Your Alpha attack dog is VERY likely to treat you well. After all, you’re helpful, nice to it, non threatening and you’re in need of it’s protection. But you don’t actually control it. You might THINK you do, but can you trim its nails? Can you clean it’s ears? Could you take the dogfood bowl away from it while it’s eating? Does the dog ever growl at you when you push it around on the bed or try to push it OFF the bed? If it was running down a cat, would just your voice stop it?
Some, rare people have Alpha status over their German Attack Breed, and they are thusly domesticated “pets” but most do not.
People think I don’t like German Attack Dogs. For their intended purpose I like them very much. And in the past there were one or two that were well behaved and controlled by the owner. I don’t generally dislike them. I’d have one, but I’d have to really “own” it, heart mind and soul. I would need to be it’s boss and not the other way around.
Unfortunately, people these days are increasingly “soft” and for these breeds, LEADERSHIP is key. Without owners that understand that they have to lead these breeds, be dominant to these specimens, I can’t keep seeing them. So this year I called a moratorium on the attack breeds. I won’t start a new case with one. I’m not firing my existing clients with attack breeds. These, we have “figured out” how to arrange their visits so that people in the waiting room and other dogs don’t get hurt. Not the kind of thing you worry about with Golden Retrievers. Hahahaha.
I suppose I’d consider a show dog. Those are trained to permit easy handling by a championship judge. The breeder/handler owner is Alpha to the Show Dog. But that’s vanishingly rare in our town.
