21.0. Is Human Ignorance A Significant Factor?
I ran across a website that seemed to be discounting all of the studies that have been done about dog aggression, identification, attacks, etc. as being done by people who are trying to defend “Pit Bulls”. On their home page, they have photos of children who have been injured or killed in dog attacks. Without knowing the facts I cannot comment on whether the animal’s acts were warranted: however, countless times I have experienced children taunting the animals I am walking on a leash while their parent(s) looked on. I tell them not to do that, and more often than not, I get dirty looks from their parents. If the animal responds to the taunts, the animal and not the human is going to suffer the consequences. That is wrong.
Animals are not significantly different from humans in many regards. They will protect their family, i.e., pack, or themselves or their home, i.e., territory, when they feel or are threatened. Dogs usually do this by barking, mock attacking and/or attacking and biting. Bull elephants do it with mock and real attacks. Bears, if they have cubs and are surprised, will attack. Most animals will react similarly. Humans do it with guns, knives, or anything else that is handy and can be used as a weapon. Are animals, including dogs, any different than humans?
A dog’s bark is usually their warning to stay away or keep your distance. The most common situation in which a human is going to encounter a barking dog is when a human is violating a dog’s “territory”. The dog’s territory is usually the place where he lives and most dogs will defend that territory against other animals and sometimes against humans by first barking, and if that doesn’t work, then with “mock” attacks, and if the “invader” does not exit the territory, the dog may escalate the event and attack. This is not a unique response to the situation by dogs. Most kinds of animals will do the same thing, as well as, humans when they feel threatened.
The next most common problem arises when dogs are threatened. This most frequently occurs when humans don’t know anything or very little about dogs, i.e., scared of dogs, and consequently, don’t know how to deal with dogs, and start throwing or waving things at the dogs.
In my experience, yelling at a dog will usually get them to back off. If they come at you again, yell at them again. Dogs seem to respond most to changes in the tone of one’s voice. The worst thing one can do is turn their back on them and/or try to run away because that will usually trigger a prey, hunt and attack response.
A dog that has or has just had puppies can be very aggressive even if the puppies are not close by. Give them plenty of space and you should be O.K. How do you know if they have or have just had puppies: their teats will be hanging down from their stomach. Human mothers can be just as aggressive if they believe that their child is in danger.
Another situation that may appear to be benign, but could be very dangerous, is when small yapping dogs like Chihuahuas, Dachshunds, etc. are with larger dogs in a group or pack. Small dogs tend to be the most aggressive. They will frequently charge at humans triggering a pack response from all of the dogs and a possible attack. The little dogs will not cause much damage if they bite, but the large ones can. If caught in a situation like this, start yelling at the top of your lungs as soon as they start approaching and before the situation escalates. Over the years, I found that to be most effective. The most important thing is to try to remain calm and don’t get scared: however, frequently, that is easier said than done.
At about 7:00 P.M. on December 21, 2014, I was rolling the trash barrel to the curb for pick up the next morning. Suddenly, an American Staffordshire Terrier (“AmStaff”) was barking and charging at me. There was another dog with him, but he stayed back and did nothing. I started to turn to run, but my brain finally started regaining control of my emotions. I stopped, faced the dog, but was backing up when my brain finally gained full control of my emotions, and I yelled at the AmStaff. He backed up about 25 feet, and then charged again. Once again, I yelled at him, and once again, he backed up. The process continued for about ten minutes until he and I reached the end of the neighborhood and the beginning of the heavily overgrown light company right-of-way where the AmStaff and the other dog disappeared.
The two dogs showed up in the neighborhood every night at about the same time for almost a month. At the time, we had just had a Boxer rescue that had been spayed, but she was already in heat. The Veterinarian told us that she would still be attracting dogs, but we needed to make sure no male dogs got to her because they could do a lot of damage.
From prior experience, it seems that male dogs from miles away will know when a female dog is in heat, and will show up. We think this is why these dogs showed up and then stopped coming at about the time the Boxer was no longer in heat. However, a hysterical male neighbor claimed to have been “attacked” by the same two dogs, and according to him, he was lucky that he wasn’t killed by the “Pit Bulls”. When I tried to explain to him that the dogs were not “Pit Bulls”, he became irate, and was unwilling to listen to reason.
