Quote Originally Posted by Giselle View Post
Third: Is there really such thing as "unprovoked" aggression? Most dog owners have inadequate knowledge of dog body language. Additionally, most people believe there must be a specific, tangible "provocation" to initiate an aggressive attack. And when they miss the transmission of body language leading up to the attack, they assume an attack is "unprovoked" - when, in fact, it CLEARLY has a cause. There are *extremely* few and *extremely* rare cases in which a dog actually has unprovoked aggression. People, we need to remember that "unprovoked" means absolutely no cause at all - in other words, a dog who LITERALLY flies off the handle at random times of the day toward random people in random situations. But if there's even the slightest rhyme or rhythm to a dog's aggression, then the attacks DO have a cause and DO have provocation and DO have a trigger/stimulus.

So what am I trying to say? Before you make a blanket statement that "all aggressive dogs should be euthanized", consider, just for a moment, that, perhaps, there is more to the issue than meets the eye. And consider, for just a minute, that, perhaps, the dog deserves more than derision and euthanasia.

--- Alright. Off my soap box. I've just really really had it with these blanket statements regarding aggressive dogs.----
I just wanted to quote this paragraph again as it is what I was thinking when the whole other thread was going on. I didn't want to add to what that thread was becoming though.

I think probably 99% of "unprovoked" attacks were given clear (to a dog) warning signals that it was about to happen. So many of a dog's signals are so subtle that they go missed by many.

I applaud your post Sophie. I too have a dog with aggression issues. And he too is managed to the best of my abilities. I think a lot of people could learn a lot about dog behavior and training by reading your posts.


Quote Originally Posted by buttercup132 View Post
Well since that was my quote I guess this thread was directed at me.



And that is exactly what I ment by it.
I do not classify a dog that is a fear biter,DA or anything like that to be agressive and need to be put down.
Would a fear BITER attack someone? Not likely..

Someone said that they got attacked by a dog and they didn't provoke it at all then that dog imo should be put down.
I know it's rare for a dog to be HA but it's not impossible and with all the inbreeding, crappy breeders, and irresponsible owners now a days it's becoming less rare.
I think the problem in understanding here is what you define as provoking a dog. A fear biter could and would absolutely attack somebody if that somebody didn't realize what they were doing was sending the dog into a fearful state. And don't think that all fearful dogs will tuck tails, duck heads, and crouch. Some have a very low threshold and will go from looking away from what scares them to attacking before it can get them.