Aggressive Dogs? Or Just Bad Dog Owners?

Pit Bull, Rottweiler, Chow and Doberman owners have a big responsibility and liability when they decide this is the breed they want. They need to ask
themselves if they are committed to training this dog to be the perfect pet. I know a lot of owners of these breeds who have done exactly that. They like the
breed and respect it. They know how powerful these breeds can be and how badly the public receives them.

Someone I totally respect is Cesar Milan, "The Dog Whisperer". He is awesome! Always in control and respects the breeds and immediately reacts when
he sees something negative starting to develop. You need to have this sixth sense within you in order to take on the responsibility and be successful in the
training of any dog.

Then there are the owners who get a high powered breed to look cool or be protective of the yard. No thought is given to the dangerous position they are
putting their dog in, themselves and eventually their community. They can not control their own kids, why should they be able to control their own dog!
These are the people that should not own "any" dog. They do not want a family pet to be part of the family. They are looking for a status symbol, something
to intimidate their friends and neighbors. This is not fair to the dog because it is the dog who will pay the price in the end. It will be beaten or fought, tied up
with a heavy chain in the yard, no socialized or kind words and this is the kind of dog the public will always hear about or see.

If "any breed of dog" is allowed free reign with "no discipline or training" it will eventually become out of control and become aggressive toward other
people and then one day, toward the owner.

Scenario #1

Animal Control Officer receives a call over the police radio on a vicious Pit Bull attacking a person. The Animal Control Officer arrives and discovers a
Black Lab acting aggressive and he captures the animal and impounds it. The next day in the newspaper the article states, "Black Pit Bull attacks!".
Hmmmmm.....another bad rap!

Scenario #2

Animal Control Officer receives a call that a brown and white Pit Bull is chasing two ladies and they have gone into their houses and fear for their lives! I
arrive and find the dog laying under a tree acting very nonchalant about the whole ordeal. I recognized the dog as "Robbie" and he can be scary at times but
never known to actually bite anyone. I reached in on the passenger side of my truck to get my baton as a precaution and then opened the back of my truck. I
yelled at Robbie to get into the truck and he came running toward me, changed his mind and turned the opposite direction. I looked around the corner of my
truck to see where he was going and only caught a flash of something near my opened door. I asked one of the complainants, " Did Robbie just jump into the
front seat of my truck?" "Yep" She answered. To my dismay, there sat Robbie in the drivers seat looking at me through the open window with a smile on
his face. I looked at the whole ordeal logically....at least he was calm and contained and wasn't acting aggressive. I on the other hand, thinking "safety first"
was not going to open the truck door and tell Robbie to scoot over so I could take him to the shelter. I was able to contact the owner and he came to the scene
and took Robbie home. Was Robbie aggressive? The two ladies stated he was. I did not see any signs of aggression when I was there but the mere suggestion
puts you on the defense and I know that dogs sense this and can react differently toward you.

Scenario #3

Animal Control Officer receives a call that two dogs just attacked and injured an 8 week old Pomeranian and that the owner was at the vets office. I ar-
rived at the vets office and was told that two Boston Terriers had come into the owners yard and grabbed her puppy and started playing tug of war with it.
She stated that she went running toward the two dogs, screaming, and they dropped the puppy and ran off. The puppy's back was broken and it had to be eu-
thanized. We found the two Boston Terriers and impounded them and were court ordered to be euthanized. The same Boston Terrier owner had two more of
her dogs get into some 4H show sheep and ran them into the fence. She was cited for that. Those same two dogs went into another yard a month later and
killed 3 kittens. The dogs were impounded and both were adopted out to new owners and doing well with no more mishaps. A few months later the Boston
Terrier owner took 3 of her large dogs, one was a Shepherd mix and the other two were Dalmatian mixes to the vets and requested that they be euthanized.
Apparently the dogs ganged up on her other dogs and tore one apart and injured several others. This dog owner had absolutely no control over any of her
dogs. People in the community wanted Boston Terriers banned from the County. You can see where that was going......

Banning breeds from your community does not take care of the problem. That is unless you want to ban all breeds. This dog owner had three different breeds
in her home and they were all aggressive and totally out of control. Yet, the two that were adopted out have not shown any aggressive tendencies or out of
control issues. The new owners have been very pleased with them. What is different other than a new owner? That's just it........the new owners are in control
and the dogs respect them.

Do you remember the saying, "Don't judge a book by it's cover"? Look at the whole picture and ask yourself "Bad Dog or Just Bad Dog Owner"?


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Where Should your Dog Sleep?

There was an interesting post on Dog Cast Radio about where dogs should sleep at night and it got me thinking as its often something I talk to about with dog owners.
There are a million and one opinions on where dogs should and should not sleep. My personal point of view is that it is entirely up to the owners. So I thought it may be helpful to go through some of the pros and cons to letting dogs on the bed to sleep with owners.