Several weeks later, my wife was walking with our American Eskimo when she came up on the two dogs. She yelled at them, and they went away.
Three months later, the AmStaff was with a small brown dog that was barking and charging at me, and the AmStaff was duplicating its behavior. I yelled at the dogs, and they backed off.
Recently, I learned that barking and charging dogs are trying to dominate the human and thereby becoming the “leader of the pack”, i.e., the dog and the human. When the human “faces down” the dog, the human becomes the “leader of the pack”, and the dog will be submissive to the leader. It is my experience that barking dogs rarely, if ever, bite. Note that I have been bitten twice, and on both occasions, the dogs did not make a sound before they bit me. Would you warn another person that you were about to attack or would you “surprise” them?
Dogs that are sick, injured or scared can also be a situation that can cause a dog to become aggressive.
Of course, there are the dogs that for no known reason are aggressive and dangerous and nothing will change that. Fortunately, these are a very tiny minority. Unfortunately, such behavior is not limited to “Pit Bulls” or any specific breed or mix: it can be found in many species of animals as well as humans.
I carry a little kid’s T-ball bat, just in case I need it, but I have only had to use it twice when my Beagle-mix dog and a Staffordshire Bull Terrier I was walking were attacked. This is last resort as far as I am concerned because throwing anything at a dog or waving a stick may trigger a defensive response by the dog, i.e., an attack.
While it is a tragedy when anyone is injured or killed by a dog, car or anything else, the fact is that dogs just like humans have to be taught boundaries and acceptable behavior. This has to be provided by their caretakers, and if it isn’t provided, then the public should not be surprised when the tragedies occur. Unfortunately, the animals are usually the recipients of the public’s ire instead of the humans who failed to do what they should have done. Perhaps, the public would be better served by the media and government if this fact was repeatedly published in an attempt to avoid the problem instead of reporting and sensationalizing the consequences and profiting from it or attempting to solve the problem with euthanasia. It hasn’t worked thus far, why would anyone believe it will work in the future?
I read a Facebook posting from a woman whose dog was strangled by a pronged or pinch collar while playing with another dog. She blamed the collar, and wants it banned. The fact is that the instructions that accompany that type of collar clearly state that you should never leave a dog unattended with that collar on. It is a “training collar”, i.e., something that is supposed to be used only while training the animal.
Another wanted that type of collar banned because she put one on, and it hurt her neck. The problem is not the collar: it is the way it is being used by idiots. We have used the collars for many years without a single incident. They are very effective, and the dogs quickly learn to stop pulling: however, we put them on when we are leaving our home with the dog on a leash, and remove them as soon as we return.
Our seven year old son was killed by a twenty-three year old, white, unemployed, female, drunk driver who ran a red light. Should we now seek to ban all twenty-three year olds from driving, or only white females, or only unemployed individuals or the manufacturer of the car she was driving or should we direct our efforts at eliminating from the roads the real sources of the problem, i.e., drunks? Why isn’t the attention being directed at the real sources of the problems, i.e., the owners of the animals that commit the offences? Why are “Pit Bulls” as a “breed” being singled out especially when the people singling them out don’t have a clue what a “Pit Bull” should look like or be or is?
Dogs are always going to be with us, and there will always be situations that could escalate into tragic events, if not handled properly. Perhaps, the most intelligent answer is to try to instruct people on how to respond to those dogs and avoid the incidents instead of trying to blame every dog that may look a little or a lot like a dog that was involved in unacceptable behavior. The media would better serve the public by providing this type of instruction: however, that probably will never happen because such a public service would not increase circulation or ratings and fatten the media’s coffers. In addition, if there were no stray dogs or cats, what would the people at the pounds or various societies or shelters do to make money?
A “breed” of dogs called “Pit Bull”, “American Pit Bull Terrier” or “American Bully” are myths. These animals have no “pedigree”, and consequently, cannot be a “breed”. However, I have no doubt that the public, bystanders, pet owners, medical workers, animal control personnel and so-called “experts”’ ignorance coupled with the media’s hunger for something to sensationalize will probably continue to stigmatize and demonize the “breed” in spite of the facts.
