'There's no such thing as a bad dog.' Who's to blame?

Someone must be to blame, right? There must be a fault somewhere for a dog to be snarling and lunging at anything. A lack of training, not enough discipline, just a downright nasty temperament? One of these things has to be true for a dog to be 'reactive' (which is, of course, just another name for aggressive!)

No, I haven't gone rogue or lost the last remaining traces of my sanity. This is something that grinds my gears when I see it - blaming. Blaming the dog or blaming the guardian for some supposed 'thing' that they either have or have not done that has turned the dog into this problem.

I have a number of issues with this concept. I refuse to call Finn's reactivity a problem. It can be an issue, in certain circumstances, and it is something that we, his family, have to think about and consider in just about any situation that might come up, but it is not a problem. Finn has difficulties dealing with certain factors in the world. That is not a problem, it is a particular and special need that he has for our understanding and consideration. Yes, it can make our lives complicated and difficult at times, but that is definitely not Finn's fault. He never asked to live in a world he finds scary. There are things that I didn't get quite right in trying to equip Finn to deal with the world, I acknowledge that fact. There were also things that I had no control over that contributed to his fear and lack of confidence.

I suspect anyone that has read my articles before will not need to be told my thoughts on the idea of blaming the dog. Dogs in the modern world are expected to fit into a society that doesn't really understand them. In many cases, rather than learning how to read their communication and pick up the messages they are giving, people expect them to tolerate whatever treatment they encounter. No doubt most people have seen the videos, usually with headings about how 'cute' they are, of some poor dog nearly screaming through their body language as they are poked and prodded. These videos usually involve children, but occasionally adults. The ones featuring children make my blood run cold and then hot - children MUST be taught to respect dogs and their signals. The tolerance levels of a dog should not be relied upon or their boundaries tested. That way lies the distinct possibility of serious injury for the child, and a far worse fate for the dog who had no other way to escape the situation.

Those of us that share our lives with reactive dogs also do not need to told that they are not nasty or aggressive in the sense that the people that tend to say these things mean. This is where I try to use the word fearful to people that find the concept hard to understand, to try and clarify that, in the case of one of these dogs that has difficulties processing the world, the correct term is 'fear aggression' and that the dog really does not want to bite, but instead to make distance from the scary thing, to try and get away from it.

'There's no such thing as a bad dog, only bad owners'. That is a saying that is seen all over the place. Honestly, once upon a time I subscribed to that idea. Broadening my education on dogs, their psychology and physiology has taught me that there is so much more involved in what makes a dog's personality what it is. No doubt some will see me use the word 'personality' and decide I'm just anthropomorphising. It is only relatively recently that the question of whether dogs feel emotions has been studied. The use of functional MRI scanning technology has answered that one - yes, they do. (As a sidenote, what an incredible validation of positive reinforcement based training - dogs being taught to wear ear protection and sit still to have an MRI scan run!) Dogs can feel, just as we can. Dogs have emotions, and these emotions affect their interactions with their world, and how they process what is happening around them. Every dog is an individual, with an individual outlook on life shaped in part by their genetics and by their experiences in the world, encompassing both nature and nurture in the finished animal. Undoubtedly an owner that is deliberately mistreating dogs and attempting to provoke and develop aggressive behaviours will produce the stereotype of what is called a 'bad dog' but with a lack of proper modern understanding of how the dog's mind works, the most well meaning of guardians can end up with a dog that struggles in the world.

To be perfectly honest, from the viewpoint that you are now dealing with a fearful dog that is exhibiting reactive behaviours such as growling, barking and lunging, the whys and wherefores and causes have no bearing on anything. Placing blame helps neither dog nor guardian. If the guardian has had the dog from a puppy and could have helped the young dog with better socialisation within the critical learning period, then that would be useful information for them to assimilate in preparation if they are going to have another puppy. In terms of their current dog though, it is of no help at all. Talking about how socialisation in the early period would have prevented the difficulties is of no use to the guardian that adopted a puppy farm survivor or other rescue dog whose history may not be known but who is clearly worried by their surroundings.

Blaming is a useless waste of time and energy at this point. It is much more constructive to focus on educating the guardian and the people around them that can help or hinder the process how they can help the poor fearful dog to cope better with the world they find themselves in.