Dear Chatty,
I owned a chow-chow in the seventies. He looked like a darling black teddy bear. I put him through obedience school. He was very good at it. Some judges were afraid to handle him. Chin Lee knew it, but stood for it. I was always very careful with him and respected his temprament. He was loving with me, but took nothing from no one else, even my children. I had him on a chain one day (briefly) and the neighbor boy, about 12, came and beat him with a stick. I ran the boy off, but he came back later. Chin stood at the back of his chain with about three foot of it laying down on the ground. He stood there waiting and I started running. The boy got there first and Chin jumped him with the extra chain to use. I yanked him off the kid with the chain. The boy was only frightened, had in fact turned his back instinctively when the dog jumped.
I knew then the dog did not belong in a home, no matter how much I loved him. I sold him as a junk yard dog. (no kidding) I knew at some point I would be sued. It was very sad and I will never forget Chin Lee. I always hope to be in a situation where I can have another Chow, but the world is worse about it, not better.
Another strange case was a Cairn Terrier I owned. (I used to breed and show dogs) She was chained too (Some people learn the hard way about chains, I am one of them.) I owned a horse with an electric fence. It was thunderstorming. The dog got it's chain wrapped around the fence. I was in the house and wondered what that weird screaming was. I ran out to disconnect the fence. Dummy me and poor animal, I had stacked hay over the shut off. Can you beleive it?? Anyway, I am slinging hay everywhere and got it shut off. The dog seemed okay, never even passed out. She developed some strange habits later, (thought she was nursing puppies for one) and began attacking only the men in the family. I sold her to a breeder where she would not have family contact. She had pedigree out the ying-yang.
So those are my sad tales. It seems that the biggest part of animals' problems are human.
Thanks for the topic!
Renegade