I know it is a week later and this is stale and I am not really sure how to contact you directly - a few responses: >>I find that interesting as nearly every t

I know it is a week later and this is stale and I am not really sure how to contact you directly - a few responses: >>I find that interesting as nearly every time I'm out walking at a place where dog-walking is popular I witness dogs fighting. Probably a dozen times a year, I do try and avoid such places as I don't like walking in faeces ... I am in the city (<2km from midtown Manhattan) and the dog parks are fenced in areas where someone would not walk through faeces. The fighting thing I will grant you as my point was anecdotal and yours was as well. There are very different attitudes regarding dogs and dog behaviour in different areas. In the yuppie area that I live in it is pretty bad form to not clean up your dog's crap or to let your dog fight. So it doesnt tend to happen. But a short walk away to a more ghetto part of town and there are alot more fights and you are more likely to step in crap. So point well taken. I believe - however - that if dogs are socialized properly they will not tend to fight. In my life I have lived in suburbia and the city and a well raised city dog is a pretty fit and content beast. The suburban dog let out to a back yard where it stays all day barking at passing children, dogs and squirrels is often not. My local dogrun is pretty heavily used by a population of about 500 dogs, there can be 15 - 20 dogs in there at a time. So it is surprising that there are not more fights. The city largely neglects the run so people informally replensh bags and scoops and fix the fence (server room zipties work great...) >>...Thing is if your dog threatens to harm me or my child and I crush its skull under my boot then I'll be arrested. Do not think so - if a dog is savaging another human it should be killed. That might depend upon the local laws but i think you have to kill a dog that is attacking someone. Not worth quibbling about but I was surprised by this comment. >>... or hearing "oh he's harmless" as my toddler is knocked over by an out of control dog. I hear you on this - I have 2 young boys (< 6yrs old) and it is troubling to see people with dogs they can barely control. The last nasty fight I say was some kind of mastiff which rally hurt another dog while the owner (who probably weighed less than the dog) shrieked nearby doing nothing. A month or so ago, 2 dogs described as pitbulls in the paper were killed by the police as they seriously bit (shredded a leg in one case) 3 people in an apartment. (Though I found it even more disturbing to think that police were discharging a gun in an occupied apartment building but that is another issue.) I find this indefensible - to keep dogs (or any animals) in a situation where you cannot control them. Even though it is pretty rare it is very disturbing.