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Training and aggression[edit source | editbeta]
In a domestic situation, canine aggression is normally suppressed. Exceptions are if the dog is trained to attack, feels threatened, or is provoked. It is important to remember that dogs are predators by nature, instinct is something that never completely disappears, and that predatory behavior against other animals (such as chasing other animals) may train a dog or a pack of dogs to attack humans. It is possible to acclimate a dog to common human situations in order to avoid adverse reactions by a pet. Dog experts advocate removal of a dog's food, startling a dog, and performing sudden movements in a controlled setting to teach the dog who its leader is, to defuse aggressive impulses in common situations. This also allows better animal care since owners may now remove an article directly from a dog's mouth or transport a wounded pet to seek medical attention.
Small children are especially prone to being misunderstood by dogs, in part because their size and movements can be similar to prey. Also, young children may unintentionally provoke a dog (pulling on ears or tails is common, as is surprising a sleeping dog) because of their inexperience. To avoid potential conflicts, even reliably well-behaved children and dogs should never be allowed to interact in the absence of an adult who knows and understands the dog's personality and trained cues.
Dogs with strong chase instincts, (e.g. collies, shepherds), may fail to recognize a person as a being not to be herded. They may fixate on a specific aspect of the person, such as a fast-moving, brightly colored shoe, as a prey object. This is probably the cause for the majority of non-aggressive dogs chasing cyclists and runners. In these cases, if the individual stops, the dog often loses interest since the movement has stopped. This is not always the case, and aggressive or territorial dogs might take the opportunity to attack.
Additionally, most dogs that bark at strangers, particularly when not on "their" territory, will flee if the stranger challenges it, though this is not recommended behaviour as challenging the dog is just as likely to evoke a bite. Mailmen, being the classic example, provoke a strong territorial response because they come back day after day to the dog's territory. In the dog's mind they are constantly intruding on their territory and that sets up a learned behavior.
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Unsupervised children[edit source | editbeta]
This is arguably the most critical factor in fatal dog attacks on children, who because of their small size are usually not able to withstand an attack until help arrives. Many adults survived severe dog attacks simply by virtue of the fact that they were able to sustain and fend the dogs off to some degree until assistance arrived, although the elderly are particularly vulnerable.
Children often engage in behavior that will trigger a dog attack. For example, approaching a chained dog, trying to hug or kiss an unfamiliar animal, trying to pull its tail or engaging in other behavior that the dog may feel is threatening. Behavior such as this on the part of children may invoke either an aggressive territorial response from the dog or an aggressive defensive behavior from the dog.
The age group with the second-highest amount of fatalities due to a dog attack are 2-year-old children. Over 88% of these fatalities occurred when the 2-year-old child was left unsupervised with a dog(s) or the child wandered off to the location of the dog.
Breed-specific attacks[edit source | editbeta]
Dog attacks on humans that appear most often in the news are those that require the hospitalization of the victim or those in which the victim is killed. Dogs of all sizes have mauled and killed humans, although large dogs are capable of inflicting more damage quickly.
When dogs are near humans with whom they are familiar, they normally become less aggressive. However, it should not be assumed that because a dog has been with humans, it will not attack anybody - even a family member. Caution needs to be taken when approaching new dogs for the first time.[9]
Due to the pit bull-type breeds' perceived aggression, owning such an animal is not allowed in Australia and many European countries, and in several US and Canadian localities (see breed-specific legislation for details).
It is sometimes argued that certain breeds are inherently aggressive towards humans and shouldn't be allowed at all, or that, due to the popularity of certain potentially dangerous breeds, these dogs are often owned by irresponsible owners who provide insufficient training or, worse, aggressiveness training. An opposing argument is that no breed is inherently aggressive towards humans and that regulating one breed simply moves the irresponsible owners to start focusing on breeds that haven't yet been regulated, moving the problem to other breeds. This is one of the positions taken by the American Veterinary Medical Association.[10]
Although research and analysis[1] suggests that breed-specific legislation is not completely effective in preventing dog attacks, with each new attack, pressure mounts to enact such legislation, despite indications[2] that dangerous dog legislation would be more effective—that is, focusing on specific individual dogs having exhibited signs of aggression.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_attack
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