I must say, I, like you, was of the view that it’s best to never look a dog in the eye if it’s unrestrained and doesn’t appear friendly.

Adam Katz, the author of that article, is a professional dog trainer, so I imagine he does know what he’s talking about. He does qualify what he says, by saying you “may” be able to intimidate the dog by, among other things, making direct eye contact. He also stresses that you need to ensure that the dog has easy escape path, and that if the dog feels cornered, you’re “in big trouble”.

I think what you say about the behaviour of your Rottweiler cross is related to the fact that this was in his front yard. When people didn’t pay any attention to him and walked in as if they belonged there, he probably assumed they were friends. On the other hand, the people who looked at your dog before attempting to open the gate were probably a bit apprehensive, and a dog can sense that. Your dog probably assumed that they didn’t belong there and were not friends!

A very interesting experiment you carried out with the large strange dog while walking your poodle. It certainly seems to conclusively prove (in that particular case, anyway) the theory of not looking at a dog if you don’t want to provoke him.

I don’t think I’d risk looking directly at a dog myself. I think the risk is just too great. The options of not looking at the dog and/or turning and walking away seem much more sensible (to me).

Thanks for your input, Bevin.

Regards,
Brigitte

P.S. If anyone else has any thoughts, please leave your comments here and let us know what you think.

I read your website item about keeping still and facing the attacking dog. This is contrary to what I have been told by trainers at our local prevention-against-cruelty agency. They say turn your back and keep still or slowly move away. The aim is to avoid eye contact… because the dog see this as being threatening or confronting.

This has the ring of truth to me because of my observations with servicemen/meter men that would come to my house and either had my rottweiller cross attempt to bite an individual or greet them with a wagging tail. After observing these events it seemed to me that those who ignored looking at the dog and just opened the gate and walked in were not attacked. Those who looked at the dog and attempted to open the gate would cause the dog to jump up on the gate and try to bite their hand.

Just the other day when I was taking my toy poodle for a walk, a large dog in the front yard began barking at us. I turned from him and kept walking while it stayed where it was but still barking. After I had walked (with my dog who was quiet) for about 10 yards or so, I looked back at it and it immediately run towards me barking. I attempted to intimidate him by striding towards him shouting but he kept coming. I stopped and turn my back to him ans stayed still (with my dog on a short lead in front of me.. he was not barking but obviously scared). The dog stopped behind me still barking but not so savagely. I slowly walked away from him (with my dog in front). Again the dog remained where he was, barking and did not follow. After about 30 yards, I looked back at him and again he began running towards me. I picked up a large stone and threw it at him. He then turned around and went back to his home.

I think he was a young dog (or at least not old) but I believe he would have bitten me if I had tried to “eye ball” him. What do you think?

Bevin Pettitt

Canberra, Australia