Hunde angriber aldrig uden grund...

[Lonny]

http://www.dogmagazine.net/archives/3591/the-anatomy-of-a-dog-attack/

 

The Anatomy of a Dog Attack

Submitted by Ryan O'Meara on August 10, 2009 – 9:47 am6 Comments“Out of the blue, it attacked for no reason”

 

When a dog attack is reported we will often hear the same old phrases bandied about.

 

“It came out of the blue”

 

“It was totally unprovoked”

 

“We didn’t see it coming”

 

“It was totally out of character”

 

Ring any bells? Well let’s try and understand how and why a dog might attack someone.

 

Dogs rarely, if ever, attack for no reason. Us humans often misinterpret a dog attacking “out of the blue” and “without warning”‘ because we simply missed the signs.

 

Let’s be clear about one thing. A dog who is prepared to bite someone has his reasons. Can we, as humans, justify those reasons using the social values of people? Probably not. But of course, dogs do not live their lives according to human social values.

 

Here is the story of John, Henry and Max.

 

John has no wife or children. For the last five years he’s lived with his best friend in the world a playful Labrador called Max.

 

John is exited today. Henry, an old friend from school who he hasn’t seen for many years is visiting.

 

John decides today would be a good day to get his garden tidied, make a good impression on his old school chum.

 

As John gets busy in amongst the weeds in the front garden, he spies his old mate making his way up the street.

 

Henry’s been looking forward to catching up with John for weeks and, as he’s never been to his home before, finds himself feeling somewhat jubilant to realise he’s managed to find the street on which John lives without too much trouble and can now relish the prospect of seeing his friend again as well as finally getting to meet the only true love of John’s life, the much talked about Max.

 

It’s a hot and sunny day and Henry is wearing his sunglasses. Further up the street he spots John working in his front garden.

 

John’s already noticed Henry making his way towards him and yells out, “Hi Henry. Fancy a beer?”

 

Henry shouts back, “Sounds just the job. Can you believe this heat?”.

 

As per usual, Max has been ‘helping’ John with his gardening exploits by digging holes of his own all over the lawn. John doesn’t mind. He only wanted the garden so he could have somewhere safe to play fetch with Max on sunny days like today. He’s never been one for trying to keep it immaculate when Max’s favourite hobby is trying to tunnel his way to China.

 

Max has stopped his gardening though. He’s become preoccupied by the exchange between John and Henry and he’s taken a trip the front gate to see what’s going on.

 

“I wonder who this bloke is?” ponders Max.

 

“Why would he and John be shouting at other?” he thinks to himself.

 

“I’d better be on full alert.” he concludes. “John’s just shouted at this chap so he obviously wants me to keep an eye out.”

 

Max fixes himself in position at the front gate and hoists his tail high into the air, he’s keen to let the oncoming stranger know he’s about.

 

John doesn’t notice.

 

Henry’s still coming. So Max decides he needs to be more clear. He starts to emit a deep, low growl in Henry’s direction just to make certain the stranger who’s purposely striding towards him, his owner and HIS garden is left in no uncertain terms that he’s not moving

 

Henry’s still coming. And now he’s close enough for Max to notice his sunglasses. “This is getting more serious by the second”, thinks Max. “He’s not only not listening to me, he’s staring right at me. I know, I’ll stare right back at him. See if he’s as brave then.”

 

Problems. Henry is still as brave. To Max, Henry’s sunglasses look like wide, staring eyes, boring straight ahead and as he marches staunchly toward the increasingly anxious Labrador, Max wonders what his next move might be. As body language goes, Henry is showing all the signs of refusing to listen to Max’s advice.

 

Now tense and feeling genuinely threatened, Max is offered an escape. John jogs inside to fetch a couple of bottles of beer and Max is only too pleased to hurriedly follow his master. Max is somewhat relieved to suspect that John, his idol, is just as scared as he is about the relentless stranger pursuing them both from outside the garden gate.

 

“Shut the door John, shut the door” Max worries. “He’s still coming and you haven’t closed the door”.

 

Too late. Max’s heart leaps as he hears the gate swing open. Too late.

 

His worst fears are confirmed. The unrelenting Henry is now purposefully making his way up the garden path and toward the the house where Max and John are isolated, cornered and in Max’s case, petrified.

 

Gathering up every ounce of his canine courage and without a second’s thought for his own safety Max charges out of the house, tail hoisted aloft and barking his war cry as loud as his voice will muster. He heads straight for Henry wondering why this stalking maniac refused to listen to all of his earlier warnings.

 

“You might kill me but you’ll never take John”, Max decides.

 

Henry, his face very quickly drained of all its colour, is shocked and taken aback to be confronted by a clearly furious Max, the dog he’d heard so many nice stories about from doting John. This isn’t at all the dog he thought he’d be meeting.

