We have people come in all the time upset that the carrier won't deliver their mail because of a dog. "My dog is friendly", "He won't bite"... yeah... unless the dog has no teeth, the dog will bite. I know of one street that spent months coming in to pick up mail because the owner wouldn't keep the dog inside, the dog went after the carrier three times.
runamuck wrote:
When I see dogs baring their teeth i get cold chills. I wonder at what point play becomes attack. I have seen too many attacks by a dog that was "perfectly friendly" toward the victim, until it was not. I know and trust friends' pets. I am sometimes able to trim claws when the owner cannot. I was able to trim the hair on an overlong haired ZShih Tzu that was mantted because it got nasty when it saw clippers. So i grabbed scissors and started working. When i got the first mat off I could see it relax.
My fear is not irrational, just a healthy respect for the power of a dog's bite. A German Shepherd can put nearly 400 pounds of force in a bite. That is several times what a human can do.
ETA. I have a cat and have had multiple cats at one time.. Compared, dogs are like kazoos com,pred to that are like a Stradivarius. It took years of learning and watching cat behavior videos. Wagging tail on a cat means the cat is upset or tensed up[ about something. Trying to pet a cat with a wagging tail is akin to pouring gasoline on a fire, and can be extremely painful. On a dog wagging til is a sure sign it is not nervous and welcomes attention....Show more →
runamuck wrote:
When I see dogs baring their teeth i get cold chills. I wonder at what point play becomes attack. I have seen too many attacks by a dog that was "perfectly friendly" toward the victim, until it was not. I know and trust friends' pets. I am sometimes able to trim claws when the owner cannot. I was able to trim the hair on an overlong haired ZShih Tzu that was mantted because it got nasty when it saw clippers. So i grabbed scissors and started working. When i got the first mat off I could see it relax.
My fear is not irrational, just a healthy respect for the power of a dog's bite. A German Shepherd can put nearly 400 pounds of force in a bite. That is several times what a human can do.
ETA. I have a cat and have had multiple cats at one time.. Compared, dogs are like kazoos com,pred to that are like a Stradivarius. It took years of learning and watching cat behavior videos. Wagging tail on a cat means the cat is upset or tensed up[ about something. Trying to pet a cat with a wagging tail is akin to pouring gasoline on a fire, and can be extremely painful. On a dog wagging til is a sure sign it is not nervous and welcomes attention....Show more →
I can only speak for Rowdy and Tika but when they are playing like this its the freeze in the action that shows off those teeth. I am with them all day and they are very vocal so teeth bearing when they are playing is always present. I have seen dogs get into it but that is normally when food or a toy is involved.
