Dog to dog aggression while camping
We just completed 4 wonderful days at a county CG on a very nice fishing lake. The moment we arrived, we noticed a family with a pit bull running loose. I asked them to put it on a leash as we h...
Forum Discussion
From what I have seen so many owners of little dogs are telling their little dog to fear any dog larger than them. The owners tense up when they see a larger dog (which their dogs can read); they often run over a scoop up their little dog (telling their dog something is wrong). So why wouldn't little dogs become defensive or even aggressive; they are being trained to be so. They are then sending these tense signals to all other dogs that approach them making what could have been a pleasant greeting into a tense greeting. These signals are no different then the signals sent to larger dogs when the owners tense up on the leash.
In fairness to the owners of little dogs; owners of many dogs are not really that dog savvy. They don't make the effort to train their dogs with basic manners (i.e. loose leash walking as opposed to dragging the owner). They really don't know how to read dogs. Their timing is way off; reacting only after their dog has initiated an inappropriate action. Their dogs have never learned pack etiquette (how to interact with strange dogs) or proper behavior in public (how to interact with strange people). Our society (North America) seems to want let them be dogs (i.e. wild pack animals) when we should be teaching them how to behave within human society. After all, we domesticated them (removing them from the wild); therefore it is our responsibility to educate them how to behave within our society.
The other thing our society has done is to ignore they are animals; packets of genetically controlled behaviors which can be controlled by training somewhat but never turned off. We want to view them as behavioral clay that can be molded into whatever we want and when one goes bad it's because the sculptor did not do a good enough job. The reality is, we can teach them to control their instincts some but under enough stress they will always revert back to their genetics much like flight or fight. Each animal has its own threshold above which genetics will control behavior as opposed to training. It is the owner's responsibility to know this threshold for each dog and manage their dog's exposure to these stresses which could elicit undesirable (but genetically predictable) reactions.
Finally, since society no longer puts enough emphasis on the influence genetics has on behaviors we no longer are putting enough emphasis on properly evaluating and selecting the genetics that are going into each generation of dogs.
The questions most breeders are not asking are:
what stimuli trigger the insticts
how easily are the insticts triggered
how intense are the insticts once triggered
how easily are the insticts controlled (with training) once triggered
This lack of control on the genetics going into the dogs is likely making the training of these dogs more difficult, likely lowering the stress threshold at which training loses control, and making some reactions unpredictable to the unsuspecting pet owner.
In fairness to the owners of little dogs; owners of many dogs are not really that dog savvy. They don't make the effort to train their dogs with basic manners (i.e. loose leash walking as opposed to dragging the owner). They really don't know how to read dogs. Their timing is way off; reacting only after their dog has initiated an inappropriate action. Their dogs have never learned pack etiquette (how to interact with strange dogs) or proper behavior in public (how to interact with strange people). Our society (North America) seems to want let them be dogs (i.e. wild pack animals) when we should be teaching them how to behave within human society. After all, we domesticated them (removing them from the wild); therefore it is our responsibility to educate them how to behave within our society.
The other thing our society has done is to ignore they are animals; packets of genetically controlled behaviors which can be controlled by training somewhat but never turned off. We want to view them as behavioral clay that can be molded into whatever we want and when one goes bad it's because the sculptor did not do a good enough job. The reality is, we can teach them to control their instincts some but under enough stress they will always revert back to their genetics much like flight or fight. Each animal has its own threshold above which genetics will control behavior as opposed to training. It is the owner's responsibility to know this threshold for each dog and manage their dog's exposure to these stresses which could elicit undesirable (but genetically predictable) reactions.
Finally, since society no longer puts enough emphasis on the influence genetics has on behaviors we no longer are putting enough emphasis on properly evaluating and selecting the genetics that are going into each generation of dogs.
The questions most breeders are not asking are:
what stimuli trigger the insticts
how easily are the insticts triggered
how intense are the insticts once triggered
how easily are the insticts controlled (with training) once triggered
This lack of control on the genetics going into the dogs is likely making the training of these dogs more difficult, likely lowering the stress threshold at which training loses control, and making some reactions unpredictable to the unsuspecting pet owner.
