Oh, that is an interesting article, and does reflect the widely accepted current 21st century views on dog aggression. LIke i said, evvvvvvvvvveryone accepts that idea, everyone. No one even questions if this is true.
Very widely accepted notions in the article, yes indeedy!!! but,
not one single study done is mentioned in the link. Not even one. Absolutely no science is in that, and yet, everyone DOES believe, the dogs,
somehow,
become PERMANENTLY damaged by some issue,
to the point they can only be managed or controlled
but
not completely cured of their lifelong aggression,
as a result of some even minor incident.
but, dispite the authority of the author,
there are too many millions of dogs proving him wrong.
millions of dogs are properly raised
and turn out aggressive.
Many millions of aggressive dogs, are raised,
side by side
with other dogs who turn out fine under "the mistakes made" by the human.
just the one turns out aggressive. The other dogs must be too dumb to notice the human's errors...
Or, the human who has sequentially raised dozens of 'normal' dogs, but, suddenly, somehow, messed up raising this current dog so much (although no trauma occurred) that the dog is then rendered aggressive for the rest of it's life.
or, the 1000s of dogs who 'should be' aggressive, having lifetimes of abuse or neglect or zero socialization, yet, are just fine, not aggressive AT ALL.
We can make the inherently shy dog
and the inherently aggressive dog
a lil bit better
or
a lil bit worse,
but,
we can't
create one,
nor can we completely cure an inherently shy or an inherently aggressive dog.
For all who are interested in dog aggression, there is a group for that, to avoid derails
of THIS tricks-centered group
.
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/k9aggression-support/ <---I find this forum difficult to navigate initially, took some getting used to. But, it's one focus IS dog-aggression, so we can discuss it without feeling badly for ruining a tricks-centered site.
There is currently much discussion there,
on this very topic, "
can a dog be born aggressive" (the way the inherently shy dog is)
with many who DO specialize and live with dog-aggressive dogs, all agreeing
that too many experts make this statement, that permanently aggressive dogs are 'created' by humans, or, in part by humans,
with absolutely no studies or science to back up their claims, and tons of evidence against that theory
....it is just never questioned,
it's so widely accepted as "fact" by even the most educated and brilliant dog behaviorists,
with absolutely no proof...
So the
current, widely accepted theory is, "dogs are damaged by humans" but, is quickly losing ground to Caesar Milan's theory, "the aggressive dog is manifesting the human's inner issues"........lol. Now THAT one, is becoming widely accepted. sigh.
still, there are too too many holes in that current theory, (as well as Milan's theory, too). Too many 1,00os of dogs who were raised well, socialized properly, yet, turn out dog-aggressive against all odds.
too many 1,000s of dogs, who SHOULD be dog-aggressive, had horrific upbringings, yet, turn out "just fine".
I do not think we can 'create' a permanently aggressive dog,
nor completely "cure" an truly inborn aggressive dog.
We
can make these dogs slightly better or worse,
but
we can not 'create' one,
(even Vick couldn't)
nor 'cure' one.
It's permanent.
Widely believed does not make it a 'fact', nor true. Especially when so so so much common sense indicates there IS
'something else' at play in the development of dog aggression.
I can post many more 1,000s of articles
, all with zero studies done at all, all making the claim that some human error---even by well meaning humans--- was to blame if a dog turns out to be dog-aggressive.
NO one even questions this notion, and almost everyone balks at it...
we all "know" it,
AS IF it is a proven fact if someone who should know about it "says so".
when in fact,
there are so many 1000s of dogs who prove that is just not true.
In humans who don't behave like their peers---------
for centuries, it was believed that
parental neglect or abuse caused all mental illnesses,
-----it was an accepted 'fact', and
all the top medicos wrote about it
convincingly, and with authority,
and everyone "
knew"
if the child grew up sociopath or schizo = that those parents DID mess up that child up!!!
it was a 'fact', that eveyrone "knew",-------
(and some still believe that about sociopathy or many forms of schizophrenia, even to this day!!...) UNTIL it was discovered that sociopathy and many forms of schizophrenia, do
show up on MRIs and P.E.T. scans....
....
they are organic brain malformations, and were, all along, even when all the top, highly educated experts said the kids were just "raised wrong" or something.
and even though these
are inborn organic brain disorders in humans, they typically do not manifest until the human reaches maturity.
I think it makes sense to consider the dog-aggressive brain does sound a lot the same.
I'd love to see a study that puts actual permanently 'damaged' lifelong dog-aggressive dogs into MRIs!!!
so, this way, THIS
DTA forum can maintain it's
focus on tricks training, etc, folks interested in learning more on managing dog
aggression can go here:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/k9aggression-support/message/15984
The research slams Milan’s theory that owner personality is cause of dog aggression. See, Sara, that is the thing about science, it is unbiased. They measure, count, quantify the data, and post results, not just post opinions. Scientists need data, that’s how they are, that’s what they do, so IF a Milan fan had set about to prove Milan’s theory, the data disproved it. but you are right, it was pure conjecture on my part to suspect the team leader was a Milan fan, but ended up with results they did not 'want'.
