Is making your dog aggressive important?

A young man was given a German shepherd dog as a gift, and this dog was a very beautiful and healthy one. At a time this guy started to ask me what he will do to make the dog vicious and aggressive, I tried to discourage him from attempting to make that dog aggressive but he insisted. He went asking around for answers and people told him to give the dog hard drugs among other things suggested. On learning about these crazy advice he got, I warned him that the aggression will not only be directed at intruders but also to family members that the dog does not know. He refused to listen and 8 months later he was finding it difficult to handle his own dog. One year later I was called from a general hospital to inquire if the dog is up to date with anti-rabies because someone has been battered by this same dog. 3 months after that call another call came in, this time from the dog owner himself to ask me how we could kill the dog. The dog tore his hand and it took 4months for the wound to heal.

Aggression is one reason why many Nigerians fear dogs because no one wants to be beaten by a dog. The growing trend of people trying to get aggressive dogs to secure their homes from mindless criminals who invade their homes to rob them and sometimes do unimaginable things to the family is increasing greatly. The Pit Bull breed of dog which has been ranked to possess the strongest jaw after Hyena is increasingly gaining patronage. Some Asians now post videos of these dogs killing other dogs, even humans; on the internet and it’s increasingly getting alarming.

The question is: “Is it important to have an aggressive dog?” I know many young persons that glory in owning an aggressive dog just to make their friends scared of the dog. This has caused a ripple effect to the extent that people go out looking for a dog that can bark and bite.

I have seen many of my clients giving their dogs away because they consider them less aggressive or not aggressive at all. In most cases I try to encourage them to just keep the dog and get another that has the trait of aggressiveness, sometimes I succeed and sometimes I don’t.

My advice is that if aggression is very important to the owner then special care must be taken to avoid accidents like the one described above. It must be mentioned here that it takes a very courageous dog handler to handle an aggressive dog so if you must own one then make sure you can handle it or don’t get it in the first place.