Kentucky woman killed, husband injured in Christmas Eve pit bull attack

[Honeycombe8]

80. So what caused the attack? Could've been anything. I've seen some dog attacks...

One of my dogs, a terrier mix (not a Put Bull terrier mix), started attacking my cocker spaniel a few years ago. This was after they had been BFFs for several years. Then it changed. I took incremental steps in protecting my spaniel after that, and got that under control...including having a vet agree to put her down, under certain conditions.

Anyway, she did not go for the jugular or hurt him seriously. She was putting him in his place & punishing him for stealing her treats or whatever. She never did get him anywhere else but his ear, which she had learned she could grab and force him down.

Anyway....I saw a lot of those attacks over the years. And I've watched the Cesar Melan show for years. A dog attack isn't like a dog WANTS to hurt or kill his owner. They don't THINK about an attack. They are REACTING to something, without aforethought. Once it starts, the dog goes from zero to the "red zone" in a split second. It reminds me of a shark feeding frenzy. It's extremely violent (although in my case it looked & sounded more violent than it was), and it doesn't stop until something stops it....an outside force, the victim stops moving, etc.

I also don't think a dog just suddenly starts attacking this violently out of the blue. The dog had probably always had a tendency to react to things in a certain way, but since it didn't try to attack a PERSON, the owner disregarded it. Any dog that is a prey dog (like all terriers), should be guarded, especially. If a dog is of a breed to chase down and kill small prey, that is how it will react in other situations. Usually, it's not with the owner...but it can be, if the dog can't control himself.

So when those 2 dogs were out there....#1...SHE wasn't the owner, so it's possible the dogs viewed her as a sibling, or competition for attention and food. #2...She had birdseed, which the dogs may have wanted to eat, but she wouldn't give it to them. #3...They weren't trained for hand and voice orders, esp from people other than their owner (she may have yelled at them to get back, but they weren't trained to respond to orders, esp from someone not their owner. #4...Dogs act in a pack-like mentality, when there is more than one. A dangerous dog is all the more dangerous, when there is more than one.

Once one of them lurched to attack or get the birdseed or whatever, the other would surely join in, and they would lose control, in a shark-like attack, until something stopped the frenzy, or until the victim stopped moving.

So sad.

How I stopped the fights between my two dogs was I'd grab the aggressor by the nape of her neck, tell her to "drop it," then yell at the victim "Quiet....stop...." to keep him from moving or barking. That was to stop the movement and growling...then I'd repeatedly tell the aggressor to "drop it" until she did. They were both trained for word cues, and small enough for me to grab. If they had been pits, all three of us would be dead.