Dog-induced fear vs Numbers

[AsheSkyler]

You're exercising good judgement in going by the hackles.
It's actually a myth that a wagging tail means friendliness. A wagging tail means excitement. Sometimes it can mean playful excitement, but other times it can mean aggressive excitement. I once saw a video of a Jack Russell who was trying to attack another dog-she was being physically restrained from doing so-and her tail was wagging like mad.

That's a good rule of thumb to remember. Hackles down = dog tail. Hackles up = cat tail. Of course, the decider is in the ears with cats. Lashing tail and ears down means they'll slice you to ribbons because they're mad. Lashing tail and ears up means they'll slice you to ribbons because they're playful.

 

[Nadador]

Rottweilers, dobermans, and other guard dogs I'm also leery of for similar reasons. I may go look up those breeds you mentioned, I'm not familiar with them. But I'll bet they are some gorgeous animals. The only dogs I'm visually turned off of are the tiny little puffballs. They just look too silly to be taken seriously as a canine!

Guard dogs are purpose-bred, so that ticks one of my two boxes for extra caution. Some hunting breeds also raise my level of awareness, as a few aren't bred to interact as pets.

Small over-bred and recklessly-bred varieties, like Chihuahuas, are perhaps the worst biters of all. Their transgressions just aren't serious enough to make headlines. I've only been bitten by two dogs, and both were lap-size breeds.

 

[Judge]

Chihuahuas tend to gravitate only towards one person in the household. I've known a number of persons who owned them, and all reflected this. With regards to Yorkies, I've had both broadly social ones as my last one was, and the one before that being pretty much hostile to anyone outside the house.

I know with the herding breeds, you do have to aggressively assert yourself with them. They look to being led. If you don't, they will instinctly fill in that void themselves! I think they can be lots of fun, but you have to take charge and keep up with their energy level.

 

[Ste11aeres]

Guard dogs are purpose-bred, so that ticks one of my two boxes for extra caution. Some hunting breeds also raise my level of awareness, as a few aren't bred to interact as pets.

Small over-bred and recklessly-bred varieties, like Chihuahuas, are perhaps the worst biters of all. Their transgressions just aren't serious enough to make headlines. I've only been bitten by two dogs, and both were lap-size breeds.

The thing to remember about dogs is dogs are dogs before they are a particular breed. Their instincts have more to do with being a dog than with being a particular breed.

And the dog species is that of a social animal, who is also a predator, who also has loyalty towards his particular pack, and sometimes territorialism towards members of a different pack.
So a dogs behavior toward you will depend on which of those instincts is turned on with regards to you: social instinct, or predatory, or territorial, or bonded pack member.

And the question of which of those instincts is more likely to be turned on has mostly to do with the conditioning the dog has been through, its background and experiences, the amount of exercise it has (under-exercised dogs are more likely to have behavior problems) whether its owner is the leader or the dog is the leader (a dog who is the leader will be more likely to take the initiative to go into a hunting mode or a protective mode, a dog who is submissive to his owner is safer), the emotional energy the dog picks up on from humans, etc. Particular breeds do have more capacity, more potential, for being good at following a particular instinct. But whether or not that particular instinct is actually turned on in regards to humans or different one is, is something that can be controlled by humans (this is usually an unconscious process on the part of most humans-it sometimes goes badly because people often don't know what they're doing). And in the case of a particular dog at a particular given moment, it can be judged more accurately by body language than by anything else. Unfortunately, most people can't read dog body language.

 

[AsheSkyler]

Guard dogs are purpose-bred, so that ticks one of my two boxes for extra caution. Some hunting breeds also raise my level of awareness, as a few aren't bred to interact as pets.

Small over-bred and recklessly-bred varieties, like Chihuahuas, are perhaps the worst biters of all. Their transgressions just aren't serious enough to make headlines. I've only been bitten by two dogs, and both were lap-size breeds.

Our little rat is a "shichi", half shihtzu and half chihuahua. She is a surprisingly passive and quiet dog. I can't even get her to play growl with me unless she's really in the mood for it. The only time I've seen her show a shred of dominance is recently when my cousin's miniature dachshund tried to come in the house, and I recently saw her go barking after some bigger dogs of another neighbor's that like to trot around the area. She does tend to prefer our kid, but he plays with her the most.

 

[Balkan1996]

Chihuahuas tend to gravitate only towards one person in the household. I've known a number of persons who owned them, and all reflected this. With regards to Yorkies, I've had both broadly social ones as my last one was, and the one before that being pretty much hostile to anyone outside the house.

I know with the herding breeds, you do have to aggressively assert yourself with them. They look to being led. If you don't, they will instinctly fill in that void themselves! I think they can be lots of fun, but you have to take charge and keep up with their energy level.

Agree on this one.
My border collie doesn't listen to people who pet him too much.

 

[Judge]

Agree on this one.
My border collie doesn't listen to people who pet him too much.

Yep. They're the brightest of all the breeds. Almost "goal-oriented". They want to be vigorously interacted with.

Petting simply doesn't cut it! They take a lot of energy to keep up with...but cool dogs to be with.

 

[Ste11aeres]

Five breeds are currently banned altogether in the UK: Pit Bull Terrier, Japanese Tosa, Dogo Argentino, Fila Brasiliero, and very recently, the Chongqing Dog. Wolf crosses are also disallowed, though they are categorised as exotics. I'd rather have outright bans, than have a breed be legal but at constant risk of euthanasia for the slightest offence.

I'm not an expert in this, but came across an article that seemed interesting related to this.
Failure of breed-specific policy in the UK - KC DOG BLOG

 

[Judge]

More communities repealing dog breed-banning laws:

More communities repealing long-standing bans on pit bulls - My News 4 - KRNV, Reno, NV