Girl (3) injured in Tyrone dog attack
Sunday, 14 June 2009 17:07
A three-year-old girl has been seriously injured after being attacked by a dog in Co Tyrone.

The little girl was out walking her dog with a family member in Magheramore when the attack took place.

She sustained injuries to her neck, head and face and was brought to hospital where her wounds were described as serious but not life threatening.

Police were called to the scene shortly after 11.30am. They then instructed that the dog, described as a Japanese Akido, be put down by a vet.

A police spokesperson said that under the Dangerous Dogs Act, they can destroy a dangerous animal if it poses a threat to the public

http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0614/tyrone.html

Oh dear god.
Was it the family pet that attacked her do we know or another dog belonging to someone else.
I love Akita's but in the wrong hands they are trouble.

Hope the little girl recovers ok and doesn't lead to any lasting damage physically or mentally

I only read it on teletext this evening. I just did a google and found this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8099596.stm

Not much more info available at present. Any breed can do damage to a three year old :(.

Any breed in the wrong hands can be trouble not just certain breeds.

> Any breed can do damage to a three year old

Quite agree with you there, though a large breed like this can do a whole lot more damage than a smaller dog as we know.
It would be interesting to know more facts about this when it comes in, if it does..

Sorry i get very upset when i read things like this, one for the child being attacked and potentially for the dog who attacked, depending on the situation.
Many dogs aren't trained or raised right and this breed is one which needs very careful management to bring the best of it. Please don't let these be the next thing after the Staffy

> Any breed in the wrong hands can be trouble not just certain breeds

This is true. BUT and this is a BUT there are certain breeds which have a disposition to be more on guard than others. I have spoken to some owners and breeders of the Akita and learned a lot from them. You need to know what you are doing with this breed and aren't for the fainthearted.
The ones i have seen at shows are lovely and very well behaved and a true credit to the breed.

I don't know what the situation is in the UK but here in Ireland the Akita seems to be the "in" breed of the year. A good few have already ended up in pounds although all the ones I have seen are American Akitas, not Japanese.

> here in Ireland the Akita seems to be the "in" breed of the year.

:(

I hope the little girl makes a full recovery, both physically & mentally.

Akitas, American Bulldogs and Staffies seem to be the 'in' breeds round here. Met one Akita bitch a couple of years ago who was lovely - played with the Flattie - but in this area I think sadly more are status symbols. :-( And I think in this country they are three of the breeds that are ending up most in rescue centres - I know Staffs and their crosses there is a serious crisis as so many are ending up in rescue (one suspects the ones from BYBs).

I have never met a Japanese Akita, all the ones I have met have been the American.

Any dog of that size is going to do serious damage to a small child in the wrong situation... :(

I have to say, I have found every Akita ive met INCREDIBLY hard to read (note, ive not been to any shows where Akitas had classes though... so maybe ive just not met any nicely bred ones)..

Only the other day, a lady i KNOW to be an absolutely awful dog owner (really... so irresponsible, not a clue)... showed up here to show off her new dog..... Akita x Sibe.....

Conformationally speaking a nice looking dog, but..... 7 months old and already far too hot for her to handle, he jumped up at me and as i stepped back and gently pushed him down with my hand (on his chest where id been scratching him) he snarled and lunged for me - really NO facial signs of this at all (though i do highly suspect hes been smacked for growling anyway as she then proceeded to smack him in the face with the chain lead....).

There are four or five of these heavy, sibe/akita/mal type crossbreeds on my estate now, I do think they are becoming more popular than the staffie, though im not sure how long it will last as most people I know of have just the one and are finding them very hard work (keeping them outside or locked in utility rooms alone for much of the day and suffering the consequences).

My son was attacked last year by a border terrier, the attack was totally un prevoked and he went straight for his face, luckily myself and the owner was on him in a flash and my son only sustained small scratches, it could of been so much worse.

I think any dog can have the potential to turn, sometimes due to unknown health issues, and obviously some dogs can do more harm due to there size, this is just a personal opinion bur ive always found smaller dogs to be more snappy and a lot of the time it's over looked due to there size however if my bernese acted the way some little dogs do ive encountered on walks there would be up roar but normally the owners laugh and say they have got attitude.

Hope the little girls ok.

> Was it the family pet that attacked her do we know or another dog belonging to someone else

The dog belonged to a neighbour

> I have found every Akita ive met INCREDIBLY hard to read

I would say that as well of all, bar two, who were lovely friendly bitches. But I've never met the ones at shows, just the 'pets'. I think they are a sort of breed where you need to know them well to be able to read them, correct me if I'm wrong. And the two I've met that were friendly and I could read, I'm not sure were typical of the breed standard, as I think they are meant to be 'reserved with strangers' - that's from memory, so might be incorrect.

