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[FONT=Arial]I love dogs. I've always had them around growing up. Regardless of breed, if a dog is trained properly, he is the best friend you could have. So whenever I hear of stories of dogs mauling another dog or a person, I look to the owners. I definitely think that dog owners are to blame for bad behaviors in dogs. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]I've had dogs growing up and many of my friends own dogs and none of them had or have intentionally tried to bite someone's arm off for no apparent reason or provocation. I actually had an experience where I was walking down a sidewalk and the owner of 2 mix-ed breed dogs could not control them - behaviorally or even physically (they were so much stronger than her) - that one of the dogs pulled on his leash hard enough to get close to me to bite my arm, which meant the owner was pulled along the way. If it wasn't winter and I didn't have a thick coat on, I would have been bleeding. My keys fell out of my pocket and I couldn't retrieve them because the dogs were inches from them. The dog owner just looked at me and said, "go ahead, take them!" even after I asked her move her dogs further away from my keys, she just stood in the same exact spot. And the kicker is, the owner didn't even apologize for her dogs' bad behavior. She was more concerned with picking up dog doo than actually restraining her dogs from physically harming others. It makes me wonder if she would have done anything even if I was bleeding. [/FONT]
Dog owners should be required to go through training on how to handle and train dogs before being allowed to adopt or buy a dog.
I 90% agree. But, there are still dogs that are badly bred/inbred or are just plain crazy/mean and no amount of training will help.
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I actually had an experience where I was walking down a sidewalk and the owner of 2 mix-ed breed dogs could not control them - behaviorally or even physically (they were so much stronger than her) - that one of the dogs pulled on his leash hard enough to get close to me to bite my arm, which meant the owner was pulled along the way. If it wasn't winter and I didn't have a thick coat on, I would have been bleeding.
Any dog that bites you whether it makes you bleed or not, needs to be reported to the police.
Dog owners should be required to go through training on how to handle and train dogs before being allowed to adopt or buy a dog.
This would be my cue to chime in about parents, but I'll refrain.
The only dog that I have ever experienced that was mean out of the chute was a Sarplaninac. But they are bred to take care of sheep in the mountains without much human contact. From what I understood from the owner, they have no use for people and it shows.
I also had a bad run-in with a supposedly sweet Doberman with mental issues and once with a GSD who snarled at me because I walked BY his food dish. But perhaps these two dogs' behaviors were a result of poor training. I didn't stick around to find out.
I don't agree that it is always the owners as there are dogs that are genetic time bombs and no amount of training will control the agression they have.
Many years ago when Jazz was in obedience class it was taught by a woman that bred and raised aussies and really knew the breed. The shelter always called her when they had an aussie to come evaluate it or to work with a problem aussie as if she could not turn it around chances are no one could.
There was another aussie breeder in the area that had gotten a new male that she used for her breeding and he had aggression issues yet she kept breeding him and he passed that aggresion on to most of the pups,but yes the idiot kept breeding him. We had one of his pups in our obedience class and day one when the instructor asked who the breeder was and found out she warned the people that all the pups she had ever met that were fathered by this male ended up with severe aggression issues that came on like a rage at about a year old. She claimed that she had tried helping people train them but it so far had always resulted in the dog needing to be put down as they got that dangerous. They people said not our dog as he is so sweet and indeed the first several classes he did great and seemed like a sweet dog. However there came the night that instead of doing what he was aked to do he flew into a rage and attacked his owner...it was like he was possesed as there really was nothing that provoked it. The trainer had the people leave class right away. she tried doing some private sessions with them but the rages came more often and semed unprovoked each time so in the end the people decided to have the dog put down as he had just gotten too dangerous.There can be genetics involved and they can be impossible too overcome it is not always the owners fault. I know for a long time there were issues with seizures in aussies so maybe this was some sort of sezure activity.all I know is that breeder should have never bred that male but she just did not care about the breed or how many people would end up broken hearted when their dogs exploded like that and ended up being put down.
That is why it is important to meet the parents when you get a dog from a breeder.
I think there are cases of fear aggression/ reactive dogs where you can do all the training you want and the problem never goes away 100% because it has a genetic based orgin.You just have to learn to accept it and deal with it which may mean giving up plans you had like playing with other dogs at off leash parks etc.
I agree to some extent. I think that most of it has to do with people not knowing dog breeds or how to choose the right one for them and their lifestyle. Moroever, most people view dogs as just another possession and don't expect it to be a living creature that they actually have to spend time with and train in order to have a proper r-ship.
I have found that many of the behavioral problems that owners experience with dogs can be traced back to simply not spending enough time with their animals. There is less of a bond with the dog and therefore less control b/c there is less communicative development. The more time someone spends with their dog, the more aware the dog is going to become of their owner's cues (body or verbal language) that informs the dog that what it is doing is good or bad. Moreover, a dog who spends a lot of time with its owner actually cares whether it is doing something good or bad b/c there is an emotional bond that is based upon a common language (and, hence, common behaviors).
And when you read the above, you realize that a lot of this is also true for children and their parents, which is essentially what everyone else has been intimating as well. The statement that bad owners = bad dogs is, therefore, too simplistic. I would rather say: Owners who spend [enough] time with their dogs = dogs that understand and listen.
Sometimes you have to cut the owner a little slack when a dog has some bad behaviors... especially if they got the dog from the pound/rescue shelter. By the time they brought them home, the dog could have picked up any number of bad habits or suffered physical/emotional trauma that cannot be easily (or ever completely!) overcome no matter how much love and training the animal receives.
And sometimes an animal's bad behavior isn't the owner's fault at all, or the animal's... it's the person interacting with the animal's fault. I can't even begin to describe some of the stupid things that people have done around my dogs and my friend's dogs, even after we've told them not to do it. There are just some breeds of dogs, life stages, and even just individual temperaments that will not tolerate certain antics around them no matter what the training. I have a very large puppy and she's super-lovey... but she's also super-hyper and playful if you get her riled up. Once she's turned on, you have to burn her out before she'll calm down... so if you don't want to play or are afraid of a large dog jumping around and tackling you then don't rile up the dog. It's simple. I can grab her and drag her away from you and go play with her somewhere else until she gets tired, but I can't "control her" any other way because of her size, breed & age. A little common sense on other people's part is needed as well.
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