Justin got bit by a dog last night. Chocolate lab tied up outside the grocery store bit him in the face when we bent over to tie his shoe.

He’s okay. Scrapes bruises on the outside, some deeper cuts just inside his mouth.

By the time he found Jackie in the store and brought her out, the dog and it’s owner (whom Justin never saw) were gone.

This illustrates, no offence to purebred owners, why I prefer mixed-breed dogs… especially over the very popular ‘family’ purebreeds.

Uh, training, or lack thereof, has everything to do with this, not breeding.

Colorado Animal Control lists Chocolate Labs as the leading dog reported for dog bites in the state.

Obviously, not the most for fatal bites -- we leave that to the nut jobs with the backyards full of pit bulls pens -- but they do lead all other breeds for the most bites reported. They aren't *all* due to neglected training.

Obviously, training can mitigate that, maybe 80% of the time. But some of it does comes down to popular purebreeds having the smart bred out of them for looks. Dalmatians are the long-time example a breed made dumb, but the problems with breeding for appearance in otherwise great family-dog breeds like Labs and Cocker Spaniels has let to a noted upswing in those breeds' reduced ability to learn and judge.

That's just IMO, however. Obviously, even the upswing doesn't mean that the majority of any particular breed is stupid or mean -- just that the percentage upswings.

The simple fact is that most people bring a dog home, shove it into the backyard or pen, and expect it to behave when confronted with something the dog perceives as threatening, such as a stranger approaching it too fast, without presenting a hand for sniffing, etc. etc. THAT is the lack of training of which I speak, and has nothing at all to do with "a noted upswing in those breeds' reduced ability to learn and judge".

Dogs are pack animals, and if they are not socialized, taught what is acceptable and what is not, they will behave according to instinct, and the rules of the pack. This isn't rocket science.

Er, I know this must have been horrifically frightening, I'm sorry if I'm focusing on the wrong part of the issue. :)

We're not disagreeing, anyway. Nothing you've said is anything I think is wrong. I can't 100% reconcile 'leading the state in dog bites' with lack of training, because training isn't neglected by breed, typically.

I'm a total supporter of dog training - anyone who knows my dogs knows that - and I'm a huge fan of labs -- my family's owned a half-dozen variations on the lab breed in my life-time, and I know chocolate labs are near and dear to your heart. I have personal opinions of chocolate labs when compared to the other breeds, and that's a long-standing thing - I suppose none of this week's events helped that.

But, like I said, I don't think we're disagreeing on the key points -- training is essential (some dogs require a lot more training than other breeds before they 'get it', but that's another thing), and that's where I'm sure this sort of event comes from.

My family has owned several labs (as well as other breeds) over the years. Two of the three Chocolate Labs have had too be put down for being Agressive/Stupid. And one of those for attacking my dad when he walked into the Kitchen in the morning.

I've seen good dogs and bad dogs of all breeds. IMO Chocolate Labs have had the brains bred out of them.

The two Black labs that the family has had have been the two of the three greatest Family dogs that I've seen (the other being my friends Rotty that he had when growing up. The current Black lab is a great momma dog, and is wonderful with all of the nieces/nephew.

So what is the SOP for dog bites where the dog can't be checked out?

They gave us a number of symptoms to check for -- Justin got all his shots about 3 months back, so he has been vaccinated for rabies (benefit of football, I guess), and the instances of rabid bites is apparently very rare in our part of town.

Whew. I'm just glad Justin is more or less OK.

Recent shots -- excellent!

Kind of scary that they give routine shots for rabies now! Glad that he is o.k. and looking forward to poking fun at him later this week. Reggie as you know is a bit protective of the children when it comes to dogs but I am sure that he will be fine after the first few hours of sniffing and licking. His theory - and he wasn't even bit as a child and I had 1/2 my face removed by a neighbor dog is: "if it's got teeth, it can bite, no matter how nice it is." I don't argue - because honestly, he is right, but I plan to do all I can to love your dogs to pieces while I am there.

Honestly, the only thing I worry about around our dogs is that a kid might have an allergy to them.

Wow. Pretty scary. Glad the Boy is okay.

I'm relieved it wasn't worse and glad Justin had rabies shots. I had no idea that rabies was so common that they automatically gave shots for it there.

Here's hoping the rest of your holidays are smoove sailing.

Yikes! How scary that must've been for everyone!

I totally blame the dog owner. Why do people take their dogs with them to the grocery store anyway?