Aggression/Dogs will be dogs

[Glitch]

Excellent post Dashdog!

Except for one thing, I agree with everything you said. Where you said:

Last despite our not liking it aggression is part of the canine world.

I have to disagree. I like aggressive dogs. I go out of my way to look for aggressive dogs when they are puppies. I want that aggressive behavior in my dogs because it could one day save my life. I have found that the vast majority of the nice, friendly, family type dogs will run away when threatened by something bigger than them. No matter how territorial they may be. Whereas, aggressive dogs have a tendency to hold their ground.

Any time I go into the bush in Alaska, my dogs are with me. They can sense the presence of a bear or moose before I can, and they will insert themselves between me and the threat. Which will give me enough time to get to my camp gun. A dog that runs away in the face of such danger will only end up triggering the bear's chase instinct, and since they can't catch a dog running away, that leaves me for the bear.

So in the proper context, an aggressive dog can be a good thing.

[DawnMTL]

Originally Posted by Glitch

Excellent post Dashdog!

Except for one thing, I agree with everything you said. Where you said:



I have to disagree. I like aggressive dogs. I go out of my way to look for aggressive dogs when they are puppies. I want that aggressive behavior in my dogs because it could one day save my life. I have found that the vast majority of the nice, friendly, family type dogs will run away when threatened by something bigger than them. No matter how territorial they may be. Whereas, aggressive dogs have a tendency to hold their ground.

Any time I go into the bush in Alaska, my dogs are with me. They can sense the presence of a bear or moose before I can, and they will insert themselves between me and the threat. Which will give me enough time to get to my camp gun. A dog that runs away in the face of such danger will only end up triggering the bear's chase instinct, and since they can't catch a dog running away, that leaves me for the bear.

So in the proper context, an aggressive dog can be a good thing.

You should adopt a coyote!!!! I'm just pulling your leg, Glitch.

[Glitch]

Originally Posted by DandJ

You should adopt a coyote!!!! I'm just pulling your leg, Glitch.

I eat wild critters, I don't adopt them and then pretend they are "pets."

Even coyotes can be aggressive or submissive. Behavior is not breed specific. I have seen aggressive toy poodles and submissive pitbulls. It depends on the individual dog, not their breed.

[Dashdog]

Thanks Glitch,

I stand corrected as I agree there are times when aggression in a dog can be a good thing. I think if I lived up in the wilds of Alaska I too would want a dog with some degree of aggression. I think I generalized it for us city slickers!

Even having said that there have been times I have been glad Jazz can get aggresive as despite her real aggression being fear based she can get very protective. Late one night my car broke down and I had to walk about 1 mile to a phone and had Jazz with me. Some punks started hassling me and she got between me and them and her hackles came up and she was snarling and showing the pearly whites. She can look very frightening as she can really pull that lip back and show those big teeth. The punks backed off fast. I am never afraid to walk her at night.

Dogs that can get aggresive do not upset me but most other people I know get upset even if a dog growls at them if they do something it does not like. They seem unbale to understand the dog is simply saying back off as he/she can not say it in english! People hold dogs to human standards which I think is unfair as they are simply not humans.

As for owning wild animals as pet I agree with you there too. My family did take in baby raccoon that needed a home this was back in the 1960's.. I think my parents felt they could rasie her and return her to the wild. Well she decided she only liked captain crunch cereal and marshmellows and those are rather hard to find in the wild so they had to keep her. Despite her bad diet she did live a long life and moved to California with us in 1970. As tame as she was you could never trust her as she was a wild animal and she could go from passive to aggressive in the blink of an eye . And an angry coon is no picnic to deal with. She did get along great with the dog, the cats and my rabbit and during the day could roam the yard and come into the house and had a really big fancy cage but I do feel it was very unfair to keep a wild animal locked up as a pet I would never recommend anyone own one.

[sdweisman]

i use to believe i had total control over my dogs. zeke can be loud but it's usually just bluster. but i can't always read dog and it's been scary a few times. one time he tried to bite a neighbor that he'd met before. i saw the exact second it happened. the neighbor looked down at him, zeke looked up at him, they stared at one another and zeke went absolutely still. i told the man not to move and in a blink, zeke was going for his arm. luckily the man had on a jacket and only got a bruise but it could have been much worse.
zeke had never done that before, and i totally know it was my fault for not reacting quickly and pulling zeke away. lucky for both of us the neighbor was very understanding. now i watch zeke like a hawk and try to keep him out of situations like that.