Is Your Dog Dangerous To People?
When it comes to temperament problems, we must determine whether or not your dog is dangerous towards people. If yes, then how dangerous?
So, how do you decide whether or not your dog is dangerous to people?
Simple: Has your dog ever bitten a person hard enough to puncture their skin?
By objectively evaluating actual damage done, and setting aside the dog’s vocalizations, reactivity, presumed motivations, breed or type we can produce a much more useful and precise diagnosis.
Fortunately, in 99% of cases when dogs react towards people, there are no skin punctures, and, in 95% of cases, the dog’s teeth don’t even touch human skin. Yes, there may have been a lot of barking, growling, snapping and lunging but in the end there was no significant physical damage. This dog is not dangerous.
This course is intended for the owners of such dogs. If you have such a dog, you should start using the exercises outlined in the next few sections to begin rehabilitating your dog right away. Please, do not delay. This problem will only get worse and harder to solve the longer you wait to fix it.
For dogs that have punctured human skin, but the punctures were shallow and the victim did not have to go to the hospital, the dog is moderately dangerous. Seek help from a professional dog trainer right away. There is a lecture later in this section that explains how you can find a good one in your area.
These dogs would also benefit from the gentle, reward-based rehabilitation exercises in this course however, you must be very careful, keeping in mind that you or a bystander could receive minor punctures, BUT, the danger-level of our rehabilitation exercises is probably not any greater than what you have been doing and living with over the past few months or years.
For dogs that have caused deep puncture wounds, with extensive bruising and/or slashes in both directions, the dog is extremely dangerous and you must seek help from a professional dog trainer — right now!
In the meantime, keep your dog safely confined at home and do not bring them onto public property. Keep your family, visitors and the general public safe. If your dog bites another person, it will almost certainly seal your dog’s fate.
Unfortunately, the prognosis for your dog's rehabilitation is extremely bad because when your dog was a puppy, they failed to learn the most essential life-skill that every pet dog absolutely needs to learn — to inhibit the force of their jaws if they ever put their teeth on people when frightened, scared or hurt.
Bite inhibition must be learned during puppyhood. Whereas it is possible to control the dog’s behavior and decrease reactivity, it is extremely time-consuming, difficult and dangerous to teach bite inhibition to an adult dog that bites severely. The risk is simply too great.
Some people use the term “potentially dangerous” to describe dogs that bark, growl and snap, but we think that such a description is both silly and not particularly useful. All animals, people included, are potentially dangerous.
If a dog has never punctured human skin, there is no evidence that they are actually dangerous to people and so we strongly advise immediate rehabilitation. Dogs that act out aggressively are stressed and anxious, and they make the people around them stressed and anxious. Fix this problem now, before it gets worse!
On the other hand, when a dog has inflicted serious injury, it is dangerous. Take commonsense precautions to keep everyone safe and get professional help immediately.