Dogs Behaving Badly

Hollister, CA -- Dogs may be considered lovable companions, but these animals can be dangerous, too, especially when they exhibit aggression that goes untreated.

Each day in the United States, nearly 1,000 people require emergency room treatment for dog bite, most of them children, according to the National Center for

Health Statistics. It’s a problems that costs insurance companies nearly $350 million per year, and results in the deaths of an average 17 people a year, according to the Insurance Information Institute. Yet many of these injuries and their resulting costs could be avoided with a little education, according to local canine experts.

“If more people got their pets in and did obedience training with them at a young age, if they socialized them and were conscious about their yards to make sure the dog wasn’t getting out, I think we’d see a lot fewer bites,” said Julie Carreiro, a supervisor for Hollister Animal Shelter, which is responsible for animal control duties in San Benito County.

Socialization plays the greatest role in whether a dog develops aggression that is unrelated to a medical condition, and it starts in puppyhood, said Morgan Hill resident Daphne Robert-Hamilton, a certified dog trainer and behavior counselor specializing in dog aggression.

Veterinarians recommend puppies be quarantined until their vaccinations are complete at about five months old, but this lengthy separation from other dogs can lead a puppy to develop anxiety when it’s around other dogs. That anxiety often shows up as aggression - growling, barred teeth and raised hackles, said Robert-Hamilton.

“Dogs that are fearful or shy will usually choose a flight response when they’re confronted with a stressor,” Robert-Hamilton said. “Dogs that are anxious are seeing the treat as potentially dangerous, so they use aggression to try and get the treat to move into more social distance, to move away from them.”

For Wasabi, a rambunctious 4-year-old Doberman Pinscher, a combination of fear and anxiety had sprung up during her play-time as a puppy. Growing up in a house full of older dogs, her attempts at play had been met with rebuke, so she was poorly socialized, said current owner Liz Woodbury, an Aptos resident who took the dog

in after her previous dog, a litter-mate of Wasabi’s, had passed away.

Paralyzed by her fear of a new dog and new surroundings, Wasabi hid behind Woodbury whenever she became nervous, and, when her owner was forced to leave town suddenly for a family emergency, lashed out. She bit Woodbury’s other dog so hard on the leg that the wound required several stitches to close.

Unfortunately, stories like Wasabi’s aren’t all that unfamiliar. Most owners aggravate the natural aggression their dogs feel through a combination of empathy and ignorance. Humans tend to interpret a dog’s behavior through their own, imbuing the animal’s actions with moral overtones from human society, and punishing the dog rather than allaying its fears, said Robert-Hamilton.

If a dog demonstrates any type of aggression, it’s best to seek the help of a trainer immediately, preferably a behaviorist who specializes in aggression, said Carreiro.

And that’s just what Woodbury did. Starting in November 2004, she started taking Wasabi to see Robert-Hamilton. No trainer can promise to cure a dog of aggression, especially if it tends to bite, said Robert-Hamilton, but one can make progress.

Using positive reinforcement and the clicker method - a method of training where a small metal clicker is used to validate a dog’s good behavior before it’s given a treat - Wasabi has learned that not everyone or everything is scary, and when she does feel threatened, she’s learned to allow Woodbury to distract her.

“She can do tricks when she’s in a situation that makes her uneasy,” Woodbury said. “That kind of builds her confidence. She pays a lot of attention to me versus targeting on a dog or a person. She’s never going to be the kind of dog you can let off her leash at the dog park, but she’s a lot better.”

Said Robert-Hamilton, “If a dog bites, will it bite again? Highly likely, very probable. What we’re looking to see is what is the pressure? What is the damage? You might have a 120-pound akita that puts its mouth on skin, but if he tends to leave just little puncture marks and bruising, we’ll work with that dog. If you get a little 20 pound dog that bites and draws blood each time, that’s more of a problem.”

Whenever a dog demonstrates aggressive behavior, it’s best to wonder why, said Carreiro.

“Is the dog growling at you because it wants up on the bed, and it doesn’t want you up there?” asked Carreiro. “Or is it growling because it’s eating and you’re trying to take the food away? I saw an incident where the dog was eating and a young girl about seven walked up and hugged the dog. It bit her. Dogs don’t like to be hugged. A lot of them are really scared by it, and that’s a situation where the parent needs to educate the child.”

Children represent 77 percent of all dog bite victims, often because they do not recognize warning signs from dogs or understand an animal’s behavior, said Carreiro. Parents should teach and frequently re-inforce appropriate behavior around animals, especially those that belong to others. They should be taught not to walk up and immediately start petting a dog on a leash, but to ask an owner whether their dog is friendly and if it’s all right to pet it.



