Questions about aggression
hi guys,
i'm considering getting an akita inu perhaps at some point this year, so i've been doing a lot of research on the breed and such. however, i keep coming across articles like this one: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1198861/Boy-9-left-needing-plastic-surgery-mauled-Japanese-Akita-dog.html
while i am aware that any dog can be aggressive, and a lot of the articles are very one-sided without any opinions from akita owners, i still have cause for concern. the only akitas i have met in real life have been absolute model citizens, friendly and charming and very obedient to their owner's commands, whereas in comparison, almost all of the bull-mastiffs and staffordshire terriers i've met have been aggressive and ready to attack.
i've never had an aggressive dog in my family, i don't consider my shiba inu to be aggressive although she gives warning growls when someone enters the property whom she is wary of. i have a couple of questions and i would really appreciate your opinions ^^
most biggest and controversial question of all: are akitas dangerous dogs?
have you dealt with aggression in your own dogs and how, if able to, did you overcome it or find a way of controlling it?
i consider myself to be a responsible dog owner and i aim to socialise and train any puppy i obtain in a calm and methodical manner...i had been considering adopting an older dog, but this has put a lot of doubts in my mind.
thoughts anyone?
i'm considering getting an akita inu perhaps at some point this year, so i've been doing a lot of research on the breed and such. however, i keep coming across articles like this one: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1198861/Boy-9-left-needing-plastic-surgery-mauled-Japanese-Akita-dog.html
while i am aware that any dog can be aggressive, and a lot of the articles are very one-sided without any opinions from akita owners, i still have cause for concern. the only akitas i have met in real life have been absolute model citizens, friendly and charming and very obedient to their owner's commands, whereas in comparison, almost all of the bull-mastiffs and staffordshire terriers i've met have been aggressive and ready to attack.
i've never had an aggressive dog in my family, i don't consider my shiba inu to be aggressive although she gives warning growls when someone enters the property whom she is wary of. i have a couple of questions and i would really appreciate your opinions ^^
most biggest and controversial question of all: are akitas dangerous dogs?
have you dealt with aggression in your own dogs and how, if able to, did you overcome it or find a way of controlling it?
i consider myself to be a responsible dog owner and i aim to socialise and train any puppy i obtain in a calm and methodical manner...i had been considering adopting an older dog, but this has put a lot of doubts in my mind.
thoughts anyone?
Comments
If you read the article carefully, you find out, that the dog has been leashed in the garden and the boy approaching it. Now it is not said if the boy asked if he was allowed to approach the dog.
If a dog is leashed in the garden while kids are around there are two possibilities that come into my mind
1 the dog IS aggressive (towards strangers or towards kids) and the parents wanted to keep it away from the guest (maybe the dog is afraid of stranger children and tried to protect itself when the boy approached) or
2 they keep there dog tied in the garden all the time (and the dog felt the kid was intruding its area and tried to protect its space).
Any dog can become aggressive if treated wrong, that is not really about the breed.
Akitas are like Shibas a little more sensitive towards bad treatment (like Cesar Millans methods of alpharolling your dog), so they dont forgive bad treatment as easy as maybe a GSD does. So if you hit them or close them out of your house and family they will be more likely to be aggressive, yes. But if you treat them well they are loyal, friendly companions, just like Shiba.
IMHO you really dont have to worry about aggressions if your Shiba is aggression free and if you get an Akita from a good breeder or one from a shelter that has proved to not already have aggression issues.
Aggression IS fear.
Dogs bite when they are scared. Whether it is because they are cornered, injured, or because of past trauma, all aggression stems from fear (with the obvious exception of medical issues like thyroid problems and brain tumours).
The next thing to consider is breed hype. People love to sensationalize dog breeds. As a pit bull owner I know this one all too well. I have been told my dogs are more deadly than AK47s, that they are killing machines, and ticking time bombs. When there is a dog bite incident, newspapers are not particularly interested in the WHY a dog bites. It is far more interesting to paint the victim as pure as the driven snow being accosted by a snarling beast driven by the taste of blood. You will never read that the dog was likely tethered it's entire life, that the neighborhood children threw things at it, or that the owner beat it anytime it barked at anything so the poor thing was now terrified at passersby because it gotten beaten for saying hello. All of this is particularly true for certain dog breeds, pit bulls, Akitas, GSDs, Rotties (numerous others). Basically there is a list of breeds the press likes to blame. Any other dog is typically either labeled as one of these or listed as mixed.
Third is it really it comes down to management. When you own a large dog of ANY BREED you are accepting into your a family a being that is @100lbs of solid muscle and teeth. A wise owner is going to do everything they can to raise healthy, confident well balanced secure dog. This means LOTS of socialization, LOTS of positive reinforcement, and LOTS of exercise. It also means being vigilant in that if people are doing stupid things around your dog, you stop the people. This allows your dog to know that you are protecting him, and that he is safe (the peoples safety is a bonus).
And lastly if any behavioral issues do pop up (because sometimes we can be to close to the trees to see the forest), you address it IMMEDIATELY and bring a behavioral professional in (not a trainer or breeder, a behaviorist). SO many times dogs have shown warning signs for year and people wait until the dog hits a breaking point and finally bites. Dogs don't bite without warning. They don't. People may be too blind to not see the signs but there are ALWAYS signs.
Just a bit of a warning on that statement.....I think lots of people on here can prove that wrong. I for one have known lots of bull mastiffs and staffordshire terriors that are not aggressive and will not attack. I regret that you have had bad experiences, but I go with their are no real bad dogs just bad owners. I wonder how they were treated to make them that way or why their owners did not see warning signs and try not to avoid incidents.