Actually, tell a lie - I've met Akitas at ringcraft, but they were just pups. Having said that, one of them bit my Flattie pup on the nose (and he knew exactly which it was and barked ferociously at it when it was doing the dog walk!! :-D Didn't bark at any of the other 4 or 5 pups they had.)

I do own and show Akita's myself and they are brought up exactly how I bring up my other breeds and they are good with both children and adults. 

It really is deed not breed!

Also yes they can be hard to read if you do not know the breed.  I would not expect anyone to be able to read my Akita bitch and tell me what she's about to do but I can read her like a book.  Yes you only get subtle hints but I spend alot of time watching and interacting with all my dogs so I like to think I know them extremely well.

Akita's should be aloof with strangers but not show any aggression whatsoever - if they do then this is not true to the breed.  My bitch has her favourite people but if anyone wants to make a fuss of her they can, she just won't shower them in kisses like my Rottie does!

This is just an open question.would licensing do anything to make some dog owners think very carefully about what breed they were taking on?Perhaps a license for each breed would only be issued when the potential owner passed a test to ensure that they understood the inborn traits of the breed they wanted to own.And then once the license was obtained,proof of insurance should be shown to the breeder,along with the license to prove good intent and a serious will to look after and nurture the breed looked for.Questions could be set for each breed by approved officials of the kennel club,perhaps.

Hugely expensive to set up, and impossible to police. It's illegal to breed or sell pitbulls, and has been for 15 years, but the number around doesn't seem to have decreased.

I dont think licencing would work - we already HAVE laws surrounding what you may and may not allow your dog to do and as threads on this forum show, it is not policed well enough.

Its another one of those things where the responsible who never cause a problem will comply, the irresponsible who cause problems wont do, and it wont be effectively or efficiently policed (because it wont be possible to do so as it isnt possible to effectively or efficiently police a lot of things), and the status quo will remain.

Anything that gets 'breed specific' is liable to backfire badly, as is the case with Pitbulls - before they were banned they were not particularly any more popular than any other similar breed and less popular than a lot of breeds. Now they are illegal they are effectively branded the desirable dog to have if you want to intimidate others!

Even if we DID manage to actually wipe out a certain breed in this country and prevent it from being owned/bred/brought in - people will do what they have always done...

Either, breed something similar from legal breeds - ie staffie x something else big and hard...
Move onto another breed - see Akitas/Rotties/GSDs/Dobermans/American Bulldogs/Mastiffs.......

Breeding similar dogs is sort of accounted for within defras guidelines as to what is or is not a pitbull 'type'.. ie, if it looks like one and one of our experts says it is one, then it is and actual genetics doesnt count.

I note no ones got crafty enough to breed a long haired pitbull... which is how the illegal dog of a few hundred years ago slipped through the net.... the coursing/poaching sighthound... crossed with everyones handy hairy farm collie... = ta da... stealth sighthound, in a collies hairy coat, meet mr Lurcher!

It doesnt matter what licences we have and what is or isnt banned - people will find a way round as theyhave done for thousands of years. Dogs are dogs and all dogs can be taught to look dangerous, behave dangerously, and to fight and if we banned everything wed end up with people paying thousands for fighting yorkies or protection JRTs! Theyd just have two or three at a time instead of the one!

> would licensing do anything to make some dog owners think very carefully about what breed they were taking on?

I live on the Isle of Man and we have dog licences laws over here which have to be applied & paid for annually. Doesn't make a bit of difference and it most certainly isn't governed or policed...........It's just another bit of extra cash for the government to waste on expense's (meoaw!)

ETA - I haven't got any of mine licenced, don't intend on it either and I haven't had anybody knocking on my door for them.

I don't think licensing would work - the people in the UK today don't seem to think the laws apply to them, they certainly wouldn't think twice about flouting a dog license.  It's societies attitudes that need to change as a whole.

> I live on the Isle of Man and we have dog licences laws over here which have to be applied & paid for annually. Doesn't make a bit of difference and it most certainly isn't governed or policed...........It's just another bit of extra cash for the government to waste on expense's (meoaw!)
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It's the same in New Zealand, I used to pay $70 per dog per year.  Basically all the responsible dog owners payed up and all the thoughtless, irresponsible people didn't bother.