No, your dog is not ‘aggressive’ 🙄
“It happened out of nowhere!” “I was only walking past and they bit me!” “They just suddenly lunged at me…" Behaviourists often hear this from their ‘reactive' dog clients. They say it happened out of nowhere, there was no warning the dog suddenly ran at them, air snapped or even bitten. Now they can’t say this to you as bluntly as we are going to, but if they have got to this stage, this is on you. No dog does this without warning. Dogs are signalling to us all the time how they are feeling. You just aren’t reading your dog. Here are two examples of dog body language- the bottom pic is relaxed, the top one is a play signal (too much stretching can be a sign of pain though so if they do this a lot check their tummies for hot or hard or tender spots).
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They do this in subtle little ways such as a nose lick, blinking, tilting their heads away and down, or yawning when they are not tired. They may push a paw against you (not the same as pawing you) when you fuss them with little warning. They may start to delay when you call them. This is just the start of behaviours at the bottom of what is called ‘The Aggression Ladder’.
(Also see our blog that talks about fear stages in pups and young dogs, their body language could be being made more noticeable due to this too- the put the kettle on blog.) If these behaviours are not noticed/ ignored, or even worse punished because to you they are ’suddenly not being a ‘good boy/girl', dogs become more anxious because their non verbal crying for help is not being answered, they lose trust in you, and gradually move up the ‘rungs' of the ladder because they love you and don’t actually want to hurt you. The more they are exposed to the trigger and the more you ignore the minor reactions they have to them (like new noises, or people; or sudden changes of routine like going back to work (see our lockdown blog)) the more severe signs they need to show to get us to listen. The more you are going to feel disappointed in your dog, the more sad and stressed they get. And DO NOT THINK baring teeth is always aggression- it isn’t. It can be an appeasement gesture to show they are no threat. PLEASE know the difference as some of the behaviours are similar, here’s a good blog on that (not one of ours) This is not a snarl
Nor are these.
These dogs are playing, not fighting. They will likely also sneeze a lot, which is also a play sign.
Monkeys do them as well
And so do your kids!
They could (and this includes your kids!) even be non verbally apologising! It is up to you, as the adult, to break the cycle when the communication breaks down. Why aren’t they being a good boy or girl any more? They ARE. They are trusting that YOU love them and know them enough to ‘tell’ when they are sad or stressed, because they can’t talk. They may come to you unusually more for reassurance, and you’ll push them away because 'they’re not normally like that’. Instead you need to look at their body language Unfortunately our frustration at their deteriorating behaviour means we normally don’t see a problem until the dog is much higher up the aggression ladder, exhibiting behaviours such as stiffening up and staring or even growling. By this point, you have traumatised your dog and fight or flight responses will become inevitable. This happens very often in decompression too when you’ve overdone the fuss or stimulation in one day. And this is why we talk so much of decompression, and how to act and not act while your dog is in this stage of settling into their new homes. So, they’re growling at you now?
This is a massive fail on your part- your dog should never feel the need to growl at you. But of course, the breakdown in communication between dog and human means this is often the point they are then told off, corrected on the lead or dragged away should they growl at other dogs or passers by. The dogs quickly learn that when they express 'this behaviour' they will be reprimanded so they start to suppress it. Their inner tension rises and their body language changes again, but you miss it because you’re focusing on the end behaviour, such as:
the increased clinginess
unpredictable behaviour
or unexpectedly barking at the postie
or becoming ‘suddenly’ noise sensitive
and then you start to worry if they are ’safe’ out and about, and yes that worry will communicate down the lead to the dog. Your dog may look calm on the outside but internally they are going through a lot of stress; and it’s rising every day. Regular but short bursts of controlled exposure to these minor stressors where they always have an escape route can help to desensitise (even videos of the noises and situations while at home)- but if your dog wants to leave the stressful situation, let them! If the dog is then exposed to the trigger again in an environment they can't control, like another walk, a new walk, too many visitors who rough-house or overstimulate them, or don’t respect their safe space, and can’t get away the dog can go straight to air snapping or even a bite as they know there’s not point in showing lower level behaviour as it’s previously been ignored or punished. So the behaviour hasn’t 'come out of nowhere’...They’re not just ‘lunging' or barking at nothing… The dog was just suppressing the warning signs due to us not noticing the early signs of distress or fear of being told off. And that’s on you. It’s critical when helping a dog that is acting out 'aggressively' that we notice the early warning signs and help the dog at the bottom of the ladder rather than address it when the dog is at the top and is already over threshold. As what your dog is doing is not showing ‘aggression’, it’s terror. So stop saying ‘my dog is aggressive’. They’re not.
They are at their wits end, and horrendously let down by their humans.
Please learn to read your dog, even going on Google and you tube; and read articles and watch videos of pups being trained, pups indoors and out in homes, and in rescue; the behaviours they show, and how the experts interpret them would help you see it from your dog’s point of view and not yours.And should your pup start to show these behaviours, see you are reading their body language correctly, and/or see what you're doing wrong. If it's nothing obvious, consult a professional behaviourist. *Adapted from a FB post first by 'Taylored Training and Behaviour', then all and other sources cited where possible/available.