One of the latest news stories circulating online, is about an alleged attack by a pit bull, which went under a fence, grabbed and mauled a Dachshund.
That should be that. Awful if true. But it hasn’t ended there.
Ignorant claims are being made:
Pit bulls are motivated to kill every dog.
These types of attacks are “predatory”, and all such predatory dogs should be put down.
Pit bulls kill and eat their puppies and their victims.
All pit bulls are vicious.
What is the truth? Well, since I wasn’t there, I can only postulate according to Occam’s Razor: what is the most obvious conclusion?
Bulldogs are territorial, meaning they will attempt to drive away other dogs in their perceived territory, even if that territory extends into an adjacent yard (fenced or not). Years ago, I spoke with John Johnson about his line of American Bulldogs. He said people in the Old South used to have a bulldog for various guarding purposes, including dealing with stray dogs that would be a danger to their livestock and family. It was normal and expected that the bulldog would either chase them off or kill them. The creation of the pit bull terrier didn’t remove this territoriality. People are having the same issues, as seen in the news, with XL Bullies.
People say dumb stuff because they have no knowledge of dog behavior. They are novices, yet they have strong opinions on things they know nothing about, such as pit bull behavior, or dog behavior of any other breed.
Someone I know was out in the middle of the night trying to rescue a stray Labrador Retriever in a vacant lot near downtown Phoenix. She had gone out there more than once to try and locate and capture this dog. There was a pit bull behind a fence in that area. The night she got the Lab, the pit bull then broke out of the fence, attacked the Lab, and it took her over 30 minutes of fighting to try and stop the attack. At some point, the owner of the dog called his dog back, the attack stopped, and she got the dog to the vet. It was badly beaten up. Bulldogs are territorial.
And not all fencing is appropriate for all dogs. If a dog is highly motivated to guard its territory, it will work to get past that fence to get at an intruder on the other side. If you own such a dog, you need to fortify your fencing and regularly inspect it. If you live on the other side, and you have a dog, then you should take defensive steps on your side of the fence to protect your dog… and possibly yourself.
A good resource for studying territoriality is The Study of Instinct, by Tinbergen **. Of course, novices don’t get their information from experts like this. They will blabber on as if real science hasn’t looked into these topics. An interesting observation in the book. Within a territory, the resident will fight furiously to drive away an intruder. Once outside the territory, the same resident will usually avoid an enemy.
I see varying levels of territoriality from all dogs, from just going and greeting guests to outright violence. Today, I could introduce you to a past student’s dog. If you meet the dog 50 yards away from the residence, the dog will come up to you, check you out as a new person, and you’ll be safe. However, if you get within 10 feet of the front door, the dog will suddenly change, and then you are in danger. The only way you can get in the house is if the owner facilitates a successful greeting between you and the dog before you come inside.
Many mammals are highly territorial. Wolves for example. Many wolves die every year because of territorial defensive fights. Territories are defended because that is where they survive. Territory has existential purposes. Many dog breeds were created to do the same. Flock guards are out there to drive away predators, whether other dogs, or coyotes, wolves, bear, foxes or big cats. We seem to understand that. But when it happens in town, people’s brains turn off and somehow the dogs are supposed to understand human fences and property lines and not guard territory past our artificial boundaries.
Now, onto the some of the other claims…
Pit bulls are motivated to kill every dog? No. Have you ever been around these dogs? Been to a dog show with pit bulls, or other similarly related breeds? They aren’t trying to kill every dog that passes them.
These types of attacks are “predatory”, and all such predatory dogs should be put down? No. Look up “prey drive”. Dogs are not cannibals. What stimulates prey drive? The same elements that cause a dog to chase a tennis ball. Fights between dogs isn’t about the other dog being prey. This is an ignorant claim. Wrong diagnosis. While no one wants to see this kind of violence, this isn’t the same thing as predatory behavior. This is important, more important than the peanut gallery understands. If a dog defends its territory like this, while undesirable from the standpoint of the damage caused, the dog is not acting abnormally and should not be considered vicious. There isn’t something wrong in the dog’s head. The dog did what dogs do, guarded the property. The problem is with the containment of the dog. No amount of training can make a dog not be territorial. Sorry. And it isn’t just pit bulls that will do this kind of thing. Many Dachshunds will attack other dogs if they can get the chance, on the other side of their fences. It goes both ways.
Pit bulls kill and eat their puppies and their victims? Do you really want to go there? Since social media platforms, such as Facebook, censor these types of stories, you’ll have to do your own searches on reasons why animals eat their young, or consume the flesh of their victims. If you are really worried about this kind of thing, just be sure to never own a house cat and pass away in their presence.
All pit bulls are vicious? No. Vicious implies a defective, mentally unstable dog. Pit bulls are a type of dog, often a mixed breed dog. They have traits that allow them to excel at fighting other dogs, but that doesn’t make them crazy. Raise them right, supervise, contain, and train them and you shouldn’t have any more serious problems than if you owned any other big breed of dog. I have other recommendations, but that is for another article.
In the end, the reaction to this tragedy has been more about the pit bull haters out there rather than a dissection of the motivations of what might cause something like this and how to prevent it in the future. Secondarily, as I have mentioned countless times, self-appointed internet experts suddenly appear on all hot stories, like flies on crap. Today, they are dog behavior experts. Tomorrow, foreign policy experts. Next week, they are telling doctors what treatments are best to cure cancer, maybe using magic crystals and CBD oil. Everyone is an expert on dog behavior, except they aren’t. They will argue with actual experts as if they are themselves experts. Such is the side effect of social media.
Anyway, this is a tragic outcome. Hopefully the small dog recovers and the owner is compensated for the alleged event; the new owner of the pit bull has been made aware of what happened and takes precautions so that it doesn’t happen again; and I hope the pit bull has a good safe life, especially safe from people who have zero knowledge of dog behavior.
Have a pit bull? Educate yourself.
Regarding this case, we can only go off the limited information that was presented in the news and online. What really happened sometimes, maybe often is, different than what we hear about. Remember, reporters are just as ignorant of dog behavior as the general public. So, it is kind of like the telegraph game when trying to find out what really happened. Add in personal biases, and who knows if any of this is accurate. Thus, back to Occam’s Razor.
Plan accordingly.
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