would bite them.

[Marinepits]

If any one of my dogs alone was loose, they'd probably just wander around scrounging for food and would go to anyone who offered food or a good butt scratch. None of them ever look for trouble with other dogs or with humans. However, if a strange dog approached any of them, they'd not back down from a fight. Tucker might be a bit wary/shy if a human approached him, but he wouldn't bite unless he was very frightened (residue from his abusive background). He's far more likely to roll over and offer his tummy and pee on himself, LOL.

Lord knows what trouble they'd get into loose as a pack, but I'm 99.9% positive they wouldn't attack a human. That .1% would have to be an EXTREME circumstance and my guess would be Indy. Tucker and Shorty would run away if they had the choice.

[FAB dogs]

I actually had this happen back in the fall. I never, ever, in a million years thought my dogs would get out. They're usually crated during the day and my house is locked and in a neighborhood where there's a lot of retirees watching to make sure nobody breaks in. But in this case it appears a perfect storm of bad karma was heading my way.

First my 15 year old cat died (nothing to do with this, but just the kick-off of the storm). Two days later I had to euthanize Quinn, my 10 year old husky, because of lymphoma; he didn't move much. For the last few weeks of his life, Quinn wasn't crated while I was at work. But I crated the others, including Eli, my 13-14 year old husky. So the week after Quinn passed, I decided to let Eli and Avery, the 2 year old wild child, have run of the house while I was at work. Special treat for them and I know they're fairly trustworthy.

It was a day when we had some serious wind coming through. Remains of a hurricane or something like that. And when I left the house that morning, the throw rug I keep at the front door got caught up in the door, unknown to me. Sure enough, the wind blew the front door open. So, naturally, Avery and Eli decided to go for a stroll.

My neighbor saw them and went over to catch them. Both dogs took off running. Of course they did, one is a husky and one is half husky and that's what huskies do. Neighbor called them and amazingly Avery, the ADHD psycho terrier, came right to her. Nobody will ever convince me that recalls don't work!!! Avery has been through family dog training and has been in agility training for over a year. She has an emergency recall word and also a plain-old recall. I was thrilled beyond belief to hear she actually responded (to a stranger no less).

Neighbor got Avery back in the house and the front door closed securely. Meanwhile Eli, who in addition to being over 10 years old with no street smarts was also deaf and senile, took off and was nowhere to be seen. When I got home from work, my neighbor came over to tell me what was going on. By this time it had been several hours since Eli had been seen.

I jumped into my car to start driving around looking for him and had a complete breakdown. First the cat died, then the dog died, now the other dog is missing? I don't even know where to look for him. The only glimmer of hope was that I work for the animal shelter and we hadn't had any calls about a stray husky running at large or being injured by a car. I could only hope that somebody had seen him and taken him in.

I went around the block to enlist the neighborhood kids to help me search and there was Eli, standing in the yard with them. They said they came home from school and he was just walking down the street going for a stroll. He apparently spent the afternoon running all over the neighborhood because he was so exhausted when I got him home he slept like a rock.

From that day on I crated the dogs when I left. I also double checked the door when I left. Few weeks later Eli passed on from natural causes. Few weeks after that my friend came over and put in a new front door guaranteed not to blow open during those rare Indiana hurricanes.

So at least I now know that if Avery gets loose she'll more than likely come to anyone who calls her. Brogan is a very shy dog and would probably avoid people altogether. Fenway, having been a stray before coming to the shelter, would probably survive just fine. Still being a puppy, he'd probably just find some nice person to bring him back to the shelter.

[tiva]

If Vanya got loose, he would run up to the first pickup truck he saw, wag his tail really hard, and when they slowed down for a look, he would leap through the open window into the driver's lap (BEFORE the pickup actually came to a stop) and start kissing them.

How do I know all this? Yep, this summer my husband didn't quite close the farm gate when he was mowing the back field over by the gate, and he saw this happen. All of it. Luckily, my husband ran over quickly and grabbed Vanya, and luckily, the elderly couple in the pickup truck thought Vanya was adorable. And most luckily of all, Vanya didn't eat the little dog who was barking on the front seat, none too thrilled about this flying pit bull landing in his cab.

Vanya thought this was a most excellent adventure. I, of course, nearly had a heart attack when I heard about it.

[TheRedQueen]

Rip wandered out of the downstairs door (the storm door doesn't shut properly...) a few years ago. A neighbor found him on the opposite side of the road out front.

The others have all been out when the lawn guys have left the fence gate open, and no one escapes...they're too busy standing by the backdoor waiting to come inside.

Oreo (foster pitbull) would squeeze through the fence...and would come sit at the front door.

[copperlegend]

Nadia would have a quick jaunt around the neighborhood, probably run up to the one kid who is terrified of dogs, and try to lick him. All the while her tag will be wagging hard enough to fall off. I can't think of her attacking a person in a loose situation. She'd eventually allow one of the neighbors to catch her. She's a neighborhood celebrity, and she is very trusting of people.

