Canine Aggression

Pet dogs accept humans as part of their family group. They communicate with us in the same way they communicate with other dogs; with tail wags and facial expression but also with growling and biting. Dogs try to avoid confrontation by reading body language of other animals, including humans. However, people and dogs often misunderstand each other. We have all been told to offer dogs our hand to "smell".

Don't do this!   Dogs can smell you fine from several feet away. Sticking out your hand is threatening to a dog. Shaking hands with a dog's owner can also be perceived as a threat, as well as hugging the owner or trying to hug a dog. Patting a dog on the head or shoulders is pushy when you don't know the dog. Direct eye contact and leaning over a dog can also be perceived as threatening and may trigger biting. Given the differences in our communication styles, it's a wonder dogs bite as infrequently as they do.

More than 3 of every four bite victims are children bitten by a dog they know. Usually because of misunderstandings by the dog of the child's intentions and behavior. Injuring a person, especially a child, is a common cause of loss of life for a dog so it is critical that you get professional help to evaluate any biting behavior in your own dog. Your trainer can help you understand the triggers for canine aggression so you can predict, prevent and manage the behavior. The motivation for the behavior is the key to changing it. Of course, more than one type of aggression can occur at the same time.

Dominance or Social Aggression

"Dominance" is a popular term among dog owners today because leadership issues are the source of many behavior problems in dogs. If you are your dog's leader, you are said to be the "dominant" member of the relationship. This means if the two of you want different outcomes in a situation, your dog will defer to what you want. If you are your dog's leader, you will get consistent responses from your dog when you ask him to come to you or stop an activity. If you are having problems with your dog responding to commands or your dog is guarding resources, such as food, toys or members of the family, you should change your dog's perception of your leadership before you work on the specific aggressive behavior. If your dog is aggressive with family members, chances are he perceives you as an equal or feels he has earned a superior social status. Read about becoming your dog's leader to resolve problems with social status aggression.

AGGRESSION BETWEEN DOGS THAT LIVE TOGETHER: Dominance also affects relationships between dogs. If you have more than one dog in your home, they have a relationship with each other that is separate from their relationship with you. If you are not able to control the dog's behavior toward each other when you are present, work on the leadership issue described above first.

Communication between dogs is very complex but subtle. For example, one of your dogs may request  respect from the other dog by making eye contact for a portion of a second longer than is necessary. The other dog knows exactly what is being asked and looks away, yawns, sneezes or walks with his shoulders lowered. He may even lie down and expose his abdomen to signal his deference. If he will not show respect, the first dog may growl or approach and mount him or even snap his teeth together in a threat. Sometimes dogs will growl and snap at each other with a flurry of aggression but no one actually gets hurt. The appropriate appeasement behavior usually follows, even from a reluctant subordinate.

Periodically in all relationships there is room for negotiation. When one dog is generally subordinate, that dog might still guard a bone or toy from the dominant dog. They both respect this arrangement. The complexity often makes it difficult for humans to determine which dog is in charge. Especially when the subordinate dog is more energetic and assertive. Some dominant dogs are laid back and quiet. This confuses people, but not dogs. Most dogs who live together work this out by consistently falling into a particular role, top dog or underdog.

When you have two dogs who do not fall into a predictable pattern, you have dog fights. The easiest way to resolve problems between the dogs is to elevate the social status of the more dominant dog through the use of privileges. This will convey the wishes of leadership (that means you) and peace will reign. It's much more complicated than "one rules and the other drools". Top dog is not determined by gender, age or size or on which dog came first. The aggressor in fights is usually the correct dog to elevate. However, if the aggressor is always bested, then the qualified dog may actually be the non aggressive "winner". If both dogs initiate aggression it's going to be difficult to make a clear choice.

