As I child, my dogs were my guardians. They were unbelievably gentle and protective of myself and my siblings. We caused them far more stress and pain than they ever could have caused us. We’d pull their tails, their ears, we’d ride around on their backs, we’d jiggle their jowls and laugh at the funny faces that resulted, and our dogs, patient, well trained, gentle creatures that they were, would sit and tolerate it all without even the briefest suggestion of discomfort or loss of patience. Now, we were never left unsupervised while we were still infants and such, but at the same time we never once actually required that supervision.

The only time the dogs were anything approaching aggresive was when they were actively protecting us from perceived threats. The eldest and biggest, Ajax, had a habit of surveying the terrain when we played outside, staking out our territory. If we children wandered, he’d herd us back where we belonged. If a person that he didn’t trust or like walked down the road, he’d place himself between us and them, sitting down at attention, carefully watching them and us alike, making sure we didn’t go near them. If the stranger got too close or did something strange, he’d boom out with a deep, rolling bark – almost the only times I’d ever heard him bark in my life. Typically one bark was enough to warn off the stranger, and never was it actually justified – they were always innocent neighbors coming to visit my parents, or just mere passerby who strayed too close.

Dogs can be among the noblest, most self-sacrificing creatures alive. It just takes the proper attention to their needs and natures, the problem time and care to train them and bond with them.

That said, dogs are a commonplace pet – it’s worth learning how to properly deal with them.

I have no sympathy for untrained dogs or their owners.

http://www.cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety/dog-bites/dogbite-factsheet.html
http://www.plasticsurgery.org/news-and-resources/press-release-archives/2011-press-release-archives/how-not-to-be-a-dog-bite-victim.html

Staring down a dog is a perfectly normal and viable tactic for many negative behavior situations, and I can’t be certain what you would consider “aggresive” behavior. If you’re talking about being in legitimate fear of direct attack, yes I would recommend not challenging the animal with direct eye contact unless you think you can disuade it from advancing or unless you are physically capable of fending it off, but such behavior is not the norm, nor is it the only behavior that could be classed as “aggresive”. A strange dog approaching you in the street and barking and running around could easily be called “aggresive” without there being even the remotest change of it actively attacking anyone.

I am not a dog psychologist or behavioral researcher, but I assume neither are you. I’ve personally lived with and trained dogs since I was a child. I speak from direct personal experience, and from an at least passable ability to judge and read dog behavior, emotions, and responses to my own actions. From my own experiences, the overwhelming majority of dog behavioral problems come from inadequate training. And while this lack of training is regretable, until such time as it is done away with, I think it is worthwhile for people to understand the instinctual drives of domesticated dogs, even if only in generalizations derived from my firsthand experience, and not from scrupulous dog psychology studies which I do not have access to.

If a dog is attacking you, and you are in legitimate fear of your life? That’s one thing. If a dog is barking at you or misbehaving in non-threatening ways, that’s entirely different.

Tell me, if it was legal would you also shoot people before you retrained yourself to their behavioral standards? Or are your morals just self-centered and hypocritical enough that you can excuse the frivolous destruction of one form of life while condemning the destruction of your own?

However, when this is not the case, it falls to the individual to assert their own dominance over the dog.

Honestly, I’m going to shoot your damn dog long before I retrain myself to canine behavioral standards.

Sadly, there are a lot of badly trained dogs. Many people are just unwilling or unable to take the time necessary to care for a dog properly. Much like a child, a dog that isn’t taught the appropriate way to behave is probably going to cause problems for people. (Of course, that’s not to say that you have be draconian – quite the opposite, in fact. Both dogs and people respond far better to positive forms of behavioral conditioning than to negative or punitive ones.)

But I honestly do believe that a person’s behavior around dogs also influences the dogs. Remember, they’re descended from wolves. They have instincts for both pack dominance heirarchies, and for hunting of prey. If you behave in ways similar to either 1) a less-dominant member of the dog’s “pack” or 2) a prey animal, the dog is going to be compelled to respond appropriately.

Ideally, a dog’s owner should train it to understand that ALL people are to be treated as higher-tier members of the dog’s “pack”. However, when this is not the case, it falls to the individual to assert their own dominance over the dog. This is often a lot easier than it may sound. Dogs respond to deep and loud vocalizations, to tall and imposing postures, to eye-contact, and to body language.

If a dog is misbehaving and the owner is either absent or ineffectual, the individual can use any or all of these factors to exert some degree of their own dominance over the dog. Stand your ground, lock eye contact, raise yourself up to a greater height, and deliver commands in a loud, sharp, deep voice. The vast majority of the time, this is more than enough – it takes an exceptionally poorly trained dog to not respond to this clear sort of body language.

Unfortunately, this is hard to do for people who are afraid of dogs. They instead do all the things you should NOT do. They cringe which tells the dog “You’re scary and imposing!”, they break eye contact which says “I submit!”, and they cry out in fear, often with a high pitch, which just drives it all home. Everything about that behavior is telling the dog “You’re the Alpha! You’re tough! You’re the boss, and I don’t want to challenge you, I give up!”. Naturally this goads the dog on, and they get flush with their “victory” over you, and try to boss you around. And naturally that makes the scared person even MORE scared.

Being charged and threatened sure isn’t friendly, and really isn’t going to make nervous people like dogs any better, and thus it goes around and around :/