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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm going to copypaste pp because they get it and a lot of y'all need to.

"[b]There's always a warning. People just tend to either ignore it or misread it.[/b] In this instance, the person in question should definitely have had the dogs separated and should have paid more attention. People who foster dogs should probably be required to take a class, but typically they aren't and rescue groups are mostly volunteers so here we are."

People ought to have a certification tests and an actual license to own animals the same way you need a license to drive a car. All dogs can bite, and the person on-duty is responsible for the animal(s) in their care.

"[b]There is no such thing as attacking without provocation/ out of the blue.[/b] Sounds like there are many people on here who do not understand dog behaviour and should not be owners if you believe stuff like this. Unless your dog is cujo, there are always signs. If you ignore them and an animal gets hurt, that’s your fault as the supervising human."

Seriously. If you don't understand dogs, you'll think it's "out of the blue" when, to a more experienced/intelligent owner/handler, there are all kinds of signs. Even Cujo had signs, and a dog like that is a known issue; they don't "just snap" the way some of your idiots would allege.

If you're not willing to learn how dogs work, at least enough to handle them safely, you shouldn't have or handle dogs.

[/quote]

Okay, so I was the babysitter in this case who was attacked by the family's dog.  I was 17 years old when I was attacked.  What warning signs and obligations did I, as the person in the house have and ability to correct the dog that bit me.  For what it's worth I did prevent the young children in the house from being bitten, my putting myself physically between them.

So this whole "there are always signs".  If your dog is dangerous enough that someone has to be a dog mind reader to be safe around your dog, you are a bad dog owner who handed someone a hand grenade.

It's on the owners.[/quote]
So it wasn’t out of the blue - he was going after the kids, so it’s quite likely something they did set him off. Kids are not gentle with animals. You then put yourself in the way to protect them. It’s very disingenuous to say that the dog attacked you out of the blue, because that sounds like a straight up lie from your next post.[/quote]

The kids were just eating dinner and the dog lunged at the kid who was just sitting in the chair.  I had pet and greeted this dog and played fetch with him just fine. I got between the dog and the kid.  No one had warned me the dog was food aggressive.  So yes, for a caretaker the dog attacked out of the blue.

And for the dog sitter that absolutely can happen too.  They can't anticipate a dog's specific aggressions without being warned.  I've personally experienced a dog attacking without warning in the seconds before.  The dog probably had displayed food aggression before to its owners, so the dog in OP's story had displayed reactivity to other dogs.  But that's then the owner's warning to pass on.

Point is:  yes, dog owners bear the responsibility for aggression.[/quote]

The dog sitter should have insurance as a licensed business.[/quote]

Ugh to people who need everything to be a 'licensed business' just so they have someone to squeeze or sue. Petsitting, babysitting, housesitting, etc. have always been neighborhood jobs, and the neighborhood relationships were enough to keep them sane and civil. Y'all corporate creeps fsck it all up.

But you know who should have a license and insurance? Pet owners. If you're going to own an animal that can bite, and all dogs of all breeds can bite, you should have a license that says you know what you're doing and insurance to cover the mishaps that happen on a long enough timeline. [/quote]

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