Aggression Assumptions Fail the Test
Long before dogs were being swabbed for their DNA makeup, they were being given personality tests to predict how they’d react in different situations. The tests aren’t perfect, but you can tell a lot about a dog by the way he reacts to strangers, sudden movements, umbrellas. Temperament tests are used every day by shelters and rescue groups to determine whether a pet is “adoptable” or not. What if these tests were used to validate policies about dogs, like the way car insurance companies use a teen driver's grades as an indicator of responsibility? Would breed bans stand up to the test?
American Temperament Testing Society (ATTS) is a national organization that promotes uniform temperament evaluation of purebred and spayed/neutered mixed-breed dogs.
How did pit bulls, the most common target of bans, rank in 2008?
- American Pit Bull Terrier 85.3% passed
- American Staffordshire Terrier 83.9% passed
- Staffordshire Bull Terrier 88.0% passed
For a point of reference, Golden Retrievers, the current most popular family dog, scored 84.6%, right on par with the pit bull breeds. The average of all breeds was only 81.9%.
The ATTS results debunk the theory that pit bulls have become so popular and overbred by the “wrong people” that they’re no longer trustworthy. Every breed that has had a heyday suffers from bad breeding and the litany of health and behavior problems that go with it, but these scores have been remarkably consistent over recent years (some of them have gone up a little bit), including the part where bully breeds pass at a higher rate than most other breeds of dogs.
No one seems worried about the breeds that had scores of 75% or less, like the Pomeranian, the Lhasa Apso, or some of the Dachshund varieties. Can you imagine anyone proposing a ban on those breeds? If we’re not taking the temperament of the dogs into consideration when we talk about legislation that’s supposed to protect communities, then what is being taken into consideration? Isn’t temperament the best tool we have to try and predict if a dog will act aggressively?
Not really. The best predictor of whether a dog will be a threat is whether the owner is responsible enough to spay/neuter, train, and provide proper care and supervision … which, of course, has nothing to do with any particular breed.
Photo credit: Sugar Pond
Stephanie Feldstein
is a Change.org Editor who has been part of the animal welfare and rescue community for over a decade, and most recently worked for an environmental organization.
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