Part of my training mission is educating my clients on canine behavior. Many times, owners don’t understand the difference between reactivity and aggression and the cause of these behaviors. Reactivity is defined as an outburst of inappropriate behavior e.g. lunging, barking, growling. A reactive dog is not necessarily being aggressive. There are many different motivations causing dogs to be “reactive” on leash, from being afraid of other dogs (bark, don’t come near me), frustrated because they can’t get to the other dogs (bark, I want to play with you), being possessive or protective of the owner (bark, stay away from us) or, very rarely, because they want to fight the other dog (bark, I want to eat you)-true predatory type aggression!
Aggression is defined as attempting to harm or actually harming another animal. In most cases aggression is motivated by fear including self-defense or guarding/dominating a valued resource such as food, toys, territory or even owners! Dominance is defined as a relationship whereby one animal employs posturing or even aggression against another animal in order to gain priority access to resources e.g. the aforementioned food, toys, territory, owners etc.. Aggression can also occur when dogs are working out status in the pack, when the dog is feeling ill and/or in pain or when the dog is exhibiting predatory (instinct to detect, pursue and kill for food) behavior.
It is important for owners to understand that aggression is part of the normal behavioral repertoire of dogs. Any dog is capable of biting, whether or not the dog has a “bite” history. Nevertheless, since there is a “cost “to aggression i.e. aggression can cause injury to pack members and therefore weaken the pack, dogs have evolved sophisticated, ritualized behaviors such as growling, snarling, staring, snapping and nipping to increase the distance between themselves and the perceived threat to avoid injury. Since aggression is part of a dog’s normal social communication we should have a more realistic view of this behavior as normal defensiveness/resource guarding etc. Because the potential for aggression never entirely goes away it is unrealistic to think all aggressive behavior can be “cured”. It is more useful instead to focus on the reasons for aggression and then lessen the risk for your dog’s aggressive behavior by using Canine Command training techniques for both the dog and the owner. Please contact me at 239-963-7676 or caninecommand@comcast.net if you have any questions about this.
