Do Aggressive Dogs Reflect Their Owners' Personalities?

Question

Do you think there’s a link between the owner personality, especially aggressiveness, as part of its correlation with dog aggressive tendencies?

Answer 1

The owners of more anthropomorphized aggressive dog breeds were reported to have more anger, aggression, and hostile personalities according to research. It could be that a person selects a dog who shares his/her traits or varieites of such aggression or the owner's social structure like number of visitors and use of the neighborhood also contribute to the aggressiveness of the owner leading to the type of dog selected being a muscular guard dog.

Comments

My (very kind) family got a Rottweiler after we were robbed. We were hoping it will grow up and protect us. Cutest thing ever, loved everyone and everything except our cat

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The golden rule in the world of pet ownership is "blame the owner, not the breed."  There are no aggressive breeds, only bad owners.  I do see your point, but be careful with phraseology

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Ahhh okay, you definitely struck a cord with me on Number Four.

I have worked with dogs professionally for over a decade and this has DEFINITELY always been in the back of my mind because, usually, the dogs are GREAT when their owners aren't around, causing their dogs to be reactive to the energy they put out.

That said, even when a dog is great with me, I don't invalidate the owners when they tell me how awful their pets can be. After all, they know them best!

So, in my mind I just subtly observe the owners for their verbal and nonverbal behaviors and ques - really, like 98% of the time it's something the owners aren't doing and aren't aware of.

Secondly,I do strong agree and understand a "breed bias" when it comes to certain human personality times. This is a thing for sure and I've learned you can tell A LOT about an owner just by the way their dog behaves. Not always just by the breed, but people definitely select for a breed based on their perception of the stereotype and their beliefs  on how others will perceive themselves through their dog, if that makes sense. And this is absolutely not limited to just stereotypically "violent" dogs - but how e perceives another with a high-maintenance breed, or a working breed, etc. To an extent, yes, I will say for myself that when I meet someone with a well-behaved.... Let's use, a Cattle dog, for instance,I can infer that the owner, first and foremost selects dog as a friend first. Because you will not get the same kind of "mechanical" working relationship you would with them, as say, a German Shepherd. A Cattledog owner is also going to represent someone with a lot of patience and positivity. They tend to be thoughtful sorts of people because without a lot of meaningful interactions, inclusion in lifestyle, socialization, etc you will end up with a terrible hot mess of an animal with neurotic and stereotypic tendencies.

So, that's basically just kind of a long-winded example. Like I said, much can be inferred if you are observant. And it could easily go the other way as well.... I could easily keep going and going and going, but I'm anxious to get back to reading.... And that lovely voice.

This was not a "marker" I was expecting to see in this content but I think it's a highly underrated one And I am so glad you mentioned it!!!

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I'm the human form of a Rottweiler.

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My poodle, wouldn't be aggressive no matter who owned him...

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I like the fact that you bought up about stepping back and seeing things from their side. Not many actually do that. This I will disagree with. People can't change their situations and if they live in the City in a high crime area doesn't make them a ball of stress and aggression. People are complex individuals. We can't say that a place they live or how they are bought up will determine who or what they become. You can live in a beautiful house on the country side and hold an extreme amount of aggressive tendency. Still an interesting content. Some of it can be argued but then again that good Science when it can be.

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We have a Rottweiler, he is no guard dog- more like big baby

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I agree with most of this except for the dog part. There is no such thing as an aggressive breed only bad owners.

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Pitbulls are not bad it's the owner that makes them behave the way they do.❤

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Always loved your content and never hear anything you said I know is not true! But as an owner of a red nose pit from 6 weeks old still smiling at the age of 14 years old! There is no such thing as an aggressive breed of dog and is out of order to label any breed as aggressive! Any dog of any breed can be aggressive if they are not socialised as pups, shown aggression by disgusting people, trained to be aggressive or are scared to the point aggression is the last option they have left to get out the situation they're in! My pit redz love all other dogs small to big! Lets pups jump all over her and play fights with my neighbours Doberman who towers over her every time they're together without ever either dog getting aggressive! Don't label a breed aggressive please! Renowned behaviour psychologists teach you need the capability to be aggressive it's a default mood to use when have to to stop you gets used bullied taken the piss out of.. so do think dogs are any different???

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Lol My neighbor lady rescues pit bulls. She is the sweetest person ever. This part of the content was ridiculous.... She rescues them to give them better lives. But yet they are considered some of the most dangerous breeds of dogs there are. So I guess that means she's a dangerous person too??

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" violent breeds " ...
*Judgemental people tend to assume persons who own what they perceive as "violent breeds" as violent persons ...
there; I fixed it for you.

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Dogs aren’t “violent”.