Follow-up on dogs
July 1st, 2011
Following up from yesterday, a good blog post on why dogs bite:
All dogs, whether they are defined by owners or behavior professionals as “reactive,” “aggressive,” and yes, even “friendly”? can and will bite. A service dog or therapy dog can and will bite. The goofiest dog you’ve ever seen can and will bite. The dog that allows young children to climb all over him and pull his ears or tail with seeming aplomb can and will bite.
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We can say the same about people. :-)
The linked post is fantastic, as is the entire series called Dog Aggression Myths, also on Dogster.
There is even more info at this link http://www.liamjperkfoundation.org/talk.html about dog body language. My people are dog people, but I learned A LOT from these links!
The town I grew up in is suffering right now from a series of pit bull incidents – in which dogs act like dogs, people act like people, and neither dogs nor people can walk down the streets without fear. This isn’t hyperbole, either – a pitbull was stabbed, a boy horrifically bitten and severely injured, a different pitbull will be euthanized, and a cat was killed. Not to mention there are all sorts of defensive bites and wounds amongst all the animals and people involved in at least three separate incidents.
Of course there is furious debate going on, with solutions ranging from breed bans to muzzles for all dogs to requiring insurance to finally paying for a part time dog officer.
Your links confirm my observation and experience that any dog can behave quote “unpredictably” – meaning finally biting after too many warning signs have been disregarded. Too bad educating people about responsible dog ownership and generally about how to act around dogs (and other animals) is not as easy as snapping your fingers and making it so…
I was out yesterday for the Fourth (Mini-Schnauzer in tow), and there was a guy with a Golden Retriever that was growling and barking and lunging and acting very aggressively. We kept the Schnauzer well away from him. Even breeds that are stereotyped as the sweetest and gentlest can be potentially dangerous.
Thank you for sharing this! I really liked the Tetris analogy. Meeting a new dog is a little like playing with most of the screen covered, since you have no idea what their tolerance to stress is, or how stressed they’ve been throughout the day or week, except by their face and body language.
I think it’s really good to remember that all dogs will bite if pushed far enough and that “far enough” varies a lot from dog to dog.
Also, the dogs that let kids climb all over them are treating those kids like puppies, and are likely to eventually decide that enough is enough. (A friend of mine has a nice scar from a bite she got as a very small child. She’d pulled off all the whiskers on one side of the dog’s face before getting bitten. *Very* tolerant dog apparently, but still had her limits.)