This was a legal case I was instructed back in January for. To provide a behaviour assessment and expert witness report on this boy for the courts. He was facing destruction under section 3 of the Dangerous Dogs Act/Control of Dogs Act Scotland with 3 charges brought against him.
The first incident involved an off lead dog running up to him while he was on lead and a child being caught up in this when sent to retrieve their off-lead dog. The local authority served a Dog Control Notice on the owner that required him to wear a muzzle and lead whenever in a place the public have access to.
Unfortunately the Control order was breached not long after the first incident, when outside the front of his home. His muzzle was removed from his face and was hanging around his neck. His owner was waiting for a car to pass by working on reducing his fascination with cars, which is common herding behaviours for his breed.
This is when a neighbour walking 2 small dogs, approached from behind, not able to wait to allow the owner and him to get out of the way once the car had gone, the neighbour continued to pass by at the same moment the car did.
The lying down hyper-focused eye gaze on the car, heightened stimulation of having dogs barking from behind, the neighbour continuing to pass him at the moment the car did, resulted in him lunging and the neighbour being caught in the cross fire.
This brought the 3 charges against him at court and he had a destruction on his head. The outlook wasn’t looking good and it really was touch and go especially after a breach. These incidents were back in 2020. Due to Covid it’s taken time to reach court. Thankfully today the Sheriff agreed with the report and has overturned destruction.
When I met him he assessed as a well-balanced dog with a good temperament inside and outside the home. We came across many dogs on our assessment outside, strange dogs as well as ones he knew and he was a dog friendly boy. We also came across other off-lead dogs running up to him that in the canine world would be classed as rude and obnoxious, charging at him, running at his face, jumping on his back and nipping at his legs, all overwhelming for him while he was walking on his muzzle and lead (takes a dogs feeling of escape away). He was a very tolerant boy who was able to cope in his environment and was responsive to his owner showing no signs of aggression.
Herding behaviours are common for his breed, controlling movement, chasing and rounding up anything they can replace sheep with. This can be other animals, cars, children, anything. This is obviously problematic when out walking and some collies have greater herding instincts than others but this can be managed with management in place, mental stimulation and positive reinforcement. His owner has invested a lot of time and commitment into training courses since the incidents, they have had 17-20 months of putting work in and it was evident when I assessed that his herding behaviours were already being managed and reducing.
Sometimes there’s a lot of pre-judgement and dogs are labelled “aggressive” in the local neighbourhood. This boy is one of those dogs that has been labelled as such.
However, the pre-judgement on labelling a dog aggressive is perception to the human eye. A dog barking, growling, and lunging due to fear, anxiety, reactivity, or herding, can all be labelled as aggressive.
What humans classify as aggressive behaviours are all perfectly natural in our doggos world when they are communicating with each other, using a variety of vocal displays to actually avoid confrontation and fights in their own world.
What our doggos find socially acceptable it’s us as humans that have deemed it inappropriate in our world, we just forgot to tell our 4 legged fur friends!!
A thanks to Charlie Benzies at Northern Law.
Muttropolitan Management 