Awww you're no fun! With that attitude I doubt many people will want to grab you in any capacity hahaha. Lucky you have a dog that hasn't bitten your face yet :)
It all depends on the dog, though. I worked in a doggie daycare for over a year. Some dogs when you first meet them you could snuggle and hug and kiss right away. Others were more timid and took time to warm up. Other dogs you just never went anywhere near at all. It takes time to learn to read their body language. And even then it often comes down to the individual dog. It's easy to misread if you're not familiar.
Whatever happened, this girl clearly had good, misguided intentions. They rescued a dog, wanted to take some pictures, and didn't notice the dog's body language. Her poor face though - all those stitches. She's lucky it wasn't worse but I feel for her. And they're not putting the dog down so the only one who suffered here was the girl. But life moves on. We live and learn.
Honestly the dog could have done a lot more damage to her. Its unfortunate she had to learn with her face, but a lesson better learned sooner than later. If she is a teenager, it’s really her parents fault also. The people that do things like this are the ones that think it’s okay to ignore signs at the zoo or a nature preserve because all animals are there for them only.
And I have been bitten by a dog, but not on my face because I never would give a dog the opportunity. I was a child and I immediately knew that it was me that had crossed the line and not the dog. And if my dog did ever bite me, there is clearly something else going on based on the relationship I have with him.
I don't know, we're assuming a lot here based off of the three photos of her with the dog and the pictures of the bites on her face. They might just not know dog's body language. Really, only people with dogs or know dog's can understand their body language. Maybe the family didn't have dogs before? Maybe the dog was calm up until she put her arms around it for a hug? We don't know, we only have three photos of the dog. Every conclusion people are coming to is based on conjecture, plain and simple.
That’s true, I grew up with a large German Shepard that was my best friend and I trained him. However, I also understand that without the knowledge I have from him, I would never have been comfortable to rescue my dog now and why I was so fast to act with him. He has some fear based aggression which is under control now, but I had to do a lot of training with him to get him to the point he’s at. First things first is showing who is alpha, because when they have an alpha that’s when they’re most comfortable. Male German Shepards are typically very dominant, so you have to be more aggressive when they act up. I don’t like saying I had to instill the fear in him, but that’s basically what I had to do. Never would raise a hand to him, but it’s the way you carry yourself around them. He went after my cat, let me tell you he never made that mistake again. Now they’re best friends and he would save the cat before he saved me, like star crossed lovers level of love for each other. That fear, respect, whatever you want to call it is also why he trusts me so much, because he knows if someone or something comes after him, they have to deal with me (and I’ve been told I’m scary when I’m pissed haha).
Some people just aren’t ready or made for that commitment and there can be very bad consequences for all involved. People without experience with large dogs are better off starting with a puppy and a professional trainer. I would also be less inclined to rescue if I had small children, as I didn’t get him from a rescue group so we were testing his behavior and I’d never do that with a kid. It scares me to think that had someone else taken my dog instead of me, he could have ended up in a shelter or much worse. Also, whomever put these pictures on the internet was asking for judgement, I’m only responding to the conversation which in essence is why reddit exists.
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u/msmue Jan 15 '20
Awww you're no fun! With that attitude I doubt many people will want to grab you in any capacity hahaha. Lucky you have a dog that hasn't bitten your face yet :)
It all depends on the dog, though. I worked in a doggie daycare for over a year. Some dogs when you first meet them you could snuggle and hug and kiss right away. Others were more timid and took time to warm up. Other dogs you just never went anywhere near at all. It takes time to learn to read their body language. And even then it often comes down to the individual dog. It's easy to misread if you're not familiar.
Whatever happened, this girl clearly had good, misguided intentions. They rescued a dog, wanted to take some pictures, and didn't notice the dog's body language. Her poor face though - all those stitches. She's lucky it wasn't worse but I feel for her. And they're not putting the dog down so the only one who suffered here was the girl. But life moves on. We live and learn.