From: ce293@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Gail E. Brookhart)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.dogs
Subject: Re: Pet Peeves
Date: 1 Jan 1993 14:05:18 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: ce293@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Gail E. Brookhart)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


In a previous article, shedevil@vix.com (Anne P. Mitchell JD) says:

>
>I don't know if the title is that appropriate, but it seemed a cute
>play on words for this group. :-)
>
>Anyway, I just need to blow off some steam about something that
>*really* got to me today:
>
>We were at the dog park in our area [an off-lead fenced in park], and
>this little bitty woman was there..she probably was about 5'4 or 5'5
>and weighed about 105.  She had this very large [breed name omitted
>because I think it's irrelevant...suffice to say, however, that it is
>a large breed, and known to be dog aggressive if not properly
>socialized] male.  Her dog jumped a male golden, and was beating the
>stuffing out of this poor dog.  This woman just *stood there* and
>*watched*..never moving in closer [she was about 25-30 feet
>away]..never saying a thing, just watching...for at least a full
>minute..then she *walked* up towards where her dog was still on top of
>the other dog, and said, in a not very stern/alarming voice
>"<dogname>, no!".  Of course, it did nothing.  She didn't even try to
>stop it, just grabbed her dog's collar when he broke for a moment.
>Her remonstrations to him weren't very stern, really, either.  The
>moment she let him go, he was back on top of the other dog, of
>course.  I finally went up to her, even though it wasn't my park, or
>really my place, and told her quite sternly "Look, you either have to
>roll that dog *now*, or get him out of this park".  She said "I know,
>I'm going to get him out", and in the same manner as before, got him
>by the collar when he came up for air, and walked him out of the park.
>
>Now, I don't think she was happy about his fighting or anything, just
>to make that clear..she did think it was bad..but she didn't *do
>anything*.
>
>It made me SO mad!!!  It seems to me to be *so* irresponsible to have
>a male of a large breed, known to be aggressive, and to not be able to
>handle him!...and to not be prepared to jump in and take the necessary
>corrective action!...heck..*I* was about to jump in and roll him!..
>but he was *huge* and I figured that as a total stranger to this dog
>he might well turn on me.
>
>No wonder these kind of breeds get a bad name!
>
>
Hey there, hold on there!

I agree with you wholeheartedly that the dog should have had some quick
solutions to his behavior applied in no uncertain terms but please do not
join with the crackpots in the insurance companies, the courts (sorry! I
noticed the JD but I am posting my opinion), and the wacko general
poluation who badmouth breeds for aggression.

BREEDS are not aggressive. INDIVIDUAL DOGS are aggressive.  Sure, a breed
may be a big and tough breed but it is people who do 95% of the "work"
towards making a dominant dog into an agressive dog.

Both of my breeds, Airedale Terriers and Bouvier des Flandres, are
supposedly "aggressive dogs."  Both are dominant as the dickens to other
dogs.  But neither DOG is aggressive.  I have no doubts that if I allowed
it either or both of them could turn into a problem dog.

To illustrate my opinion, here comes another Toby the Airedale story for
you.  I instructed obedience classes for a few years and dropped in early
at the club one Saturday morning before my class.  I joined in the basic
class before the advanced class that I was to teach so that I could warm
Toby up for his demo dog duties in my class.  We took the end position in a
line of sit-stay and down-stay exercises.  Next to us was a grossly obese
male Golden Retriever.  MY dog was in heel position and watching me as he
is trained to do.  Had he not been doing his job he would have seen the fat
Golden SHOVE his owner aside and GRAB my Airedale by the back of the neck
and THROW my dog to the mat.  And now, no excuses for Toby here, my
Airedale kicked into terrier mode and grabbed the Golden by the throat and
pinned him on the mat.  The lady sat there like a blob and in a tiny voice
said, "Oh, Oh, that nasty dog is killing my dog," and I waded in and
separated the dogs.  My dog did the natural dog thing to do when attacked
but he still got a 30 minute enforced down-stay and an hour of no attention
in the crate during my class for being in a fight.  The lady spent 5
minutes harrumphing about the mean Airedale and cuddling the fat bully who
started it all.

My dog started nothing but because he was an Airedale Terrier and much 
more capable of defending himself he took the rap for a crime he didn't
commit.  I talked to the instructor of the basic class and found that the
Golden had been threatening other dogs in the class every week but Toby was
the first dog who got the upper hand on him.

What's my point?  You can take ANY dog of ANY breed and through
mismanagement turn it into a ROTTEN dog.  The responsibility falls first
and foremost to the OWNER, then to the INDIVIDUAL DOG and last to the
BREED.  It is people who don't train out problem behaviors in their dogs or
who intentionally train them INTO their dogs who are the problem before you
can assign blame to the dog or the breed.

Let's put the blame on the right shoulders here and assign it to a lady who
didn't train a dog and not pin the rap on a breed again.

Gail Brookhart                         The opinions are my own and my dogs.
Toby the Airedale (who loves to be herded by NICE German Shepherds) &
Casey the Bouvier (who hates it when people throw rocks at her for being
big and black when she only wants to have babies learn to walk by hanging
onto her beard!)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.dogs