Dogs “turning on” their owners!?

With 3 reported attacks in the space of around as many days in Australia (2 in Sydney), I’m feeling compelled to weigh into the conversations. I’m bringing it here though, because the comments on social media are ENRAGING with their victim-blame and misinformation.

I provide the links for context, but encourage you to NOT click them and provide more traffic to the posts. The news outlets themselves seem to thrive on the rage bait and speculation increasing their reach, without moderation. The summary I provide is based on my understanding of the information and speculations available at the time of writing, which is incomplete and may be inaccurate (is likely inaccurate frankly).

• Man attacked by his dog in Camperdown: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1517979099377052
  Authorities used shields to assist in the capturing of the dog. The dog was brought out on a normal leash (not a pole) & was lured into the truck with treats. As some kind of bully breed, much of the commentary was about that, from both pro- and anti-bully breed representatives.  The more disgusting comments were judging the owner as a must-be abuser or at least neglectful, especially given there were apparently 3 dogs living in a unit.
• Man attacked by several of his dogs in Blacktown: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1350681776697400
  Several dogs involved in the attack, believed to be “Bull Arab” type dogs, fighting with other smaller dogs and the owner intervened. There was some speculation about abuse or neglect again, but the most disgusting comments were suggesting the owner deserved it as he is apparently, or must be, a backyard breeder.
• Woman attacked by her dog in Cowandilla: https://www.facebook.com/reel/686429517503500
  This time an elderly woman was attacked by her miniature poodle. There was again some breed discussion, as well as size considerations or lack thereof (arguments from both extremes), and based on the photo some mentioned training tools. Again though the most disgusting comments blamed the owner’s age – accusing neglect, inadvertent abuse, and frailty resulting in injuries that would not have happened to a younger person.

My heart goes out to these owners, victims at the hands of their own dogs. I hope their injuries, physical and mental, heal quickly. My thoughts are also with their families. I hope no one has read any of the comments. I hope the media leave them all alone. And I hope the first responders and authorities involved are OK. These are the real people involved that we seem to forget about as long as we’ve made our judgements and proclamations and moved on.

We humans like to find reasons for things, and like to apportion blame. It helps us with closure. To wrap things up in a nice little package and put it over there where we don’t have to worry about it any more. The “just-world fallacy” is part of this – we like to believe that bad things don’t happen to good people, so if we can just find the reason, we can avoid that bad thing happening to us too. So we see the headline and we jump to conclusions. The trouble is, the just-world fallacy is a fallacy. Nothing is that simple. You can make all the right choices, do all the right things, be the right person, and still have bad things happen. The world is unjust.

We can never know the exact circumstances either. The only ones that do were there, present in the moment. In these cases, one of those parties doesn’t speak English to ask. Circumstances like these are always a perfect storm of multiple factors. We can speculate all we like but we are not speaking to the whole picture, especially not from a headline.

• Is a dog attacking it’s owner likely to be due to abuse? Maybe. Or maybe the dog had a brain tumour or any number of other scenarios could have played out.
• Surely if the authorities had to use shields it is a really bad dog? Maybe. Or maybe it is really good practice to use PPE and prevent having to use a firearm in a small space, for example.
• But isn’t having 3 dogs crammed into a unit bad for them? Maybe. Or maybe it was all they could afford and everyone was well cared for.
• So then having several dogs in a yard where they can access each other is bad? Maybe. Or maybe a gate latch failed in the weather.
• Being a backyard breeder is bad though? Maybe. Ethical breeding is complex. The backyard label doesn’t make you bad or good by itself.
• What about breed then – power breeds, hunting breeds, little dogs all have reputations? Maybe. Genetics is only one part of a complex behaviour equation.
• Isn’t it all how you raise them? No. Training is only one part of a complex behaviour equation; the other parts including genetics cannot be denied.
• Well surely, old people shouldn’t own dogs? No. Because who are any of us to judge? My 85 year old mother is more capable that some 50 year olds I know, so this judgement is absolutely wild.

Behaviour is *always* a perfect storm of Learning, Environment, Genetics, and Self. Why a being behaved in way is the culmination of what happened before the behaviour – from the millisecond before to the millennia before.

The best we can do as owners is stack the odds in our favour. We can only control ourselves, and to a lesser extent our dogs. Learn about dog communication, about breeds. Learn about your individual dog. Live well with your dog. Contact us, we can help.