Gone to the dogs: more bull

Orville Taylor, Contributor

She is an ill-tempered bitch which always wants to have her own way around the house and when she is crossed, she lashes out, with primordial anger. This little shih-tzu, Zan, like her home companion, doesn't know her place, and unless she is taught that she is not the top dog, she is going to continue to be a terror to all, especially since marriage is on the cards.

Her aggression, is at best, amusing because she is just a trifle bigger than a pussy cat, and in a fight between the two, I back the puss over the bitch. More entertaining is that she attempts to sink her tiny teeth into the jeans of Zan's fiancé, who is a towering two metres tall and weighs 100 kilos.

Then there is 'Mr Yo Quiero Taco Bell', the chihuahua, who looks like a cross between a hamster and a fox, and captured our imagination as the human being trapped in a dog's body in those commercials a few years ago. Add to that the cuddly Fifi, the poodle, who is often adorned in bows and bathes more times per week than the average crackhead, and we quickly forget that this so-called 'man's best friend' is the same creature who gave the old lady a 6 for a 9 and took her place. Yes, Fifi did try to eat Little Red Riding Hood because she is exactly the same big, bad wolf that has scared us in the nursery rhymes and fairy tales.

Canis lupus familiaris, the domestic dog, is genetically identical to the wolf, canis lupus, and there is a reason. All domestic dogs are wolves because they were selectively bred over the past millennia for specific characteristics and qualities.

physiological features

Some breeds have maintained many of the physiological features of the wolf and are often mistaken for them. Indeed, when wild wolves and feral domestic wolves cross-breed, the hybrid looks very much like the original.

Most common to us are the Alsatian (or as some call them, 'alstatian') or German shepherd, but the wolf-life group includes all those other shepherds, such as Japanese Shikoku, Tamaskan, Utonagan, Malinoish, Alaskan Malamute and Siberian Husky. These are big and hardy dogs and quite capable of standing their ground against many wild creatures such as pumas (cougars), and like their wolf ancestor are genetically predisposed to take on and take down prey as large as deer. Deer are bigger, stronger and faster than humans.

For thousands of years, man has taken the wolf that visited our camps and 'tamed' it, and turning God backwards as we tried to play him, created dog. But dog is only a short step from his origin.

In more recent years, we have again trifled and tinkered with some of these wolfish breeds and produced wolf-dog breeds. Among these are the Dutch Saarloos wolfhound introduced in the 1920s, the Czechoslovakian wolf-dog in the 1950s, Italian Lupo italiano), bred in the late 1960s by mating a German shepherd with a female wolf. Our neighbours to the north, also famous for breeding new varieties of everything, produced the American Tundra Shepherd by cross-breeding the German shepherd again, with the Alaskan Tundra Wolf.

Still, we have bred the domestic wolf to suit our needs and exaggerated certain characteristics. Thus, greyhounds and whippets are faster than wolves, mastiffs bite harder, huskies have greater stamina and collies are much better at herding large groups of herbivores. Nonetheless, there is one major difference between dogs and wolves.

Wolves, naturally, are afraid of people. Dogs have been bred over thousands of years to not fear humans and indeed, some have been bred and trained to consider humans as their targets or at minimum, territorial threats.

In a natural setting, wolves are fierce in guarding their spaces and positions in their packs. It is a clearly defined hierarchy. Dogs are not humans, and although we share 80 per cent of their DNA, they are not children or spouses and must be treated as dogs. In a pack, there is a leader often called the alpha wolf. This creature lays down the law and keeps deviant behaviour in check. When dogs escape from their owners or are neglected, they often pack with other dogs and become feral (wild). Unless, it is a lone mongrel, which scratches and scavenges for itself, it will link up with others, just as wolves do.

When dogs are in households, the humans have to assert themselves as the alpha and let them know that they are second-class dogs. In packs, an omega wolf knows that the children of the alpha male and female are also alpha. Thus, if it even feels like crossing the line and showing aggression towards an adolescent cub, that is smaller or less powerful than itself, it wouldn't dare, because it knows its place.

knowing who's the boss

Dog attacks occur within families when this pecking order is not known and enforced on the dog. Dog behavioural specialists such as Animal Planet's Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer, make this point over and over. Pet your dog if you want to, but on your terms, and he must always know who is the boss. This goes for all breeds of domestic wolves.

In the United States, feral dogs have killed livestock and injured thousands of people. Nevertheless, it is Fido, the pet dog, who is the enemy in the camp. And pit bulls are the worst.

Although the attacks on humans have increased in the last decade, pit bulls are an old breed, and have recorded fatal attacks on humans since the 1800s, when our own Dogs (Liability for Injuries by) Act was passed.

In recent years, the obsession with them has fuelled both their population and the number of attacks. Pit bulls, like Rottweilers, are dangerous, and despite the lame apology by dog lovers that they are no more risky than the common mongrel, their teeth are bigger, they are stronger, have more temperamental issues and bite longer.

If a 70- to 100-pound pit bull or Rottweiler jumps and bites my leg, I have to kill it quickly to guarantee my safety, because even if I escape, he will continue to attack relentlessly because he is bred not to back down. On the other hand, I can fight off a mongrel, and if Fifi, or the little shih-tzu, pounces, I simply kick the little bitch to the kerb.

In the last 10 years, more than 220 Americans have been killed by domestic dogs, with pit bulls and Rottweilers accounting for all but one. Since the beginning of 2012, they have killed at least 18 persons. Each day in the USA, at least 1,000 persons need attention because of dog attacks. In the last 30 years, these two breeds combined for 77 per cent of attacks, causing major injuries: 73 per cent of attacks on children, 81 per cent of harm to adults and 68 per cent of dog fatalities.

In nature and in the world of man, there is no perfection, and even with the best of expertise things go wrong. Occasionally, subordinate wolves 'diss the programme' and are bitten out of the pack and become loners. A pit bull is a weapon that can go off despite the care of the handler and, like other dangerous dogs, must be regulated. They represent a peculiar problem because it is suspected that they were introduced from the USA, illegally, because we are outlawed from bringing in any American canines. However, as with the immigration laws, if they are born here, they are difficult to deport.

It is due time to have legislation which targets dangerous dogs, because the present scenario seems to bark up the wrong tree.

Dr Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in sociology at the UWI and a radio talk-show host. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com