Fatal dog attack

Wednesday’s horrific dog attack, resulting in one child being killed, another child seriously injured and the dog’s owner also injured arouses not only sorrow but a sense of exasperation. Few dog attacks on people come “out of the blue”. There are recognised risk factors recognised by behaviour experts, which I have documented in my book Dogs and Children. Sadly, many attacks could be avoided if risk factors were taken into account.

It was reported in the media that the dogs in this latest attack were friendly to people. What we do not know, is whether this means they were friendly to adults. But had they been exposed to children and socialised to accept them as members of the family? A dog can be friendly to adults but regard young children as objects of prey. Had the dogs ever chased cats or possums? Were they involved in pig hunting? Had they ever shown a sense of excitement around children? This makes it more likely that they would regard small children as little animals that smell funny, and make provocative movements and high pitched noises.

This can flick a switch in a dog’s brain to go into prey drive, a highly instinctive state which is very hard to control. One dog is a dog, but more than one (and there seem to have been three or four in this case) form a pack, in which predatory behaviour is more readily triggered.

I would never expose young children to a pack of dogs, especially ones which had displayed a high prey drive.

Let’s not place too much emphasis on cases where there is an obvious scapegoat, such as one breed. The majority of dog-bite injuries to children occur not because of vicious fighting breeds, but because of the average family dog getting out of control in your back yard or your next door neighbour’s back yard. Fatalities have been inflicted by small breeds as well as large ones. Even the breeds chosen as classic family dogs have to managed sensibly and trained appropriately.

When a serious or fatal attack is reported, the details reported in the media are often contradictory. Reports differ as to the breed, the number of dogs involved, whether the attack took place on the owner’s property or the victim’s or in a public place, what circumstances led up to the attack, how many risk factors were present and so on.

While it is understandable that the doga are immediately euthanised after such serious incidents, we have an  urgent need for detailed information to be recorded by qualified dog trainers or behavioural experts. This should include a behavioural assessment of the dog or dogs involved, as well as a detailed account of the surrounding circumstances. This would allow dog trainers to target high risk behaviour and advise dog owners accordingly.

In case we are urged to take rearguard action against dogs and dog owners, it is worth noting that

Between July 1, 2003, and June 30 last year, there were 288 homicidal attacks in Australia, resulting in 305 deaths.

34 children under the age of 12 were murdered, the majority by their parents or caregivers.

It makes one wonder: which is the more aggressive species?

Kaye Hargreaves
Professional dog trainer