For almost two years, I felt like I had failed as a dog owner because my Bully mix (Pitterstaff/AmBully, at best guess) turned out to be dog aggressive.
“It’s all in how they’re raised!” is a sentence that makes me cringe. Anyone that owns a DA APBT or Bully breed probably knows what I’m talking about. While it is a great sentiment on the ability of dogs to overcome horrible situations, it ignores essential facts about canine behavior while simultaneously putting the blame on dog owners.
One of the first pictures I have of Zuni and I, on a camping trip in early 2012.
Zuni, my craigslist rescue, wasn’t even a year old when I got her. Her history before being picked up off the streets by a friendly married couple is unknown. But she was a fantastic dog and I took her absolutely everywhere with me – she even came to my high school once and assisted me with a theater presentation. We went to the dog park weekly, ran agility, practiced obedience, and played disc anywhere there was enough space for her to run. When I started working at the kennel, she would go to daycare during my shifts. Zuni was so good with other dogs that she was used as a neutral dog to test newcomers for the daycare program.
I did everything right with her. Knowing her breed, I felt an additional sense of responsibility. I couldn’t raise a dog that would contribute to the “dangerous pitbull” idea. But I can’t control genetics and breed tendencies. My breed isn’t dangerous, but ignoring what my breed was meant for is absolutely dangerous.
Around two years of age, the dog aggression began. We consulted with several trainers and tried so many methods that it makes my head spin thinking about it. The best answer we could get from anyone was that she was fear aggressive. I worked with that for nearly a year, but couldn’t ever agree with it. I know fear aggressive dogs, I work with them frequently. Zuni’s behavior and body language certainly wasn’t fearful – she would strain at the end of her leash, every muscle standing out, eyes locked onto another dog with an intensity that terrified most people. It was the same way she looked at squirrels. I’ve broken up two fights, and both times I knew she’d never quit until she couldn’t get to the other dog.
I didn’t make any progress with Zuni until I accepted the fact that dog aggression was a part of her temperament. I stopped blaming myself for her behavior and I stopped seeing her dog aggression as the sign of a “bad dog.” I stopped trying to make her like every dog she met and instead taught her to ignore other dogs in public and focus on me. I don’t allow people to bring their dogs near her and we certainly don’t go to the dog park anymore. I took months introducing her to Maya and making sure that they had the space that they both needed. She’s able to run agility without losing focus and has done narcotics detection drills off leash in a room with 30 other dogs.
Zuni’s happier now, I’m happier now. Life goes on.
I’ve reblogged this before and I will reblog it every time I see it.
I have been asked to do a behavior assessment and to share some much-needed education with an owner who feels entirely overwhelmed by her poor pup. Her son purchased Bella from a “wolfdog” breeder in Aloha, Oregon, who told him she was “70% wolf”; the breeder explained to the young man that he needed to dominate the dog by rolling her onto her back and biting her ear or nose if she did anything wrong, “because that’s how wolves do it”.
In truth, Bella does not appear to have any wolf in her, let alone the 70% her breeder claimed she was. She attacks “without warning” because she has been heavily conditioned through force to avoid warning behaviors such as growling or baring her teeth.
Following my assessment, the plan is to find Bella a suitable behaviorist who can help undo the damage her first owner has done. If she recovers, a proper forever home will be found for her and she will start a new life with folks who will not misrepresent or mistreat her.
Recently on Facebook a picture came up in my feed regarding wolfdogs. Looking through the comments, it seemed everyone and their grandfather owned a ‘wolfdog’. Some I took the time to look through their pictures of. Didn’t see any wolfdogs, but I did see photos of people doing things like having 2 grown men hold down a muzzled husky/malamute/other(?) mix because, “Nail trimming is hard when you deal with wolves.” Also read plenty of comments about how you need to “dominate” your ‘wolfdog’ and “it’s super important to make sure they know you’re the boss.” There were people excusing their poorly trained dog’s behaviors on “well it’s because they’re 96% wolf” and justifying their brutal treatment of their mixed breed dogs because “that’s how wolves are treated in the wild by their alphas.” There was enough misrepresentation and misinformation about canine behavior and training to make you want to turn off your computer for a week.
THIS, ladies and gentlemen, is why people need to knock it off with continuing to spread this kind of BS.
I think they’re more ethical than the other option – allowing invasive predators to be consistently exposed to a myriad of dangers that shorten their life expectancy in brutal ways while they kill native wildlife for the funzies.
We have the skills and the knowledge to provide a completely stimulating, positive welfare environment for indoor cats with a little dedication. They don’t feel ‘deprived’ if we actually put in the effort. Cats raised indoors have no problems with it. There are some cats who won’t transition well to not being allowed to go outside anymore, but that can be alleviated through screened porches, cat windows, or leash training – again, they just require human effort.
PiraticOctopus 