 

Henry, alarmed and frightened makes his way toward Max, attempting to offer a hand of reassurance and friendship.

 

Max is having none of it.

 

“John warned you. Then I warned you. Why wouldn’t you just listen?”, reasoned Max.

 

Undeterred by Henry’s advance and determined not to let his owner come to any harm, Max lunges in Henry’s direction.

 

The realisation that Max is a long way past the stage of being able to be pacified dawns on Henry fast and he hastily tries to beat a retreat back out of the gate from which he entered.

 

John, hearing the commotion and now panic stricken by Max’s attack bellows “No! Max, no.”

 

Acutely tuned to his owner’s emotions and sensing the fear and alarm in John’s voice, Max forges ahead and launches into a full scale attack on Henry.

 

And then, as quick as it began, it was over.

 

An ambulance arrives to take Henry away and, hearing the commotion, John’s neighbours have summoned the Police.

 

John can be heard explaining, “He’s never done anything like this before“, the attack came “totally out of the blue“, Max was always “such a trustworthy dog“, he’s “never shown any signs of aggression in his life“, the attack was “totally unprovoked“.

 

But we know differently don’t we?

 

Let’s look again at how Max saw things unfold:

 

Max spots a man walking toward his and his owner’s garden - ‘his territory’

Not unduly worried, Max paid little attention to the stranger until John shouted in Henry’s direction. To Max, this was a clear signal to ‘watch for danger’

Obediently, Max sat at the front gate and watched for that danger.

He attempted to signal to Henry by putting his tail in the air and growling, that he was prepared to defend his owner and territory.

As Henry gets closer, Max again postures but now spots Henry’s aggressive body language, his wide eyes refusing to overt their gaze a clear signal of intent. Henry’s point blank refusal to alter his path, a sure fire gesture of defiance.

As John runs inside, Max’s thoughts turn to escape. He now believes John is as scared as he is and they should both seek shelter from the safety of the house.

Too late. As Henry enters the garden (Max and John’s territory) Max does what he thinks his owner needs him to do. He defends against the threat.

As Henry runs away and John panics, Max takes this as a sign that he should increase his attack, his canine instincts now in complete overdrive.

So let us again question whether John was correct when he explained to Police that Max’s attack was unprovoked.

 

Was it unprovoked? Not at all.

 

Was it unjustified in human, social terms? Absolutely.

 

Was it avoidable? Totally.

 

The Aftermath

 

Henry, his pain eased only slightly by drugs lies motionless in a hospital bed and starts to face the reality that a visit to see a dear, old friend has left him disfigured for the rest of his life. He ponders how best to explain to his young children that he’s still their Dad even though he knows his mutilated features will upset them deeply. He wonders how life will be from now on, how people will react to him.

 

Max, confused and still frightened by the terrifying ordeal earlier in the day is now wondering why he’s found himself confined to a small, secure cage at the vet surgery.

 

He stares through the bars and looks longingly towards the door, hoping against hope that he will soon be reunited with his trusted friend and master, John.

 

Unbeknown to Max, he’ll never see John again.

 

As the door swings open, Max’s tail momentarily begins to wag but he’s deflated. It’s not John. It’s a vet nurse.

 

He’s still pleased to see her. He’s lonely and upset and he just wants to go home and be with his friend.

 

He’s too pre-occupied to wonder why the vet nurse seems so wary of him. Wanting to put her at ease, he submissively offers up his paw. As the vet nurse holds it, she carefully shaves a small patch of fur away from his leg.

 

Max didn’t even notice the injection.

 

On this day it wasn’t only Max’s body that was destroyed as John’s memories of a kind, gentle, fun loving dog died too.

 

He asks himself once more, “Why did my dog attack someone for no reason?”

 

John may never know it, but Max had his reasons.

 

Dogs do not bite people without reason. They do not attack out of the blue. They do not launch into savage, frenzied assaults without provocation despite what you will undoubtedly read in news reports when the next dog attack hits the press.

 

There are NO devil dogs. There are NO unprovoked dog attacks. There IS a huge gap in understanding amongst some dog owners about why dogs attack and until we can bridge that gap in education people will continue to be attacked and more and more dogs will join Max, their memories destroyed along with their bodies.

[Gæst Frigga]

Ja, det er en rigtig god artikel, du har fundet dér.

 

Jeg har det også svært ved at man nogle gange er så hurtig til at aflive hunde, når de har bidt. Eller straks råbe op om, at en hund skal aflives.

[Lonny]

Ja, det er en rigtig god artikel, du har fundet dér.

 

Jeg har det også svært ved at man nogle gange er så hurtig til at aflive hunde, når de har bidt. Eller straks råbe op om, at en hund skal aflives.

