Re: [PyrNet-L] chat: dog aggression

["Beverly Coate" <bcoate@cwis.net>]

I have read these posts on this subject with great interest for several
years ago I picked up a Pyrenees in Arkansas because it was either that or
he would be put down because he bit the neighbor.  
	The story goes like this.  The people had raised Houston on a farm his
first 3 years,  he guarded all of their livestock and had the run of the
farm.   Never a problem in any manner.  These people sold their farm and
moved to town, they brought Houston with them.  Houston had nothing left
familiar to him, so he turned to the grandfather to have someone to guard. 
This worked well for several weeks, then one day the neighbor came over and
something this neighbor did was perceived as a threat to the old man by
Houston.  He went for the neighbor not drawing blood.  These people then
penned Houston in a very small kennel.  4 X 10.  The old man visited him
every day taking him a wiener each day.  They relaxed their vigil and again
let Houston out into the yard to lay by the old man.  All went well until
this same neighbor came over to talk again.  Again Houston saw the man as a
threat and again he went for him.  This time drawing blood.  This is when I
was called.  I went to their house and though I had never met these people
or Houston before, within an hour I was able to pet Houston and talk to him
love on him with never a sign of aggression.  I brought him home and penned
him to get him oriented to our farm.  This never worked, everytime I would
let him out he would jump on my own dogs, he never allowed my husband to
touch him but I could do anything with this dog.  Never one time did he
show me any aggression.  He only lived two more years before dying of a
heart attack but he had to spend all of these two years confined because of
this aggression he exhibited to some people.  
	I have often thought his problem was not so much aggression as a problem
with having his way of live changed forever with the selling of the farm
and taking all his animals away from him.  It completely changed his
personality.  This may also be something the pet owner should look at, it
could be these dogs they are having such a problem with just might not be
pet personality dogs, but would have made great guard dogs for livestock
had they been given the opportunity. 
	Just my own 2 cents.
Beverly Coate
C&C Farms  Stigler Oklahoma   USA
Visit our website at  http://www.cwis.net/~bcoate
bcoate@cwis.net
ICQ #20747702

Hopefully, the
> owner will utilize some help that she has requested and that others have
> offered, as it stands, it appears to be a very unfortunate situation,
> perhaps even a bad mix of personalities between owner and dog.  You know
> sometimes that can happen, just a bad blend of personalities.  Maybe a
new
> owner would be the perfect solution for both.
> 
> For what its worth,
> Danita
> genesis@atlantic.net
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> We, as humans, sometimes make the wrong move when correcting
> >our dogs. If we expect to pay by being bitten, then who exactly is in
> charge here?? If a dog
> >is going to attack when cornered, it's just a matter of time before he
> attacks under some
> >other circumstance also. The dog was obviously aggressive before this
> incident (which
> >the owner knows now). She shouldn't "expect" to get attacked by her dog
> because she
> >accidently corrects him improperly a time or 2 (or 3 or 4 or 5). That's
> placing the guilt of
> >the attack on HER, and that's not where it belongs.
> >Mitzi Potter    Okla City   OK
> >Pyrs@prodigy.net
> >http://members.aol.com/fivepyrs/dogsz.htm
> >
> >
> >
> >
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> 
> 
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