A simple fix! (rant)

Go Dogs wrote:
If a cornered raccoon bites a child-is it because the raccoon is bad? Or, was it just being a raccoon?
If an Alpha dominant, untrained, unneutered dog is challenged, or has their prey drive activated-and bites someone. Is the dog bad? Or, were the humans entrusted with this dog's care bad?

Nope.. the raccoon is not bad at all (good analogy btw). It's just communicating using the ways of the raccoon. But.. some dogs will move off when challenged while other dogs (with a more alpha nature) will stand their ground and bite to get their point across. A biting dog is also just communicating, but by people standards...that's bad behavior. If a person owns an aggressive dog then it is THEIR responsibility to keep that dog from situations that cause problems... but often times people don't...and the dog pays the high price for doing what comes naturally to it - protecting it's property and family. We had a highly aggressive Rotty/Boxer cross for 10.5 years. She was a walking liability to say the least, but never once in those years we owned her did she get put into a position to follow through with her threats. She was a rescue out of a drug house in Spokane, WA - she was the greatest guard dog we ever owned, but like so many old dogs when she got up there in age she became unpredictable in areas where she had been controllable and reliable as a young dog.

We used to let high school students who were considering careers in vet medicine into the clinic to observe/help out. The FIRST RULE OF THUMB we taught them was that even the kindest of animals will "COMMUNICATE" using their language if fearful or feeling too pressured - "cats scratch - dogs bite - horses kick - and cows will flatten you". Some of the kids understood that concept a LOT faster then others... I'll just leave it at that... lol.

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