Oh yeah, it's less that it was a good idea to keep guard dogs (I don't think it is, and training dogs to be vicious is one of those things that will reliably make me upset and angry just thinking about it) and more that it was just the predominant context where I grew up - most people didn't have dogs for friendly reasons.
There were some exceptions - my next door neighbor ended up rescuing a siberian husky that ended up being lent out as a running buddy for a few generations of high school cross-country athletes, but for the most part people had dogs to instill fear, and the common reaction to all dogs was at least a healthy sense of caution.
(editing to mention that the next paragraph and attached news article can be upsetting, per the training animals to be vicious and resulting consequences - don't feel like you need to engage or read if you don't want to)
In retrospect, I still can't blame folks in that area for being wary of the neighborhood strays - there was a case while I was in high school where some joggers were mauled by some of the stray dogs in said nearby dumping ground, and one of joggers died. It's an incredibly rare occurrence, and happened because they were being trained to be aggressive, but I also remember refusing to go through the woods alone to avoid getting harassed by the dogs before the incident. I'm not half as wary of stray dogs where I am now, but I also know a lot more folks around me that just have dogs as pets.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2019-04-13 11:45 pm (UTC)There were some exceptions - my next door neighbor ended up rescuing a siberian husky that ended up being lent out as a running buddy for a few generations of high school cross-country athletes, but for the most part people had dogs to instill fear, and the common reaction to all dogs was at least a healthy sense of caution.
(editing to mention that the next paragraph and attached news article can be upsetting, per the training animals to be vicious and resulting consequences - don't feel like you need to engage or read if you don't want to)
In retrospect, I still can't blame folks in that area for being wary of the neighborhood strays - there was a case while I was in high school where some joggers were mauled by some of the stray dogs in said nearby dumping ground, and one of joggers died. It's an incredibly rare occurrence, and happened because they were being trained to be aggressive, but I also remember refusing to go through the woods alone to avoid getting harassed by the dogs before the incident. I'm not half as wary of stray dogs where I am now, but I also know a lot more folks around me that just have dogs as pets.