This is ‘socialization’. Gee, don’t you want some of that? Dogs are social animals, no?

After all, Merriam Webster says this about ‘social’.
“Living and breeding in more or less organized communities especially for the purposes of cooperation and mutual benefit : not solitary”

Boy this picture totally depicts that, doesn’t it? Stick 50 dogs in a dog park and watch this unfold. It certainly isn’t ‘solitary’ behavior, it’s occurring in a group so it must be a social gathering. So, what do you get? Behaviors common to the species. Is deadly aggression observed in dog populations? Boy, howdy, you betcha.

So where’s all that cooperation and mutual benefit stuff? It’s contained in the value judgment embedded in the word. Socialization is sold as a ‘panacea’. Nope. See “stew”. When you allow dogs or people to ‘socialize’ for the sake of ‘socialization’, you get what you get. Go to a biker bar on a Friday night wearing the wrong colors. You’ll get socialized to the emergency room.

Just putting animals together is a very lame concept. You will get what you get. Think of the term ‘reactive dog’ and you’ll know, in advance, what you are going to get. However, the term reactive is redundant. The all are reactive – it’s just that some of them have longer fuses than others.

The way to resolve this is to stop acting on fantasies. Dogs kill stuff for a living. They are all capable of great violence. That violence can be inhibited – and THAT is what creates pro-social, beneficial group behavior. Otherwise, toss them together at their peril…but bring bandages.