[DanaC]

Originally Posted by BrianR

Lamplighter, I cut myself off before I went off on a multi-page thesis on dog behavior.

Dogs do not just "go wild". Something in their environment triggers a behavior. Ali almost hit it. A child that doesn't know how to interact with a dog (adult too, for that matter) can trigger a bite. It doesn't take much at all. You, as a human, need to be able to "speak dog" and read their language.

Yes, a dog can communicate. They mostly use body language. Sudden "unprovoked" attacks usually are provoked, just not in the commonly accepted way. Simply leaning over a dog and looking it in the eye is enough. Turning your back on it and walking (or running) is more than enough. Especially if you are holding their toy.

A dog will nearly always try to warn you off but they do it using the only language they know. They don't speak English or any other spoken language. Most people know not to try to touch a dog that is baring teeth and growling. But what about a dog that is looking at you out of the corner of their eye with their ears laid back? What about the tail? Is the body tense or relaxed? Each of those things means something in dog talk.

Many dogs have their own way of talking. Take my boxer for instance. He's tense whenever he is not sleeping. It's his way. When he wants to play, he looks directly at me and growls. He's not challenging me, he's asking me to play. If he's hungry, he demands to be let out (by jumping up and down on my lap) but doesn't have to go. I can tell this by asking him if he wants to go out. If he whimpers and jumps at the back door, he has to go. If he just looks anxious, he's hungry.

It's much like a mother and a baby. Babies can't talk, yet the mother always seems to know the "hungry" cry from the "hold me" cry from the "I have gas" cry. To me, they all sound alike but to a mother, each has subtle differences. Babies also use some body language. Ask any mother.

Unlike dogs, babies learn to talk and tell you what they want. Dogs can learn to tell you their needs too and to some extent, you can tell them how. Many dogs have been taught to bring their owners a leash when they want a walk, bring a toy when they want to play, bring a food dish when hungry etc. But most dogs just figure out what works as they go. They repeat behaviors that get them what they want/need. If that fails, they can default to instinct, much like a child will revert to crying or tantrums if speech doesn't gratify them.

If a dog wants to be left alone, he does what usually results in that. If an owner always ignores his dog when he lays on his dog bed, then when a visitor is annoying a dog and he wants to be left alone, he will go to his bed. If the visitor then pursues the dog, he will feel trapped and have no other way to tell the person to leave him alone so the dog reverts to instinct.

Most "attacks" are the result of the victim doing something to make themselves prey in the eyes of the dog(s). Usually, running away or yelling and waving hands will do it.

I stand by my assertions.

Bingo.


Also, the line between a dog who bites and a dog who doesn't isn't always sharp. I know when i was younger it was common wisdom that if a dog bit once and got a 'taste of blood' then that was that he'd be a vicious dog. But it's not necessarily the case. Even a 'vicious' dog can usually be calmed and trained by someone who knows what they're doing.

My dog is both the most beautifully tempered dog I've ever had, and also has bitten. At some point during his early years he got the impression that the outdoors was a dangerous place and anybody out there a potential threat. But only when I am there. He is way over protective of me when we're outdoors.

Indoors he is beautifully tempered. And the same person who'd be at risk of a bite if they tried to stroke him outdoors, would be at no risk at all if they were in my house.

I know my dog. I know where the flashpoints are. I carry a muzzle when we are out, so that if I were to suddenly come up on a crowd of youngsters (at school chucking out time for instance) I can just slip his muzzle on to be sure.

There's been a change in attitude over the last couple of decades. Ali mentioned how everybody used to have a dog and/or a couple of cats and children were schooled by those pets on how to interact safely with animals. I am constantly suprised at just how lacking in basic pet savvy a lot of youngsters seem to be now. And I live in a fucking rural village, surrounded by farms and stables and sheepdogs. These kids should bloody well know you don't run up to a strange dog and shove your fingers in its face. Yet the parents often seem blithely unaware of the potential danger to their kiddywinks when they do.

Sometimes it's just an unknown as to why a dog snaps. We have no idea really what goes on in their furry little heads. They are animals. From time to time an attack seems genuinely unprovoked by anything anybody has done, and is the result of some unseen cause. Like the kid recently who was attacked by his neighbour's Rhodesian Ridgeback. The dog vaulted the fence into the garden and went straight for the kid who was sitting in his own garden playing by himself with his mum nearby.

In that instance it's hard to tell what else could have been done to prevent such a thing. But 9 times out of 10 there will be a cause.

What's sad is that our tolerances have reduced. When i was a kid, a nip on the finger from the family dog was how you learned not to drag him about like a ragdoll, or get in his face whilst he was eating. The dog got told off too of course, and anything more than a training nip would have been a big problem. But most everybody I knew as a kid at some point got a nip from a pet. Nowadays even such training nips are treated as 'bites' and there are countless dogs dumped every year because the toddler of the family has been snapped at by the family dig whilst doing something they shouldn't.

I've heard people rationalise this by saying that they would never have been able to trust the dog alone with the kid again. My question there is, why the fuck were you trusting them together alone in the first place?

I dunno. I think there's an argument to be had, for certain breeds having to be muzzled outdoors or kept leashed at all times in public. But dogs are animals. They're not little people, and they're not clothes horses. People need to teach their kids how to deal with them safely. A training nip from a dog is not desirable but nor does it mean the dog is a killer in the wings.