BSL

Breed Specific Legislation

This is legislation enforced in the UK where your dog can be destroyed if it looks like a banned type of dog, regardless of it's actual breed or behaviour. This was introduced in 1991 as a response to several high profile dog attacks and an increase in the number of people using "prestige dogs" as weapons. I'm old enough to remember the media stories at the time.

Obviously there are two emotional sides to this legislation. In my view there's the "I'm afraid of dogs and therefore they should be killed so I can feel safe" argument (spoiler: I'm on the opposite side). Then there's the "I want a pitbull" argument. Unfortunately, in any discussion which has it's basis in emotion, it's impossible to convince the opposing side. I can't cure your fear of dogs, you can't stop me wanting one...

• Are you seriously asking me to put my child's life at risk for the sake of your dog????
• But your child isn't at risk from my dog...
• YOU CAN'T KNOW THAT
• My dog loves children, he's super gentle with them
• WON'T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN
• Your dog might not kill children, but some people make their dogs aggressive. You can't argue that bigger dogs do more damage when they attack.

While while we continue the above argument ad nauseam, the dogs continue to die. Which is a shame, because we have a lot of evidence to show that BSL has been a complete failure in protecting the public. First off, "BSL has not succeeded in reducing dog bite-related injuries wherever in the world it has been enacted." National canine research council. If that's not enough of a blow to BSL, it's also not going to work in the future with some amendments because it's fundamental principle is wrong: "There is no evidence from the controlled study of dog bites that one kind of dog is more likely to bite a human being than another kind of dog. A recent AVMA survey covering 40 years and two continents concluded that no group of dogs should be considered disproportionately dangerous".

Unfortunately, the media has moved on from it's high profile cases of dog attacks, leaving in its wake new and harmful phrases like "large aggressive breeds". This means that stories about how the media portrayed dogs were completely wrong are very thin on the ground.

Despite the fact that we've a history worth of evidence to show that banning things is a terrible idea, we seem doomed to repeat the mistake over and over again. I find it soul crushing to think that we, as a society, look at a problem like "owners training their dogs to be vicious" and decide that eradicating the dogs is a sensible solution. That we would rather kill dogs than face our own fear of them. That we concentrate on "the dog problem" when we suffer 4 dog bite fatalities per year in the UK as compared to road fatalities in the thousands. No one has considered banning cars because it's simply not a workable solution...

I assume that during the talks prior to the introduction of the legislation someone must have said "Perhaps the problem lies in the owners, maybe we need to concentrate on the fact that society is creating people who want to hurt each other and are using dogs to achieve that goal". The fact that the lone voice of reason was lost in the desire to be seen to be doing something quickly is what really makes me sad.

A year of Bane

Big decision

Almost a year ago, I set off to Leeds to buy a puppy. After an awful lot of research I decided that a presa canario was what I wanted after I fell in love with the dog in the link. I returned with Bane, my 8 week old puppy after a lovely day playing with all the puppies and falling in love with Major (Bane's dad) whose looks and personality make him the poster child for large, calm dogs.

Lots of people in my life were quite concerned about the large quadrupedal killing machine I was bringing home. Fortunately, after actually meeting him everyone has changed their minds. However, I took my job of raising Bane to be a calm, well mannered dog, quite seriously and began socialising him from day one. I have been really lucky to find an awesome group of people to walk and train Bane with. It's been great fun learning how to handle a large dog and I thought I would write up some of the things I've learnt.

Raising Bane

At first, I concentrated on teaching Bane the simple commands everyone does: sit, come, lie down, stay etc. As everyone seems to find out quite quickly, your dog will come to you 100% of the time inside the house or garden, but perhaps a little less than that when you actually want the to - like in the park! My socialisation seemed to have worked a little too well and Bane would be too excited about playing with other dogs to listen to me. So i got some private tuition for him from a fabulous dog handler. I learnt to control Bane's excitement before he got to the other dogs and show him how I wanted him to interact with other dogs. This meant I had to be super calm during the interaction and not tense in case Bane ran off playing with another dog. The best piece of advice I got during this phase was "put your dog in as many challenging situations as you can and will him to do his worst, then you can correct his behaviour". Having the confidence to let your dog make mistakes and knowing you have the tools to correct any unwanted behaviour really speeds their training up and I definitely believe it strengthens the bond between you and your dog.

A lot of the tools to correct your dogs behaviour seem centred around keeping your dog calm during a given interaction. Stopping Bane being excited and rushing over to meet a new dog has dramatically reduced the amount of times he gets told off by another dog and increases his ability to listen to me when I want him to come away. On the pack walks we go to, each one starts off with the reminder "excitement is the biggest cause of fights between dogs".

It takes two

The next phase in what was really my training, not Banes, was to realise that it's not all about my dog. Up until recently, I'd really focused on having Bane do what I tell him. However, I noticed that Bane was an absolute prince on the pack walks amongst lots of other well mannered dogs, but out in the real world, he was often attacked by other dogs or people would create confrontational situations with him. For example, a man once shouted at me to get my dog on the lead, because he didn't want his family to have to walk past my frenzied killing machine. I should point out that at that moment in time, Bane was away from the path, oblivious to what was happening, sniffing his way through the undergrowth. I reacted in my own standard way, by explaining that if the man continued to shout at me the dog would be the least of his worries. Bane immediately sensed the confrontation and raced over to protect me. He placed himself between me and the man and barked his warning. I slipped a lead on Bane and walked off, however, I later realised that I should have taken control of the situation earlier.

So now, when I walk Bane, my focus is less on controlling my dog in a difficult situation and more about managing each situation so that Bane can just act normally. I have found it to be a really effective method for having a nice walk and it's quite easy to do once you get past that typical British reserve. There's a tendency for two people walking past each other not to speak or make eye contact. I think this makes their dogs think that it's up to them to take the lead then. If the owner of the other dog is a bit afraid of dogs, this can make their dog more protective and less likely to be happy if Bane wants to say hello. So, rather than let the dogs take the lead, I'll give a smile and say hello, perhaps make it clear that Bane's friendly. If that relaxes the other person, the dogs will follow suit if it doesn't then I'll call Bane over and put him on the lead.

I've also found that asking someone if their dog is friendly is a good opener. If the owner greets you with a cheerful response, I've always found the following interaction between the dogs to be friendly. I've also found that it sometimes jolts the other owner into action, a couple of times I've had the response "she can actually be a bit snippy sometimes, I'll pop her on the lead mate".

Survey of one

Obviously, these are my thoughts having reared a dog to the grand old age of one :) so I'm not claiming they are universally true. I do however, thoroughly recommend pack walks, socialisation and not getting a dog unless you plan to spend lots of time enjoying it!

I feel I should mention at this point that I actually have two dogs now, Bane and the lovely Silver - who came pre trained. However, everything I've said about walking Bane seems to apply to walking Silver too, especially the parts about setting her energy levels.