Jenn and the Dogs

There are two kinds of aggression in dogs; Fear Aggression and Dominant Aggression. Dogs always do what works best for them. In fear aggression, when a dog finds himself in a situation that he finds scary and threatening, the dog will usually try to escape first. If there is no way he can escape, he will send signals, using his body posture, to say “You’re scaring me, please leave me alone!” (Signals include crouching body posture with head lowered and tail tucked in between the legs, hackles raised, lips raised to show teeth). If this doesn’t work, then the dog will escalade to growling, snapping, and if all else fails, biting and attacking. In most situations, it is not the dog’s fault if he reaches the point of nipping or biting. He did try to warn you and is only defending himself the only way he knows how.

In dominant aggression, the dog views himself as the leader and believes to have authority over his owner and sometimes over the entire household. In this case, the dog reacts aggressively in order to enforce his rules and in situations in which the dog feels his authority is being threatened. Again, the dog will always do what works best for him and will usually start with warning signals to get what he wants as if saying “You better do what I say or there will be consequences!” (Signals for dominant aggression include placing a paw or arm over you, placing their head over you, stiff or tense body, arms placed out in front and spread apart, leaning forward as if they are going to pounce or attack, head lowered, hackles raised, lips flaring and/or raised to show teeth, sticking the tip of the tong out.) If those signals don’t work, the dog will then try growling, nipping, and if all else fails, biting and attacking.

Some dog breeds are inherently more fearful or dominant. For example, many spaniels are usually submissive and become scared easily, while guarding breeds such as Chow Chows have a more dominant and challenging personality. However, problem behaviors that result from a dog that is overly fearful or dominant almost always result from a lack of or improper socialization and training. Also, abuse and neglect play a major role and can sometimes be irreversible. However, there is actually a much smaller number of dogs who are aggressive because of mistreatment verses dogs who are treated lovingly but where not socialized or trained.

Dominant aggression should never be tolerated, but at the same time a dominant dog should never be punished as this will cause the dog to feel threatened and the dog will react by raising his aggressive behavior to ‘remind you who’s boss’. Unless you’ve worked with dominant aggressive dogs before successfully, you should seek professional help to get a dominant aggressive dog under control without causing the bad behaviors to escalade.

For dogs who exhibit fear aggression, they too should not be punished. Punishing a fearful dog is like punishing a fearful child. Both just need to be taught that everyday situations are no thing to be afraid of. Sometimes fear aggression can get out of control and can transition into dominant aggression. This is often the case when a dog is so nervous and fearful on an almost daily base and sees no other escape but to act aggressively. Since acting aggressively is the only thing that seems to work (whoever’s scaring them backs away when they nip!) the dog starts to feel as though acting dominant toward the things that scare him works better then showing fear. Usually a professional can tell you if your dog is acting dominant out of fear, but it can be difficult for dog owners to tell as the signs are very similar.

If your fearful dog normally does not act aggressively (if they are okay in most situations and only exhibit fear aggression in certain situations, for example, when strangers get too close.) then you can try to help your dog with some training at home. Fearful, submissive and shy dogs all benefit from basic obedience training because it gives them the confidence they need to face our scary human world. Obedience training teaches dogs to look to us for directions. Fearful dogs are often scared because they don’t know what to do in situations that should not normally scare them. A dog who has reached intermediate to advanced levels of training has been taught to always wait for their owners instructions before acting in any situation. Thus, trained dogs know they have nothing to be afraid of because their owner has everything under control and will tell them exactly what to do. For example, when I walk my dog Motley and we cross paths with another person or dog, Motley will almost always look up at me as if to say “can I run over there and say hi?” and that’s when I say “leave it” and we continue on our way.

Obedience training also works wonders for dominant aggression as it is a sure way to teach you dog that you are the boss, not him, and that he must ask or wait for your instructions before acting in any situation. The only problem is that training must be done carefully and correctly, using only positive reinforcement, so that the dog never feels threatened during training.

Once your dog can be trusted to fallow your commands, you can then begin socializing them (or re-socializing them as the case may be). Once your dog knows commands such as sit-stay, you can use it to teach your dog how to behave around other dogs and people.