Ask ten people. Nine of them will tell you that a dog's primary quality is loyalty, and that its concern for protecting its master and territory could lead it to behave like a killer. This provides a plausible explanation for the recent tragedies involving children. And so, it is concluded that a dog is a dangerous animal that an irresponsible or ill-intentioned owner can turn into a vicious creature.
The reality is quite different: firstly, because a dog's loyalty to its master is more about good food than deep feelings. There is no dog that would sacrifice itself to defend its owner, contrary to what those who idealize their dog believe, and therefore do not really know them. Furthermore, it’s important to understand that a dog is extremely respectful of humans, by instinct, and would never dare to bite them without being trained or conditioned by its environment.
DISCERNMENT
Training a dog to bite involves teaching it to seize a human dressed in a protective suit as if it were prey. The dog attacks the fabric much more than the man, and its aggression is channeled into a form of play.
The man pretends to attack, and the dog becomes his good friend. Experience shows that accidents never happen with well-trained dogs, who possess a rare but important quality: discernment. A well-trained dog, even one that bites hard, never bites without reason. It has enough jaw strength to sever a limb, but, just like a boxer’s sons outside the ring are usually peaceful, trained dogs—secure in their strength and balanced—are harmless when unprovoked.
CONDITIONING
The fact that only one in eight dog bites results in hospitalization is further proof that trained dogs do not belong among the accused.
People attacked by dogs often complain more about the consequences of their fall than about the bites themselves. Because when a dog ends up biting the mailman stepping into its territory or the child who has been teasing it for weeks, it is the result of conditioning that occurred without the owner's or victim's knowledge.
Fortunately, in these cases, the bites are rarely deep because the dog has taught itself, chained up, to be aggressive without learning to bite. Media reports on accidents caused by dogs mention wounds and bruises, but never completely shredded bodies. A dog may be capable of killing a chicken or a sheep or even another dog, but it cannot kill a human. When it does bite a person, it’s out of fear and with no conviction. Like all living beings, a dog, “protected” by its survival instinct, dreads the blows that could come from an opponent. For a dog, humans are the most impressive...
Look at a supposedly dangerous dog chained up: it barks wildly, bares its teeth, pulls on its chain with all its might, and you’re terrified at the thought that the chain could snap. Well, when it does break and the dog finds itself face-to-face with the human it was threatening, guess what? It’s confused and sheepish... "Hold me back or I’ll do something bad"—that's the language of dogs. Guard dogs, created in northern countries, also have their southern temperament...
Author: Jean-Yves Reguer