 

 

Jeg syntes også at artiklen er rigtig god, og får en til at se sagen fra hundens side. Og efter den beskrivelse der gives, så giver det jo god mening at hunden mente at det var dens pligt at forsvare ejeren, desværre gik det jo så bare ikke op for ejeren

 

Medmindre end hund er syg hovedet, så tror jeg heller ikke på de umotiverede bid, men derimod på at vi som mennesker ikke altid kender vores hunde så godt, eller tænker over hvordan givne situationer påvirker dem. Og vi er nok heller ikke altid så opmærksomme på deres signaler og kommunikation som vi burde være. Mennesket er jo meget audiotivt, og har derfor en tildens til at overse de visuelle signaler, som er dem hunden benytter, samt at det kræver øvelse at lære et fremmed sprog, som hundens jo er.

[Petrine]

Mennesket er jo meget audiotivt, og har derfor en tildens til at overse de visuelle signaler, som er dem hunden benytter, samt at det kræver øvelse at lære et fremmed sprog, som hundens jo er.

 

Kan tydeligt se det med Petrine, for mig staver Petrine alle sine signaler i store blokbogstaver, hun er afsindigt tydelig, men for manden er hun stadig et mysterie, han overser ofte klare signaler og overskrider grænser (bliver bedre ... men går lidt langsomt), hvilket gør at Petrine mindst dagligt knurrer og viser hele tandsættet, for DET forstår han da. Mens hun aldrig har så meget som knurret ad mig.

 

Sætter hun en dag tænderne i manden, så ved jeg godt, hvem der skal have skæld ud

[Lonny]

Kan tydeligt se det med Petrine, for mig staver Petrine alle sine signaler i store blokbogstaver, hun er afsindigt tydelig, men for manden er hun stadig et mysterie, han overser ofte klare signaler og overskrider grænser (bliver bedre ... men går lidt langsomt), hvilket gør at Petrine mindst dagligt knurrer og viser hele tandsættet, for DET forstår han da. Mens hun aldrig har så meget som knurret ad mig.

 

Sætter hun en dag tænderne i manden, så ved jeg godt, hvem der skal have skæld ud

 

Dejligt at møde en person der godt ved hvem den rigtige synder er :5up:

 

Men jeg tror altså også at det kræver øvelse, og at man gider, at sætte sig ind i hundens kropssprog. F.eks. Bo, han elskede Baldur og det var bestemt ikke fordi han ikke interesserede sig for ham, men alligevel var han ikke i stand til at se hvor bange Baldur var i rigtig mange dagligdagssituationer, og han mente bestemt at jeg overdrev og var for pylret, fordi at han jo ikke kunne se de signaler jeg kunne se.

[Gæst Venus222]

Kan tydeligt se det med Petrine, for mig staver Petrine alle sine signaler i store blokbogstaver, hun er afsindigt tydelig, men for manden er hun stadig et mysterie, han overser ofte klare signaler og overskrider grænser (bliver bedre ... men går lidt langsomt), hvilket gør at Petrine mindst dagligt knurrer og viser hele tandsættet, for DET forstår han da. Mens hun aldrig har så meget som knurret ad mig.

 

Sætter hun en dag tænderne i manden, så ved jeg godt, hvem der skal have skæld ud

 

Sådan er Sigurt også, han skære også alting ud i pap. Men min kæreste har så lært Sigurs sprog at kende:-) (Det har bare taget 3 år). I det hele taget har det været utrolig lærerigt at have en hund som Sigurt.

 

Nå men, jeg er også enig i at hunde ikke bider uden årsag.

[Petrine]

Sådan er Sigurt også, han skære også alting ud i pap. Men min kæreste har så lært Sigurs sprog at kende:-) (Det har bare taget 3 år)

 

3 år han er vel ikke fra Norge? Håber godt nok det går hurtigere med min mand, selvom ... suk

[Gæst Venus222]

3 år han er vel ikke fra Norge? Håber godt nok det går hurtigere med min mand, selvom ... suk

 

Nej, det er han ikke. Han er bare opdraget med at hunde bare skal rette ind og knurre de eller andet får de stryg. :damn: Det kan også være at jeg overdrev lidt med de tre år....

 

Hov, forresten. Min kæreste har altså aldrig slået vores hunde eller noget. Bare så i ikke tror det.

[Splinten, mor og mig]

Brilliant artikel :5up:

[Gæst Tessa&Molly]

Jeg er lidt følsom for tiden, så jeg hyler altså.. Jeg kan slet ikke klare at læse sådan noget..

[Lonny]

Jeg er lidt følsom for tiden, så jeg hyler altså.. Jeg kan slet ikke klare at læse sådan noget..

