Skip to content

Recent dog attacks a cause for concern

Nine-year-old Nathan Pollock needed 22 stitches to the close the wounds after a dog attacked him while he played outside his grandmother’s house in Red Deer.
NathanPollockdogbitevictimJerry112511_20111129114700
Nine-year-old Nathan Pollock needed 22 stitches to the close the wounds after a dog attacked him while he played outside his grandmother’s house in Red Deer.

Nine-year-old Nathan Pollock needed 22 stitches to the close the wounds after a dog attacked him while he played outside his grandmother’s house in Red Deer.

A dog-sitter from Sylvan Lake is recovering from severe wounds suffered while she was walking the two dogs in her care.

Fred, a 12-year-old German shepherd-husky cross, is being treated after one of those dogs grabbed and ripped off his tail while he slept in the next kennel.

Maybe one dog in half a million is born with mental issues, says Jim DeBoon, owner of Klassic Kennels and animal control officer whose contracts include the Town of Sylvan Lake.

In all other cases, dogs that attack people and other pets are themselves victims of their environment and the people who care for them, says DeBoon.

It’s not the breed of the dog, but its size, strength and attitude that determine when it will attack and the severity of the injuries it inflicts, he says.

Red Deer dog trainer Sabrina Thieme, who recently opened a new training, grooming and sales office in the city centre, says dogs are brilliant learners that take all their cues from the people with whom they live.

People tolerate bites from small dogs because they aren’t able to inflict a lot of damage, says Thieme. But if a pit bull or Rottweiler behaves the same way, it gets put down.

She and DeBoon both emphasize that dogs need structure and consistency from the people in their lives, including a clearly established chain of command.

It is never OK for any dog to attack, no matter how small or large, says Thieme. Generally, problems start small and escalate when there are no repercussions for inappropriate behaviour, much the same as with spoiled and pampered children, says Thieme.

“Your dog’s smart, it’s just not doing what you want it to do because it knows it doesn’t have to,” she says.

People set their dogs up to bite when they don’t understand how dogs think and behave and because they fail to appreciate that the animals are keen students of body language.

“A lot of times, we don’t realize what we’re telling dogs through our body language,” says Thieme.

She feels there are situations in which dogs that have bitten people can be rehabilitated.

DeBoon believes the attack on a dog sitter in Sylvan Lake stemmed from the female dog’s perception of the woman as a lesser member of the pack rather than as a leader.

As he first approached the two pit bulls to take them into custody, DeBoon observed that the female was the dominant of the two dogs, even though smaller and lighter than the male.

DeBoon believes the dog sitter challenged the female at some point during a walk in the field, with the result that the dog felt compelled to correct her — normal behaviour for the alpha animal in a pack.

A dog has no hands, so the only tool it has for issuing discipline is to bite the subject of its ire, he says.

Other dogs in the pack will join in when the alpha or leader attempts to discipline a member.

The one being disciplined is expected to submit by lying on its back and possibly wetting itself, at which point the attackers will back down, says DeBoon.

Similarly, attacking dogs will back down from people who respond aggressively, but will chase and attack those who try to run or who show signs of fear.

DeBoon has a video of a pair of police officers attempting to apprehend a large dog that has broken its chain and come after one of them.

The officer is clearly afraid until he draws his stun gun. Analyzing the video, DeBoon sees the dog look away as soon as the officer gets his hands on the weapon.

Police at the scene assumed that the stun gun took the dog down. DeBoon believes the dog had already hit the brakes because it sensed a change in the dynamics as the officer grabbed for his weapon.

The dog saw that the man was no longer afraid and had pulled out of the attack just before the electrodes hit, says DeBoon.

He is a staunch defender of breeds considered more likely to attack, pointing out that, during the 1950s, roughly half the pet dogs in the United States were pit bulls.

Citing celebrity dog trainer Cesar Millan, he points out that perceptions of which dogs were the most aggressive have changed, starting with German shepherds in the 1960s and moving then to Doberman pinschers, then Rottweilers and then pit bulls.

As those trends have changed, people who want to be seen as aggressive and dangerous have chosen dogs from those breeds as extensions of their own personalities, much like the type of vehicles they drive and the clothes they wear, says DeBoon.

Ultimately, dogs are put down because of human failings, say he and Thieme.

“Dogs pay the price for poor pet guardianship,” says Thieme.

bkossowan@www.reddeeradvocate.com