Dog Trainer Advocates for Legislation on Breed-Specific Dog Training After Dog Attack

A dog trainer and canine services provider – who recently found himself the victim of a dog attack – has backed calls for legislation directing the training of dogs of specific breeds.

Paul Ras Simba Rock, head trainer and owner of Loyalty Canine Services, who is still nursing wounds requiring several stitches, said the level of irresponsible dog ownership now requires a law to force the training of certain breeds.

But he stopped short of calling for outright bans on breeds deemed dangerous under laws in Trinidad and Tobago and Britain.

“It has been a problem from time to time [when] it gets highlighted, and we jump up,” Rock said at a press conference he called on Thursday. “Hopefully… something can really be done to make our society more dog friendly, and we can create a better relationship between dogs, the owners, and society at large.

“If people were responsible, we wouldn’t have to enact legislation to make them responsible…. I think that owners have a responsibility to get the dogs trained, and maybe that is something that can be mandated – once you have a dog that is over a particular size or of a particular breed, that you have to have it trained. That is something that the government could look at. At the end of the day, legislation needs to be made to help with the situation.”

He also suggested the authorities should consider introducing insurance for dogs.

“I think that [is] one of the things that needs to be done,” said Rock. “I know it has been mentioned before that people that have registered their particular breeds – what we call the guardian breeds, the bigger dogs, who have been traditionally bred to protect livestock – I think those dogs when you go to register [them], you should have to insure the dogs.

“There are situations where people do not have money to pay compensation, they may not have insurance, because any Tom, Dick or Harry can own any dog in Barbados without any sort of responsibility being placed on them. “

Rock, who explained that it has been his experience that some dog owners often show little interest in having their animals trained, said that attitudes must shift before attacks can become a rarity.

He added that much of dogs’ aggressive behaviour stems from their owners’ negligence, adding they often take on a laid-back attitude to their pets.

“Many of us treat dogs like we treat livestock. You have them there and you barely give the dog water, [or] feed, and you stake it out and expect the dog to bark at someone coming around and that it is. That sort of treatment itself causes behavioural issues with the dog,” he cautioned.