Quote:
Originally Posted by E12Cheng
Thank you all for some thought provoking discussion. ... Zeus will stay home with my son ....
|
To answer your original question, it is up to each individual campground if privately run. If you are using State Parks and/or State Recreation areas the rules for dog breeds are a bit more lax.
I think you are making the right choice if you are able to leave the dog with a family member.
Now, here's some side bar thoughts I'd like to share about dogs and personal experiences.
When I was a kid, about 10 years old (1965) my parents were camping in a campground. They had a travel trailer. My sister, 17 years old, was walking our family German Shepard on a leash when a little girl, about 6 or 7 years old came up to pet the dog. The dog had never shown aggression. When the girl approached, the dog attacked the girl. My sister could not hold the dog. My parents were sued and lost. Fortunately, home owners insurance, even back then, covered the claim and we had to put the dog down. The dog had never, ever shown aggression. To this day, 55 years later, I still do not know what triggered the event.
My other sister had a female Doberman that had puppies, 3 of them. The puppies were sweet as can be. Once, she was going to leave them with my mother (in her mid 80's. The dogs were about 3 or 4 years old now. All was well until something happened. The dogs were free in her yard and she was calling them back. When they didn't want to respond, one of them turned on her, attacked, and then the other two attacked. She was damaged pretty good, her face was torn. But my mother being my mother, a very stubborn World War 2 German war bride refused medical treatment and refused to report the issue. She patched herself up, and that WAS the last time she watched the dogs.
Fast forward again. We had 2 Dachshund's. Both were great dogs. One died of cancer early this year. We had both dogs over 10 years from the time they were puppies. The other dog had a territorial nature, so we were always careful with her, especially in campgrounds and around people. But she still would not take any "guff" from any other dog.
Two months after the first dog died, I had her in the front yard. We live in the country, no fences. The neighbor was dog-sitting a friends dog, and had the dog on a lease. The neighbor started approaching the property line when our dog took off and bolted toward the neighbor. I yelled at her and she stopped 3 times, but every time I got close enough to catch her, she bolted again.
She finally ran right up to the neighbor and the other dog. And in an instant, so fast it was like lightening, the neighbor dog (a bigger dog, German Shephard mix), just reached down, grabbed our little girl, gave her one shake and tossed her like a rubber toy. Our dog laid there. The back of her neck was completely torn from shoulder to shoulder. Her neck was broken. She breathed her last breath and died. .... It happened so fast, reading this last paragraph took longer than the entire event. We (and our neighbors) were devastated. We could not blame the other dog. Our dog was off our property, technically I was at fault. But the hurt was still there. Our neighbor kept saying the dog was so sweet, so gentle, I just don't understand. A week later the owner of the dog came to pick up his dog. He came over to visit us. He offered to pay for our dog, the cremation, anything. We said no. He repeated over and over, I just don't understand, the dog has NEVER shown aggression! Never!
Fast forward a couple more months. Now we have 2 new Dachshund's. Puppies. One is now 4 months old, the other only 2 months old. So darn cute, so sweet, so loveable, so playful. They played with each other, became best friends immediately. Until I put down that first bowl of real human food beef scraps. And JUST THAT QUICK, they attacked each other. I honestly thought they we kill each other, it was so vicious! Every since then, we absolutely do not trust them wholeheartedly. We have seen their vicious side and how quick they can turn.
What I'm saying is, NO ONE HAS A SWEET DOG THAT WILL NEVER BECOME VICIOUS! NO ONE! Dogs have a wild nature, a wild instinct, and no matter how much they are domesticated, they still have an uncontrollable nature that's just waiting to trigger. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER believe you dog won't attack. ALWAS assume it will.... ALWAYS, because eventually IT WILL!