EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – In light of the vicious dog attack on Penny Dunklee, local dog trainer Anthony Gonzalez wants other dog owners to know the importance of training your dogs to be in social settings.
Gonzalez is the owner of Valkyrie Strategic K9 and wants owners who want to own a working dog like a Pit Bull to know that if they are unprepared to handle them, it will negatively impact their pet.
“Sometimes, Pit bulls can be very high drive over excited and some people cannot channel that energy properly typically this is why you see them kind of roaming around or acting in a aggressive behavior.”
If a dog is not properly trained, the owner will not be able to correctly communicate with their canine. This could unfortunately lead to a situation where they attack, like with Penny Dunklee.
“If you don’t get the training properly you’re not gonna know how to train your dogs so you’re not going to be on the same page so your communication is going to be totally off your dog is going to do one thing and natural instincts are going to take over and the dog thinks its not doing anything bad but in society its definitely going to be a bad thing,” Gonzalez shares.
Gonzalez does suggest that potential owner of dogs like Pit Bulls and Shepherds meet some kind of kind of training before adopting.
“If you’re going to adopt especially like a Pitbull or a German Shepard or along the lines of a high drive working dog making sure that the owners get the training that they need whether it is simple basic obedience is fine but i would definitely want to see a certificate or something along those lines.”
If you do find yourself in a situation where a dog is running at you, Gonzalez says the best thing to do, is nothing.
“So I would just say to stand your ground at that point you know what i mean do not run try to remain as calm as possible i know it sounds very difficult to you if you’ve never been in that situation but yes don’t run that going to be one of the worst things you can definitely do.”
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