People like to give privileges to dogs based on human values; the puppy, the dog that has been with us longer, the victim. Remember, dogs only fight in an unstable relationship. If dominance issues are not resolved, the fights will not only continue, they may escalate until someone really gets hurt. If you want these dogs to live together you will have to respect a hierarchical relationship even when it goes against human needs to be fair or protect the underdog. If privileges are given to the "wrong" dog, the more qualified dominant dog will feel the need to put the "favorite" in his place with threats. If the favorite feels protected by your leadership, he'll challenge those threats and that leads to serious dog fights in which at least one of the participants requires medical attention. You must give privileges to the socially qualified dog regardless of your feelings of fairness.

If you reinforce social status of the naturally qualified dog, fighting stops in just a few DAYS. If you do not notice improvement QUICKLY, rethink who should receive preferential treatment as well as your leadership relationship with the dogs. You might want to keep a log of when and where trouble occurs and share it with an animal training professional or veterinarian.

Once you stop protecting the underdog, you'll need to read your dogs' body language carefully for about 6 weeks. At the first sign of a stare or stiff tail from either dog, you need to command both dogs to stop and move away from each other. Remember, when dogs are in this heightened state of arousal you do not want to grab or yell at either dog because increasing the energy of the moment can trigger a fight. It's a good idea to have the dogs wear their leashes in the house while you are there to supervise for a few weeks. This will make it possible to safely enforce your command to move apart. It'll also help if you spend time with each dog alone at least a few times each week. The more often they are apart and developing a relationship with you, the more secure your leadership role will be when they are together.

Maternal Aggression

Maternal aggression is the defense of puppies. A mother dog may become aggressive with strangers when she is nursing puppies. Avoid problems by keeping strangers away from a female dog with new puppies. If people come to view the puppies, remove the mother from the situation for safety. Be sure the visitors are gentle and have not been exposed to sick animals before handling the puppies. Maternal aggression can also be caused by a hormonal imbalance which may require medical treatment. Maternal aggression can also be diagnosed in dogs guarding another dog's pups. Young adult dogs left in charge of puppies may protect puppies from strangers as well. This type of behavior could also be classified as territorial or possessive aggression because the dogs are guarding something. If a mother dog defends her puppies from family members, she may not have a proper relationship with you as her leader (see above).

A normal mother dog carries puppies by their head or shoulder. The puppies are rarely injured by this seemingly rough handling, although they may whimper. This carrying behavior is not aggression.

A mother dog may hold her puppies or growl at them to teach them good behavior. A mother may stare at puppies or even growl at them in order to reprimand them for undesirable behaviors. Puppies may respond by whining or cringing. The puppies are not afraid of their mother. They are learning proper dog etiquette. A mother dog puts her mouth over a puppy's muzzle or head or presses on his shoulders with her paw. Sometimes the puppies cry. The puppies learn to display subordinate postures to her which they will display later to other pack members to avoid conflict.

However, if a mother dog injures a puppy, it is necessary to consult your veterinarian and a training expert. Some hormonal imbalances can cause abnormal maternal behavior that requires treatment with medication. This is an urgent problem because puppy lives can be in danger.

A related hormonal imbalance, called a false pregnancy, may occur in female dogs who have recently been in heat but do not have puppies. These dogs care for a toy or article of clothing as if it were a puppy. They may carry the item and defend it with "maternal" aggression. They may even produce milk. This condition occurs in the wild. It may allow young females to produce milk for feeding the breeding female's puppies. Even though this is normal, you may want to discuss medical treatment with a vet to resolve the symptoms quickly. Especially if a dog is displaying aggressive behavior.

Fear Aggression

Anxious or Fear Aggression causes dogs to bite when they are afraid or in pain. The dog bites because he cannot escape the situation. When your dog is in pain, take proper handling precautions such as muzzling or having an assistant. Certainly there is no reason to handle a dog that is in pain unless it is an emergency or the animal requires routine treatment. If your dog is fearful of everyday events, strange dogs or people, you should work with a professional trainer. Soothing and comforting a fearful dog, makes the aggression worse. If your dog is afraid most of the time, you may want to consult a veterinary behaviorist who can prescribe medication while you work with a trainer to change your dog's perception of the world.

