Anatomy of a Dog Attack

Subject: Anatomy of a Dog Attack Mon Apr 13, 2009 3:12 pm

Anatomy of a Dog Attack

author Ryan O 'Meara

Out of the blue, it attacked for no reason”
When a dog attack is reported we will often hear the same old phrases bandied about.

“It came out of the blue”

“It was totally unprovoked”

“We didn’t see it coming”

“It was totally out of character”

Ring any bells? Well let’s try and understand how and why a dog might attack someone.

Dogs
rarely, if ever, attack for no reason. Us humans often misinterpret a
dog attacking “out of the blue” and “without
warning”‘ because we simply missed the signs.

Let’s
be clear about one thing. A dog who is prepared to bite someone has his
reasons. Can we, as humans, justify those reasons using the social
values of people? Probably not. But of course, dogs do not live their
lives according to human social values.

Here is the story of John, Henry and Max.

John
has no wife or children. For the last five years he’s lived with
his best friend in the world a playful Labrador called Max.

John is excited today. Henry, an old friend from school who he hasn’t seen for many years is visiting.

John decides today would be a good day to get his garden tidied, make a good impression on his old school chum.

As John gets busy in amongst the weeds in the front garden, he spies his old mate making his way up the street.

Henry’s
been looking forward to catching up with John for weeks and, as
he’s never been to his home before, finds himself feeling
somewhat jubilant to realise he’s managed to find the street on
which John lives without too much trouble and can now relish the
prospect of seeing his friend again as well as finally getting to meet
the only true love of John’s life, the much talked about Max.

It’s
a hot and sunny day and Henry is wearing his sunglasses. Further up the
street he spots John working in his front garden.

John’s already noticed Henry making his way towards him and yells out, “Hi Henry. Fancy a beer?”

Henry shouts back, “Sounds just the job. Can you believe this heat?”.

As
per usual, Max has been ‘helping’ John with his gardening
exploits by digging holes of his own all over the lawn. John
doesn’t mind. He only wanted the garden so he could have
somewhere safe to play fetch with Max on sunny days like today.
He’s never been one for trying to keep it immaculate when
Max’s favourite hobby is trying to tunnel his way to China.

Max
has stopped his gardening though. He’s become preoccupied by the
exchange between John and Henry and he’s taken a trip the front
gate to see what’s going on.

“I wonder who this bloke is?” ponders Max.

“Why would he and John be shouting at other?” he thinks to himself.

“I’d
better be on full alert.” he concludes. “John’s just
shouted at this chap so he obviously wants me to keep an eye
out.”

Max fixes himself in position at the front gate
and hoists his tail high into the air, he’s keen to let the
oncoming stranger know he’s about.

John doesn’t notice.

Henry’s
still coming. So Max decides he needs to be more clear. He starts to
emit a deep, low growl in Henry’s direction just to make certain
the stranger who’s purposely striding towards him, his owner and
HIS garden is left in no uncertain terms that he’s not moving

Henry’s
still coming. And now he’s close enough for Max to notice his
sunglasses. “This is getting more serious by the second”,
thinks Max. “He’s not only not listening to me, he’s
staring right at me. I know, I’ll stare right back at him. See if
he’s as brave then.”

Problems. Henry is still as
brave. To Max, Henry’s sunglasses look like wide, staring eyes,
boring straight ahead and as he marches staunchly toward the
increasingly anxious Labrador, Max wonders what his next move might be.
As body language goes, Henry is showing all the signs of refusing to
listen to Max’s advice.

Now tense and feeling genuinely
threatened, Max is offered an escape. John jogs inside to fetch a
couple of bottles of beer and Max is only too pleased to hurriedly
follow his master. Max is somewhat relieved to suspect that John, his
idol, is just as scared as he is about the relentless stranger pursuing
them both from outside the garden gate.

“Shut the door
John, shut the door” Max worries. “He’s still coming
and you haven’t closed the door”.

Too late. Max’s heart leaps as he hears the gate swing open. Too late.

His
worst fears are confirmed. The unrelenting Henry is now purposefully
making his way up the garden path and toward the the house where Max
and John are isolated, cornered and in Max’s case, petrified.

Gathering
up every ounce of his canine courage and without a second’s
thought for his own safety Max charges out of the house, tail hoisted
aloft and barking his war cry as loud as his voice will muster. He
heads straight for Henry wondering why this stalking maniac refused to
listen to all of his earlier warnings.

“You might kill me but you’ll never take John”, Max decides.

Henry,
his face very quickly drained of all its colour, is shocked and taken
aback to be confronted by a clearly furious Max, the dog he’d
heard so many nice stories about from doting John. This isn’t at
all the dog he thought he’d be meeting.

Henry, alarmed and frightened makes his way toward Max, attempting to offer a hand of reassurance and friendship.

Max is having none of it.

