Revisiting an idea on dog biting - Page 1

It has been thrown around on here that dogs with a low threshold for biting are probably nervy dogs. In speaking to a dental vet tech at Penn State University Animal Hosp , she said that many of the police dogs that come in for treatment would not tolerate as much as an eye contact from the staff members.
Am I to assume that many of the police dogs are nervy/weak?
Why do some dogs refuse to tolerate as little as a stare from a stranger?
Experts?

As far as I know, some police officers choose the most aggressive/nervy dogs because they think that's what they want for a patrol dog.

My cop buddy went through several dogs looking for the "prefect" one.

Also, police aren't breeders trying to select for temperament and other things. They're just looking for a dog that can do a job and have a different process of selection. Some police dogs don't even release upon command and even bite the wrong thing, and I've seen this myself.

So, the answer to your question might be "yes."

Reliya
I have a problem with the logic. The vet tech observations are based on many and your claim is that you know of one. Your sample size is a bit too small. I need to hear from others.

 

I was speaking on many cases and singled out one.

Some dogs do before they think and most thankfully think before they do. Police dogs can be psychopathic idiots as can police officers.

Drop the idea of a Police Dog...and let's talk about dogs in general and the selection process...Everyone chooses a dog for themself...Meaning that what is your criteria for selecting a dog...What's your experience in doing so and for what end goal...
Police Depts are Cops not dog trainers or dog people...I have known Police Depts that select according to color...not working traits...
Some dogs...mainly males...are very dominant...and aren't what you'd want as your pet...but are great for their work...These dogs also aren't for PR purposes...
Once again it comes down to who chooses their dogs and what their goals are...I would say that most Police Dept's dogs are all chosen by the same person and therefore have like similarities...

~Bob~

Good post Qman.
Just had a very Dominant male/ex police dog at my house for a short stay. First time in my life I met a dog that was willing to literally push aside an adult human being . If someone had told me I would have doubted it.. but this dog was truly a difficult animal to deal with. On the way to becoming that he bit 2 owners.

I liked his blood though..old working lines: Drigon, Racker,  Crock, Mink, Sagus and Eros Busecker Schloss. ..all in one animal.

Police dogs are just like most people and forum members, some are excellent most are average.

Thresholds or lack there of are in many cases created by training or lack thereof. Take a dog with a ton of natural suspicion and aggression. Put zero or worse crap training into the dog and you have a time bomb. Take that same dog and apply consistent training and teach him how to control and direct his aggression and he will be much different.

That being said taking a nice working dog into a small room with strangers that are going to poke and prod him as well as "look him in th eye" and dont be surprised at the results. Thats why they invented muzzles.

Eye contact to a dog is always a threat, depending on the dog’s genetics and training, each one will react differently to different amounts of eye contact. When training a dog to bite/protect, that’s the best way for a helper to make a dog feel threatened and react to that threat. Most police dogs are constantly agitated in that fashion so any kind of prolonged eye contact the dog will react to.

The most important thing in police dogs is environmental nerve strength. The dog can’t be weird about any environment or floor covering. As long as the dog has the drive to go, it just can’t be stopped by what is around it.

What you missed in most of the nerve discussions is that most people say that an UNTRAINED dog that reacts to simple eye contact is nervy. A dog trained/taught to react to eye contact…or even a training method that exaggerates the dog’s natural lower threshold for eye contact…isn’t nervy, it’s just taught that if X then Y. Control is quite important in these situations because you can teach a dog to only react on command...so even if a helper is staring at a well trained dog, the dog will not react until it is told to. In the very best of dogs, they load on that threat and explode when told to do so.

When training…most dogs are taught to react to the body language of the helper and react accordingly, most training methods involve a helper posturing a lot with a new dog, and doing less and less in order to make sure a dog will learn to bark at the most passive of threats (no posturing or eye contact).