Some fear aggression can be prevented simply by watching the dog for signs of anxiety. If a dog displays avoidance body language (crouching, wincing, blinking, upper lip warnings, and tail tucking) and can be allowed to move away from the threat, a bite is prevented. It's amazing that many dogs are not afraid of strangers and medical restraint. For those that are, the best solution is to muzzle the animal and minimize the length of the procedure. Luckily,  medical and rescue staff have equipment and are trained to avoid bites. It may be helpful to use anti anxiety medication prior to medical treatment in dogs with a known fear of the vet.

Dogs also develop fears of routine activities; riding in the car, people wearing hats, long poles, crinkling paper and thunderstorms. The first and most pervasive misunderstanding is that fearful dogs were once abused. This is simply not the reality of canine behavior. Many dogs that have been burned, beaten, ignored, and even tortured are sweet, confident and energetic. Many loved and socialized dogs are fearful of strangers and fearful of strange objects. This is not an indication of cruel treatment. **

So if the dog did not learn to be fearful through abuse, what is the reason for fearful behavior? These dogs are simply aware that strange objects can cause them harm. Dogs that are fearful enough to bite, should be taught to offer confident behavior on command. First, no more soothing and reassuring. You must start rewarding your dog for relaxed behavior when it happens naturally. Associate a command with the behavior. Say "Good Relax" and praise and treat the dog every time you catch him relaxed around the house. Now request the behavior by saying "Relax" just BEFORE the dog lies down. If he continues to lie down, praise and treat. If not, ignore him. Once the behavior comes about in response to your command, you can use the command in a stressful situation.  Also, consider having the dog wear a leash around the house whenever you are home to supervise (a leash can be a hazard to a dog left alone). This way you can pull the dog out from corners or from behind furniture without appearing to trap him and without having to grab him.

Remember that dogs bite when they are afraid or in pain to communicate their urgent need to escape the situation. A dog that bites when extremely afraid is normal. A dog that is frequently afraid needs training to become a suitable pet.

**Dogs that never met a person until they were over 16 weeks old display extreme behaviors due to the fact that humans are not part of their social group. Again, these dogs were never mistreated, just inexperienced with humans.

Territorial Aggression

Territorial aggression is directed at intruders; human, pet or wild. Both male and female dogs guard territory. Territorial aggression is intended to drive trespassers away from the home and food supply. Territorial behavior sometimes includes chasing a victim. Territorial aggression is always directed toward strangers. A subtype of territorial aggression is possessive aggression, in which a dog is guarding a specific toy, food, or even a person.

If your dog barks to protect your yard and home, you probably don't consider this a problem but allowing your dog to bark non stop at passersby or wildlife is not going to protect you and it will annoy your neighbors. Territorial aggression causes problems when dogs threaten people or get into dog fights. In some cases, a dog will guard you as his territory, making it difficult to take the dog to public places. Even behavior you accept, should stop on your command. If you are having difficulty with this, see the leadership program for help developing control over your dog's behavior. 

Before trying to treat territorial aggression, rule out other triggers for the behavior. If a dog is guarding items from family members, read about social aggression above. Fear can be mistaken for territorial aggression if a dog appears aggressive. Social aggression can appear to be territorial but social aggression is directed at family members. Territorial aggression can be confused with chasing prey. One way to tell the difference, is that territorial chasing is accompanied by barking, growling and jumping around while predatory behavior is silent (except in hounds). 

DESENSITIZING YOUR TERRITORIAL DOG: To help curb territorial behavior in males, have the dog neutered. Neutering will not reduce a dog's skills as a watch dog or change his temperament. Urinating on prominent objects in the neighborhood can contribute to territorial behavior. If your dog learned not to urinate in the house, there is no reason you can't use the same methods to teach your dog not to urinate around the neighborhood. Territorial dogs should be prevented from urinating outside your property at all times. The easiest way to accomplish this is to teach the dog to eliminate on command, in a certain area at home and avoid giving the command away from home unless you are traveling.

