"As soon as we dock their tails and crop their ears -- as is the case with fighting breeds -- welose critical communication with the dog. The main impediment to reading a dog's communicationis when the dog is a fighting breed. The best strategy for a fighting breed is to not communicateyour intention. This is why we hear about so may fighting breeds attacking without warning. Meaning there wasno growl, there was no bark, there was no direct stare, the dog just went from point a to point band did what he wanted to do. Likewise, they are disrespectful of the traditional signs of submission and appeasement. Whenyour German Shepard fights with your Lab, in a play fight or even a serious fight and one of thedogs goes belly up that is a cut off signal, it is an infantile, juvenile signal and wolves were wired tosay, When I see someone roll over like a puppy does, I don't want to hurt my own puppies, I betterstop showing aggression. So most dogs are hardwired to respond to a display of submission bycutting off aggression because it means you have won. But if you area fighting dog and the object is to inflict the most damage possible, a submissivegesture is just a new opening. In the early 80's, I started hearing from the Humane Society aboutthe fighting breeds they were getting (and they did not know what they were getting). They wouldput that dog into a pen with a German Shepherd, and the German Shepherd speaks "dog," theyplay by wolf rules, and the German Shepherd would go belly up, and the pit bull would justdisembowel him. They don't speak that language. They ignore that signal. And that's one of the most devastating things we have done to fighting dogs. Is that we havedestroyed their ability to speak good wolf or good dog. And they've taken it even one step further.The truly sinister communicator not only doesn't tell you what he feels or what he is going to donext. He lies to you. Fighting dogs lie all the time. I experienced it first hand when I was investigating three pit bullsthat killed a little boy in Georgia. When I went up to do an initial evaluation of the dog's behavior.The dog came up to the front of the fence, gave me a nice little tail wag and a "play bow" -- a littlesolicitation, a little greeting. As I got closer, he lunged for my face. It was one of those "ah ha" experiences. Yeah, that would really work. That would really work ina dog pit. Because 99% of dogs are going to read that as "Oh boy I am your friend, let's play --and there's my opening". I said, How evil is that? That we have been able to create a dog that cando something like that?
