Read About Bad Dog

The Bad Dog is making headlines. From insurance companies blacklisting entire breeds because of a bad dog to municipalities warning people about a bad dog who lives nearby, the public seems to be acutely aware these days of problem canines. ImageIn addition, there is a runaway best seller about one bad dog who brought a family closer together.

Seminole County, Florida maintains a Web page with mug shots of every bad dog it considers a threat to public safety. These are dogs that have bitten or threatened to attack humans. This canine Rogue's Gallery includes pictures of each bad dog, as well as the name and address of its owner. If you click on a bad dog, up pops a map of where it lives. Other municipalities are studying similar ways to warn a person of where it thinks a bad dog lives.

In a similar fashion, insurance companies are increasingly concerned about people who may own what the company considers a bad dog. In fact, they are using the presence of certain breeds to deny homeowner's insurance to people, or to charge extra because they say a bad dog makes for a bad insurance risk.

In fact, some entire breeds -- not an individual bad dog -- have been blacklisted by insurance companies for producing bad dogs. These breeds include:

  1. Akita
  2. Alaskan Malamute
  3. Chow Chow
  4. Doberman Pinscher
  5. German Shepherd Dog
  6. So called Pit Bull
  7. Presa Canario
  8. Rottweiler
  9. Siberian Husky
  10. Staffordshire Bull Terrier
  11. Wolf/Dog breeds

The American Kennel Club objects to what it considers "breed discrimination." Some states agree and are considering legislation outlawing the practice. While there may be an individual bad dog, it is unfair to indict entire breeds, they say.

On the other end of the bad dog spectrum is Marley.

One pet who might be called a bad dog was a Yellow Labrador Retriever named Marley, the companion of John Grogan's family. ImageMarley destroyed much of the Grogan family home: stereo speakers, drywall, couch cushions, linoleum, furniture, a home pregnancy test -- if he could chew it up, he did. He barked incessantly. He was rambunctious and disruptive. You name it, Marley did it; he was certainly a professional bad dog.

Grogan, a newspaper reporter, worked with Marley instead of getting rid of him. His efforts -- and much more -- are detailed in a new bestselling book called "Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog". (Actually, this is not a book about a bad dog; it's about how a family grew together with its help.) "Marley and Me" has quickly sold just shy of a million copies and recently topped the Wall Street Journal's list of best selling books.

Not bad for a bad dog.