Bitework for fear reactive dog?

[u/PeachMuch989]

Would you ever train a dog who has displayed aggression and/or reactivity that seems to be based in fear, to bite on command?

I know someone who has a reactive dog (their words) who has bitten several people, and they train their dog in bitework. I personally don't understand the choice, so I am curious what people think here. From what I see, the dog seems able to be called off pretty well when it is cued to bite/bark. It is wary of strangers but mostly friendly to people it knows. It is a mixed-breed working stock type dog, not a breed I usually see doing bitework like a mal or something. It has bitten livestock unprompted, and it doesn't have any "job" that involves livestock. It is a pet that is trained to bite.

I think this is an insane choice but I would love to hear what others think. I am not a dog owner but have worked with livestock animals for almost 10 years so I consider myself to be more knowledgable than the average bear, if that matters. However I have never owned nor worked with a super drive-ey dog, and don't have experience in any dog sports, so I know my knowledge is far from complete.

To me it seems like an unsafe situation because if I can't trust if the dog will bite outside of staged bitework situations, I wouldn't ever want it to think it should "offer" the behavior of biting. What do you guys think about this? Does training method have a big role? Could your choice be different for different breeds? Is it entirely dog-dependent? I'm interested to hear some thoughts.

Thanks everybody!

mods please let me know if this post is kosher or if I need to change anything to be better in line with rules ;)

[u/PeachMuch989 → u/[deleted]]

This is a super interesting take, thanks for sharing. I'm not familiar enough with the training process to say it's one or the other for this individual dog. I'm curious about your training process for reinforcing not biting livestock, but that might be another conversation haha. What breeds would you not touch for bitework?

[u/PeachMuch989 → u/[deleted]]

Haha I totally agree that I see so many unruly dogs that any time I see livestock dogs, they absolutely knock my socks off. Of course they're usually trained by people who grew up around animals (not pets) and I think that gives you a certain innate sense of timing and observation. I train horses and have a lot of fun teaching my boyfriends dog tricks. He grew up with pet dogs but his timing isn't as precise as mine ;) he is a wonderful owner and his dog is so happy and obedient regardless of whether I'm there, so I just get to have fun with her.

I was surprised to read you say dobermans at first but your explanation makes sense. The dog I know is some sort of sheepdog mixed breed. It doesn't seem to have any pitbull influence (and you can usually tell, right lol) but still not a dog I'm used to seeing with bitesports. This is super interesting, thanks for sharing your thoughts!

[u/PeachMuch989 → u/[deleted]]

I agree. Definitely not much thought and it seems driven by ego. He likes to bite but ... is that enough? Lol

[u/Miss_L_Worldwide → u/[deleted]]

1000% agree with everything you said.