Dear Abby: While your advice never to leave a child alone with dogs is correct, the reasoning behind it is flawed.
I am a police sergeant and the K-9 trainer and instructor for the Culver City (Calif.) Police Department. I have been involved in the training and use of dogs for more than 13 years. I am concerned with what makes them behave as they do and how to channel it to our uses.Many dog owners say, "My dog thinks he's a person." This leads them to attribute human values and emotions to their dog. These people believe that a dog can think, reason and behave inappropriately because he harbors ill feelings toward his owner or others.
I believe this is impossible. A dog is incapable of thought or harboring ill feelings. A dog views the world from a dog's point of view. He considers himself a dog and us as other dogs. We are merely members of his "pack."
Dogs occasionally kill or injure children because of several differences between human children and puppies. Dogs are driven by instinct. That is what makes them dogs. There about six of these drives. The one at work here is the "pack drive," which forces the dog to become a member of a pack and to establish his "pecking order" within that pack. He does that by nonverbal communication, primarily by body language.
The difference between human infants and children and dogs is that when puppies or adult dogs are placed in a submissive position by a dominant member of the pack, they exhibit body language that communicates to the dominant dog that he has achieved his dominance. Human infants and children do not have this instinct and wouldn't know how to communicate their submission if they did.
For example: When a puppy who is nursing bites his mother's nipple too hard, she will take his entire head into her mouth. She will bite down until the puppy lets out a yell and becomes completely still. Then she knows that she is applying enough pressure to get his attention. She will hold this pressure for a moment and then release him.
If a child were to displease a dog, the dog would react in a similar fashion. But when human infants and children suffer pain or discomfort, such as the dog biting their head, they react in an opposite fashion. Instead of becoming passive and motionless, they cry and thrash around. Their screams become louder as they receive more pain.
This communicates to the dog that he is not applying enough pressure, so he bites harder. This frequently results in death for the infant or child, when his skull fractures.
Your statement that "the most docile pets have been known to turn on a child, unprovoked" is rooted in folklore. The dog does not "turn on a child" - rather, he treats the child as if he were a dog, and when the child does not respond as a dog, the dog steps up his expression of dominance.
In short, any dog can be a danger to any child, because of the different instincts each species possesses.
- Louis C. Castle,
Culver City, Calif.
Dear Mr. Castle: Thank you for an illuminating letter.
For an excellent guide to becoming a better conversationalist and a more attractive person, order "How to Be Popular." Send a business-sized, self-addressed envelope, plus check or money order for $3.95 ($4.50 in Canada) to: Dear Abby Popularity Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054. (Postage is included.)
1993 Universal Press Syndicate