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What our dog's fear looks like and what it tells us

As humans, when we see a dog growl, bark, lunge, bare its’ teeth, snap, or bite-a common response is to think “that dog is a bad dog.” While this is a common and natural response to have as humans, it’s an incorrect assessment of the dog’s behavior. Aggression is a normal behavior for dogs to display in the proper context. Aggression can be utilized by dogs for a variety of purposes including: defense of resources, establishment within a dog hierarchy, self-defense when feeling threatened, and to obtain food. With that said, some dogs may be displaying aggression and putting dogs and/or humans in danger as the result of their response(s). Before we start, if you own a dog who is demonstrating aggressive behavior, it’s important and perhaps even life-saving for your dog, if you work with a professional trainer. In this post, we are going to go over why dogs display aggressive behavior-but nothing in here is going to “cure” your dog or help you manage the behavior 100%-so I encourage you to work with a professional trainer in addition to doing your own research.

Fear-Based Aggression
So, let’s get started-fear and defensive behavior is the origin of many, if not most, aggression problems presented in dogs. What does fear-based aggression look like? Common defensive responses include averting stares, exposure of the underbelly, urination, defecation, and retreating. The body posture of a fearful animal can include a dropped or tucked tail, ears laid back, dorsal piloerection (hackles), weight position over hind legs, and lip retraction (showing all teeth). It’s important to be able to understand your dog’s body language, some dogs are more subtle than others. But I promise you-they are trying to tell you something, we just might not always understand. See the image to the right to look over more detailed accounts of dog body language.

Common situations
Fear-based aggression can be seen in the following situations: when dogs are approached by strangers while on leash, a person reaching towards the dog, response to punishment training methods used by strangers or owners, strangers entering the home, children (they’re unpredictable and biting prevents movement), and other dogs.

What to do
Desensitize your dog to the stimuli by gradually increasing exposure to the scary thing and reward your dog for seeing the stimulus (with high value treats). For example, strangers enter the house-chicken falls from the sky (from your hands). In addition, counterconditioning is a technique that uses operant conditioning (positive reinforcement). For example, the dog sees another dog and looks at you (the dog is offering a behavior that is different than reacting)- click or mark with "yes" and treat. If you are consistently marking and rewarding your dog for looking at you when they see a stimuli, you will start to notice that your dog is more focused on you than on the scary thing. Both desensitization and counterconditioning associates the stimuli with a positive experience vs. a scary one. You should always be working at a distance where the dog is not reacting to whatever the stimuli is.

Remove Stimuli: If your dog is fearful of new people, have them ignore your dog during their first encounter to allow the dog more time to assess the situation without feeling threatened (and therefore the need to react). Similarly, if your dog has access to viewing passerbys through a window or door-remove their access to alone time in the home or yard and cover window access. When your dog has consistent access to visuals that frighten them, it keeps them in a hypervigilant state where they are constantly reacting. Not only might this bother our neighbors, it’s not good for our dogs to be in this constant state of stress and can make them more reactive inside the home.

Medication: This is important to consider and one that often people feel nervous about. But know this, medication can address anxiety issues that accompany fearful behavior. They allow the dog to be at a state where they can learn a new behavior, instead of constantly reacting to things that scare them. Talk to your vet or a vet behaviorist about this option if you are considering it, it doesn’t hurt to inquire for more information. If your vet isn’t comfortable with behavior cases-look for a fear-free certified veterinary office or ask them to refer you to someone who is comfortable working with behavior cases.

Myths and what not to do
Two big myths that are common for owners to believe is that their dog is aggressive because they are “trying to be the leader of the pack” and/or they are “trying to protect the owner.” Our relationship with dogs is much closer to that of a family, versus a pack of wolves. The theory of our dogs trying to be dominant over us has been debunked by several veterinary behaviorists and scientists over the past several years. The methods used by trainers who still believe in this myth are often harmful and damaging (emotionally and sometimes physically) to our dogs. Your  dog is displaying aggressive behaviors because they are anxious and fearful. Anxiety and fear are emotions that should never be punished. Punishing these emotions often makes the dog more aggressive and/or will result in a dog who is shut down (learned helplessness) and that’s not a way for any animal to live. In addition, dogs who display aggressive behaviors are often trying to protect themselves-not us. If we’ve struggled to establish a relationship of trust with our dogs-they may be displaying aggressive behaviors because as owners-we’ve consistently put them in situations that they are afraid to be in and therefore need to respond aggressively to in order to get out of the situation.

Again, if you have a dog who is displaying aggressive behaviors-you need to work with a professional trainer. This is a good starting point for basic things that will help you to begin working with your dog. Consider signing up for a Growly Dog class with us at Paws4Training by visiting the following link: https://www.paws4training.com/reactive-dog/. Many dogs display aggressive behaviors and you are in no way alone in your experience in attempting to manage your dog. Ask for help sooner rather than later!   

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