There is an old misconception about canine fear issues that responding to a dog’s fear by interacting with the dog in any way will “reinforce” or “reward” that fear, and possibly make the dog even more afraid.
Let’s look at a human example of a potentially frightening experience. A child falls down and skins his knee. His mother becomes visibly distressed and makes a fuss, nervously examining the child while repeating in a high-pitched, worried voice, “Are you okay? Are you alright?” The child, taking his signals from his mother, realizes there is something wrong, and bursts out crying. Now imagine instead that the mother calmly examines the scraped knee, ruffles the child’s hair and says, “It’s fine, kiddo, nothing to worry about. Go play.” In the second scenario, the child is apt to have a much calmer response.
Imagine yourself being afraid of roller coasters. Having a fear so overwhelming that if you ever find yourself in the position of taking a ride, you have a hard time even thinking straight. You persevere through all the twists and turns and you finally and very thankfully find yourself coming to a halt. Then imagine someone becoming angry with you, yelling for you to not be so afraid and even going as far as physically punishing you for your fears. It is a sure bet that you would not find this kind of approach helpful.
Now lets take a look at this scenario as it pertains to dogs and their fears.
Assembly Bill 2233 is intended to prevent the additional distraction of a wandering pooch while you are driving, putting on make up, and drinking coffee.
AB2233 does have some merit, because pets can be very distracting passengers. Unfortunately, improperly secured animals become projectiles when they’re riding in a car that becomes involved in an accident. Having seen the aftermath of many pets in fender benders, I can tell you that it is a sobering sight. The best bets: use one of the harness & seat belt gizmos that are designed for dogs to buckle up, or place the pooch in a secured crate, or leave the pet at home.
Unfortunately people only hear about the sensational and terrorizing aspects of dog incidents that result in injury or fatality. As with any news story or myth, there are facts and factors left out for effect. It is this news, based on partial information, slanted to be sensational, coupled with word of mouth myth making that leads to any breed getting an unfair reputation. The over-representation of the negative in the media is what causes people to fear a breed. We’ve seen this throughout history. In addition, if at any point in time a certain breed of dog is used for intimidating or negative functions such as guarding / protection or fighting, it is the type of dog most represented in the news; we saw this with the Doberman in the 1970s.
The fact and the factors of fatal or injurious dog incidents:
Mojo, our beloved German Shepherd-Rottweiler-Malamute-wolf mix, came to us in February of 1994. We had gone to New Mexico to escape the relentless aftershocks of the L.A. earthquake, and ended up snowed in in Albuquerque. Looking through the pet section of a local paper, we saw an ad for wolf hybrids. Out of curiosity and a lack of anything more exciting to do, we went to see the pups. They were very low wolf content, and extremely adorable. The breeders had named each little black and tan fuzzball in the litter after a character in the Adams Family.
We’d been searching for a companion for Soko, our 11-month-old German Shepherd, for some time, and decided to adopt one of the pups. After long consideration, we chose a pup, did the paperwork, got in the car, and drove way. Chatting as we drove, we soon realized that neither of us could get that other feisty puppy named Fester (yes, Fester!) out of our minds. We turned around, went back and exchanged pups, and the rest is history.
