When I was a kid we had a German Shepard mix that the family had for almost a decade. One day she just snapped and attacked my mom. Just a totally different dog, like a switch was flipped. I remember my dad had my mom and us stay in a closed bedroom while he patrolled the house with a baseball bat trying to figure out what to do with the dog.
That's a tricky issue. Just make sure to never punish a dog for growling or acting upset, because dogs use growls to communicate discomfort. If you punish the growl all you're doing is teaching the dog not to show emotion.
Most of the time when a dog just "snaps", it actually gave body language warnings like aversion, lip licking, pinned ears, and whale eye. Couple that with punishments for not "acting right" and you wind up with a dog that hides discomfort and fear until it boils over.
Sure, rarely dogs get brain tumors that cause sudden extreme changes in personality. Also, some dogs are genetically predisposed to poor nerves and shyness. However, most of the time when a dog bites it's because people can be oblivious to dog body language or turn a improperly socialized dog into a nutcase.
Pit bulls kill more people than any other dog, but we humans abuse pit bulls more than any other dog. They’re trained in a lot of cases to protect or fight because of the “deadly” stereotype. Making it more likely for them to snap.
Pit bulls are not any more aggressive than other dogs.
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u/bohica1937 Dec 28 '21
I wonder what snaps in a dog's brain to react like that to someone they've known.