Dangerous Breed Ban-Good idea?

Dog Behavior Sunni Willis, CVT I recently attended a seminar on dog behavior with some colleagues from work. The seminar was given by Sue Sternberg who is an expert in dog aggression, and founded the testing method (Assess-A-Pet) that the Blue Dog Shelter uses in assessing whether a dog is fit for adoption. While the majority of the seminar was about what we, as shelter workers should be looking for to determine a dog’s adoptability, there was some useful information about dog aggression that I thought I would share with the dog loving public.

In light of the recent activity on Beacon Hill regarding the potential ban on dangerous breeds, it seemed appropriate to share some of what Sue teaches regarding aggression in dogs. First, she doesn’t not take breed into consideration when temperament testing a dog. That’s right…it’s not even a consideration! I was relieved to hear her say this because my own experiences as a veterinary technician have also taught me to never do this. The breed of the dog just is not an important factor when you are looking for behaviors that could indicate aggression. Some of the most common aggression behaviors include:

Dominance Aggression: This is aggression directed towards familiar people or family members. It is most often triggered when the dog is made to do something he doesn’t want to do. Examples of this may be trying to remove the dog from the couch, or wiping the dog’s feet after a walk in the rain, or trying to put ointment in the dog’s ears. Dominance aggression is not just the result of a spoiled dog, but doing so can make the behavior worse.

Resource Guarding: This is aggression that is shown when the dog is guarding something he thinks has a high value. This can occur over his dog food, or pig’s ear, or rope toy. Basically anything that the dog feels is “his’ This could also be your favorite pair of shoes!

Aggression Towards Strangers: This aggression is based towards non-family members. This is sometimes based on fear, and sometimes based on dominance. This is a particularly dangerous behavior, because of the liability for the owner, should the dog hurt someone.

Dog-to-Dog Aggression: This is aggression towards other dogs. Usually this occurs when the dogs do not know each other, but I have seen many sad situations where one family dog has been mauled by another. This is a very difficult situation for the owners because of the constant need to be sure that the dog does not encounter another dog.

Some of these behaviors, if minor, can be modified through intense training and behavior modification, but sadly the majority can not. The owners of these kinds of aggressive dogs must fully understand the potential danger they face if they continue to own a dog with these kinds of aggressive behaviors. You will notice that none of these behaviors have anything at all to do with the breed of the dog. These are behaviors that can, and do affect all breeds of dogs. The proposed ban on dangerous breeds should be changed to reflect that the breed is not dangerous, but in fact it’s the behavior that is the problem.

(Disclaimer: Any behavior problems should be evaluated by a professional dog trainer, with aggressive dog experience. Do not attempt to correct any of these behaviors on your own).