Nicholas Valentine My angle on the " calling off " argument is that people have stated that a Pit Bull can never be called off . My objection is to the word NEVER , because I know that a Pit Bull can be trained to " be called off " , the fact that most can't is down to lack of discipline and training . The video of the Pit Bull Police dog in Brazil appears to support this . The dog has hold of a photographer by the leg and then releases him

Julia Lewis

21 hrs

Wonderful article by Merritt Clifton in Animals 24/7 about how to survive a dog attack. Do read it, as it really brings home the peril you are in if it is a pit bull-type dog that is doing the attacking.
I'm going to try to put it in the files section for future reference.

15 real-life tips for surviving a dog attack

by Merritt Clifton For Dog Bite Prevention Week 2015 the American Humane Association and American Veterinary Medical Association have offered more than a dozen tips for avoiding ordinary dog bites ...

ANIMALS24-7.ORG|BY MERRITT CLIFTON

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• 10 people like this.
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  Julia Lewis Loved the account of how he saved a woman jogger's life by ordering the two pit bulls that were attacking her to "sit". Nicholas Valentine, do read it!

  21 hrs · Like · 3
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  Julia Lewis It shows how - sometimes - pit bulls can be "called off", as we were talking about in the other thread. But it would take great presence of mind. I don't think I would have thought of asking them to sit. I would have panicked.

  21 hrs · Like · 3
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  Julia Lewis Am bumping this up!

  21 hrs · Like · 2
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  Nicholas ValentineMy angle on the " calling off " argument is that people have stated that a Pit Bull can never be called off . My objection is to the word NEVER , because I know that a Pit Bull can be trained to " be called off " , the fact that most can't is down to lack of discipline and training . The video of the Pit Bull Police dog in Brazil appears to support this . The dog has hold of a photographer by the leg and then releases him . If the dog had not responded to commands from the handler the clip would have been very much longer . Sarah Howard .

  20 hrs · Like
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  Julia Lewis Nicholas Valentine, do you suspect that that police dog in the video has pit bull in it, or do you know that is what some countries are doing? If so, that is madness!

  19 hrs · Like · 1
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  Julia Lewis A friend has a lurcher with some pit in it. You wouldn't know by its looks but its behaviour is different to that of an ordinary lurcher.

  19 hrs · Like
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  Dennis Ballance Sr I would feel safer with roll over and play dead. I like the 80% option

  19 hrs · Like
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  Julia Lewis Merritt Clifton has certainly shown that, in certain circumstances, a pit bull can be called off if you interrupt its genetically-programmed attack behaviour in some way, as in ordering it to sit.

  19 hrs · Like · 1
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  Dennis Ballance Sr Problem he can get back up some good info well worth the read

  19 hrs · Like
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  Nicholas Valentine Myranya Werlemann , what you have just said is quite correct . I think dogs should be bred for purpose and if you want a family pet people should get a breed that is suitable as such .

  19 hrs · Like · 1
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  Nicholas ValentineJulia , just seen your post . The dog in the video looks pure GSD , but I know that the Dutch have crossed Pit into the Mals and Dutch Shepherds , the Police are importing them to replace their GSDs because they have such hip problems . To take a bite/ hold is stock in trade for a Police dog . In the video the handler is at fault for allowing his dog near enough to someone who doesn't appear to be a threat for the dog to bite . Interesting you mention lurchers . The bull cross lurchers have gained huge popularity amongst those that run dogs . I would say a rough estimate 50% of working lurchers are this breeding .

  18 hrs · Like
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  Christy CornellThis article is EXCELLENT. Merrit brought up many good points and lots of good suggestions which I've never heard before from bite prevention "experts".
  
  I'm glad Merrit was such a quick thinker in that incident where he helped the jogger. The victim got lucky that the dogs listened. I think something else which comes into play when using the sit command in an attack situation is if the dog's owner is similar (gender, tone of voice) to the person saying sit. Some dogs only listen to their owners. They will ignore commands from strangers or they will ignore commands from people who aren't similar to their owners. It's still worth a try, though, so I'm so glad he mentioned what worked in that situation. 
  
  Something else notable about the jogger attack is that if these attacking dogs listened twice, at least briefly, to the sit command during the attack, they at least had an owner that worked with them on basic obedience, so this was a case where the owner DID actually work with the dogs to train the dogs. Having (at least some) basic obedience training didn't prevent them from harassing the bikers and it didn't prevent them from targeting the jogger.

  17 hrs · Like
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  Stacy Renee Snow What about a stun gun?

  10 hrs · Like
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  Julia Lewis Not sure how a stun gun works. Merritt says in his article that tasers don't work.

  9 hrs · Like