When a dog sleeps on your bed it can be so lovely and comforting and to be honest, I don't have an issue with a dog being on the bed. As long as there are a few rules in place, such as you being in control of when the dog goes and gets on and off the bed. I would make it by invitation only otherwise when Fred runs in from a muddy walk and thinks he would like a roll around, your bed might be the first choice! I would also suggest that if your dog suffers from separation anxiety or if it is a puppy and you are trying to get it used to spending time alone, then sleeping on the bed or even in the room with you isn't a great idea.
With puppies, I would always recommend that you try to either crate train them or at least start them by sleeping in another room from you and the family. It teaches them independence early on and means that you shouldn't get a dog suffering from separation anxiety - if your dog can sleep in a different room from you at night, your dog doesn't haven't separation anxiety.


Crates are a fantastic sleeping environment for a dog, they offer security, a safe haven and instead of looking at it like a cage you should think of it as a 'doggy bedroom'. It offers your dog or puppy a place to go when tired or when it feels like getting away from a busy household.
One of the things that I would try to avoid is giving your dog millions of beds around the home. Last week I met two interesting cases - one was a couple whose dog has an entire bedroom all to himself. As in, he has a single bed with duvet and pillows, a toy chest and a set of drawers with all his stuff in! The other was a dog that lived in a 3 storey house and had 7 beds in total.
You only have one bed to sleep in so why would your dog need so many?! Dogs can and will sleep on the floor, so if they like to hang out with you when you are working on the computer or having a bath, it doesn't mean that your dog needs a bed in every room! If the floor isn't comfortable, they can head back to their luxury bed in the kitchen or living room.


With all of these debates, its worth keeping a little bit of common sense in mind. I personally don't have an issue with a dog on a bed or on a sofa as long as it can be told to get off and it isn't guarding the furniture. I would also suggest that if you take on a puppy you are better to start some independent sleeping to set the boundaries at the beginning of their stay, get them used to sleeping alone. And if you take on a rescue dog, you need to be extremely careful with choosing a sleeping space as you don't want to encourage separation anxiety which many rescue dogs suffer from.

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What you need to know about playing with your dog

Want to learn how to play with your dog in a way that’ll encourage good behavior? This is the first in a series of articles about dog play. We’re starting with games you should avoid playing with your dog. Dog play can be a very important part of good behavior management. How you play with your dog or puppy can affect how it behaves during non playtimes. It’s through play that dogs and puppies learn how to interact with others. Through proper dog play your four footed friend will learn social rules and self control. A dog’s self control level can range from wild abandon to careful and considerate behavior. Play teaches your dog the boundaries of what’s acceptable and what is not. What’s acceptable and where the boundaries of behavior lie are what comprise the social and personal rules of the individual. For more information about social and personal rules consult my training book Best Friend learning Together.
 
With a dog training program adult dogs can learn to behave different than they were taught as pups. But it’s easier to teach good behavior right from the start. If you have a puppy you may want to read my article about how to play with a puppy. The exercises in this article will help teach a puppy not to do so much play biting.

We must remember that play is often a form of ritualized aggression. There can be times when play crosses the line from a ritualized behavior to something more serious. Fortunately most dogs don’t show overt aggression towards people. I define overt aggression as behavior meant to hurt or harm. When a dog does show a wiliness to attack or defend in a manner meant to harm it is serious and needs immediate remedial training.

Even how breed traits look can be change with the right experiences at the right time. The right time is usually during the sensitive periods of puppyhood. Often the right experiences involve constructive play, training, and learning self control. We need to carefully consider the influence of play and training during sensitive periods in our puppy’s lives. Experiences during early life can have lifelong affects.
Puppy playing

Dog Games to avoid

First we’ll look at several games I recommend you do not play with your dog or puppy. At least not until it has acquired some foundation skills from a training program. Some of these games you can use as training exercises once the dog has developed a solid foundation of necessary behaviors.

Tug of war
The first game I want to discourage is playing tug of war. I’ve read many places where playing tug will make the dog aggressive. I’m not convinced this is so. In theory it might. It’s much more likely playing tug will test for aggression than teach a dog to be aggressive. What playing tug does is puts your play partner in a situation where resource guarding will more easily show itself. If your dog aggressively guards its toy, playing tug will probably increase the aggression. For the average dog playing tug should not cause overt aggression.

Then why no playing tug? My dog loves to play tug of war, why can’t I play his favorite game? Well you can. We all make decisions about how we live with our pets. If you play tug with your dog it’s more likely to have problems biting the leash and tearing at cloth. Once a dog is taught playing tug is the best thing ever, it may want to play with objects you never thought of as toys. I have seen a lot of what pet owners call bad behavior because they taught their dogs to play tug.

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