The most aggressive dog breed....

[Liberal_in_LA]

The temperament and body language of Dachshunds often gives the impression that they are oblivious to their relatively small stature. For this reason, these little "hot dogs" require a good deal of training and structure at home. Without it, they are at risk of developing "little-dog syndrome," which may include behaviors such as guarding furniture, food, toys and other objects, biting and obsessive barking.

Their innately stubborn personalities can make them a challenge to train. Author E. B. White, who owned several Dachshunds, wrote: "Some day, if I ever get a chance, I shall write a book, or warning, on the character and temperament of the dachshund and why he can't be trained and shouldn't be. I would rather train a striped zebra to balance an Indian club than induce a dachshund to heed my slightest command."

In a 2008 University of Pennsylvania study of 6,000 dog owners, Dachshunds were rated the most aggressive, with 20 percent having bitten strangers. The study noted that attacks by small dogs are unlikely to cause serious injuries and are therefore probably under-reported.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/pets/detail?entry_id=61458#ixzz0lQC6YUXw

[saltpoint]

1. "I'm Rick Santorum and I approved this post."

- - -

Sorry, Liberal_in_LA -- I get carried away sometimes.

I've heard the same thing about Dachshunds. I try to like all dogs, having been raised with them. I like dog people generally. Friends of our have various breeds. Greyhounds are real sweeties. I'm a fool for Irish setter mixes, too.

Good post. Thanks. Recommended.

[depakid]

2. Lived next door to one of those furry lizards for a couple of years

Obsessive barking. Check.

Guarding toys. Check.

Snapping behavior. Check.

[kaiden]

33. I know two doxies who actually ate a man -- after he was dead.

[pnwmom]

3. How many humans do they kill every year? n/t

[Liberal_in_LA]

31. 1000s! With many more maimed and severely injured.

;-)

[blogslut]

4. I was going to say Chihuahua

Little buggers may be tiny but damn, when they're mean, they're mean.

[WolverineDG]

8. hairless, barking rats nt

[blogslut]

9. Well, I won't disagree on the barking, rat-like thing

But they're not all hairless. Mine was a short hair with black fur. She was really quite sweet except when the city guy would come in through the back gate to read the water meter. She would bark like crazy and when she realized he wasn't scared of her she would start to yelp as if she'd been hit by a car. My mother would have to come outside and console the poor man and assure him that our pup was a wee drama queen.

I loved that dog.

[Lasher]

11. I inherited two of those rats from someone else.

Bark, bark, bark. Bark at the squirrels. Bark at the birds. All hell breaks loose if anyone dares ring the doorbell. When Mrs Lasher comes home they're real happy but their yelping sounds like someone is whipping them with a switch. It's not like the regular barking. At those times I've taught the male to howl just like wolves do when the pack gets back together.

The male is more aggressive and when he first came here he tried to dominate our tom cat. That did not work out well for him. Lucky for him, the cat's an easy going guy. An uneasy truce has evolved.

[blogslut]

12. They're characters, that's for sure

[WolverineDG]

19. My grandparents had a little brown Chihuahua named Chico

and over 40 years after his & their deaths, we still remember how mean that damn dog was. I wouldn't hurt one of them, & would step in to stop someone from abusing one, but I really hate those barking rats.

dg

[Lasher]

36. When I was little I used to stay for a week during the summer with a cousin.

They had a Chihuahua named Tag. My cousin would think it was funny when he would tell Tag to 'watch him!' and the evil bastard would bark and snap at me even more than usual, baring its pointy little fangs. It really wasn't fair because if I would have appropriately corrected the dog's behavior - say, by kicking a field goal with the vicious little waste of air - then my hosts would have gotten mad at me. And I had nowhere else to go until the day finally arrived when I could go home.

I remember what a day of joy it was for me when I heard a few years later that Tag had died.

[w8liftinglady]

18. mine is a beast

he is as sweet as can be with my family,but becomes Cujo with strangers.My son's ex-girlfriend gave him to us-I think it was intentional.

[MiniMe]

5. I've been bitten by one dog in my life, it was a dachshund

It was a friend's dog.

[lukasahero]

38. Ditto that

7 stitches needed just under my right eye. People like to make fun of this stat but my mom didn't think it was funny when she realized how close I was to losing my eye.

[JCMach1]

6. When was the last time you heard about someone who was killed by a Dachsund?

As a child, I came within a whisker of being torn up by a pitbull for no damn reason other than dropping a school book to a sick friend. Needless to say, I dropped the book at the door, outran the beast, and jumped Dukes of Hazard style into the window of my mom's car (fortunately rolled-down).

[Mojorabbit]

7. I have one that showed up here

several years ago. Not aggressive in a bad way at all towards people but keeps my huge shepherd in her place which is kind of funny to watch. Great loving dog. My beagle on the other hand.....big challenge.

[flvegan]

10. How do I circumvent the bullshit? Let me count the ways.

And I have to chime in and cheer the pitbull haters on at this point. Bravo, idiots. Your media-hyped stupidity continues to entertain. I can't begin to understand how so many people can be so fucking stupid.

The most aggressive dog breed? It's one you have never seen, at least not in America. And be thankful for that.

This dog goes by the name Ovcharka or Volkodav. And you've never seen anything like it.

[Truth2Tell]

13. Here's an Ovcharka...

And can I just say that Googling for this picture revealed a world of very disturbing dogfighting videos and web sites that I think I would rather have not known existed.

Here's a better pic of an Ovcharka (which I'm sure, like pitbulls and humans, are loving creatures unless taught otherwise)...

[Warren Stupidity]

26. I had a friend who had a wolf-dog that looked like that.

It was not a nice animal. Ate cats for fun.