[call2arms]

My dog would probably run around like a retard, sniff everything and go on every porch, yard or inappropriate place that I never let him get into on leash, get into garbage, run up to people all excited (they'd peobably be scared, mistaking his slightly wild enthusiasm for an attack) and get his by a car. Actually, seeing as I live on a fairly usy street, he would get to do all these things if he didn't get hit by a car first.

Escaping the house, I'm not even sure he would o it in the first place, when we got robbed back when he was 2-3 years old, I found the back door (leading to our little parking spot, and then no gate to the busy street) wide open... Jack was curled up on the couch (and shivering and scared, the robbers probably weren't so friendly with him).

[Tubular Toby]

Unfortunately, it has happened to me with Toby. Haha, the first time was when my landlord left the side gate on my yard open (no one ever used that gate, except for him apparently!) and Toby took off down the street. A girl that was probably 11 years old called him over and was petting him. I asked her to grab his collar because of course as soon as I got there he'd be off again (we were fairly new to each other at this point and not an intense amount of training had been done...) She grabbed his collar, asked if he was a pit, I said yes, grabbed him and thanked her so much. She loved him! HAHA, it was really cute.

The next time it happened was in my current house. I usually stay outside with the dogs, but I was running late for work so I let them out and went to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I peeked out the window and say my roommate's dog standing by the fence looking out and I immediately knew Toby was gone. I ran out the front door with a bag of treats. Luckily my awesome-old-man neighbor had Toby sitting next to him near the street as he looked up and down the street. As soon as he saw me, he knew Toby was mine. Said that Toby had been running down the street, so he whistled and Toby turned around and ran straight to him.

In short, I think Toby just really likes to run when he is FREE. Haha

I did help a guy catch his dog in my front yard one day. It was one of those games where every time the owner got close, the dog darted off again, obviously thinking it was great fun. I called the dog and she came running straight to me. The guy seemed pretty happy to have his dog back. He had been driving down my street looking for the dog with a squeaky toy hanging out the window. Reminded me of that commercial.

[Malli]

Oscar got out when he was... maybe 1.5 yrs old? Apparently he did well, a neighbor I hadn't met returned him with a "is this your dog?", so I have to think he was just wandering around and was easily handled and "caught". I have to assume that he would be better now that he's older, then when he was young and had more of a wild streak. If he were to meet another animal that he had not grown accustomed to, that would be a whole different story.

This is always a point of paranoia with me; living immediately next to a 4 lane street in a very busy and public area. I often check, and then recheck and recheck to make sure the door is locked when I leave.

[SLS61185]

This may sound weird, but I honestly don't want to think of what would happen if Patch got out. When we're gone, he's crated and has only broke out of it once... He'd only been out for a few minutes before we got home (we only know this because the house was still in one piece)... Anyways, it was because the smoke detector above his crate was beeping since the battery was going dead and he didn't like it.
He went through the glass in our screen door about a month ago, and I refuse to try and let him stay out of his crate while we're not here now.

He goes out in the backyard by himself and so far he's been good. He CAN jump the fence if he really wants to, but for the most part, he just hangs on it to see what's going on. (I about killed some kids though a few weeks ago cause they were trying to pull him over the fence). He got out of the yard once while we out there with him. He darted out of the gate when I opened it... Rna off and stopped to sniff some freaking rose bush and that's how we got him back. Then, he heard something that scared him and he took off again... This all took about 5 minutes.

He has no street smarts, no recall... nothing. He's only food motivated and that MAY get him to come back, if he's feeling nice enough otherwise forget it. He likes people but loves to jump on them.. So if he got out, I don't think I'd ever get him back myself. If you run away, he chases you and 'attacks' you... same with if you run towards him. Feet come up and he bites (not mean bite, just really really hard play bite). We live in the back of our sudivision and there's 'woods' not far from us.

If he seen another animal out while he was loose, I'd be in trouble. I don't trust him with other animals anymore. I had a really, really bad thing happen a few months ago and after that, he's not allowed to be around any other animals for a long time. I can not and will not go through that again. Our cat stays in the backroom away from him.

So, in short, I guess, the whole thing would be really bad.

[mnp13]

Ruby got out a few times at my last house. She was afraid of the 4 foot chain link fence (after I found her hanging from it by her collar, choking) but could clear the 6 foot privacy fence. She just wandered the neighborhood, and either I found her, or someone snagged her collar and returned her to me. She likes to chase other animals though, so if she saw something, I know she'd chase it, I'm just not sure if she'd kill it or not.

The boys? I think Connor would be ok, he's allowed to run loose with an e-collar occasionally, and he's good with strangers. I don't think he'd treat another dog nicely though.

Riggs is ok with strangers to a point. If you're nice to him, he's nice back. However, if a kid tried to catch him and he couldn't get away or felt trapped it wouldn't be a good outcome. He is very afraid of kids, though he gets better when we have a kid around, it's not consistent enough for it to "stick." If he came across a wandering dog that wasn't an intact female, or who was not properly calm or properly fearful, that would be ugly. very ugly. If he was hurt and someone tried to help him, unfortunately, it's likely he would bite.

As for the "reason" for dog attacks, I really don't know. I think it's a self fulfilling prophecy unfortunately. People see a "bad breed" dog, they act fearful, and that makes what they are afraid of happen. In a pack, it's even worse.

