04/12/2022
On point 👌🏽
Should you be afraid of this dog?
One of my missions as a dog trainer is to educate owners (& more specifically - parents of small children), on dog behaviour, cognition & the subtleties of dog body language.
Unfortunately, when I make posts on these topics, comments inevitably want to focus on the breeds that are presented in the images & if that post includes a bully-breed (Pitbull, Staffy etc) the comments can be extremely emotive & polarized.
There are so many myths and conflicting messages out there when it comes to bully-breeds, so let’s separate fact from fiction.
I currently have a post showing a black Staffordshire Bull Terrier resource guarding a new born baby. Despite the caption stating resource guarding behaviour is NOT a breed specific behavior, the post gets numerous comments DAILY that state:
• Pitbulls should be banned
• Pitbulls are all aggressive (insert link to news article about pit bull attack or bite stats)
or:
• Pitbulls were bred to be nanny dogs
• ‘I’ve owned pit bulls all my life, they would never hurt anyone’
The list goes on.
So what’s the truth?
Let’s cover some of the most common perceptions:
* Pitbulls rate highest in bite statistics
Yes & no.
Firstly, ‘Pitbull’ is both an umbrella term & a breed term. The American Pitbull Terrier (APBT) is the only ‘true’ pit bull. In the U.S.A the pitbull umbrella term was created in the 1980’s by lawyers & politicians to cover Staffordshire Bull Terriers (aka English Staffies), American Staffies before other bully breeds & mixes were added over the following decades. While similar in the UK, the Staffordshire Bull Terrier is considered distinct from ‘pitbull type, and other countries also differ. But although numerous bully breeds have been used in fighting rings, the APBT is the only breed specifically line-bred for dog fighting to the greatest extent, and do have a higher ‘potential’ for ‘animal/dog’ aggression.
Bite stats are incredibly unreliable for numerous reasons. Many mixed breed dogs with no pitbull or staffy in them ‘look’ like staffies & subsequently get labeled as such.
Bully breeds are powerful, athletic dogs. If they ‘are’ aggressive and bite, they will more likely cause damage, subsequently more likely to have the bite reported.
Media sensationalism:
“Pitbull Attack” makes a great headline, so bites & attacks regarding any dog that looks remotely like a bully breed is far more likely to be published, subsequently, bites from other breeds rarely make the news.
For example, insurance company research showed Labrador bites rate HIGHEST when it comes to dog bite insurance claims, yet you don’t see many news articles or reports when a lab bites someone as it’s dismissed as an isolated event.
* Breed is a large predictor in behavior & bully breeds are more aggressive
Yes & no again
The only behavior traits that are truely breed specific are ‘instinctual motor pattens’.
This is why border collies herd and retrievers retrieve.
Instinctual motor pattens are behaviors that have been selectively increased or decreased from the ‘predatory sequence’.
To be a successful predator, the ancestor of the dog, the wolf, uses the full predatory sequence which includes:
orient > stalk > chase > bite/hold > bite/kill > consume
As dogs evolved & were selectively bred, certain factors of the predatory sequence were bred out or strengthened. e.g. a border collie has been bred for strong: stalk > chase but reduced bite/hold, bite/kill.
American Pitbull Terriers ARE more prone to animal/dog aggression because the bite/hold, bite/kill components of the predatory sequence were selectively bred to be stronger in them.
BUT, that doesn’t mean they are more ‘human’ aggressive. In fact, in purest dog fighting rings any dog that exhibited any form of human aggression was quickly culled as they posed a risk to the handler.
Furthermore, according to UK Trainer & Staffy owner Danny Wells, who consults with government on distinguishing ‘true’ APBT’s from other bully breeds states: “Not all are the same and while great dogs, some more ‘game bred’ dogs need to be managed more around young children as they move & ‘squeak’ like small animals which can trigger prey drive in dogs”.
This combined with a genetic disposition to animal aggression can be dangerous.
On the flip side, Staffies & APBT’s are renowned to be very human social, a trait I can attest to after working with dozens, if not hundreds of them. All things being equal they are friendly, affectionate & biddable companions. But they are still dogs & dog behaviour, not breed behaviour is my main focus as a trainer & behaviour consultant.
* PitBulls/Staffies were bred to be Nanny Dogs
This is a hard NO. It is a myth & there is no evidence to suggest otherwise.
While Staffies are often very human social dogs, they were never bred to be, or used as nanny dogs/baby sitters.
The term ‘nanny dog’ wasn’t seen in any literature until the 1970’s when a newspaper article coined the term when discussing how Staffies were great kid/family dogs (in present tense).
There are also numerous photos from the late 18th/early 19th century with Pitbulls posing with children. This is because before the breed discrimination started Pitbulls were a popular breed, but they were NEVER nanny dogs.
In the early 1900’s some rural American families would leave dogs with children, but this wasn’t breed specific.
Because the term nanny dog is so endearing, people have run with it.
* Breed Specific Legislation
Many counties & states have brought in BSL as an attempt to reduce the rate of dog attacks, but research is showing again & again that BSL doesn’t reduce bite statistics.
This is one of the biggest indicators that the problem of rising bite rates (especially in young children) is complex & not a matter of pointing fingers at specific breeds.
The reality is bully breeds are physically powerful dogs. Many DO have a genetic history in dog fighting but the media hysteria surrounding them is unwarranted & as a result they are demonised & any post showing one with behavioural issues is used to confirm this bias.
With regard to bite stats (in children specifically) it’s not a ‘dangerous’ breed issue, it’s a ‘human’ lack of education issue.
Most people are unable to read subtle body language cues dogs exhibit when uncomfortable & ‘out of the blue’ bites are not out of the blue at all. Dogs communicate clearly & ARE quite predictable ‘when you know what you’re looking for’.
‘Dog culture’ is NOT based around an understanding of dog behaviour & what dogs need to live fulfilled lives. Instead, human emotion is projected onto dogs & everything they do is anthropomorphised to make US feel validated.
Examples are:
A dog that licks a child in appeasement when they’re uncomfortable is labelled as giving kisses.
A dog rolling onto their back when approached by a new person is ‘asking for a belly rub’, when they’re in fact saying they’re ‘not a threat, please don’t pressure me’
A dog that’s still when a child leans on them is ‘accepting/enjoying’ the interaction, because ‘if they weren’t they’d move away’, when what’s actually happening is ‘freeze’ (fight/flight/freeze/appease).
We say: ‘if came out of the blue’. But it doesn’t.
In my personal experience as a professional dog trainer specialising in behaviour issues, Staffies/Bully Breeds are some of my favourite dogs. But they are powerful breeds & we need to respect their strength & genetics.
We need to stop labelling breeds as the ‘danger’. Your child is just as likely to get bitten by a Labrador, border collie or husky. The problem isn’t breed, it’s the lack of education in DOG BEHAVIOUR. That’s the issue.