Aggressive dogs in public

Loose dogs are a perennial problem, especially in areas where rural and urban territories mix, and letting your dogs run loose can have dangerous consequences for others, said Julie Carreiro, a supervisor for the Hollister Animal Shelter, which is responsible for animal control in San Benito County.

“Dogs tend to protect their own property and their own house,, but if they run loose, pretty soon their field of protection gets bigger and bigger and bigger,” said Carreiro. “Their surroundings get larger, and they may get more aggressive a house down the street, then a block down the street. If people see dogs running loose, they need to contact their local law enforcement immediately or somebody might get hurt.”

If you know of an area in your neighborhood that a loose dog frequents, try to avoid it, said Carreiro. That’s also the best policy if you see a loose dog in the distance said Beth Albalos, owner of From Mischief to Manners Dog Training in Hollister.

“If the dog is on your side of the street, cross to the other side and don’t make eye contact,” said Albalos. “You can also turn around and start going in the other direction without running. If you run, the aggressive dog will chase as part of their predatory instinct.”

It may be a good idea to pick up and carry small dogs, said animal behavior counselor Daphne Robert-Hamilton. Also, if an unleashed dog’s owner is nearby, ask the person to leash the dog, she said.

“I always tell clients to carry a pouch full of treats so your dog had pleasant associations from being around other dogs, but you should also carry citronella spray and your cell phone, which should be programmed with police, animal control and vet numbers,” said Robert-Hamilton. “A lot of owners come back at you with, ‘Oh! She’s friendly.’ I say, ‘Well, my dog’s not,’ or I sometimes tell my clients to tell white lies like, ‘My dog has a contagious disease.’ If that doesn’t work, I go to, ‘I have pepper spray, and I will use it.’”

Situations involving unaccompanied dogs are dicier, said Albalos. Remember not to make eye contact, since this is a challenge to the dog’s dominance, and try to get away. If you are attacked, protect your face and neck as much as possible with your hands, she advised.

“That’s a submissive position, and it tells the dog that he’s won,” said Albalos. “If he believes he’s won, he’ll generally go away, but if you keep fighting, he’ll keep going, and then you’re in real trouble.”





Why not outlaw aggressive breeds?

Pit bulls, Rottweilers and German shepherds are among the most deadly dogs in the United States, according to a review of 109 fatal attacks published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, accounting for more than 60 percent of the dog-bite-related deaths reported in the 1990s and nearly 80 percent of the dog-bite-related fatalities from 1981 to 1996. so why not outlaw them?

It’s a question governments the world over have been forced to ponder as more dogs are brought into urban environments as pets. In Germany and the United Kingdom, for instance, bans exist on a handful of breeds considered particularly vicious, and the same is true in several U.S. states such as Colorado. But, in California, breed-specific legislation is illegal as the workers at the Hollister Animal Shelter discovered when they attempted to tighten vicious dog laws several years ago.

According to section 31683 of the state’s Food and Agriculture Code, cities and counties can adopt or enforce their own programs controlling potentially dangerous or vicious dogs as long as the program is not meant to regulate specific breeds.

Some pet owners may question the wisdom of this legislation, but Julie Carreiro, a supervisor for the Hollister Animal Shelter, agrees with the legislation.

‘Your higher incidence of maulings and killings are coming from dogs where their force-per-pound of jaw power is greater than a Chihuahua,” said Carreiro. “If we outlaw pit bulls, what about huskies, akitas, chows? They have the ability to do the same things. I don’t think it would solve the problem. I think we need to tighten down on dog owners being more responsible, tighten down on our enforcement of vicious dog laws.”

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‘Your higher incidence of maulings and killings are coming from dogs where their force-per-pound of jaw power is greater than a Chihuahua,” said Carreiro. “If we outlaw pit bulls, what about huskies, akitas, chows? They have the ability to do the same things. I don’t think it would solve the problem. I think we need to tighten down on dog owners being more responsible, tighten down on our enforcement of vicious dog laws.”


Yeppers.

 

although that may be true, even many more people are killed by people who drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and yet even more die from smoking cigarettes. These inconsiderate people cause these accidents intentionally and these diseases intentionally.


it is irresponsible human behavior that causes dog bites and everything else. stop putting the blame on the animal. After all they are a direct reflection of their environment that they are brought up in. Ban dumb people not breeds of dogs. ban alcohol, ban drugs, ban ban ban. we will be naked if they keep going, maybe that is what they want, to be like adam and eve.

 

Hmmmm. Naked. Ok I'm for the clothes ban. Anybody else?

**EDIT** Never mind. I'm running a bit slow tonight. I just realized this is America and we have the fattest people on the planet. No clothes ban!