Great thread Azz.

I think as others have said that there may be a dog that "unexpectedly turns" for whatever reason (ie. it is an animal not human!) However there are imo far more dogs that are at the mercy of uneducated unreliable and DANGEROUS owners ...jmo.

If you can be charged with dangerous driving then why not dangerous dog owning.

It is an interesting concept but one which I believe should be given consideration...serious consideration.

I agree, maybe I used a bad example, but my point was that some of us are very responsible people, but if for some reason I left my dogs in the care of one of my show friends, which hundreds of doggy people do, and someone provoked my dog and it bit them, then I would be unduly held responsible for someone elses silly actions !

In some cases the term "Dangerous Dogs" is right and should be used, but on the flip side the term "Dangerous Dogs Owners" should be used dependent of the case. So yes it can be misleading and inaccurate but I dont really think its offensive.

Your right, and for the propose of conversation I'm going to play devils advocate here.

If you left your dog in the hands of someone who knew how to treat a dog but still went and provoked your dog to the point that it bit them then hopefully you could show that the dog was provoked and it was just defending itself, but if on the other hand you left your dog in the hands of someone who had no or very little knowledge of dogs then you only have yourself to blame, because you wouldn't leave your children with someone who couldn't look after them, so why would you leave your dog with someone like that.

The other thing to take into consideration is that with all these cases regardless of what they are they would all have to go to court and be proved that the dog or the owner was dangerous and I'm sorry to say that the onus is always on the side against the dog.

Yes you have a point Colin.
Also in cases under the DDA the dog is guilty full stop and it's up to the owner to prove otherwise.

I agree with alot of the posts in this thread,do I find the term offensive,not usually.

Absolutely. Of course I would never leave my dogs with anyone who couldn't a) control them b) take care of them c) keep them safe. If I was to blame for leaving them with someone whom I knew to be not so dog savvy, I would only have myself to blame

I know, which isn't fair.

Just one example for you.............

Someone I know had the most people loving friendly dog anyone could want to meet, he was lovely.

One day whilst he was seeing her daughters freinds off at the front door, she asked her brother (40's) to hold the dog so he didn't run out the door, whilst she ran back to get the friend's coat. The daughters friend played with the dogs tail, even after being asked not to, resulting in the dog snapping at her. It caught her hand and marked her finger.........

Who was to blame ?
The owner for asking another dog savvy person to hold the dog ?
The friend for playing with the dogs tail ?
The dog for snapping at the girl ?
Now what would you do in that situation ?

Well if that was me I would give that child a bloody good slap for not doing as she was asked, and the dog wouldn't of snapped in the first place if she had done so, but I'm more than likely wrong. I bet they blamed the dog.

Yes they did and the Mother of the girl called the police too, and inevitably the dog was PTS by the owner, who to this day is devastated at her loss

This is what riles me the most. There are good responsible dog owners that I feel would be penalised if someone else behaved wrongly around a dog and again the dog AND owner would suffer !

In that situation the girl would be at fault.

The point is, if it is expected, no, required, of the dog owner, to train their dog, to learn more about dog behaviour - there will be more clued up people around, therefore the chances of that 'accident' happening would be significantly decreased anyway.

With regards to the minority of dogs who might attack uncalled for - you know dogs are allowed to have pyschological problems too. But by educating owners you cut out _that_ risk increasing factor (of lack of knowledge) - which let's face it, a large proportion of attacks are down to.

I know Azz and I agree, I just think that by labelling dangerous owners, people like my friend would then be tarred as she had a police report and had to have her dog PTS for biting, and that would not be fair at all !