----- Original Message -----
From: "P. J. Alling"
Subject: Re: Update: The fur fellow's feet
Sorry William, but the owner is responsible , if the dog were being held
legally responsible there would be a trial with the dog as the defendant.
The owner will be held responsible, the dog is simply a dangerous nuisance
being eliminated. Dogs have no legal responsibilities, the owners do.
The dog will suffer for the owner's lapse however.
You are confusing a legal system with real life.
In real life, in the biting example, the dog pays a much higher price than a
mere fine.
If the dog was not held accountable for it's action, it would not be killed,
the owner would just pay a fine.
I don't know about how you train dogs, or if you know anything about the
subject, but I hold my dog accountable for a lot of things.
If I am walking her and she breaks heel, she hits the end of the leash, and
suffers a consequence.
Her responsibility is to stay beside me. If she fails to do this, the
correction happens, and she learns that being beside me is a happy place,
not being beside me is uncomfortable.
If she is being a butthead, she suffers the consequence of being spoken
sharply to. This may not seem like much, but it is enough for her to alter
her behaviour.
If a dog jumps up at me in play, I lift my knee. The dog hits my knee with
it's chest, and finds itself with all four feet on the floor, with me
telling it what a good dog it is for having all four of it's feet where they
belong.
Very effective. The dog gets a negative rspnse for one action, a positive
response for another.
It suffers a consequence for transgression, a reward for doing what I
consider to be correct.
This doesn't involve a court system, or lawyers, it is just holding the
animal accountable, and making it take responsibility for what it does
wrong, then rewarding it when it shows good behaviour.
I deal with people all the time who do not hold their dogs accountable for
it's actions. They end up in my training hall with badly behaved dogs.
William Robb
