In Defense of Aggressive Dogs...

[Giselle]

I mean like a person just walking by and your dog attacks them, that kind of situation.
Or if the dog was going after like friends and family that were over again if they were just sitting there not even touching the dog.

But that's exactly the human fallibility that I'm talking about. "Provocation" can often have little to do between the dog and the trigger. Most aggressive dogs fly off the top because of the specific environment.

For example, if you place Ivy in a dog park setting, she will not display aggressive behaviors. But if you place her in a stressful class environment and command her to do a complex behavior, the stress accumulates and she takes it out on a nearby dog. It is not the trigger itself that leads to an attack. It is a culmination of physical health, mental health, prior training, and the environment. So, for your examples of dogs attacking people for walking by, well my question is: Was the dog lying down? Was the dog sleeping? How long has the dog lived with the people? Is the dog completely healthy? Was the dog guarding a toy? Was the dog guarding its food? WHERE was the attack? What is the relationship between the person walking by and the dog? There is so much more to an aggressive attack than "Oh, Fido bit me as I walked by. He's uncontrollably aggressive and is unable to be helped (ergo, must be put down)."

All I'm saying is: We need to stop looking at aggression as am intangible conflict within the dog itself. It's not. It's a culmination of the environment, of the dog's temperament, of the dog's prior training, and of how other beings within the environment interact with the dog. We need to take on a biopsychosocial approach rather than instantly labelling and condemning aggressive dogs.

By the way, buttercup, I did not mean to single you out, but I was simply pointing out the type of statements that spurred me to make this thread.

[Taz_Zoee]

My mom rescued her dog Pepsi from being PTS because she had bit two people in her two years of life. The owners were required to either find her a home outside the city limits or she would be put down. After asking questions to the owners we discovered she bit these people when she had puppies. One bite per litter. Well duh! She was protecting her puppies. The people were just walking past the house when she ran out and bit them.
So, my mom only agreed to take her if they got her fixed. The owners gave us a muzzle to use when we take her to the vet. My mom has NEVER used it. We do know that she is not good with small children though. And apparently my niece forgot this and let her out while her little cousin was there and he got bit. My niece got in BIG trouble for this, not to mention she probably already felt bad enough.
So Pepsi was labeled "aggresive" but she now leads a very healthy happy life out in the country and gets LOTS of exercise everyday.
The only reason my parents agreed to take her was because of the circumstances and the fact that it wasn't HER fault she bit, it was the irresponsible owners.

Great thread Sophie! You know what I am going through with Zoee. Some might think she is aggresive. I like reactive better.