You can successfully reduce territorial aggression by desensitizing a dog's reaction to strange dogs or people. The dog can not be left out in your yard unattended for about 6-8 weeks because you must be able to prevent him from seeing the targets of his aggression outside of training sessions. Barricade the access to your door with a scat mat® or baby gate to prevent drama when greeting unexpected guests. Require the dog to wear a leash indoors (whenever you are home to supervise) so that he can be managed at a moment's notice. Do not punish your dog in the presence of the targets of his aggression (no yelling or grabbing) and do not hold him back. Simply pick up the leash, and secure your dog in another room.

To desensitize your dog to strangers at the door, have family members ring your doorbell and knock on walls for no reason to help your dog stop focusing on these sounds as signals for aggression. Ignore his resulting behavior. Arrange for friends your dog has not met who are confident around barking dogs to come by at prearranged times. Be waiting outside with your dog on a leash. Use a command such as "Watch Me" following the outline in the Basic Lesson. Command your dog to "Watch" you and reward all behavior that is attention to you. Have the stranger go out and come back in without knocking while you appear not to notice. Praise your dog for being relaxed up to the moment that he notices the stranger. Offering food rewards for sitting quietly is appropriate. At the first glance or move of the dog toward the stranger, all food must stop or you might accidentally reward the dog for alerting to the stranger which is the opposite of what you want. Have the stranger leave before the dog is aggressive but be careful not to have the stranger leave BECAUSE the dog is aggressive. This will reinforce the behavior more than your rewards will encourage any other behavior. Gradually reduce the distance between your dog and the strangers but vary the progress so your dog does not perceive the stranger getting closer and closer. At the first sign of aggression, say “no” and work the dog back to attention to you so you can reward him. Once he attends to you, the stranger can leave. Begin again.

Give the mailman a box of dog treats to drop through the mail slot or leave with the letters each day. This will help reduce your dog's feeling that strangers are a threat to his resources. You need not worry about your dog's ability to protect your home after training. All you are teaching your dog is that strangers who come in the door while you are home are not a threat. Your dog will still bark when you are not home and when strangers are not invited in by you.

To manage a territorial dog when out walking, do not pull on the leash while he or she strains to reach another dog. Straining against the leash mimics a threatening posture and may cause another dog to fight. If the other dog is leashed, walk so that your dog has to face away from the other dog. If the other dog is not leashed, avoid running or turning your back on the unleashed dog. Move perpendicularly to the other dog steadily away. Do not yell at either dog.

For desensitizing a dog to other dogs, teach the same "Watch me" exercise described above. When you are secure managing your dog at a distance from other dogs, enlist a trainer to help desensitize your dog using trained dogs. Training sessions are set up to decrease the distance at which your dog acts in a threatening manner through a series of exposures with supervision. It is important that you consistently reward the behavior you want (the dog appears relaxed) as well as that you correct the behavior you don't want (any ATTENTION toward strangers or dogs by saying "no"). The key is that the other dogs must be trained to prevent them from reacting to your dog's aggression.

If your dog becomes involved in a fight, do not yell, hit or kick either dog. This may escalate the aggression and cause injury to you or the dogs. If the dogs are leashed, you may be able to separate them with assistance by using the leashes to move the dogs apart. If you cannot do this safely, a very loud sound, such as an air horn or banging a metal trash can, will often distract the dogs long enough to end the fight.

Predatory behavior

Predatory behavior can involve chasing and even biting but it's technically not aggression at all. Aggression is intended to drive a threat away or eliminate it. In predatory behavior the intent is to get CLOSE enough to the prey to catch and eat it. If you are not sure if your dog's chasing activity is related to predatory instincts or territorial defense consider the following.

• Predatory aggression is preceded by hiding, stalking or sneaking while territorial aggression is accompanied by erect ears and tail, barking and jumping around.
• Predatory aggression is silent except in scent hounds who howl when they catch a whiff of potential prey.
• Predatory aggression is usually directed at small moving targets while territorial aggression is directed at intruders, especially near the dog's home, car or owner.
• Predatory aggression is never directed at something the dog fears. Herding and Retrieving are forms of predatory behavior.

