Dogs Are Aggressive Due to Experience

Dogs Are Aggressive Due to Experience, Not Breed

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
  

Many breeds of dog have a reputation for being aggressive, but new research suggests that it’s not the type of dog, but their upbringing that is the cause of aggressive behavior.
Pit bull terriers, rottweilers and bullmastiffs are just some of the breeds which are renowned for being dangerous, however, the truth is much more complicated than it may initially seem. Many breeds are kept for their ‘natural traits’ and are trained by irresponsible owners to make them more aggressive.
Intruder Alert
A study published in Applied Animal Behaviour Science surveyed over 4,000 dog owners in the UK and looked into when and why dogs exhibit aggressive behavior, breaking it down into three different groups: unfamiliar people outside the house, unfamiliar people entering the house and members of the household.
The initial results of the study were as expected, showing that the most common acts of aggression were directed towards unfamiliar people entering the house (7 percent), with less than half that number (3 percent) showing aggression towards family members. More than 50 percent of those who had trouble with aggression were still trying to deal with an ongoing aggression problem, which was difficult to overcome.
One of the reasons for the low level of attacks on people outside of the home could be that owners with aggressive dogs often try to avoid taking their dogs into busy places where problems are likely to occur.
No Specific Breeds Were Shown to Be More Aggressive
The results already discussed are unlikely to surprise you, especially if you’re a dog owner, but the results become interesting. According to Faunalytics:

One important detail highlighted by the researchers is that there were no specific breeds or breed types found to have an increased risk of human-directed aggression. Though the authors note that other studies have found certain breeds, such as Dachshunds, to have an increased risk of aggression towards strangers, this was not the case here. This research did find that some dog breeds may have a higher risk of causing injury from aggression, but it did not mean that they were any more likely to show aggression in the first place.

This dispels the myth that certain breeds of dog are more likely to attack people, and replaces it with the notion that certain breeds are more likely to cause injury than others if they do show aggression. There’s no doubting that a large pitbull terrier carries a larger potential threat of injury than a small Yorkshire terrier, but this study indicates that the chance of an attack is no more likely.
Early Experiences Can Shape Lifelong Behavior
Having discovered that it’s not the breed of dog that increases the chance of an attack, but the individual dog itself, it reinforces the importance of responsible and loving care of these beautiful creatures that we share our homes with.
Dogs learn to exhibit certain types of behavior in different situations, and it is not always down to the natural characteristics of the breed, but the way in which they are taught (or allowed) to behave.