I have a female right now that would definitely bite in this same situation. She is a Kai, and they are not known to be human/dog aggressive but she is a rescue who was chained outside from 3 months until she was 1 and a half. I do my best everyday to put her in situations where she feels comfortable. We are working on building her confidence, and I never put her in a situation where she could be fearful or stressed out. So far so good, but on my part it takes a lot of work. We work together......
Don't believe breed hype. Get a puppy and socialize socialize socialize. Jessica really hit it on the nail with positive reinforcement training and lots and lots of exercise.
My past teacher in highschool owns rotties they were great dogs one was well behaved the other was still learning so she pulled, but it was fun baby sitting the two dogs..
Sorry you had bad experiences with those breeds I've had bad experiences with chow chows, and pit bulls that attacked my past dogs on our walks, but it was do to the dogs socialization issues the chow chow never got walks and was confined to it's backyard the pit bull I dunno what was it's issue it ran across a busy street circled my mom and her three dogs luckily Junior my dad's pit/boxer mix got out of his leash and chased the mean dog away.
I never held any grudges against those breeds I love meeting chow chows they're so cute and fluffy and pits too I make sure I ask if they're friendly of coarse and approach the dog the right way I do it with every dog even with chihuahuas I met some mean chis before so any breed of dog can be aggressive same goes for any dog breed can be great and friendly.
It comes down to socialization all dog breeds must get plenty of socialization and exposure to new sights and sounds. I've met some pretty aggressive labs and people usually think of labs as friendly, but the ones I met the owners never really cared for them they just let them roam the neighborhood..
Akita are a great dog to have just make sure you do plenty of socialization and take them to puppy class and obedience.
http://delcotimes.com/articles/2010/05/08/news/doc4be4cfc0d4a6a671143125.txt
I had an aggressive Akita. She was badly socialized as a pup and terrified of all people she didn't know. Men in particular. And yeah, she'd bite. She warned people first with lots of barking and growling, but then she'd bite. I was too young and dumb then to understand what I'd gotten into, so I just kept her away from people and of course she became even worse. I will say this: she would have killed someone to protect me, no doubt about it, though unfortunately her idea of what was a threat and mine were different.
She was typical of a badly bred, badly socialized dog but that had nothing to do with her breed.
I've never met a human aggressive pit bull....I suppose they are out there, but even back in those same days when I was young and stupid and hung out with all the wrong people who had pit bulls for all the wrong reasons, I STILL never met one that was aggressive to people.
I've met a lot of really evil chihuahuas. Some nasty Boston terriers (and my only dog bite from a dog I didn't know was from a Boston). some bad tempered chow chows and husky mixes that I knew to stay away from. But I still don't think aggression towards people is breed specific. (ok, I still really don't like chihuahuas, but I'm sure there could be really sweet ones if they were raised right).
thanks for all your input, i really appreciated reading it all.
to jessicarabbit, i'm sorry if i offended you, i was only stating my experiences with those particular breeds, and i have met friendly bullmastiffs & staffies, i am just saying that i live in the UK and in my area, there are a lot of 'chav'-type people who have them as status dogs. i think i mis-worded what i was trying to get across, but i did state that the articles are very biased. there are a lot of people where i live who have dogs and allow the aggression to escalate. there is an elderly gentleman with a rottie who lives several doors down and a few months back, he and his dog were attacked by a bullmastiff that bit the poor rottie's face so badly and then the men who were walking the dog threatened to beat the old man up 'because his dog started it'...i never walk my dogs late at night anymore!
my mother-in-law was attacked by a border collie while on holiday last year, it came down the river bank and attacked her head on and she didn't even see it coming, it tore her arm open and she had to have about 30 stitches. the police told her that the dog belonged to a farmer who allowed it to roam and had attacked several children on the riverside that year. there is also a scary chihuahua who lives on my block too. i am aware that not all dogs are aggressive, i wanted to know your opinions as obviously i want to know everything i can about the breed before i consider getting one.
what are your thoughts on rescued akitas?
are they easy to rehome or are they more suited for experienced people who have owned akitas beforehand?
when rehoming an akita, is there anything one should look out for that might be a sign of aggression worries?
at akita rescue and welfare and we have and do rehome akitas to first time dog owners as well as experienced dog owners. its just finding the right dog for you sometimes that can take awhile but its far better waiting for the right dog than taking one on a wim and it not working out. most of our new owners find taking a rescue very rewarding and their dogs give them so much in return. links below to both rescues.
http://www.akitarescue.org.uk/
http://www.jawt.co.uk/
just to add we rarely get akita inu in rescue and most of the dogs we rehome are american akitas or tweenies. in 6 years i've only ever seen 3 registered JA and 3 that where possibly JA come through rescue.
i read the articles at http://www.jawt.co.uk/ and they were very interesting, there's a lot of stuff there about finding the right dog that i wish i could have known when i got my pug. i had been seriously considering adopting (puppies are a joy, but with work, it would be difficult to take time off for awhile to care for little ones) i was in two minds about it but it sounds good. it would be well worth the wait for the right dog.
"i didn't realise it would get so big" !!?? how, what and why!? i could understand that excuse with a mongrel dog, but that's just lame.
well, the main reason i chose the akita inu over american akita was mainly because of the white mask and the red coats :D i don't desperately want a kc reg pedigree, i've been looking at dogs in my local shelter but none of them are right for me.