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It seems odd that they both attacked her, but I'm sure there could be plenty of speculation as to why. Having known a few mastiffs, although fleetingly, they are fiercely loyal, and can be a tad bit cranky.
For two months I cared for an eleven year old male Bullmastiff named Sampson. He was a cuddly baby, with women, but would just as soon bite any man. He was large, actually massive, and I always thought to myself, if this dog grabs me by the thigh, I am now his play thing. He easily weighed one and half times what I do.
With Sampson, he had severe arthritis that made his life very painful, and he was pretty much deaf with some blindness setting in, so you had to be careful. You had to make sure he saw you, or he'd whirl on ya if you touched him without him knowing you were there. Waking him up was not done by hand. Poor thing!
Anyways, I guess, if his personality is average for the breed, that these dogs have a tendency to react when confused or distraught. I suppose it is possible that this woman was very upset, and sent off signals to her dogs that then upset them. Perhaps, being upset and in an unknown situation they reacted without much thought. Still, not a good thing, and I would think that some conditioning and proper socialization may have negated that uneasy feeling for them, but... who knows.
If my dogs ever attacked anyone without cause, they would be put down, immediately, barring some medical reason, and then... it would still require some investigation. A medical issue could always reoccur, and I frankly wouldn't want that hazard either.
As far as my dogs attacking me. I sure as heck hope this would never happen. I can't forsee it ever happening! If they attacked me it would be a coup attempt, wresting leadership from me, and that would just be completely out of their nature, however, that is a human perspective and not a canine one, so....
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