Aggressive Dog vs Friendly Dog – Understanding Dog Behaviours
Below we will talk about some categories of behaviour of the aggressive dog and the friendly dog.
In her important work, “Canine Behavior, A Photo Illustrated Handbook”, Barbara Handelman introduces a full glossary of unique terms to describe the full range of canine behaviour.
Acquired Bite Inhibition (ABI) is a critical term in assessing the severity of a dog’s bite, according to experts. It is an interesting behaviour because it might seem to display aggressive intentions yet actually is a friendly or affiliative, playlike behaviour.
ABI assesses the amount of damage a dog can cause with a bite. This tool is essential in determining the threat level of a dog and the potential repercussions of such a bite on a human or another animal.
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Similarly, understanding aggressive behaviour is very important when handling dogs. Aggression in canids, involves threats, harmful actions, or postures, typically directed towards another individual.
These behaviours communicate a challenge, threat, or intent to harm, manifesting through signs like growling, posturing, or snapping.
Propelled by fear or frustration, Barrier Frustration/Aggressive Behaviour can occur when a canid cannot escape or reach the target. This reaction might be due, for example, to physical barriers, such as a fence or a leash, leading the dog to show aggressive behaviours. Notably, some dogs display Alliance Aggression, whereby fearful dogs exhibit aggression only if accompanied by their person or other allied dogs.
Interpretating the Friendly Dog – Affiliative Behaviour
Affiliative behaviour in canids is often misunderstood, though it’s actually a visual cue showing a desire to interact. Characterised by forward or neutral ear positions, relaxed mouth, and soft eyes, this behavior represents a dog’s friendly intentions and need for social interaction.
This resultant behavior is particularly evident in canid-to-canid greeting behavior and interspecies greetings. The dogs reach out with soft eyes and a relaxed mouth, offering a friendly gesture to their counterparts.
Understanding these signs of affiliative behavior can aid in humane training methods, foster better interspecies relationships, and improve dog-human interactions.
You could say it’s the canine version of a warm handshake or a friendly hug.
Both understanding aggressive tendencies and interpreting affiliative behaviors in canids can lead to better interaction and communication with these lovable creatures.
| Behavior Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Affiliative Behavior | Indicates a desire to interact, characterized by ears forward or neutral, soft eyes, and relaxed mouth. |
| Allelomimetic Behavior | Mirroring actions of group members, often seen in puppies from around five weeks of age. |
| Allogrooming | Gentle grooming behavior, focusing on another animal’s face and body, often a sign of social bonding. |
| Alpha Role | The alpha animal controls resources and sometimes the behavior of subordinates. |
| Agonistic Pucker | An offensive warning snarl where lips are drawn away from teeth, exposing incisors and canines. |
| Alpha Roll | A submissive canid rolls over to defer to another animal’s social status, not replicated by forced human action. |
- Barrier Frustration/Aggressive Behavior: Occurs when a canid is frightened or frustrated and cannot escape, leading to aggressive behavior.
- Competitive Aggressive Behavior: Arises from competition for resources such as food, toys, or human affection.
- Defensive Aggressive Behavior: Canids might attack when their attempts to diffuse aggression are ignored.
- Maternal-Protective Behavior: A female canid may attack if she perceives a threat to her pups.
- Pain-Related Aggressive Behavior: Occurs in dogs suffering from illness, injury, or chronic pain.
- Predatory Aggressive Behavior: May involve attacking other canids, small mammals, or even small children.
“I don’t trust people who don’t like dogs, but I trust dogs when they don’t like people.” – Jerry Seinfeld
Aggression Triggered by Health Conditions or Medications
Biologically-based aggressive behavior in our canine friends can be a result of certain medical conditions. For instance, idiopathic epilepsy, a common neurological disorder in dogs, can cause them to exhibit aggressive behavior.
Similarly, dogs suffering from Cushing’s disease, a condition that leads to overproduction of cortisol, or those with thyroid disorders that interfere with their metabolism and affect nervous system functions may show signs of aggression.
Brain tumors, too, can lead to unpredictable changes in a dog’s behavior, including aggression. Furthermore, aggression could also be a reaction to certain drugs.
Drug-induced aggressive behavior can occur as a side-effect of a prescribed medication or when the dog has ingested toxic substances. In the latter scenario, the toxicity can affect the dog’s nervous system leading to abnormal behaviors, including aggression.
Aggression Rooted in Social Hierarchy, Competition, or Group Dynamics
Within the canine world, signs of aggression don’t always indicate ill-intent. For instance, competitive aggressive behavior is seen when dogs vie for resources — it could be over food, treats, toys, favored sleeping spots, or the affection of their human caregivers.
