new dda laws coming in may this year

http://www.nawt.org.uk/advice/changes-dangerous-dogs-act-advice-owners

Interesting.   

Clarifies the situation a bit apart from people trying to break into your house which they still think is a grey area....

Thanks for sharing x

We don't have any such thing as dda laws. Soo, what I'm always interested in is how do you all feel about it?

Interesting read Nath   

RoxysMum wrote:We don't have any such thing as dda laws. Soo, what I'm always interested in is how do you all feel about it?

Its good and bad like any legislation to be honest.
section one is a cobbled together knee jerk reaction that has killed thousands of innocent dogs on looks alone. it does nothing to address the issue with status dogs at all, in essence its a lazy way out.

Section two and three I mostly agree with yet some of it is very vague and open to interpratation.
I hate this bit personally,

Your dog is considered dangerously out of control if it:
   makes someone worried that it might injure them

So what if someone has a fear for dogs and comes accross your dog, by nature of there fear they will have irrational thoughts about the dogs actions ie. "oh my god its going to bite me" even if fido is doing nothing more than  enjoying a stroll.  To further this last year when out with claire and riley in the park, a guy playing with his kids halfway accross the park shouted out for claire to put riley on a lead! he was only sniffing a bench and not even facing them. His irrational fear of a big bull breed dog off lead had obviously "made him worried that it might injure them" even though we were so sodding far away I could hardley hear what he was shouting.
Now to the letter of the law, that makes Riley a dangerouse dog of which i can assure you he is most definatly not

It truly boggles my mind

The second part that Nath quoted really concerns me too. Of course I keep Biscuit as under control as is humanly possible, but if she's startled or scared she will lunge/growl. Obviously that to some people could be deemed as threatening. What they don't know is that it's all front and she'd run away before she bit, she's just scared and trying to get them out of her space. But on paper, a Staffordshire bull terrier lunging and snarling isn't going to sound like fear. I'm just hoping that they would bring in decent expert witnesses in cases such as these to properly assess the dogs and owners, rather than just putting them to death! Probably being too hopefully though!

i think these rules change to removed problem dog of dodgy people i think people like us are fine i'm not worried about these change of laws

Steve wrote:i think these rules change to removed problem dog of dodgy people i think people like us are fine i'm not worried about these change of laws

Totally agree mate, the recent changes have come about because of the inability of people keeping dogs under control on there own property. that bit i am 100% behind. a postie, gas man etc should be able to go about their job withought the threat of being bitten. and as a side point, the main voice of the general workers union who pushed for the recent changes is a rescue staffy owner... he did us proud in the debate with defra pointing out it wasnt bull breads that were the reason for the problem but bad dog owners of any bread.

what i dont like is the parts which are very vague in section 2 and 3. especialy as they are in the same act as section one which is deliberatly vague. its also an act which turns conventional justice on its head as its not guilty until proven innocent... your guilty on suspision and then have to prove at your expense that the dog is innocent. and unless your local DLO thinks the same as you your dog is removed and kenneld until the court date.

what really peaves me is that this is all about bad dog owners causing the problem, we have all seen the bad publicity and the way people pull dogs and children out the way. the goverment have been forced to bring in the act as some people couldnt give a damn about how there dogs behave in public. we are all tared with the same brush at the end of the day. there is no bad/good dog owners in the press, just "dog owners" and the sheep public hang on every word of it. Its about time laws were brought in to combat the problem properly, address the real issues, curb back yard breaders that allow adults/kids to buy dogs with no idea how to bring them up. more education about animal welfare in schools, free dog socialisation puppy classes (my local vet does this) and severe punishment for animal neglect and cruelty. a compulsary dog breed and generaly dog behaviour fact sheet to be given to each new dog owner... and thats just a start... many many dog related attacks could have been prevented with owner education and not by a law that people no very little about until its to late.

Nathan wrote:

Your dog is considered dangerously out of control if it:
   makes someone worried that it might injure them

I have seen some people walking the street that made me feel like they might injure me, what do I do about them ?