Sometimes love just ain’t enough

There are numerous influencing factors. The total lack of puppy socialisation, from eight to 20 weeks of age, during which time every puppy should have been exposed to children, of all age groups, in a positive, tolerant and vigilant manner, will render the adult dog intolerant from the lack of social skills.

If the owners are not trained, the dog is not trained. People have to be taught to treat their puppies as dogs and not children. When real children arrive the parents change their attitude and everyone suffers. It is a topic all on its own how dogs that are loved too much become more readily aggressive.

After an incident of a pet dog mauling a child in the family no one can relax and trust the dog’s presence. Many people live in denial but are on tenterhooks subconsciously anticipating the next attack and suffer chronic stress day and night. The owners’ anxiety is then further transferred to the resident dogs. Is it worth living in fear of your own pet dog? Is the welfare of the child not more important?

Some people live with extreme guilt and try to persevere rather than admit failure. This constant tension destabilises the pack system and other dogs in the home become affected. When there is more than one pet dog in the household and one attacks a child the others may join in the onslaught as part of the pack instincts. It is very rare for a child to survive this type of attack.

Some people are under the false impression that if they are animal lovers the dogs will respect this affectionate attitude and behave appropriately, especially when they are offered a beautiful house and good food. No dog understands these values. No dog understands human affection as affection. It is regarded as weakness if overdone.

Attention as a reward is very rewarding. A dog responds well to exercise, training, stimulation and a stable pack system. It must be taught at the outset and realise that all this is happening because of the presence of the child in the family. The dog must associate every meal or titbit as being the positive reinforcement from the child in the family. The child must be of social value to the dog. Even a newly-born baby can be held in a parent’s arms to simulate the feeding of the dog by the mother or father offering the food as if the baby is doing it. A dog does not live to be kissed all day because dogs do not do it to dogs.

If parents of children can create a scenario where everything good in life happens only in the presence and with the blessing of the child the dog will respect and protect the child in the family and have no reason to turn nasty. It is high time that pet owners educate themselves from experts in animal behaviour, based on good reputation and referral from veterinarians. Many charlatan dog-related quasi-trainers, whisperers, communicators and those that massage their dogs to solve anxiety are giving out submissive messages which dogs perceive as subservient behaviour. Many dogs, under these circumstances and in these hands, live lives of anxiety because of anthropomorphism, the total lack of assertiveness and absence of pack-leadership. One has to only compare these dogs to properly trained pets and one can deduce that these people pose as doggy persons purely for ego, attention in cliques and for financial benefits.

Some of these dogs are lost souls and are inclined to suffer behaviour problems of which aggression is one. Dogs do not respect helicopter “parents”. The same situation arises in families where dogs are loved too much – until a child arrives. The dog is betrayed and feels the change is due to the child’s intrusion. It is then only a matter of time before it has to apply the necessary instinctive disciplinary action.

Any dog turning on a person is classified in animal behaviour circles as a life-threatening condition. After death or serious injury the culprit dog is either shot or euthanised.

Canine mismanagement can have fatal results. People are the fundamental cause of these problems and it will plague the parents for the rest of their lives if their child has been killed or they have to look into the face of the surviving scarred child and know that the disfigurement was due to their own negligence and disrespect towards man’s best friend and the human-animal bond. Maybe some dogs are too intelligent to fulfil the role of man’s best friend.