Does a dog’s aggressiveness vary by breed?

Displays of aggression from dogs, especially towards humans, is one of the most serious problems that owners face. This is also, alas, one of the main causes of death for dogs – pets are often euthanized because they “behave aggressively.” 

Photo: pixabay.com

Ratings of breeds by aggressiveness are compiled, lists of potentially dangerous dog breeds … But does the aggressiveness of a dog depend on the breed?

Aggressive behavior of dogs does sometimes manifest itself, despite the fact that these animals have been selected for thousands of years according to criteria such as interest in cooperation with humans and friendliness to people. Moreover, individual differences in the manifestations of aggressive behavior are very large, as are the conditions in which the dog becomes aggressive.

Do dogs bite often?

According to statistics, in the United States every year about 5 people suffer from dog bites – this is 000 in 000 people. Of this number, about 1 people end up in need of plastic surgery. And every second child under the age of 65 has been bitten by a dog at least once.

The question may even arise: why do we keep dogs if they are so “biting”? In fact, if people kept at home, for example, wolves as pets, the figure would be much more impressive. However, the numbers are impressive.

True, if you delve into the reasons for the manifestation of aggression, it turns out that mostly dogs biting in fear. In cases where people provoked dogs by cruelly treating them or driving them into a corner, completely ignoring the attempts of animals to peacefully resolve the “controversial issue”.

Photo: flickr.com

Is a pit bull as scary as it is painted?

Just as statistics are collected on the number of bites (at least in those countries where they are kept), data is also collected on which breeds of dogs bite most often. But there is also a public opinion that “stigmatizes” certain breeds of dogs as “the most terrible.”

It is believed that the American pit bull is the breed on whose conscience the largest number of manifestations of aggression. And it seems that the simplest solution is to ban the keeping of these dogs, and that’s it. But if such a decision is made, will there be an end to dog aggression? Not so simple.

Alas, pit bulls can be called guilty without guilt. And their main “fault” is that, according to the inhabitants, their bites are somehow especially terrible, they say, the force of compression of pit bull jaws reaches 126 kg per square centimeter. In particular, this information is actively disseminated by the so-called “canine translator” Caesar Millan, who is listened to with an open mouth by millions of naive dog owners. But where did this horrendous figure come from?

The sources that cite this figure cite (if they cite at all) a document published in 1984. It does say that the bite force of a pit bull is the most terrifying of all dog breeds. But if you read the document, which the authors of this document, in turn, refer to as containing information about the results of the study (Boenning, et al., 1983), you will be surprised – nothing of the kind is written there!

That is, people attribute some terrifying abilities to pit bulls, but at the same time, according to scientists from Duke University (USA), there are no studies that would confirm this opinion.

Thus, it cannot be said that pit bulls are somehow different from other breeds of dogs in this sense.

Photo: American Pit Bull Terrier. Photo: wikipedia.org

Is there any connection between the breed of a dog and manifestations of aggression?

First of all, it should be borne in mind that the statistics on the breeds of dogs that most often bite people are based on the “testimony” of those who suffered from these same bites. And here the question arises: how much does the person who was bitten understand dog breeds, and how accurate information did he provide?

It is also worth considering the settings. For example, rottweilers have a bad reputation, and any large dark-colored dog can be described by the victim as a “rottweiler”, although this dog did not stand next to a rottweiler.

So it is almost impossible to collect accurate information about what breeds of dogs bite most often – at best, these statistics will be very approximate.

For example, the data provided by Duke University (USA) over a fairly long period of time looks like this:

On the a photo: rating the most aggressive breeds dogs. A photowww.coursera.org

Yes, the American Staffordshire Terrier is listed there, but not in the first place. But were you surprised by the presence in this ranking of the most aggressive breeds of collies and poodles – dogs that are considered one of the best companions, including for families with children?

That is, in fact, our ideas about “aggressive dog breeds” are based on stereotypes.

What causes aggression in a dog breed?

Here it is worth recalling the experiment on the domestication of foxes. During the experiment, over a number of generations, we selected least aggressive in relation to a person, foxes, and as a result, individuals were very affectionate and friendly.

But in the experiment there was also a second part – they selected most aggressive individuals. The result was a line of very, very aggressive animals.

That is, the “source material” was the same, but very quickly (within 10 – 20 generations) the behavior of two experimental lines of the same animal species became completely opposite.

The analogy with breeding dogs suggests itself, doesn’t it?

If we select dogs of a certain breed according to criteria, one of which is aggression towards people (for example, for guarding) or towards relatives (for example, for dog fighting), very quickly we will get animals that are more likely to show aggression with minimal impact. incentives. The opposite is also true: if we select confident dogs that do not need to show aggression without a good reason, we will get resistant to a variety of stimuli and at the same time courageous pets.

Photo: pixabay.com

If at a CACIB show the Dogue de Bordeaux clings to the floor, backing away from the judge and baring its teeth, and is not disqualified for cowardly aggressive behavior, but instead receives the championship title, is it any wonder the news when a dog of this breed attacked the owner?

That is, in fact, it is possible to change the behavior of dogs of a certain breed (or lines within one breed) very quickly. At the same time, dogs of this line will be very different in behavior from other representatives of the breed.

There are a lot of stereotypes about “aggressive dog breeds”, but there is very little real evidence for them.. That is why attempts to resolve the issue by banning certain breeds do not affect the number of bites.

But breeders can influence, paying attention to the nature of the producers and not allowing dogs that demonstrate aggressive or cowardly-aggressive behavior (and, alas, there are a lot of such dogs now, including those with “champion” titles from “beauty contests”). Then there will be no need for “horror stories”.