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Relationship Between Scarring and Dog Aggression in Pit Bull-Type Dogs Involved in Organized Dogfighting

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Organizations responsible for placing dogs seized from dogfighting investigations often must determine if a particular dog should be euthanized because it is too dangerous or if it is safe to place the dog in an adoptive home. In this study, we examine whether the extent of scarring...

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Autores principales: Miller, Katherine A., Touroo, Rachel, Spain, C. Victor, Jones, Kelly, Reid, Pamela, Lockwood, Randall
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5126774/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27854270
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani6110072
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author Miller, Katherine A.
Touroo, Rachel
Spain, C. Victor
Jones, Kelly
Reid, Pamela
Lockwood, Randall
author_facet Miller, Katherine A.
Touroo, Rachel
Spain, C. Victor
Jones, Kelly
Reid, Pamela
Lockwood, Randall
author_sort Miller, Katherine A.
collection PubMed
description SIMPLE SUMMARY: Organizations responsible for placing dogs seized from dogfighting investigations often must determine if a particular dog should be euthanized because it is too dangerous or if it is safe to place the dog in an adoptive home. In this study, we examine whether the extent of scarring from dog fighting is a reliable predictor of aggression towards other dogs and therefore could be used to help make that decision. We found that dogs with 10 or more scars in the three body zones where dogfighting injuries tend to be concentrated were more likely, on average, to show aggression to other dogs. The relationship is imperfect, however. Many unscarred dogs were dog aggressive while some highly scarred dogs were not. Therefore, we recommend also assessing a dog’s behavior before making decisions about its disposition. ABSTRACT: When pit bull-type dogs are seized in an investigation of organized dogfighting, heavily scarred dogs are often assumed to be highly dog aggressive due to a history of fighting. These dogs may be deemed dangerous and euthanized based on scarring alone. We analyzed our existing data on dogs seized from four dogfighting investigations, examining the relationship between the dogs’ scars with aggression towards other dogs. Scar and wound data were tallied in three body zones where dogfighting injuries tend to be concentrated. Dog aggression was assessed using a model dog and a friendly stimulus dog in a standardized behavior evaluation. Scarring and dog aggression were significantly related, more strongly among male (Fisher’s Exact p < 0.001) than female dogs (Fisher’s Exact p = 0.05). Ten or more scars in the three body zones was a reasonable threshold with which to classify a dog as high risk for dog aggression: 82% of males and 60% of females with such scarring displayed dog aggression. However, because many unscarred dogs were dog aggressive while some highly scarred dogs were not, we recommend collecting behavioral information to supplement scar counts when making disposition decisions about dogs seized in dogfighting investigations.
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spelling pubmed-51267742016-12-02 Relationship Between Scarring and Dog Aggression in Pit Bull-Type Dogs Involved in Organized Dogfighting Miller, Katherine A. Touroo, Rachel Spain, C. Victor Jones, Kelly Reid, Pamela Lockwood, Randall Animals (Basel) Article SIMPLE SUMMARY: Organizations responsible for placing dogs seized from dogfighting investigations often must determine if a particular dog should be euthanized because it is too dangerous or if it is safe to place the dog in an adoptive home. In this study, we examine whether the extent of scarring from dog fighting is a reliable predictor of aggression towards other dogs and therefore could be used to help make that decision. We found that dogs with 10 or more scars in the three body zones where dogfighting injuries tend to be concentrated were more likely, on average, to show aggression to other dogs. The relationship is imperfect, however. Many unscarred dogs were dog aggressive while some highly scarred dogs were not. Therefore, we recommend also assessing a dog’s behavior before making decisions about its disposition. ABSTRACT: When pit bull-type dogs are seized in an investigation of organized dogfighting, heavily scarred dogs are often assumed to be highly dog aggressive due to a history of fighting. These dogs may be deemed dangerous and euthanized based on scarring alone. We analyzed our existing data on dogs seized from four dogfighting investigations, examining the relationship between the dogs’ scars with aggression towards other dogs. Scar and wound data were tallied in three body zones where dogfighting injuries tend to be concentrated. Dog aggression was assessed using a model dog and a friendly stimulus dog in a standardized behavior evaluation. Scarring and dog aggression were significantly related, more strongly among male (Fisher’s Exact p < 0.001) than female dogs (Fisher’s Exact p = 0.05). Ten or more scars in the three body zones was a reasonable threshold with which to classify a dog as high risk for dog aggression: 82% of males and 60% of females with such scarring displayed dog aggression. However, because many unscarred dogs were dog aggressive while some highly scarred dogs were not, we recommend collecting behavioral information to supplement scar counts when making disposition decisions about dogs seized in dogfighting investigations. MDPI 2016-11-15 /pmc/articles/PMC5126774/ /pubmed/27854270 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani6110072 Text en © 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Miller, Katherine A.
Touroo, Rachel
Spain, C. Victor
Jones, Kelly
Reid, Pamela
Lockwood, Randall
Relationship Between Scarring and Dog Aggression in Pit Bull-Type Dogs Involved in Organized Dogfighting
title Relationship Between Scarring and Dog Aggression in Pit Bull-Type Dogs Involved in Organized Dogfighting
title_full Relationship Between Scarring and Dog Aggression in Pit Bull-Type Dogs Involved in Organized Dogfighting
title_fullStr Relationship Between Scarring and Dog Aggression in Pit Bull-Type Dogs Involved in Organized Dogfighting
title_full_unstemmed Relationship Between Scarring and Dog Aggression in Pit Bull-Type Dogs Involved in Organized Dogfighting
title_short Relationship Between Scarring and Dog Aggression in Pit Bull-Type Dogs Involved in Organized Dogfighting
title_sort relationship between scarring and dog aggression in pit bull-type dogs involved in organized dogfighting
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5126774/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27854270
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani6110072
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