Evolution of a dangerous dog

 Sadly there are some in our society that are determined to produce dogs that scare and hurt people. Our military and policing services have a long history of using dogs for hunting and capturing criminals or for protecting our national assets. These groups normally have well developed breeding programs in place and stringent controls on how their dogs are trained and housed. However there are groups that are not so scrupulous and they breed and create dogs for guarding of drug crops, dog fighting and protection of property. They often has no understanding of the inherent dangers of keeping dogs in these situations. There is also a culture in some groups (mostly men) that has certain types of dogs as a macho status symbol. The image of a snarling, lunging, only just controlled dog on the end of a viscous prong collar being one they enjoy as it enhances their image. 

Then there is the largest group and most worrying group and this includes normal every day people, many with young children that have the wrong dog in the wrong situation. This is combined with owners that have little to no knowledge of canine body language and no commitment to training and management of their dogs within their household. As our last article showed any dog  can be dangerous. Where a dog comes from – shelter, breeder, or backyard puppy farm, even a large well managed multimillion dollar dog business will impact on the temperament of the dog you bring home. What defines a dog’s personality is:

• it’s breed (or combination of breeds), 
• how it was raised in its first critical 4 – 16 weeks of life
• amount of training and enrichment it receives on an on-going basis
• how its health is managed or not managed e.g. presence of arthritis or tumours.