g.willikers said:
Beautiful, and even more wolf looking than mine was.
Or was I his?
Thanks! Yeah, she gets a lot of attention when I take her out. Most of it positive, but there are still some people who will cross the street when they see us coming. Which I find hilarious; if they came up to her she'd lick their hands and flop on her back for belly rubs.
pax said:
For those who understand dog body language, I have been watching this video since it came out a couple of weeks ago. Have to say that I cannot figure out what the dog is thinking. The dog's body language, to me, looks friendly and like he wants to play... Right up until he grabs ahold of the kid and tears into his leg.
I'm not a profession dog trainer and it's hard to tell from the video, but I think it's a form of animal aggression. Dogs have been bred from the very beginning to be in tune with humans, that's the biggest thing that sets them apart from wolves (or any other animal; dogs are even smarter than chimps when it comes to understanding simple cues from people). That said, I don't think the dog in the video saw that kid as a human: Remember what I said about how some dogs don't see people on bicycles as people, but instead as weird, wheeled animals? I think this is the same thing: This dog probably isn't used to kids to begin with, and since the kid is riding a tricycle it's even worse.
pax said:
What do you think? Is it better to err by defending yourself early, and perhaps offending the neighbor in a completely unfixable way? Or better to risk a mauling by waiting to see what is going on?
It depends. By myself, I'm confident I can assert enough authority to make almost any aggressive dog back down without resorting to weapons. But I have a 6-month-old daughter who will be walking soon, and that's a different thing altogether; some dogs don't see kids as people, but instead as some kind of small animal. Also, in the unlikely event that I get attacked by a dog, it's even more unlikely that the dog will inflict any serious damage before I can stop the attack. But my kid is different: an unbalanced, aggressive dog could inflict a lot of damage very quickly.
Luckily, I have a very good solution to this: My dog pictured above. She might be sweet, but she doesn't take crap from aggressive dogs and she's protective of my daughter. She's been attacked by big, aggressive dogs before and she's come out on top. So my dog adds an extra layer of security when I'm out with my daughter. And in my house and my yard my daughter is even more protected: I have another dog who's not great with other dogs but excellent with my daughter. If an aggressive dog (or other animal) got into my yard and managed to go after my daughter, my two dogs would take care of it (or at least delay it until I could respond).