On Tue, 05 Oct 2004 07:49:08 GMT, Rick Cook
wrote:



Prometheus wrote:

On Sun, 03 Oct 2004 21:20:31 GMT, Lobby Dosser
wrote:

Prometheus wrote in
:

On Sat, 02 Oct 2004 21:28:06 GMT, Lobby Dosser
wrote:

Peter De Smidt pdesmidt*no*spam*@tds.*net* wrote in
news:415efe92$1_3 @newspeer2.tds.net:


That's quite scary, though, isn't it? Clearly most owners are not
knowledgeable or equipped to do such training, and it's a leap of
faith that it's possible to overcome this inborn tendency. You might
make it less likely that your dog will attack others, but will you
totally remove that urge? I doubt it.

ANY dog will attack any other, or anything else. They are predators.
Predators are aggressive. The only differences among dogs is size and
ability to do damage.

Wrong, most domestic dogs will only attack after pretty severe
provocation. I favor Collies and Irish Setters, and I've never, ever
seen one show an agressive side unless someone they don't know is
trying to force their way into their home. No doubt it is *possible*
to train one *to* attack, but I've never seen it done. On the other
hand, it seems that anything in the terrier family will attack unless
well trained *not* to do so. It's not even a fine distinction, it's a
major one, IMO. Size has nothing to do with it- when was the last
time you heard of a Great Dane or St. Bernard attacking someone
without provocation? I hear about Pit-bulls attacking people all the
time, and they're smaller than either of those breeds.


What's provocation to a dog may not be provocation to us. The Collie,
BTW, is up there with the other larger breeds on the CDC list I posted.

True, but not with nearly as many incidents, for what it's worth.

As nearly as we can tell from the dog bite list, bites correlate with the
popularity of the breed.


They are a nervous breed, at any rate- but trying to turn one mean
seems like it would be a trial.

Just a matter of making the dog crazy. It works the same for any dog.
Understand, a vicious dog is not a mentally healthy dog and usually shows an
exaggerated fear response.

Now if you're concerned about the 'instinctive characteristics' of the dog,
keep in mind that a collie's herding behavior is a sublimated version of
chasing prey and bringing it down by hamstringing it. In fact I am told that
at least some shelties have a tendency to nip (bite) at the heels of running
children and it has to be trained out of them.

Not concerned in this case. I've seen plenty of the herding instinct
in my dog, and it's all been benign. It's pretty funny to watch him
herding the cat around the house! He also does it with small
children, but only with gentle pushes from his muzzle.