Dominance aggression is another manifestation of social hierarchy among dogs. However, it is not necessarily linked to aggression, but about ensuring control in a particular situation. Similarly, group-related aggressive behavior is seen in some dogs when they are in the company of other canines.
Intra-sex aggression is another phenomenon where dogs may show aggression towards others of their own gender, emphasizing competition and dominance in their pack structure.
Aggression Stemming from Fear, Pain, or Parental Instincts
Dogs may also resort to aggression as a response to fear or pain.
Fear-related aggressive behavior is marked by behavioral and physiological signs of fear, such as trembling, escape attempts, growling, or even biting.
In instances of pain-related aggressive behavior, dogs who are ill, injured, or experiencing chronic pain may get aggressive when handled, as a means of protecting themselves from additional pain.
Maternal protective aggression is seen when a female dog perceives a threat to her puppies—triggering an aggressive response to shield her offspring.
Unpredictable and Play-Related Aggression
Idiopathic aggressive behavior describes an unpredictable form of aggression where dogs show aggression without a discernible stimulus.
Similarly, play escalation or predatory drift is a phenomenon where play between dogs intensifies and turns into a fight.
The transition isn’t necessarily intentional but can be a result of the dogs’ predatory instincts kicking in during intense play.
Paying close attention to dogs’ body language and signals can help manage and prevent such instances.
Different Forms of Aggression in Dogs
Within this category, we find various types of aggressive behavior that dogs may exhibit, each with its own distinct characteristics. Firstly, we have the Predatory Aggressive Behavior, where a dog may attack other creatures, including other canids, livestock, cats, small mammals, and terrifyingly, even small children. This behavior is often instinctual, arising from the dog’s natural hunting instincts.
Then, there’s also Punishment-Elicited Aggressive Behavior, which typically arises when a dog becomes aggressive as a result of physical punishment from humans, because the humans fail to recognize the dog’s submission signals. On the other hand, Resource Guarding is all about a dog fiercely protecting its assets—it could be food, toys, bones, or even human attention.
We also have the Social Aggression which is aimed at humans or other dogs, often as a response to perceived threats or dominance struggles. Lastly, there’s Trained Aggressive Behavior, a conditioning resulting from specific training to prompt aggression in particular situations.
Understanding Dog’s Aggression Due to Fear and Territory
Among the many behaviors exhibited by canids, proximity sensitivity and territorial aggression can seem particularly perplexing to humans.
Proximity sensitivity is often misunderstood, it includes fear aggression, where the aggressive conduct ends as soon as the perceived threat is far enough away; for them, distance is safety.
On a similar note, Territorial Aggressive Behavior involves dogs defending their familiar territory, which could include the home, property, or car.
For canids, territory is sacred. So, they will exhibit aggressive behaviors to protect what they consider to be their own.
Intricacy of Canid’s Aggressive Behavior
Under this category fall more complex and nuanced behaviors, beginning with Redirected Aggressive Behavior.
This happens when a dog redirects its hostility from a primary target to a secondary one. It may start as a reaction to a specific individual or situation, but the aggression ends up being directed elsewhere.
Following this is Ritualized Aggressive Behavior that includes only threat displays without the intent to harm. These displays can be quite elaborate and are often characterized by metasignals.
Submissive-Aggressive Behavior is another form, which occurs when a submissive canine resorts to aggression because its signals of submission are not recognized or overlooked.
Canine social behaviors display a wide variety of actions that demonstrate mutual interaction, hierarchy, dominance, and submission among their species. These behaviors, such as
- Agonistic behavior,
- Allelomimetic Behavior,
- Alpha Roll, and
- Allogrooming
play a critical role in defining the dynamics of their groups.
Agonistic behavior extends to dominance displays, defensiveness, and submission.
A signal of aggression in this setting can come in the form of an Agonistic Pucker, a menacing snarl exposing teeth. In developed hierarchies, the Alpha is the one in control of resources within the group.
And to demonstrate deference to a higher-ranking member, a canid may engage in an Alpha Roll or Submissive Roll.
Expressions and Reflections in Canine Behavior
Canine behaviors also display a variety of expressions and reflections from their immediate environment.
A collaborative behavior known as Allelomimetic Behavior is where group members imitate each other’s actions. Another notable behavior is Allogrooming, where canids groom each other, focusing more on the facial area but can extend to other body parts.
- The intensity,
- duration, and
- frequency
of these specific behaviors are often referred to as Amplitude.
It is interesting to note that wolves generally express higher amplitude than dogs.