Dog aggression

http://theconversation.com/dog-aggre...e-owners-22015

Enjoyed reading that Catrin,thankyou

Nice article Catrin. Makes a lot of sense and of course is more or less totally agreeable for most dog owners on here.

P.S.

I could have SWORN that first dog was Nigredo when I saw that pic. It looks JUST like him... also it doesn't look aggressive, more like it's lunging for food or something.

There's a sentence in that report that I 100% truly agree with.Sadly some dog owners don't get it

"Understanding that any dog can potentially be aggressive given the right circumstances is key to reducing injuries"

Yes indeed. And I agree with a lot of this ...

All I would add to that is ... thoroughly testing new drivers both practically and theoretically has not resulted in no road traffic accidents has it?

And they didn't mention that the CARS also have to be tested to make sure they are in a safe condition to drive. A car can be a lethal weapon, not just in the 'wrong hands' but also if it is in an unroadworthy state.

I equate car and owner with dog and owner.

Never thought of it like that,so true

Some dog owners (even on this site) SWEAR that isn't true. That is a problem I see. No dog in the world is 100%

I repeat, NO dog in the world is 100%. I really don't care what anybody says. I make this mistake sometimes. I mean I know no dog is 100% but I want to believe it sometimes.

We love our angels and we sometimes think they can do no wrong. But at the end of the day... they are dogs, and we should take care to remember that.

Some people just know that certain dogs will never, ever do anything. Then one day... BOOM, and then you get the... "He has never done that before" and it's always a day too late.

Even if you do have a very balanced dog that is not even remotely aggressive, the mentality that he will never do anything simply should not be adopted. I think it's best that way.

Nigredo is like this... he is not aggressive and the most aggressive thing I've ever seen him do was knock Jade down and pin her there. He didn't even knock her down, she more or less rolled over in submission/fear. She was not hurt and he let her up with a word.

Also, people tend to think that very scared/timid dogs are never dangerous and will always cower from a situation. That is SO false. Like SO, SO false!

A plate crashes to the floor and your dog runs and hides in fear, okay. At the dog park, an overly playful dog scares her and there is no where to run... she attacks the other dog, inflicting injuries.

Owner acts dramatic, not understanding how their timid creature could do such a thing. This kind of thing happens all the time. Fear aggression is actually the worst kind IMO because you often don't see it coming.

I always caution dog owners who have dogs that are scared of everything to take extra care not to put their dogs in situations where it might feel cornered or extremely scared.

Good point Tang.
I would add though that society has somehow accepted the fact that cars kill people every year. Nobody goes on about banning cars or certain cars. If somebody gets run over by a car it's a 'casualty' or an accident.
If the driver was at fault or was driving irresponsively, they have their licence taken away and can even face prison time.
A dog is not a car, it's a living being with it's own brain. It reacts to the environment as do humans. It's an animal, so it's normal that it doesn't react as predicvitvely as a car, but for some reason the majority of the society (or the government, who knows) seem to think they do.
So the maintenance work for a dog is a lot more complex than for a car. You can't just bring it to a garage and say: please fix it, I'll pay money.
So we should make education priority and come down harder on puppy farming and back yard breeding (producers of dogs that are more likely to end up 'unroadworthy' quicker).

Err I've kind of lost my point in there somewhere between cars and dogs.

What I'm mainly trying to say is that society is much more enraged if a dog kills a person (because it's not been looked after properly and/or because the owners didn't have enough of an understanding for it) than if a car kills a person (because the driver was driving under the influence, because the car had a fault, because of weather conditions etc.) even though a dog is a living being and not just a machine that doesn't have it's own emotions.

We seem to have accepted the risk that cars pose yet we want there to be no risk at all when it comes to dogs..

A very interesting artricle Catrin and thank you for posting it.

I totally agree that ANY dog, can be potentially aggressive given the right circumtances.

I for example would never leave my 5kg Tibbie, Chloe alone with a small child. She's an extremely friendly and tolerant little dog but I know from experience that small children tend to treat her as though she's a fluffy toy which irritates her and although she's never bitten anyone and I doubt whether she would, she'll show her displeasure by growling and snapping. Obviously being so small she's not capable of inflicting major injury but even so just knowing she MIGHT bite I'm not prepared to take the risk.

Florence I don't just 'accept' the risk that cars pose. Not if that car was in a dangerous condition or in the control of someone totally unfit to drive it.

No more than I accept damage inflicted by a dog if the dog was known or could be proved to be 'dangerous' or was in the control (or supposed to be) of someone totally unfit to own it.

Blame is more readily apportioned to dogs. Sadly punishment seems not to be so readily visited upon the owners of those dogs. There lies the difference.

Just putting down a dog that has injured or killed someone does not deal with the underlying problem if the problem is the person who owns the dog.

No more than taking away and crushing a car that killed someone would deal with the problem of the person who was unfit to drive it.

As I am talking about dogs and cars - it seems to me that in the one case the dog is punished and owner gets off lightly. In the other case solely the owner or driver is punished. Ergo it is accepted that the owner or person in CONTROL of the vehicle is entirely responsible but it would seem, not in the case of a dog.