“John warned you. Then I warned you. Why wouldn’t you just listen?”, reasoned Max.

Undeterred
by Henry’s advance and determined not to let his owner come to
any harm, Max lunges in Henry’s direction.

The
realisation that Max is a long way past the stage of being able to be
pacified dawns on Henry fast and he hastily tries to beat a retreat
back out of the gate from which he entered.

John, hearing the commotion and now panic stricken by Max’s attack bellows “No! Max, no.”

Acutely
tuned to his owner’s emotions and sensing the fear and alarm in
John’s voice, Max forges ahead and launches into a full scale
attack on Henry.

And then, as quick as it began, it was over.

An ambulance arrives to take Henry away and, hearing the commotion, John’s neighbours have summoned the Police.

John
can be heard explaining, “He’s never done anything like
this before“, the attack came “totally out of the
blue“, Max was always “such a trustworthy dog“,
he’s “never shown any signs of aggression in his
life“, the attack was “totally unprovoked“.

But we know differently don’t we?

Let’s look again at how Max saw things unfold:

1: Max spots a man walking toward his and his owner’s garden - ‘his territory’
2:
Not unduly worried, Max paid little attention to the stranger until
John shouted in Henry’s direction. To Max, this was a clear
signal to ‘watch for danger’
3: Obediently, Max sat at the front gate and watched for that danger.
4:
He attempted to signal to Henry by putting his tail in the air and
growling, that he was prepared to defend his owner and territory.
5:
As Henry gets closer, Max again postures but now spots Henry’s
aggressive body language, his wide eyes refusing to overt their gaze a
clear signal of intent. Henry’s point blank refusal to alter his
path, a sure fire gesture of defiance.
6: As John runs inside,
Max’s thoughts turn to escape. He now believes John is as scared
as he is and they should both seek shelter from the safety of the
house.
7: Too late. As Henry enters the garden (Max and
John’s territory) Max does what he thinks his owner needs him to
do. He defends against the threat.
8: As Henry runs away and John
panics, Max takes this as a sign that he should increase his attack,
his canine instincts now in complete overdrive.

So let us again question whether John was correct when he explained to Police that Max’s attack was unprovoked.

Was it unprovoked? Not at all.

Was it unjustified in human, social terms? Absolutely.

Was it avoidable? Totally.

The Aftermath

Henry,
his pain eased only slightly by drugs lies motionless in a hospital bed
and starts to face the reality that a visit to see a dear, old friend
has left him disfigured for the rest of his life. He ponders how best
to explain to his young children that he’s still their Dad even
though he knows his mutilated features will upset them deeply. He
wonders how life will be from now on, how people will react to him.

Max,
confused and still frightened by the terrifying ordeal earlier in the
day is now wondering why he’s found himself confined to a small,
secure cage at the vet surgery.

He stares through the bars and
looks longingly towards the door, hoping against hope that he will soon
be reunited with his trusted friend and master, John.

Unbeknown to Max, he’ll never see John again.

As
the door swings open, Max’s tail momentarily begins to wag but
he’s deflated. It’s not John. It’s a vet nurse.

He’s still pleased to see her. He’s lonely and upset and he just wants to go home and be with his friend.

He’s
too pre-occupied to wonder why the vet nurse seems so wary of him.
Wanting to put her at ease, he submissively offers up his paw. As the
vet nurse holds it, she carefully shaves a small patch of fur away from
his leg.

Max didn’t even notice the injection.

On
this day it wasn’t only Max’s body that was destroyed as
John’s memories of a kind, gentle, fun loving dog died too.

He asks himself once more, “Why did my dog attack someone for no reason?”

John may never know it, but Max had his reasons.

Dogs
do not bite people without reason. They do not attack out of the blue.
They do not launch into savage, frenzied assaults without provocation
despite what you will undoubtedly read in news reports when the next
dog attack hits the press.

There are NO devil dogs. There are
NO unprovoked dog attacks. There IS a huge gap in understanding amongst
some dog owners about why dogs attack and until we can bridge that gap
in education people will continue to be attacked and more and more dogs
will join Max, their memories destroyed along with their bodies.

Killing
individual dog breeds is not the solution to a problem whicn runs
throughs an entire species. Oh, and if you were left in any doubt, that
species isn’t canine

Anatomy of a Dog Attack ~ Copyright Ryan O’Meara

Subject: Re: Anatomy of a Dog Attack Mon Apr 13, 2009 3:26 pm

I've read this before, its very good Anatomy of a Dog Attack 729386

Subject: Re: Anatomy of a Dog Attack Mon Apr 13, 2009 6:36 pm

bloody hell, that certainly makes you sit back and think doesnt it

Subject: Re: Anatomy of a Dog Attack Mon Apr 13, 2009 7:37 pm

Subject: Re: Anatomy of a Dog Attack Mon Apr 13, 2009 8:18 pm

very well put Anatomy of a Dog Attack 729386

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