So also they cannot defend themselves from adults who abuse them?

As far as Im aware from my abused dogs - no they dont know the difference - how on earth can dogs differentiat between those abusing them? As you've said they are dogs they react as dogs do not human.

Do you really expect a dog to sit there being battered by a child and think oh its only a child hitting me with a stick or sticking a pencil in my ear and inflicting an enormous amount of pain but I wont react cuz its not an adult?

It was the vets opinion

Luckily for the dog it was`nt your opinion on whom his life rested

The vet did`nt witness the cruelty as it was taking place, the vet had to make a decision on the spot in order to save the life of an abused dog.


[ She ] was`nt my vet


You said "I dont agree that "punching back" is right either, honestly cant grasp it at all"


It `seems` pretty clear to me

Yeah i know.

So you hold Robert Thompson and Jon Venables parent responsible then do you? At what point in your book does a child become responsible then, bearing in mind that they can be a witness in court. Are the court wrong. Are we all wrong and your right?

Ok, why do some dogs target say German Shepherds? is it fair to assume they may of been attacked by one and remember it? Therefore they "recognise" that type of dog. Lots of dogs dont like people in hats for instance, or people with long coats on, all sorts, they certainly "differenntiate" between them and make decisions based on it.

No it's not, because if a dog can't defend itself, what is it supposed to do?

I dont have a book Colin, and I am not a child psycholigist or analyst. I do know however that many children do not have the understanding that others may of the same age, so obviously cannot be held responsible for their actions at any age. What I think is immaterial to cases such as you have mentioned, and quite honestly I dont see the relevance.

Not in the way you think they `should`, no. They recognise that they are smaller and have higher pitched voices, that`s about it, but its enough to associate other similarly sized and sounding humans to being `like the one that hurt them`, same as some dogs are fearful of all men because of being beaten by one, or fearful of all women because they were beaten by one, it`s more association than recognition.

Also, dogs don`t tend to be able to ask for birth certificates when trying to defend themselves from a beating or having stones or bricks thrown at them so that they`ll know the small abuser is more fragile than an adult one.

depends what you see as defence I suppose, a few minutes ago you were talking about getting over a fence, no defending themselves there is there? i mean nobody was hitting them?

But you expect dogs to differentiate at the time of the abuse? Something/someone is inflicting pain either by beating or shoving something into it or kicking it whatever?

What about if its for the first time? A child comes up kicks the dog, stuffs a pencil in its ear enough to cause serious damage and its all of a sudden supposed to know the difference - oh its a small human being so I shouldnt react?

How about the same scenario with an adult?