Ms Nanci Creedon:

I very much disagree with that statement, for two reasons. Sometimes there may be something genetically wrong with a dog, whether its serotonin production is skewed or it has a brain tumour leading to it behaving differently. Sometimes dogs carry out bad behaviours - by bad, I mean unwanted or undesired - because there is something wrong with the dog. There will quite often be dogs with genetic or medical disorders that can lead to an increase in aggression.

Furthermore, saying that there is no such thing as bad dogs and only bad dog owners is, again, incorrect. I see many responsible, loving, educated dog owners who have ended up with a dog that, whether because it came from a bad puppy farm or has medical issues or because something spooked it at 12 weeks old in a way that stuck with it for life, is engaging in behaviours they do not want, not because they are bad owners but because they have found themselves in a position where something has happened, the dog needs help and they do not have the ability to help it.

There are bad people out there - we know that - and there are dogs about which, for whatever reason, something is off. The question, however, is where to report that. Dog wardens are not trained to a level to assess these dogs.