Hands up everyone who’s been randomly mauled by a dog while walking to work?
I’m not saying that people shouldn’t train their dogs, they should! But hell we can’t get people to train their children, and in theory they at least speak the same language.
Obnoxious happy dogs are no better than obnoxious happy children. But there’s a BIG difference between actively aggressive, and just wild with no manners which is what I suspect a lot of the “scary” dogs really are.
I’d still love to see videos of these snarling beasts. A barking, pulling dog does not instantly mean it’s going to bite if let loose. They are indeed scary looking and should not be taken lightly, but neither should someone plan on pulling a gun for heaven’s sake.
I will also concede that there are people who LOVE the idea of having an attack dog on a leash. The problem is that true attack dogs are THE best behaved beasts - they attack on command as part of a job. The morons that want a “guard dog” but have zero idea of just what that entails are making it very hard for the rest of us with good dogs to be taken seriously.
Thank God, I haven’t, but I’m cautious near big dogs and stay as far away as possible. However, my aunt was mauled by a dog while walking down her street and required quite a few stitches. That made a big impression on me, as I’m sure it did on her, too. Surely, you’re not trying to say that dog attacks don’t happen?
Also, growling would be interpreted by almost anyone as aggression on the dog’s part. I’m not the Dog Whisperer, and I shouldn’t have to be, either.
The dog in that video is obnoxious as hell and I’d put the kibosh on that in a heartbeat. It IS actually possible to teach a dog that one or two alert barks are ok, but when you say “Ok, enough” or “quiet now” or some verbal cue that tells the dog “I heard you and I’m aware of the threat and it’s ok” the dog needs to be quiet. He can watch, or he can go lie down, but above all SHUT UP.
Oh, and that’s not what I’d call aggressive in the least.
I should back off, I’m getting defensive due to the OP’s stance. I don’t have a problem with that. My dogs growl (in a non-play way) from time to time and all it takes is a ‘hey, knock it off’ and they usually stop. Barking and pulling is a little harder to stop and usually more of a play thing. I understand that the person they’re barking at/pulling towards doesn’t know that, but I do and I have them under control.
Here’s the thing though. Like I said earlier, if I’m out in public with them, I’ll do what I can to keep them under control, I pull their leashes in, I move away from people, I keep them from growling etc. But, you’re also in public and have to be responsible as well. Ignore them, move away from them as well, keep walking etc…
If you (not just you, but the OP as well) come across dog owners that have bigger dogs then mine, that pull harder, that bark louder, that are scarier, think about what you can do that involves, ya know, not killing them. Cross the street, ask the owner if the dog is nice, call the police, take a different route if it’s not to out of the way. There’s so many things you can do that don’t involve aiming a gun at a leashed dog just because you think the owner might drop the leash and you assume that means the dog will kill you.
No, this is incorrect. Dogs have a very limited vocal vocabulary. Growling can mean aggression but it doesn’t usually.
The thing is, dogs communicate with body language more than with their voices. You have to look at the two together. A truly aggressive dog will hold its head down low, with its ears pulled back flat, its lips pulled away from the teeth, the tail held straight and tense, the hair on its neck and back standing up, and staring straight at you. It may or may not be growling; it might be completely silent.
A dog - and this is 99.99% of all the dogs you’ll ever meet - that’s growling and barking but has its head up and ears forward, wagging its tail - is saying, “OMG - MY FAVORITE PERSON! petmepetmpetm!!!”
So TRAIN them. Why do you consider misbehaving dogs acceptable? And dog owners wonder why people feel at the very least, apprehension? Why is it ok that others feel intimidated by your dogs?
This is most of the dogs I meet, but certainly a person not familiar with dog behavior might feel threatened. I don’t understand why people here can’t see that, and take it into consideration. Not everyone is going to love your dog.
What you’re not getting is that saying, “I don’t understand dogs but I fear them anyway so you have to humor me!” is just not going to get a lot of traction on this board. Your irrational fears are more likely to cause me problems than my leashed dog is going to cause you any. I mean, let’s be honest about who’s genuinely threatening violence in this thread.
In point of fact, I keep my dog on a very short leash around strangers. I don’t let just anyone near him. People have to demonstrate some couth before they can pet him.
I DO understand that, which is why I have trained my dog. When we go out in public she is to stay by my side, she’s not allowed to mug people and people aren’t allowed to mug her. She absolutely is not allowed to bark at people, and she wouldn’t growl anyway (other than in play) because it’s not her nature. She walks politely on a loose leash and minds her own business.
I’m in the camp of “I don’t see this as being as common as any of the anti-dog people are trying to claim”. I live in a neighborhood with a lot of dogs, 90% pit bulls, mostly owned by tough guy types, and I can’t say that I’ve been growled at once. Lunged at, sure–by a wide-eyed puppy that really REALLY wants to make friends please please.
It seems to me that part of being a reasonable citizen is being able to differentiate between dog aggression and dog play behaviors and react accordingly, as much as it’s the responsibility of a dog owner to train down the “must play with everyone we meet!” thing that some dogs have.
OP and a few others strike me as woefully misinformed about dog behavior or else living in Statistical Anomalyville if every lunging dog they see is being “aggressive”.
Saje, you and Merneith are responsible dog owners, that’s clear. I have no problem with you. I do have a problem with owners like Joey P who don’t train their dogs, then get mad when people are threatened by them. I’m not afraid of dogs, I like them, nor have I threatened violence except to say I’d spray mace if an aggressive one came at me, and I know dog body language to know the difference between that and a dog being friendly.
I would think responsible dog owners would be upset with irresponsible ones.
I’ve had half-a-dozen dogs and been around lots more. But in my experience growling is not an expression of love and I’m not likely to buddy up to a strange dog that’s acting that way, even if reassured by the owner that its growling is synonymous with affection.
If I growl at my Lab, she gets anxious and comes over to rest her head on my arm to soothe me.
My dog growls affectionately when he’s in that “take a bow” playful dog pose, so I agree that growling is not necessarily a sign of aggression. It’s a bit of a different growl than his unhappy growl, just like his playful bark is different than his unhappy bark. But, yes. One, I don’t expect people to recognize the difference, as it’s my dog not theirs and, two, I would never expect anyone to buddy up to a dog in such a case.
Again we’re up against semantics. I’ve had lots of dogs who growl in play, and grumble/growl while wagging to get you to play.
To the dogs themselves I’m sure it’s a very different sound than the “back off” growl, plus as Merneith said the body language is very different. And again, what dogs pick up on in body language is SO much more subtle that what humans pick up on.
In principle though you are absolutely right - if an unknown do is growling at you and you are not 100% sure that the rest of the message being sent is friendly, back the hell off.
Oh, and just to add to the mix, how about dogs that “smile”? It’s actually a submissive thing, but it looks like a snarl if you don’t know what else to look for.
You have just demonstrated what is wrong with dog owners - it is ONLY the dog owner’s responsibility to not let their dog affect anyone else negatively. I shouldn’t need to know anything about dog behaviours, because responsible dog owners should never let their dog get so out of control in public that it gets close enough to me for it to matter. If your dog is on a leash, it should be fully under control. If your dog is off leash, it should be fully under control, or it should not be allowed off leash.
The more I think about it, it’s kind of a testament to how good dogs are that there aren’t more people injured by dogs every day in North America, with how lousy their owners are behaving.
Helena, I carry dog pepper spray with me whenever I go walking, and I had a dog owner threaten me with physical violence if I sprayed his dog that kept running at me last week. The pitbull-type dog was off-leash and ignoring his owner’s commands in an on-leash area.