[furever_pit]

Dylan has gotten out a few times over the years. The first time he ran off into the woods and when he came back shortly thereafter he was covered in blood but had no wounds, I can only presume that he killed something. He got out of the first house we moved to in FL a handful of times, mostly cause the front door was warped and didn't always get shut all the way. He ran around the neighborhood, went swimming in the ponds, and one time went up to two teenage boys who were working on their car in their garage. The last time he got out was at a different house where some of my friends left the back door and then the gate open and he took off, but he was back in a matter of minutes.

With Dylan I'm not really worried about what might happen. He's not going to bite anyone, he would either go up to them for some loving or completely ignore them. I could see him maybe getting in a fight with another dog, but that dog would have to make the first move. Dylan doesn't pick fights, he just responds.

With Cairo I am not so sure what would happen. He's a super social dog with adults and if you act like a halfway normal person nothing is going to happen. However, if someone tried to grab him and manhandled him or tried to correct him physically for something he might bite. If someone ran away from him he would chase them and he might bite. But, Cairo is properly contained and cannot get out when I am not home. So if he tried to take off it would be with me outside with him and all I have to do is call his name and walk away from him or whistle and he will come right back to me.

[BigDogBuford]

Joxer would run into the street and promptly be hit by a car. I've never seen a dog with less street smarts.

Doogie would find the nearest group of kids to play with.

Minnie would check stuff out until someone gave her food, then she'd follow them home.

Kisses wouldn't go out by herself....it's a big scary world out there! She might follow Doogie out and hang with him.

Patrick would follow Buford or he wouldn't go.

Buford would spend hours peeing on everything.

My dogs wouldn't bite a person and I don't think they'd start a dog fight unless someone started them with one first.

[Malli]

Buford would spend hours peeing on everything.

thats my boy!

[ArtGypsy]

OMG .............

Dar used to get out...........and it was awful. He would run and run and run and run.....zipping fast through houses, yards, and streets.
He stops for nothing and turns into a Gazelle....Streaking and Smiling----

But the last time there was a woman walking down the street and he did this odd thing of running 'at' her, barking and immediately dashing away, circling around , barking and dashing....
SCARED ME TO DEATH.

I kept saying "he won't bite you, he won't bite you, ""he just playing'. ", but I HAD NO IDEA what he would do.

[amazincc]

Well, crap... I didn't think I would have to post in this thread, since I'm uber-anal about keeping the boys secure and contained at all times...
BUT... today was THE day!!!

Apparently my mail man didn't make sure that the gate latch snapped securely into place, and apparently the strong wind we had today blew the gate open wide enough... and since it was dark I didn't see it from the porch... and I let the boys out to pee, and wheeled myself back in the house because it was freezing... ugh.
A few minutes later I heard Sepp whine at the front door, but I was in the middle of something so I didn't really pay attention. And he often stands on the porch and whines because he might *miss* something when he can't be right up my butt, so...
A few minutes after that I heard someone honking their horn on the street - I didn't expect company, so I didn't pay attention to that either.
However - the honking continued, so I finally went outside to look... and it was my neighbor from up the street, letting me know that Faust was patiently sitting by the gate, IN my driveway, OUTSIDE of the yard, waiting to be let back in.

So... to answer your question - mine wouldn't wander or bother anyone, apparently. I'm still in shock that Sepp didn't leave the yard and that Faust just SAT there... but I'm definitely thanking my lucky stars.

I'm also going to kick the mail mans a$$ tomorrow, and I will hobble over to the stupid gate from now on to make SURE that it's really closed.

I adore my boys! They know that "there's no place like home".

[fenella]

This is so scary to me. My guys don't have a very good emergency recall Murphy got loose, and went romping off through the yards in the neighborhood before I cornered him.
He is scared, and wouldn't go toward people. Nittany would go up to anyone...thinking the entire big world out there revolves around her.
I do have a funny story about them, though. One morning, I let them out and went upstairs to get dressed for work. There was a knock on my door from a neighbor telling me that the dogs were loose (the crazy neighbor who cuts my grass hadn't latched the gate all the way). I went back inside for leashes and treats...they were nowhere to be found. I started calling them and shaking the treat box. From an overgrown, empty lot, I saw Nittany peek out first. She came running for treats. As I was leashing her up, I saw Murphy peek out from the same spot. I got him back, and as I was walking them back to the house, a car slowed down on our street...
The guy asked, "Are those your dogs?" I said yes, and he continued. "They were in my living room this morning. My roommate went out on the deck for his coffee, and when he went back inside, your dogs came up on the deck and followed him in. We were both shocked, and had to shoo them both back outside."

It's kinda funny NOW, to think of them sticking together...Nittany leading the way, and Murphy following his big sister anywhere. At the time, I was mortified. (and left me wondering why they just shooed them back out into the neighborhood without calling the number that was on each of their tags, but I'm sure it was scary for them).
Every day, I'm thankful that I have them back.

[TinaMartin]

Both of mine are crated and there are 2 closed doors front and back that they would have to get through. Sorsha would run around trying to kiss everyone wagging her tail constantly. Gator would not be a pretty sight for people or other animals.