View Single Post
  #47  
Old March 24th, 2011, 05:56 PM
akaJenT's Avatar
akaJenT akaJenT is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: california
Posts: 31
Quote:
Originally Posted by millitntanimist View Post
I don't think that's true.
In nature, animals very rarely get involved in real physical fights because of the risk of injury (which is a death sentence). 99% of observed fight behavior is posturing - which means that one animal voluntarily goes to ground to submit to the other's superior strength. When one animal physically throws the other down, it is preparing to kill it.
There's a lot of truth in what you wrote, but I don't think we're in disagreement. That's probably why my Rott never growled at my infant again. If what you say is true, then my Rott showed by submitting that he saw me as the leader, which is my goal with my Husky. He got the message which is what I wanted to happen

Quote:
By grabbing your dog and throwing it to the ground, you are initiating the equivalent of (what would be) a fight to the death.
And maybe you're right that he reacts different to humans because he knows I'm not a dog, but I still think it communicates the seriousness of the offense.

Quote:
I know someone who has had 3 rescue dogs and all of them have developed severe aggression because of these methods.
How can you tell with a rescue dog that it's why they developed severe aggression? We had a rescue dog, some said he looked like one of those wild Australian dogs, a dingo, he was beautiful. We had him for two weeks and did nothing but love on him. Then one day I was cuddling a 2 year old in my lap, put the child down, stepped aside with a friend for a second and we both looked up as we saw the dingo lunge for the child's throat. We both screamed NO and he stopped and the child wasn't hurt but we took the dingo back to the shelter and told them what happened.

Quote:
This person was very loving towards their dogs in other respects and the dogs were treated like family - given great amounts of exercise, positive social interaction, and structure.
Over the course of their lives, two of them began to show some aggressive behavior towards other dogs and one began showing aggression to people. This aggression was corrected with alpha rolls and growling/shouting.
The dog who was human-aggressive has since been euthanized for attacking and biting 2 people.
The larger of the dogs who was dog-aggressive (the smaller is a chihuahua mix and not corrected as often) has lost any of the warning signs that would normally pre-curse and attack. It is very scary to watch. One minute she is happily sitting next to you, the next she lunges and grabs the other by the neck (pinning him down) snarling while the boy screams. There are absolutely no warning signs. None.
In addition, they have both also started showing some aggression to people.
Yep, exactly the behavior I was talking about. And why I said it's unfortunate I didn't have my Husky's since they were pups.

Quote:
If the dogs understood why they were being corrected, it would have stopped the behavior.

Dogs know that we are not dogs. They do not treat us like other dogs - and we wouldn't want them to.
I think we're a lot on the same page. I just think imitating some of their behavior still gets the message across.
Reply With Quote