gosh, i shan't visit essex then

Well, I'm Essex (different area to C & D) but it's the JRTs that rule the roost roundabouts here! Everyone I talk to on my doggy walks tends to have an "aggressive JRT" story.

Now before anyone accuses me, I'm not JRT'ist , just saying that there are some really scary ones around here. I've also met a couple of sweeties recently, so I think I've been unlucky with the monster ones I've met before

yes, the worst example aggression cases i have always had to deal with have been Jacks

That's probably true.
I do admit to being in a bit of a funny mood today.
It was meant to be a joke, but these things don't always come across on the written word.

I think the general problem is that with dogs emotions can often run high.

yes, and with their human owners as well

[quote=Pidge;1789760]So what would you do if it was a PitBull?

Sorry but I read your OP as almost school kid excitement that there might be an illegal breed living near you and my first thought was that you should be careful what you say and how you say it. If you accuse that dog of being a PB someone might run away with it too far and the dog will be destroyed. Have you thought the owner might have repeated the breed of his dog because he was paranoid about people like you who might run away declaring his dog to be an illegal breed?

KruseWalker I commend you for thinking carefully about your post and how you say your point. I thought it was a very good point and well put across.

Shona, that dog is GORGEOUS!!! Stats please; Name, age etc! I'm in love!!![/quote]

lol shes an egg head, her name is kiera shes a rescue from DT, my nephew got her as a puppy, apparently a pit x
shes bigger than a staff, though has the solid build of one she comes up to just above my knee, solid with a big square head....daft as a brush, lol

We have an aggressive greyhound X, two nasty boxers, some crazy arsed terriers, a fiesty little chi and some snappy collies.

The nicest dogs we meet on our walks are staffies, spaniels, labs and doberman.

The scary dogs round me are 3 westies (different owners), 2 jack russels(same owner) and a yorkie.

I've luckily never met the westies or the jacks off lead. The yorkie I have and it was jumping up at Jet who was on his long line and yelping in pain. The owner was laughing "look how my totally badly behaved dog can terrorise a well behaved one" attitude. She changed her mind when we forcibly removed her dog from ours. Then it was a poor little darling which she scooped up in her arms

I have met some lovely small dogs too, one yorkie that will play with many other big dogs and lots of others who like their space but once given it are fine.

The problem is that when doing a risk assessment you don't just look at the possibility of the risk but of the severity of the risk if it did occur. While it might be more likely that your dog gets attacked by a small dog the risk of injury is small. Whearas the risk of getting attacked by eg a staffie may be quite low but the risk of injury if it does occur is quite high.

Personally I've found the best way to avoid badly behaved dogs is to go for long walks in bad weather. Strangely you only seem to meet lovely dogs and people then.

I've just had a fantastic vision of a dog sitting with it's paw on it's forehead going (in a hollywood way) "I just can't take the pressure dahling!"

i forgot to say thank you