In some cases it is not merely ‘curiousity’, or ‘fear’.
When I lived in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, the vet there told me that porcupines were putting his daughter AND son through college! I asked him how could that be?
He said that when a dog attacks a porcupine, he has to cut every quill out, surgically. The more quills - the more the charge will be.....
He told me that when a dog attacks a porcupine, and gets full of prickley needles, it ALWAYS wants to GET that nasty creature, (and makes a promise to itself that it will KILL it the next time!)
So, everytime a previously ‘warned’ dog sees a porcupine AGAIN, he goes after it, this time with even MORE verocity, getting more quills imbedded, than the LAST time!
If you are sound of stomach, do a Google “image” search - “Dogs with porcupine quills”.....
Man oh man, am I glad that there aren’t many porcupines around here! Linda does like to chase armadillos though! I would hate to have to have her teeth fixed if she actually CAUGHT one! LOL.
Reminds me of the movie ‘Homeward Bound’ when Chance took on a porcupine...lol. Poor doggie!