ADDRESSING CANINE BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS :CHALLENGES & MANAGEMENT TIPS
Dog aggression is normal canine behavior. In the wild, dogs use aggressive behavior to hunt for food, to defend themselves, and to guard their territory. Dogs use aggression to intimidate or harm, but most of the time, dogs threaten aggression without needing to follow through. The reason is that dogs who are properly socialized understand and respect the pack hierarchy. Aggression in dogs is one of the most common challenges that many owners face. It is a severe behavior problem and should be addressed as early as possible.
It isn’t a simple matter, and the term ‘aggression’ is comprehensive; it refers to a variety of behaviors that can occur for several reasons.While there is no such thing as a ‘quick fix’ for dog aggression, there are steps that owners can take to alleviate the problem.
Dealing with dog aggression
Because people don’t communicate in the same ways that dogs do, misunderstandings between people and dogs can occur. If a dog feels intimidated, confused or threatened by a person, the dog may growl, show his teeth, or snap.
Unneutered dogs can be more likely to display aggressive behaviors. If your dog has not been spayed or neutered, that surgery alone may lessen aggressive behavior. Besides spay/neuter, the best way to prevent aggression is to thoroughly socialize your dog as a young puppy. Introduce her to many different people and situations. She needs to experience positive interactions with other dogs and other animals, and the sights and sounds of everyday life. Take her out with you often and make new experiences fun. Make sure she understands that strangers can be her friend; she should enjoy being petted and handled.
If you watch dogs play together, they often mouth each other in a sort of mock bite. Other puppies and mom dogs teach soft biting during normal dog play. Many dogs play with people in the same way — by mouthing our hands or other body parts. Though mouthing is not biting, it can become too aggressive to be acceptable. To discourage mouthing, always use a toy to play with your dog. If you inadvertently become the toy, say “Ouch!” in a loud, surprised tone and take your hand away.
Dominance, Fear, or Predatory Aggression in Dogs
While some consider aggression to be normal behavior in dogs, it can be impulsive, unpredictable, and even dangerous. Aggressive behavior includes growling, lip lifting, barking, snapping, lunging, and biting. With aggression directed towards family members or other people familiar to the dog, treatment is currently aimed at controlling the issue, as there is no known cure.
Types of aggression
Aggression in dogs is cause for concern in many dog owners. Aggression is defined as the threat of harm to another individual involving snarling, growling, snapping, biting, barking or lunging. Understanding the contributing factors in aggression can often help in the treatment of aggression.
Dominance Aggression
Dominance aggression is motivated by a challenge to a dog’s social status or to his control of a social interaction. Dogs are social animals and view their human families as their social group or “pack.” Based on the outcomes of social challenges among group members, a dominance hierarchy or “pecking order” is established. If your dog perceives his own ranking in the hierarchy to be higher than yours, he’ll probably challenge you in certain situations. Because people don’t always understand canine communication, you may inadvertently challenge your dog’s social position. A dominantaggressive dog may growl if he is disturbed when resting or sleeping or if he is asked to give up a favorite spot, such as the couch or the bed. Physical restraint, even when done in a friendly manner (like hugging), may also cause your dog to respond aggressively. Reaching for your dog’s collar or reaching over his head to pet him could also be interpreted as a challenge for dominance. Dominant-aggressive dogs are often described as “Jekyll and Hydes” because they can be very friendly when not challenged. Dominance aggression may be directed at people or at other animals. The most common reason for fights among dogs in the same family is instability in the dominance hierarchy.
Fear-Motivated Aggression
Fear-motivated aggression is a defensive reaction and occurs when a dog believes he is in danger of being harmed. Remember that it’s your dog’s perception of the situation, not your actual intent, which determines your dog’s response. For example, you may raise your arm to throw a ball, but your dog may bite you because he believes he’s protecting himself from being hit. A dog may also be fearfully aggressive when approached by other dog.
Protective, Territorial, and Possessive Aggression
Protective, territorial, and possessive aggression are all very similar and involve the defense of valuable resources. Territorial aggression is usually associated with defense of property, and that “territory” may extend well past the boundaries of your yard. For example, if you regularly walk your dog around the neighborhood and allow him to urinemark, he may think his territory includes the entire block. Protective aggression usually refers to aggression directed toward people or animals whom a dog perceives as threats to his family, or pack. Dogs become possessively aggressive when defending their food, toys, or other valued objects, including items as peculiar as tissues stolen from the trash.
Redirected Aggression
This is a relatively common type of aggression but one that is often misunderstood by pet owners. If a dog is somehow provoked by a person or animal he is unable to attack, he may redirect this aggression onto someone else. For example, two family dogs may become excited and bark and growl in response to another dog passing through the front yard, or two dogs confined behind a fence may turn and attack each other because they can’t attack an intruder. Predation is usually considered to be a unique kind of aggressive behavior because it’s motivated by the intent to obtain food and not primarily by the intent to harm or intimidate.
Symptoms and Types
It can be challenging to determine whether a dog is demonstrating abnormal aggression. Aggression is often exhibited near the dog’s food bowl, toys, and times when the dog is being handled. This type of aggression is shown to familiar people, most often their handlers or household members.
