What Calling a Dog “Cujo” Really Means

Rethink calling a dog "Cujo"

Let’s talk about the fiction story that Stephen King wrote called “Cujo” back in 1981 and became a popular film in 1983.

For over 40 years now, the word “Cujo” has been used as both a persona (“he’s like Cujo”) as well as a verb (“the dog went Cujo on me”) when talking about dogs that display aggression. How many times have you heard it be used? In my line of work, I hear it daily.

I actually read the novel out of curiosity. I have to say that I was PLEASANTLY surprised that Stephen King actually makes a very big deal over the fact that Cujo was SICK and SUFFERING greatly. His writing is exemplary in that he talks from the dog’s point of view in how he feels after contracting the rabies virus - the pain, the confusion, the discomfort. He describes how the sudden onset of pain can be paired with the arrival of a person and how that person could then be blamed for the pain itself. He paints a picture of severe headaches and disorientation as well as how simple things like drinking water tastes like swallowing sharpened nails. All of it linked to the comings and going’s of the people around him and how they must be responsible for how he’s feeling, therefore he wants to attack. Pain, startle responses, and suspicion all rolled in together do not make for a good outcome. I was impressed at Stephen King’s amount of empathy and compassion he tries to portray towards Cujo in the novel (in my opinion anyway).

Then I watched the movie. (Funny side note: my mom never let me watch Cujo as a kid because she said that she didn’t want me growing up to be afraid of dogs. Fast forward and look what I’ve been doing since 2003… I guess, thanks mom?! No shortage of “Cujos” in my life! LOL) Of course in the movie there’s NOTHING really given from the dog’s point of view. And I can imagine that the majority of Americans have watched the movie rather than have read the book. I was disappointed but not surprised.

BUT…

The bottom line regardless of whether you read the book or watched the movie is that CUJO WAS SICK. He was suffering. He was ill. He was dying. He was NOT a dog that “flipped a switch” or became “unpredictable out of no where” or was a “demon” or “was intentionally out for blood for fun.” He. Had. Rabies.

SO…

Can we please stop labeling dogs that display aggression as being Cujo-like? If anything, what the fiction story should teach us is that maybe there’s an underlying medical issue that is exacerbating or causing the aggression! Rather than calling a dog “Cujo” in a bad way, it should be a reminder to ask yourself if the dog’s medical and health have been cleared or not, first.

To hone this in a little more, I’m going to share some lines from the ending of the book:

“It would perhaps not be amiss to point out that he had always tried to be a good dog. He had tried to do all the things that his man and his woman, and most of all his boy, had asked or expected of him. He would have died for them, if that had been required. He had never wanted to kill anybody. He had been struck by something, possibly destiny, or fate, or only a degenerative nerve disease called rabies. Free will was not a factor.”

~ Cujo, by Stephen King