My daughter called me from Texas a few days ago upset and crying. She had taken her two schnauzer dogs on their daily walk--one mile down to where their neighborhood abuts undeveloped land, and one mile back.

They were turning to come back when she heard excited barking, and an English bulldog she recognized as belonging to a neighbor, burst out of the woods chasing a deer. Of course the deer got away, but the bulldog, his blood up from the chase, ran up the embankment in two seconds flat to where my daughter and her dogs were. My daughter just had time to scoop her dogs up in her arms when the bulldog attacked.

It clawed at her legs trying to pull her dogs from her arms. She had the dog's leashes wrapped around her hand, and the bulldog pulled so hard she got abrasions on her hand from holding tight, and a sprained finger too. Fortunately just then a couple drove by and the man got out and had to kick the bulldog hard a couple of times to make it back off. The couple loaded my daughter and her dogs in their car and took them home, but she and her dogs were very upset by this incident.

My daughter lives in a nice new housing development, and there are homeowner's rules, one being that all dogs must be on a leash when outside. The bulldog owner swore he didn't know how his dog got out without a leash. I told my daughter she oughta file a police report in case this bulldog 'mysteriously' gets out unleashed again.

Speaking of bad dogs, I heard a report on the radio about an elderly woman who was leaning on a fence talking with her neighbor. A pit bull ran up and bit her entire hand off, up to the wrist. In the ensuing commotion, the elderly lady's son shot and killed the pit bull. Good.
In another story, a man was walking his German sheperd dog in a park. Three pit bulls ran up and attacked his dog. The man had a permit to carry a concealed weapon, and had it on him--he shot one of the pit bulls, and the other two ran off. Is that what it takes now--you have to be armed to take a walk?

My daughter, after a few days to recover from the trauma, decided she wasn't gonna let the incident stop her from walking her dogs. But she now carries Mace and a stun gun. I don't know if Mace works on dogs, but she's ready, and loaded down with stuff, continues her routine.

Last word here: The Dog Whisperer swears pit bull behavior is all in the way they're raised, and they can be sweet lovely dogs. Nah. That's a crock. Their innate nature is to attack and fight. Siegfried and Roy raised a white tiger from a kitten and thought of it as such--until the tiger tried to bite Roy's head off. The tiger--and pitbulls-have a innate behavior built in to attack, and no amount of loving and coddling can suppress that instinct.

susil