by Diane Garrod

Created on: June 24, 2009   Last Updated: July 08, 2009

There is always a reason why a dog would attack a person. Answering WHY provides the answer to should the dog be put down or not. Dogs are social creatures and 98% of the time they will tolerate a lot before escalating to an attack to do harm.

All dogs have the ability to aggress and many will during their lifetime, but only 2% will complete a full attack.

The question of whether to put a dog down for attacking a human is not as clear cut as saying yes or no. We have the patience and rules to let a human have a fair trial should they viciously attack or even kill a fellow human being. Yet patience for a dog attack runs dry quickly, even though most aggressive dogs can be rehabilitated and most of the time the dog was provoked, unsupervised or socially deprived. Let's take a look at the reason a dog would attack a person.

REASON ONE: Protection of owner or property often called territorial aggression.

You can avoid an attack by staying away from dogs who are alone on their property, dogs that are chained or tied, and situations where multiple dogs are outdoors unsupervised.

REASON TWO: Fear of harm. Fear of harm to themselves, to offspring, to owner.

Dogs are descendants of the wolf. Wolves attack or aggress to protect family and property, to survive and eat and during mating season. This sounds exactly like the reasons a domesticated dog would have to attack or the same reasons humans may attack a fellow human being. Fear can turn into anger quickly.

REASON THREE: Social deficits labeling the dog as reactive or aggressive.

The definition of an aggressive dog is one who has a bite history and can go from zero warning to attack in seconds. Another term used today is 'reactive'. The difference is a reactivity has clear warning signals and is directed at triggers within the environment to include humans, dogs, objects, sounds or sudden environmental changes.

REASON FOUR: The dog is a trained attack dog.

Police dogs, war dogs, sport of Schutzhund would fall into this as a controlled category. People who train their dog to be mean without understanding what they are doing would fall into the uncontrolled category.

A river runs through all of the above pointing to the human as the cause of the attack. Who gets blamed? The dog gets the blame, of course.

How do humans cause dog attacks?

1 - They challenge or tease the dog.

2 - They attack the dog, its family, its property.

3 - They come on too strong with sudden and unexpected approaches or touching.

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