BarkSpot

Welcome to BarkSpot from Bark PDX, a blog dedicated to our pets and our lives and adventures with them. Here we will share ideas, information, news, links, fun stories, anecdotes and basically everything pet and animal related.

Big Dog, Bad Rap

While walking with one of my most favorite Rottweiler clients (you know who you are) the other day I got to thinking how obvious and unfair it is that some dogs get such a bad rap. This dog happens to be one of the sweetest and most gentle dogs I’ve ever met and she’s pretty well behaved too- but, does that get people to stop crossing to the other side of the street so as to avoid what must be a potentially dangerous situation? No! So, I was doing a little research on this topic and stumbled upon the American Temperament Test Society, Inc.’s website and found some very interesting information. They give dogs temperament tests on these areas:

• Unprovoked aggression
• Panic without recovery
• Strong avoidance”

In order to receive a passing score, the dog must not fail any one of these aforementioned categories. Just to give an example and break up the stereotype that some dogs have I will provide one comparison from the ATTS’ findings:

• Rottweiler with passing scores on this test:          83%
• Toy Poodle with passing scores on this test:          82.4%

Ironically, nobody seems to cross the street when I’m walking my Toy Poodle clients. While I think that one breed can arguably do more damage with a bite than the other, I think it’s worth mentioning that the probability of occurrence it almost identical.