Aggressive dogs in unhealthy conditions

It’s late evening, the sun is already down, and it’s quiet. In fact, it’s too quiet.

I look around me and notice that all my animals are inside. Usually Thep and Thong are outside, patrolling their territory, but the two soi cats are stretched out on the floor. Even my white lady Mekhala, who usually spends her evenings on a ledge in the patio, is inside, on top of the refrigerator.

Everyone is watching me cautiously, even Wan-Wan, my poodle pup, who’s lying nearby. They’re aware that something is happening outside.

Finally, I hear it too – Mee, the chow-chow who lives next door, barking wildly, her owner Khun J yelling as loudly as she can, people up and down the soi shouting back and forth.

I hear “blood”, “rottweiler” and “fight”, but everyone’s too upset to make much sense.

The next day, J has calmed down a bit, enough to tell me what happened the night before. She was taking Mee for a walk, she says, when two rottweilers ran out of their house and attacked her dog.

Rottweilers on our soi? I’ve never seen them.

Yes, says J. They live in the house around the corner from us, but their owner keeps them inside. This time, the two dogs, a male and a female, escaped.

Then they saw Mee and attacked.

“Mee didn’t want to fight them. They’re bigger than she is,” J says. “She was frightened.”

I don’t blame her. Rottweilers are powerful animals, bred for protecting their owners and their owners’ property.

The ancestors of this breed were massive dogs developed by the ancient Romans more than 2,000 years ago to help drive their cattle during their wars of conquest. By the Middle Ages, the dogs were being used by butchers throughout Europe to drive their cattle to market. The butchers would then put their earnings in a purse and tie it around their dog’s neck, where the money would be safe from robbers.

Today, a rottweiler who’s been properly bred, trained and raised can be a companion dog who’s gentle enough to be trusted with a family’s children. A dog who’s kept in a cage and never sees the sun does not fall into this category.

How can an owner keep two rottweilers in his house? In my neighbourhood, the houses are not very big, certainly not large enough for this powerful breed.

As a chow, Mee herself is a member of an aggressive breed, although she’s always seemed more bark than bite. With her powerful build, she’s still gentle. She just doesn’t know her own strength. I could never trust her around my tiny poodle Wan-Wan.

I’ve always wondered what would happen when Mee suddenly faced a dog the same size or larger than she is, and last night, we found out.

J tells me that after a confrontation with Mee, the male rottweiler decided not to fight and returned home. His girlfriend, though, was interested in continuing the conflict.

Mee tried to run home, but the gate was closed. Luckily, J, who had been following behind, was able to open the gate a few minutes later. Mee ran inside, J slammed the gate shut, and the rottweiler’s owner appeared and took his girl home.

This morning, J finds blood on the gate, but when she checks Mee, she can’t find any wounds. In less than a minute, the chow’s sharp teeth must have injured the rottweiler.

I wonder just how healthy these two rottweilers are. I doubt that a well-exercised, well-muscled rottweiler would have allowed a powerful but overweight chow to win the fight.

It’s a frightening thought, isn’t it, that even in our little soi are aggressive but unhealthy dogs living difficult lives.