[geardaddy]

37. Check this guy out.

[depakid]

15. You seem pathologically in denial on this issue

[blonndee]

21. Now there's a coherent, well-thought-out counterargument.

:eyes:

[depakid]

25. Pit bulls kill and maim people!

Happens with such frequency that there's really not much more to say.

To people who reside in the reality based community that is.

You know, the one where we look at evidence and form rational opinions.

[jmowreader]

39. The Soviet GRU used these dogs in their Special Operations service

Viktor Suvorov talked about those dogs in "Inside the Aquarium." He explained that on the dogs' records, the GRU veterinarians would write "terrible things" about them--good viciousness, excellent viciousness. Part of the dogs' training was to kill people, and none of this theoretical shit need apply: they'd get some poor asshole off a death row (there were several) and let one dog kill and eat him, which was how they determined the viciousness level.

He also told about the infamous cremation film. You see, the Soviets had a policy of destroying all classified information by burning in a crematory. When an agent died, they cremated him because of all the secrets in his brain. Well...Oleg Penkovskij went WAY off the reservation so they tied his ass to a stretcher with piano wire and fed him--ALIVE--into the crematory feet first. And they showed the movie of them doing this to all GRU prospects as a warning. (Apparently the best part was when they took Penkovskij off the conveyor into the crematory, propped him up against the wall and made him watch while they fed a dead officer into the flames.

[uppityperson]

14. "probably under-reported", I agree. Just for fun, a couple articles from quick google

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/dog.mutilates.genitals.2.490060.html
Dachshund Mutilates Baby Boy's Genitals
Reattachment Found To Be Impossible



http://www.abcactionnews.com/content/news/weird/story/Dachshunds-attack-pit-bulls-and-girl/U3gUFoX5FkODwSlZKWmlhA.cspx
"According to a Hernando County Sheriff's report, the unnamed child was walking her friends two pit bulls when three dachshunds escaped from their home and charged the big dogs. The sheriff's report says, "The one dachshund nipped (the girl's)right leg in the back right above the ankle. (The girl) stated that the pit bulls did nothing but look at the three dachshunds.""

[Fumesucker]

16. I have two miniature Dachshunds and their personalities are as different as any other dogs I've had.

One is a barking machine but very affectionate with just about anyone, the other barks a lot less but is extremely attached to me, not so much to other people, she's not aggressive just kind of "meh". They both get along pretty well with other dogs after the usual doggy "getting to know you" period.

[Catshrink]

22. Jedi knight sleeps with puppy.

So adorable! (That is a light saber, right?)

Do you have any problems with the pups on the leather sofa?

[Fumesucker]

27. Yep, a light saber, grandson was just getting into the Star Wars epics..

He didn't go anywhere without the light saber for a while there.

The couch was actually a kind of "mouse fur" not leather but it's history now anyway. The leather chairs weren't much of a problem except right after the dogs claws had been trimmed and they were still sharp.

[Dappleganger]

29. Cute babies!

My sleeping little dapples agree, doxies are amazing!

[pipi_k]

17. Small dog syndrome...

One of my stepdaughters and her husband have a one-year old Basenji that is already showing signs of having small dog syndrome. She isn't exactly aggressive (yet) but she doesn't take any shit from anyone.

In comparison, my two 22-month old German Shepherds are pretty timid even though they sometimes sound awfully ferocious.

[Robb]

32. It's pretty much our fault

Small dogs get away with behavior that humans are naturally averse to in larger dogs -- jumping up on your lap, for instance. The behavior is unquestionably dominance-related, but we just think it's cute. :D I go rounds with my mother-in-law on what she lets her little dogs get away with.

[Catshrink]

20. I have two...

when I read the title of your post I thought: he's going to say pit bull or rottie but thought of my "big" dachshund when I tried to take his chewie away last night. It was not the same dog that snuggles and gives me kisses! Then I read your post and to my surprise, it's a doxie!

My big wiener is spoiled rotten. My other dachshund, the mini, is made of sugar, the most gentle creature I have ever been owned by.

[TuxedoKat]

23. We had a dachshund

that we got from my father-in-law when he moved. He was an okay dog, sweet and friendly. He wasn't overly aggressive with humans but a terror to other small animals and cats though. I think it depends alot on the dog's breeding. We have a cockapoo right now and although he's had training he is overly aggressive with visitors and strangers and I wish I knew how to correct that because I don't want him to bite anyone.

[TwilightGardener]

24. Meh. They are trainable, and I've never had an aggressive one.

They can be a little bit snappish, because they won't hesitate to defend themselves when being handled in a way that upsets them--but that's not aggression, IMO, and mine have never been snappish. You correct that when they are puppies, same as with all dogs.

[Dappleganger]

30. They were bred to be that way.

If they were a bunch of pussycats, the badgers would laugh in their faces while being flushed.

[Dappleganger]

28. There are two doxies passed out on my lap at this moment...

and they think this study is full of shit.

Mine have never bitten any person or other animal, and I don't know of any of my friends who also own doxies who've had that trouble.

If it was such a problem there would be insurance issues, but obviously that's not the case.

[PufPuf23]

34. The only dog that ever physically harmed me was a Dachshund

I was 5 yrs old at a BBQ with my parents and older sibling and a dachshund bit me in the face from the blind side and ran off with a spare rib.

Left a scar on my cheek that was very visible up until I could grow sideburns. Now only I know where it is as my face is older and weathered but there are only 3 larger scars on my body from over 50 years since the incident.

[Tailormyst]

35. Aggressiveness is not the same as deadly.

Also, people don't buy hotdoggies to prove how tough and cool they are.

BUT- the problem is still the same: Clueless owners.

I would rather meet an aggressive Dachshund then an aggressive say, German Shepard, would you not agree?