 

:ae:

[Gæst n1nna]

Rigtig god artikel (sørgelig ), og jeg er helt enig i, at mange helt sikkert overser vigtige ting set fra hundens side, og at det desværre altid går ud over hunden i sidste ende..

 

Men, når det så er sagt, er jeg så den eneste der alligevel tænker: "Er det normal/ønskelig adfærd for en 'Playful Labrador', at møde en fremmed med stiv hale og fuld 'alert', fordi ejeren har råbt noget?" :hmm:

 

Ved ikke om jeg overtolker noget, eller om jeg bare har en lalleglad Golden selv? Eller om der måske bare er mangler i 'Max' socialicering?

[Gæst milder batmusen]

man kan da heller ikke have at vores hunde i samfundet skal bide til højre og venstre fordi de lige får overskredet deres grænser lidt :hmm::hmm:

 

selvfølgelig skal man ikke altid aflive hunden hvis den bider men det kommer da an på situationen og hvor galt det er.

 

nu lever vores hunde jo i en menneske verden som ikke taler hundesprog og mon dog ikke det er ofte det er vores egen skyld vi bliver bidt meeen igen hunde burde ikke bide over småting som jeg ser at nutidens hunde gør idag så er deres grænser og tålmodighed ikke til en menneskeverden i mine øjne.

 

måske skulle man tænke lidt mere når opdrættere de avler da karakter og nerfasthed ligger i generne og derefter i træningen og hunden som har en kort lunte mener jeg bestemt ikke er sikre hunde

[PinPoynter]

"hunden angriber aldrig uden grund"..... der er vel ingen dyr eller mennesker der angriber uden grund? Det kan være vrede, angst, mentale problemer, provokation, alkohol etc etc... men en grund kan man vel altid finde.

[Gæst Ninjamor]

http://www.dogmagazine.net/archives/3591/the-anatomy-of-a-dog-attack/

 

Der findes ingen uprovokerede angreb, der er bare forskel på hvad den enkelte hund lader sig provokere af.

 

For eksempel den hund som bliver provokeret at at der går en hanhund på "dens" gade og derfor angriber.

 

Der er intet nyt i det, men man skal måske til at vurderem hvad der er rimeligt og hensigtsmæssigt at en hund lader sig provokere af ift. den samfundsstruktur den skal leve i.

 

Jeg vil som hundeejer være fuldstændig græskkatolsk overfor at min hund bliver overfaldet fordi en hund finder det provokerende, at han er til stede på Genofte Hovedgade.

[Lonny]

Der findes ingen uprovokerede angreb, der er bare forskel på hvad den enkelte hund lader sig provokere af.

 

For eksempel den hund som bliver provokeret at at der går en hanhund på "dens" gade og derfor angriber.

 

Der er intet nyt i det, men man skal måske til at vurderem hvad der er rimeligt og hensigtsmæssigt at en hund lader sig provokere af ift. den samfundsstruktur den skal leve i.

 

Jeg vil som hundeejer være fuldstændig græskkatolsk overfor at min hund bliver overfaldet fordi en hund finder det provokerende, at han er til stede på Genofte Hovedgade.

 

Nej, men så længe man siger "den gjorde det helt uden grund", så kan man ikke lære af situationen. Så derfor er det vigtig for mig at sige, at hunde bider ikke uden grund, og grunden så er en vi kan accepterer eller ej, det er en hel anden grund.

 

Men for at vi kan lære af situationen, så er vi nødt til at erkende at der er en grund til hændelsen

[PinPoynter]

På den anden side skal man passe på med ikke at undskylde sin hunds adfærd pga en grund, og derved ikke g¢re noget ved det..

Redigeret Januar 15, 2010 af PinPoynter

[Gæst Ninjamor]

Men for at vi kan lære af situationen, så er vi nødt til at erkende at der er en grund til hændelsen

 

Hvilket er første udgangspunkt i adfærdsbehandling. Der er ALTID en årsag til en hunds handlinger - acceptable eller ej.

 

Ind i hundens hoved og kik dér!

[Gæst Ninjamor]

På den anden side skal man passe på med ikke at undkylde sin hunds adfærd pga en grund, og derved ikke g¢re noget ved det..

 

Ja, der er acceptable og ikke acceptable årsager til hundens adfærd.

[Lonny]

På den anden side skal man passe på med ikke at undskylde sin hunds adfærd pga en grund, og derved ikke g¢re noget ved det..

 

Man skal jo ikke undskylde, men derimod finde en forklaring, og når forklaringen er fundet, så kan man gøre op med sig selv om denne forklaring giver rum til at der kan arbejdes med problemet eller ej. Men man skal selvfølgelig ikke finde en grund, for derefter at stille sig tilfreds med at man har fundet årsagen, man er nødt til at arbejde med årsagen (hvis det kan lade sig gøre).