Shepherd and hunting dogs are employed for their natural instinct to surround a group of animals , select one, (herding), and catch and bring it to a safe place to eat (retrieving). Even though these are hunting skills, domesticated dogs are so unlikely to carry out a complete predatory behavior chain from finding to eating, that farmers can leave dogs alone with sheep, cattle, even ducks and families have few problems with cats, birds and rabbits. However, predatory behaviors can be a problem when targets are bicycles or wildlife. Also, herding and retrieving dogs often include grabbing with their mouths in their attempts to "direct" people, which is obviously a problem.

Predatory behavior is difficult to stop because it is based on instinct.  You can not teach a dog not to think about chasing a moving object, however you can train him to respond to a competing command from you. During the training period of two months, you have to be present every time the dog sees a target and be able to carry out a deterrent for the behavior--every time. You must ensure that the dog is never exposed to the target unless you are present and within reach for the entire training period.

First, the dog must be taught to sit and stay on and off leash, with distractions. Once this is achieved, the dog can be placed in a sit-stay on a leash and exposed at a distance to the target (cat, bike, bird) and praised for not reacting. It is critical to reward the dog with praise and treats for NOT alerting to the "prey". If you wait to reward until the dog is concentrating on the target, you will reward the wrong behavior and make the problem worse. The dog must replace what HE wants to do with what YOU want him to do. At the first sign of interest in the prey, you say "NO". If the turns his interest to you, reward. If the dog breaks the stay in any way, apply a correction with a training collar. Move the target farther away and reinforce the previous non reactive behavior. Gradually move the target closer and continue to reinforce non predatory behavior.

The target will gradually be introduced while the dog is not on a commanded stay. The dog will simply be told "No" at the alert and rewarded for turning attention back to the trainer. Finally, while the dog is outdoors, off leash over the course of the two months the dog will be exposed to the target with the same goal in mind. At any sign of confusion on the dog's part, return to the previous level of success. An electronic collar is sometimes used in these cases so that the trainer can expose the dog to the prey and deliver a correction if the dog fails to respond to commands while the leash is off.

It's important to understand that shocking a dog to teach him not to chase a cat would never work. Teaching a dog to sit and stay on command under many distracting situations, then adding a collar correction when the dog disobeys a command he knows well, will help to teach a dog that he is required to respond at all times--even without a leash. The interest in the cat is still there but actual chasing is thwarted by a command the dog will obey as long as someone is there to give the command. Even with successful training the dog will not be safe ALONE with any prey target, ever.

In some cases, people fear that dogs that chase small animals or livestock will escalate their behavior and eventually attack humans. This is similar to being concerned that a mouse hunting cat will eventually take out a dog. Dogs that are socialized to humans consider humans to be family members. A dog should also consider other dogs and pets that she was raised with to be family members. Dogs that are socialized to livestock when young also consider farm animals to be family members. However, an adult dog that is socialized to humans and city living may very well attack birds or sheep at the first opportunity. This is not an indication that the dog is aggressive. Remember, aggression is behavior intended to drive others away; not catch and eat them.

A dog may be aggressive over territory toward cats, humans or other dogs but does not consider those trespassers to be a food source. This is territorial aggression, not predatory behavior. Certainly, a dog that is not raised with a human family, may very well consider humans to be alien and potentially could mistake any outside species for food. This includes dogs raised in isolation or dogs raised wild. These dogs may direct predatory behavior toward human children as well as wild animals and livestock. Dogs that are raised in isolation from other dogs, may even make that mistake about their own kind. This is a serious problem in large dogs because their size makes them capable of inflicting serious injuries on people. You would never be able to assure this dog's safety around any children at any time. If you have any reason to believe that your dog stalks children, or was never around humans until adulthood, you will need the help of a professional trainer and a commitment to prevent rather than cure. Euthanasia for these dogs is a likely outcome.