Feral packs of dogs can include Poodles to Pit Bulls and everything imaginable, in between.
That is true of course, but nobody seems inclined to examine the varying thresholds at which different breeds engage in that behavior. If even a "gentle" dog is abandoned (say, discarded by a former owner out in a rural area), it will pack-up with other dogs to survive.
In recent years, though, there have been many stories involving Rottweilers or Pit Bulls that begin to show feral behavior immediately after escaping from their owners' back yards. Many of these incidents occur when two such dogs get loose together. With less aggressive breeds, that scenario would mostly threaten every fire hydrant and tree in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, the "bully breeds" often turn such a romp into a hunt - and they're not confined to menacing the area squirrels and cats. And they often do this despite being well-fed.
I really do think this - the proclivity towards pack behavior - is an area worthy of further study and discussion.
They bit him. Later he was killed in traffic or something ~ the guy has replaced him with a Rotweiler.
I fully expect to see this guy eaten someday ~ he walks both of them together and he's not as strong as he imagines.
“I really do think this - the proclivity towards pack behavior - is an area worthy of further study and discussion.”
Yes it is but the conclusion is fairly simple.
Dogs are pack animals and dogs running together will often display *radically* different behavior when in said pack.
I’ve read of owners who turn the dogs out at night, much like some people do with their cats and then find out later that little Fifi and Buddy have gone on livestock killing sprees.
In the morning, their sweet little furry ball of gentle joy returns home and slips easily right back into harmless couch potato mode.
One of the cable egghead channels [can’t recall which] ran a show called “Life After Humans” in which, of course, for no apparent reason, we all vanish overnight and “nature” remains.
[ie, critters]
Most unfortunate and shortest lived are the dogs trapped in houses.
Then they go on to show how various breeds would fare without human intervention.
Packs of dogs form almost immediately.
Being least able to successfully hunt, the “frou frou” breeds go first, along with everything brachycephalic.
The working/hunting/sporting/hound/terrier breeds all do quite well.
The show jumps by decades and shows the inevitable evolution of “pure breeds” all intermingling; a Dingo-like dog quite adept at surviving without us.
[canine geneticists have long claimed that a “Dingo” like dog would definitely be the result of ‘artificially created’ breeds all reverting genetically back to the base canid form]
It was a fascinating show.
Cats, rats and pigeons did very well, too, naturally.
My dad had weird experience right up on the mountain behind me.
Something was killing all his hybrid rabbits and he took me up to look at the tracks, thinking it was coyotes who were killing but not eating.
[not very likely]
One look at the print told me was a dog..and large one, probably a Lab mix.
The other smaller prints had me baffled.
Dog, yes, but tiny.
So dad staked out the cabin yard and waited.
Around dusk, a large black dog came up through the field followed but what looked like only moving grass.
The small dog looked to be some kind of small beagle mutt.
He fired buckshot over their heads as they went after his rabbits and they hauled arse home, never to return again.
Turned out to be some guy’s dogs from about a half mile down the pike.
The big dog was a Lab/collie mix and the small dog was Beagle/? mix.
Very sweet gentle dogs....who turned into blood thirsty killers every night.
“Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.”
...or in some cases, a dog.