How to train a dog to be Vicious.

Sadly, any f**ktard can train a dog to be vicious. Just tease the hell out of it, beat it randomly, feed it sporadically, leave it alone for long periods.

More sadly, the dog will usually still be loyal.

Dogs can be trained to be vicious on command the same way that they can be trained to sit and stay. Reward the desired behavior and punish any mistakes.

If you're a mean bastard to your dog, your dog will turn into a mean bastard. That's not entirely useful. If you want a usefully mean dog, you want to do something like this:

http://www.expertsecuritytips.com/how-to-train-your-dog-to-attack-on-command/

NB: I have never done this, and actual "attack dog training schools" charge a good deal of money so I'm sure it's nowhere near this straightforward, but it should give you a rough idea.

Tying a dog up in a yard on a leash/rope/chain will almost certainly exacerbate any aggressive/vicious tendencies it has. Teasing it while it's tied up, even more so.

It's always difficult to get answers on how to do something like this for two reasons:

1. It will depend on the personality of the dog, which is an unknown for posters. A naturally submissive dog, e.g. may take a lot longer to break.
2. You're asking people to give explicit instructions on how to torture a living thing. Ethically, people are going to find that a difficult question to answer.

How does anything get tortured? Does torturing dogs really differ significantly from torturing humans? You can inflict pain, withhold something they want or need, inflict pain on something or someone they care about, and many many other ways I'm not warped enough to think of, I'm sure.

You might want to hit the library for some books on torture or dog training.

While I feel strongly that people should be able to ask these kinds of questions without judgement, I'll add the warning that this forum is open to anyone with a simple google search. Please think about the information you're asking people to provide and the implications of having that information available to anyone who wants to find it.

benbenberi said:

Tying a dog up in a yard on a leash/rope/chain will almost certainly exacerbate any aggressive/vicious tendencies it has. Teasing it while it's tied up, even more so.

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Yeah, tie it up, throw things at it, poke it with a stick, put food just out of reach...

Just make it dread people coming around.

You could try researching dog fighting, as in police raids and what not. I'd imagine articles would mention the condition of the dogs, and possibly how the dogs are trained to be aggressive.

You break the dog's trust. You isolate it, hold back affection, punish it for trying to get affection, starve it, make it see other dogs as enemies to be afraid of, reward it for lashing out, beat it so it sees everything as the enemy.

Fortunately many dogs are able to recover from their abuse when rescued.

Leave it for extended periods of time in the dark, cut its tail...

On a totally different tact... Police dogs and such are trained the way Neptune suggested - reward the desired behavior. That would make a dog that is "vicious on command" but not really vicious, if that makes sense.

There are some details related to the dog's personality - like, they choose dogs who already have a vey strong "prey drive", that is, a drive to catch their prey. (Ex. You hang a treat just outside the dog's reach. Even though the dog can't reach it, he doesn't stop trying - that is a sign of a dog with a strong prey drive.) But those are details you can write into your story easily.

I'm getting tired of telling people not to debate the plot point. It doesn't answer the question, and it's not relevant to this forum. In future any such posts will be ported directly to TIO, as these have been.

There are two kinds of dogs who regularly attack.

1) Trained attack dogs like those used by the police or military.
These dogs undergo intensive training and must be extremely disciplined. The dog not only has to attack on command (they're generally trained to "hold" the person, getting one good grip and then hanging on) they also have to release immediately upon command. Think about how hard it is to train some dogs to drop a ball and you'll see the significance of this. Additionally, they will NOT attack unless expressly instructed to do so. (Dogs trained for ring fighting are taught different things, but they still have to be disciplined and responsive to their handlers. They would therefore probably fall under this first category).

2) Untrained dogs who are simply dangerous.
Dogs like this are unpredictable and their attacks are often fear-based. They may attack their owners and they will not stop attacking until they're good and ready (or until they're beaten off). The attack itself may also differ depending on the individual dog. They might get a grip and hang on, but they're equally likely to chomp down, release, and chop down again, over and over, causing damage to a larger surface area.

The first type takes great skill to train properly. The second type can easily be created by fools (and they usually are).

With that in mind, I have two questions for you.

1) Which type of "vicious" dog do your characters want to create? The disciplined police dog or the neglected, attack-anyone junkyard dog?

2) Which type will they end up with? They may want the first type but unless they've learned proper training tecniques, they'll probably end up with the second regardless. Certainly if their "training" consists of teasing and torture that's what they'll get. It also depends on the temperament of the dog. Some dogs respond to abuse by turning mean, but many others, I'd even say the majority, simply become cowed and fearful.

When I was a young girl, a friend of mine would cram her two dogs (schnauzers) together into a king-sized pillowcase and roll them down the stairs, which would inevitably produce a violent fight at the bottom of the stairs.

Sometimes she would zip them together in a sleeping bag.

I never had pets, so it was extra horrifying for me.

Also, I knew a guy who thought it was hilarious that his otherwise nice dog was terrified of this talking fireman toy of his son's. He used to terrorize the dog with that.

I suppose you could combine any of these elements as a way to make a dog defensive and vicious.

aruna said:

How would the boys tease the dog? I'm sorry but my imagination is failing me; maybe I just don't want to go there! Say they tie him up on a leash -- I don't think that's enough. I want him to snarl and try to bite everyone except the boys, so that he HAS to be kept on a leash. What could they do, as young boys? They wouldn't have access to protective gear, for instance.

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I can think of a few ways this particular behavior could arise.

1) It could be based in an overblown sense of needing to "protect" the boys as juvenile members of its pack.

2) It could be created by positive reinforcement, possibly unintentional. For example, the boys are out walking the dog one day. Someone approaches the dog improperly, maybe just getting in its face or otherwise making it uncomfortable. The dog responds by growling or snapping. The boys think this is awesome and/or hilarious. They may praise the dog, or the dog may just like that it made them happy. Either way, the positive response makes the dog repeat the behavior with increasing frequency until you get the scenario you described.


Unfortunately for your story, neither of these scenarios involve the boys teasing or mistreating the dog. At that point the dog no longer has a reason to protect them or to try and make them happy. They can create a dog that's aggressive to everyone, certainly, but they wouldn't be immune to that aggression. I've seen a lot of people who tried something like this and ended up frightened of their own dog.

The leash scenario makes it a particular issue because of the possibility of misdirected aggression. If a dog is really riled up and wants to attack something but is unable to reach the subject of their aggression, they may turn and attack whoever is closest, friend or foe. You'll see this occasionally when multiple dogs in the same yard bark at anything that passes. An overexcited dog that can't get to the cat across the street may turn and attack its companion instead, even if they usually get along fine. It's not common, but it happens.

Arrived late, but...

If the boys are spoiled and the dog is introduced as a guard dog for them, maybe they in turn spoil the dog (breed may be important) and it snarls and shows aggression when it sees them giving attention to someone else and they notice this and encourage it by showing excessive favouritism to their 'victims' in the dog's presence.

Dogs with a reputation for attacking people don't usually last long but I'm sure you have that aspect covered.

Good luck.