An Open Message to the British Media: Keep up the Devil Dog Hype, be Prepared to Live With THIS
At the start of this week a man died on a British street.
He wasn’t stabbed, shot or run over by a car.
In fact, at the time of this being written, we don’t actually know how he died.
What we do know is that he was walking his dog, his dog of 10 years that he’d had from a puppy, he collapsed and the dog pulled at him enough to cause serious injuries.
Maybe the dog killed him by pulling at his body. Maybe whatever it was that caused him to collapse killed him. We don’t know.
But let’s deal, today at least, in what we do know.
We do know that the incidents of dogs – whatever their breed – suddenly deciding to attack and kill their owners out of nowhere, is, to say the least, very rare.
We do know that Britain (and other countries) seems to thrive on a good ‘devil dog’ story. We do know which are the breeds that have ‘earned’ that tag.
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We do know the current wearer of that name is the Rottweiler. We do know the man who died at the start of a week was a Rottweiler owner. We do know that his dog did not just launch into a fatal attack on him ‘out of nowhere’. We do know that some reporting of his death has completely neglected to give the full picture.
We do know that people are influenced by what they read and hear.
We do know that people are prone to panic and make knee jerk decisions based on nothing more than hype and hot air.
We do know that people are abandoning Rottweilers in growing numbers.
We do know that when another, irresponsible, panicking, dog owner goes knee jerking all the way to the forest to dump their litter of Rottweilers and their mother who was found dead by RSPCA officers, that certain members of the media should accept their rampant, non fact based demonisation of a particular dog breed is in no small part responsible for this
Please, if you’re going to directly contribute to people making irresponsible, knee jerk decisions, don’t then weep about animal welfare issues when it suits you to do so.
We won’t overcome the problem of irresponsible owners and subsequently stop dog attacks by apportioning the blame in the wrong direction. Devil dog hype might sell papers, it doesn’t stop dog attacks and does nothing for animal welfare. It’s not part of the solution, in fact it’s part of the problem. Go here, stop dog attacks.
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Hi Ryan
I think that this and your previous post are actually linked and while I too would place a lot of blame with the ignorance of the media when they create a knee jerk reaction I also blame breeders and shelters; let me explain.
When I was more involved in dog training than I am now I must have had hundreds of people coming to me who wanted their dog to be trained as a ‘guard’(I would always prefer the term personal protection enabled). Of those I trained…one!
One of the questions I asked in the early stages of all training was, how are you going to behave if your dog behaves agressively; a lot of people could not even contemplate what their dog would be like when agressive. They were in fact frightened of their dog and didn’t really know it, even when they wanted it trained to be a guard, where controlled agression is necessary!
I turn to the case of Dianne Whipple in America. A lady killed by two Cana Presaria dogs in a sustained 30 minute attack in the hallway of her apartment. Was the dogs owner not around? No they were there, but they never intervened during the whole incident…they were too frightened for their own lives!
So, problem one; no dog is a cuddly friendly puppy forever. All dogs have canine instincts that can be manipulated to human good, and vice versa. All ‘breeds’ have history and many of them particular purpose which should never be ignored. Hence not all dogs are suitable for all people and the larger and more powerful breeds especially so.
Problem two; there are very few ‘naturals’ in dog training. Some people take to it better than others, but we are all learning all the time; and some people never take to it at all. Much of what can be done is achieved through learning applied in individual cases. Yet most people who get a dog will not have throroughly researched any of it.
Put these two problems together and you are left with a situation in which it is vital that breeders do not produce dogs for which there are not appropriate homes and that owners learn about dogs (before getting them) and apply that learning to what ‘type’ (for want of a better word) they get, how they socialise it, train it and live with it day to day!
What actually happens is that breeders overproduce, quite often even from bad stock (hence that argument within the Kennel Club and the Rottweiler breed about the ‘accredited breeder scheme’) and, knowingly or unknowingly convince themselves that they are always selling to the right person. They patently are not always ensuring their stock go to ‘good homes’ in the sense of knowlegable and capable (otherwise they would be sell to as many potential customers as as I trained dogs in personal protection). ‘Good Home’ often simply equates with “ooh we love it, ohh we want it!!!”)
New owners then apply absolutely nothing to the situation, many know nothing and do little about it. At the first sign of a problem our throwaway society moves it on (to ‘rescue’ so that their own conscience is clear!) usually getting another, more appropriate (as if they knew!) dog. Sometimes they are lucky, soemtimes they just repeat the process.
The next problem becomes the ‘rescue’ itself. The greatest emphasis in ‘rescue’? – NO HEALTHY DOG SHALL BE DESTROYED. So the pressure is immediately on not to do so; regardless of consequences (health is also taken to mean ‘physical health’ rather than a nore holistic physical and mental stability).
Now I would be the first to admit that most (by no means all) dogs can be rehabilitated. I did so myself with one particular dog and he worked faithfully with me for fourteen years, including in schools and many appearences at Crufts on the National Dog Warden Association stand. The trouble is that rehabilitation is a lifetime process (the past is always there) AND it requires knowledgeable owners and even for them it is often not ‘easy’.
Put quite simply there are not enough knowlegeable owners out there to deal with the size of the problem, if there were there would not be a problem in the first place!
I know that this may prompt all those people who have rescued and loved a dog for many years to howl objections. But it is the true situation. It also costs the lives of many dogs because while complex ‘rehabilitation’ is undertaken under a non-destruction policy somewhere else another dog will be being put to sleep for want of a place in rescue.
There is a surplus, breeders are doing nothing about it and it leads to destruction for some dogs unless…Well? In a consumer driven, throwaway society how do you encourage breeders to produce less dogs and ensure that everyone getting a dog realises what a priviledge it is?
I don’t think that just the media selling copy with ‘devil dogs’ is to blame here. Every single person needs to examine their conscience about the complex moral maze this issue actually is, nobody is guiltless in this one, but a great many blind themselves to their own guilt and blame others.
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How emotive the subject of Rottweilers in particular is. I married into a dog owning, dog loving, dog motivated family six years ago, their experience of GSD’S, Dobermanns and Rotties extended over many years, my in-laws and husband would readily attest to the fact that poor breeding practices can lead to considerable problems in all breeds. Between the family at one point all owned Dobermann’s from pups, four of the five were destroyed for aggression, the other could never be allowed off a lead. Each of the dogs had been socialised and trained, at quality training classes.
However for the last twelve years we have owned a male rottweiler, with never any problem, I personally would have trusted the dog with my life, visitor’s always fell in love with him, he was affable, friendly and loyal, and totally trustworthy. This is not to say that every dog is the same. From my small experience I would say that the Rottweiler can make the perfect family dog, his natural guarding instinct does not need to be honed, rather the reverse, it is vital that this large breed is socialised at a young age, and a firm but fair control of behaviour is necessary, this can be successfully achieved through vocal command.
Our dog died earlier this year, but I am totally won over by the rottweiler, and we are now looking to adopt through Zepthedep, rottweiler rescue. Having considered many re-homing kennels, the resposible attitude and professionalism of Zepthedep is second to none.
The press does pick up on Rottweiler attacks, though rare.. “The Devil dog” image sells newspapers. In actual fact there are more attacks by Golden Labradors recorded each year, The Queen’s Corgies are reknowned for biting, as are Princess Anne’s Staffies.These events sadly soon forgotten and not particularly news worthy it would seem.
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