gsfish said:
... what hope is there of knowing all the triggers?
Guy
When the dog is an unknown, knowing what may set the dog off can be difficult, but that shouldn't be your primary focus if you are wanting to stay safe. A trigger could be that you are wearing a hat, riding a bike, or something else that you have no control over. The best thing to do is be confident and respectful of space. Oh, and don't freak out if you get scared; that is a good way to escalate an already bad situation. Easier said than done sometimes!!
A previous landlady of mine had an aggressive dog. It nailed me once and my dog twice on three separate occasions. It had also bit several other people. The dog constantly threatened to bite anyone. The dog would attack most any dog and put at least one dog in the doggy hospital. Lots of dead squirrels and at least one dead kitty because of that dog. When the dog was being aggressive, the owner would pick it up and pet it in an effort to calm it. Sometimes she gave it treats. She didn't spend much quality time with the dog. When she did give the dog luvins, it was usually when the dog was being highly aggressive. She was unwittingly rewarding the dog for the very behaviors she didn't want. That happens more often than you may think. This dog was a Dachshund. Imagine if that dog was a large one!
When you own a dog (as long as it is healthy), there are tons of things that can be done so no inappropriate triggers develop. A dog should be able to handle kids screaming or a person hobbling on a cane. The dog may not like it, but an expectation of having enough self control to keep their teeth off a perceived offender is a reasonable expectation.
Some people are known to be irresponsible. If they are irresponsible in some areas of their life, that irresponsibility likely carries over to the care of their dogs. While that won't identify a specific trigger, it raises a red flag. Powerful dogs that are on leash but aren't leash trained is a huge red flag. A dog that is leashed trained is much less likely to use excessive amounts of force for the smallest infractions. (Defining a properly leash trained dog is a highly debated, controversial topic like many other aspects of training.)
We should not poo-poo feelings of discomfort or fear. If you see a pit bull and feel fear, I don't see a problem with taking steps to make yourself safer. Perhaps that fear is unreasonable, but if you don't know when to be afraid or not, that shouldn't stop you from taking reasonable steps for your immediate safety. (Locking yourself in your room 24 hours a day would be unreasonable.) Ideally, when the immediate situation is over, I would like to see people take steps to become educated so that beneficial fear is used in a more appropriate context. Living in constant fear is no fun, but that can be hard to overcome. I wish the best for those that live in fear, whatever that fear may be.
"Always ask an adult when making animal friends." That's my motto. Even then I tend not to pet dogs that are powerful. Many times I've been snapped at or growled at and the owner said, "Huh. That's the first time that's ever happened," or "Oh, when he growls and snarls, that means he loves you." Yeah, right. You can ask also ask if the dog has had extensive, comprehensive socialization during the first 3 months of their life such as Super Puppy training. If they don't know what you are talking about, that is a red flag, too.
If I see a powerful dog that is overly excited and running loose (but not attacking), I'm going in my truck or in a store. I even look to see what cars I can jump onto to get away. Whatever I can do to avoid and hopefully not escalate a potentially violent encounter. This is an exceptionally rare occurrence no matter what the breed is, but I like being prepared. I'm a Boy Scout at heart.
That is a lot of writing. Taking care of dogs is a lot of work. Being safe in a free society takes work. What is easier is to ban [insert breed/size here]. I could have written that one previous sentence, left it at that, and not have subjected you guys to my annoying ramblings.
Some people want to limit or even ban vandwellers partly because we don't have fenced areas and some of us have dogs. Sure, that would be easy; dog attacks would certainly decline if vandwellers didn't have dogs (or small dogs of certain heritage), but I'm not sure using such broad strokes is the best way to go.
