Moris
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I used to have an Irish Wolfhound. She was a rescue and had been found tied up in a crack house after a police raid. Drug dealers were fond of expensive and "exotic" pure breeds back then, and wolfhounds are big animals.
At home, she was a complete wuss with people. If you got mad at something she did and you yelled at her, she'd curl up into the tightest little ball you can imagine and lie down in a corner like you'd just broken her heart, and she'd lie like that for ages. Away from home, she was a big friendly lug. But if she felt threatened, she was terrifying. Something about her size. It was nothing for her to stand on her hind legs and slouch with her elbows on the shoulders of a full grown man. If she got excited, her tail would knock plates off the dinner table. She was that tall.
I had a couple of pitbull/husky mixes (we thought, but were never sure) that were rescues, found in the woods abandoned as pups. I don't know if it was seriously abusive early life experiences or some other factor, but they were very difficult to socialize and had to wear muzzles whenever we took them to the vet. They never hurt anyone, but they certainly threatened to. Walking them down the street was often an exercise in control, and they would growl, hackles raised, at people on the other side of the street. Some people thought they might actually have been partly hybrid rather than husky, since that was all the rage at the time in Texas.
So, yeah. Our vets told us that some breeds did have a more energetic and/or aggressive nature that made them less tolerant of sudden or unpredictable behaviour from humans, making them less suitable as companions for children. Border collies and Chow-Chows were considered the most dangerous to kids for this reason. I myself think the pitbull, rottweiler, shepherd, dobie issues have more to do with them being the dogs of choice for people who want guard dogs. They make them into the sort of dangerous animal they want by keeping them tied up all day, or completely alone in an enclosure.
To make a dog aggressive all you have to do is mistreat it. Even if you treat it very well, we found out, if you fail to socialize it, it could well be quite aggressive to strangers. Of course, maybe our two hyper aggressive dogs really were part wolf. We'll never know.
At home, she was a complete wuss with people. If you got mad at something she did and you yelled at her, she'd curl up into the tightest little ball you can imagine and lie down in a corner like you'd just broken her heart, and she'd lie like that for ages. Away from home, she was a big friendly lug. But if she felt threatened, she was terrifying. Something about her size. It was nothing for her to stand on her hind legs and slouch with her elbows on the shoulders of a full grown man. If she got excited, her tail would knock plates off the dinner table. She was that tall.
I had a couple of pitbull/husky mixes (we thought, but were never sure) that were rescues, found in the woods abandoned as pups. I don't know if it was seriously abusive early life experiences or some other factor, but they were very difficult to socialize and had to wear muzzles whenever we took them to the vet. They never hurt anyone, but they certainly threatened to. Walking them down the street was often an exercise in control, and they would growl, hackles raised, at people on the other side of the street. Some people thought they might actually have been partly hybrid rather than husky, since that was all the rage at the time in Texas.
So, yeah. Our vets told us that some breeds did have a more energetic and/or aggressive nature that made them less tolerant of sudden or unpredictable behaviour from humans, making them less suitable as companions for children. Border collies and Chow-Chows were considered the most dangerous to kids for this reason. I myself think the pitbull, rottweiler, shepherd, dobie issues have more to do with them being the dogs of choice for people who want guard dogs. They make them into the sort of dangerous animal they want by keeping them tied up all day, or completely alone in an enclosure.
To make a dog aggressive all you have to do is mistreat it. Even if you treat it very well, we found out, if you fail to socialize it, it could well be quite aggressive to strangers. Of course, maybe our two hyper aggressive dogs really were part wolf. We'll never know.