Signs of aggression
There are several subtle signs that usually pre-empt any overt displays of aggression. Dogs rarely bite entirely unexpected; they usually give a warning beforehand. If you can spot these signs, you may be able to intervene before the situation escalates. Early warning signs of aggression include:
- Body going rigid and still
- Growling
- Showing teeth
- Raised fur
- Averted gaze
- Eyes turning predominantly white
- Cowering
- Tail either tucked or rapidly wagging
If the trigger of the aggression doesn’t subside, then the dog will move into attack mode, and may do one or a number of the following:
- A guttural, threatening bark
- Snarl (a combination of showing teeth and growling)
- Lunging or charging at the person or animal
- Mouthing (biting without applying any pressure)
- Punching the person or animal with their nose, also known as ‘muzzle punching’
- Snapping or nipping at the person or animal without leaving a mark
- Biting hard enough to puncture or bruise
- Biting repeatedly in rapid succession
- Biting and shaking
Causes
Some breeds are more aggressive than others. These breeds include Spaniels, Terriers, Lhasa Apsos, and Rottweilers, amongst others, but aggression can appear in any breed. Dogs will normally demonstrate signs of aggression between the ages of 12 and 36 months, and is seen more in male than female dogs. Medical conditions and the after-effects of medical procedures can also cause an animal to exhibit aggression towards familiar people. In addition, inconsistent or harsh punishment from the dog’s owner can contribute to the animal’s aggression.
Diagnosis
During a medical examination, your veterinarian will look for fear-based aggression, anxiety conditions, and pathological disease. Typically, however, a traditional blood test will not find any abnormalities.
Treatment
Animals exhibiting aggression towards familiar people require strict behavior modification therapy, and possibly medication. Behavior therapy involves eliminating or controlling situations that may trigger aggression. Veterinarians will help the owner identify the triggers and behaviors, so they can work to correct them. Some dogs will require a muzzle until the behavior is under control. Affection control (working to make the animal obey a command before they receive any treats) is also effective for behavior modification. In addition, desensitization can decrease the animal’s responsiveness to anxiety and fear.
In some cases, physical activity can help reduce feelings of aggression in dogs. A low-protein/high-tryptophan diet has had success in reducing aggression. There currently are no approved medications to treat canine aggression, but surgically neutering aggressive male dogs is a common recommendation.
What You Can Do
■ First, check with your veterinarian to rule out medical causes for the aggressive behavior.
■ Seek professional advice. An aggression problem will not go away by itself. Working with aggression problems requires in-home help from an animal-behavior specialist.
■ Take precautions. Your first priority is to keep people and other animals safe. Supervise, confine, or restrict your dog’s activities until you can obtain professional guidance. You are liable for your dog’s behavior. If you must take your dog out in public, consider a cage-type muzzle as a temporary precaution, and remember that some dogs are clever enough to get a muzzle off.
■ Avoid exposing your dog to situations where he is more likely to show aggression. You may need to keep him confined to a safe room and limit his contact with people.
■ If your dog is possessive of toys or treats, or territorial in certain locations, prevent access and you’ll prevent the problem. In an emergency, bribe him with something better than what he has. For example, if he steals your shoe, trade him the shoe for a piece of chicken.
■ Spay or neuter your dog. Intact dogs are more likely to display dominance, territorial, and protective aggressive behavior.
What NOT to Do
■ Punishment won’t help and, in fact, will often make the problem worse. If the aggression is motivated by fear, punishment will make your dog more fearful, and therefore more aggressive. Attempting to punish or dominate a dominant-aggressive dog may actually lead him to escalate his behavior to retain his dominant position. This is likely to result in a bite or a severe attack. Punishing territorial, possessive, or protective aggression is likely to elicit additional defensive aggression.
■ Don’t encourage aggressive behavior. Playing tug-of-war or wrestling games encourages your dog to attempt to “best” you or “win” over you, which can lead to a dominance aggression problem. When dogs are encouraged to “go get ‘em” or to bark and dash about in response to outside noises or the approach of a person, territorial and protective aggressive behavior may result.
Living and Management
The treatment recommendations given to reduce aggression are designed to be lifelong and should be strictly and consistently followed by the dog’s owner. There is currently no cure for aggression.
Prevention
One of the best preventative measures is to not breed aggressive animals, and to begin socialization and hierarchy training at an early age.
What is conflict-induced aggression?
Conflict-induced aggression is a term that recently has been used to describe what was previously known as dominance motivated aggression, a term that is overused and may be an inaccurate diagnosis for why the dog is behaving aggressively toward family members. It is important not only to recognize all situations in which aggression might arise, but also why and how the aggression has developed in order to determine the prognosis (the possibility for safe and effective improvement) and to design an appropriate treatment plan. Aggression toward family members may be due to: fear and anxiety; conflict (i.e., uncertainty or unpredictability as to how the human might respond); defensive responses (as when the pet perceives that it might be punished); possessive behavior (resource holding potential), redirected aggression; or rarely social status aggression. Social status aggression is likely a combination of learned or conflict induced responses or related to impulse control disorders. Assessing the history with respect to the early encounters may help determine underlying motivation even when circumstances or body postures have changed over time.
Compiled & Shared by- Team, LITD (Livestock Institute of Training & Development)
Image-Courtesy-Google
Reference-On Request.
