There are a wide range of reasons dogs might show aggressive displays. When you see aggression in dogs, most people tend to want to try to determine why the dog is acting that way. Sometimes the behavior is simply a learned behavior that works for the dog. It might just be a developmental or genetic issue with a particular dog. Obviously, stress and fear can create an increase in the potential for aggression. We’ll never know for sure the reasons a dog is prone to act a certain way, but it is important to realize that there are many influences to aggressive behavior.
When you see signs of aggression in dogs, you have to realize this is just one part of the behavioral continuum you’ve been learning throughout this training. Aggressive displays, especially low-level displays, are an important way the dog can communicate without resorting to biting. This is what we want. The lower the aggressive display, the better.
Aggressive Behavior Factors
- Learned behavior
- Genetics
- Hormones
- Social Development Periods
- Stress and Fear
Aggressive Displays
Humans have a tendency to want to punish any sort of aggressive display a dog shows. But if you consider that punishment only gets rid of the warning signal, not the emotional state of the dog, it’s easy to see why you should not punish growling or snarling. These behaviors are giving you information so you can react to help the dog before he might bite. If you get rid of the warning signal, you’re going to just end up with a dog that may bite without warning, and that’s certainly not what we want.
There are a series of low-level displays that don’t seem like aggression but they are aggressive displays. The hard thing for most people to understand is that aggression is on a continuum. Obviously, biting and fighting or growling and snarling is the image that most often comes to mind when people think of aggression in dogs. However, these lower signs can be great indicators that a dog is not comfortable and he might develop more serious signals. Your job is to intervene at the lowest level possible. So learn to recognize these low signals.
Here you see an example of stiffening. Stiffness happens in short spurts. A dog will play, then stiffen, then relax again. At first the stiffening motions are very, very quick, but as a dog gets more nervous or confident the stiffening gets longer.
A direct stare with hard eye contact from one dog to another is also a threat. If you see this behavior, ideally the dog being stared at will look away, sniff the ground or do some other stress behavior as a way to defuse the situation. However, if the two dogs begin stiffening and staring at each other, this is a sign that trouble is brewing and you probably need to intervene.
Snarling is more obvious because you can see the dog’s teeth. Again, if the dog getting snarled at moves away, then this signal has served its purpose. However, if that doesn’t happen, you will want to intervene so the dog doesn’t have to escalate his aggressive display. It’s never easy to know how long a dog’s level of tolerance is going to last. Some dogs will snarl for a long time before they will bite. But others have a much lower threshold and may snarl only for a second and then immediately follow that with a bite. So it’s important to recognize this sign and take action immediately.
Barking and Growling. Like snarling, these are more obvious signs of aggression. There’s obvious vocalization and it sounds deep and threatening. It is a much different sound than you get when dogs are growling or barking to get someone to play with them.
As you learned before, resource guarding is when a dog shows an aggressive display over a particular object such as a ball, like in this photo. Dogs will also guard people, spaces, and locations. You will see the same aggressive display postures in all cases, so it is important to link to what the dog is guarding. Most often if you remove the object the dog is guarding from the playroom, then you can get rid of the aggressive display. Some people assume that resource guarding is natural for dogs and to some extent this is true. It is natural for dogs to want things. But you don’t want to see huge displays of aggression either. For example, I want my car to be intact when I park and leave it, so I’m going to lock it, but I’m not going to set to blow it up if someone touches it either. It’s all on a continuum.
Now take a look at these photos. For each one, decide whether you would intervene or ignore this particular behavior.
Looking at the top row in the photo with the Bernese Mountain Dog and the cat, I would intervene only because the cat seems a little oblivious to what is going on, but there’s obviously a large snarl from the Bernese Mountain Dog.
In the photo on the top, on the right, with the two Goldens in the snow, I would intervene mainly to lower the arousal of the play and see if that helps to calm the dogs down.
Let’s look at the photos on the bottom. The one on the left with the husky, I would ignore if the husky continues to leave the dog alone that has stiffened and is snarling. If he continues to pester the dog, then I would intervene.
Finally, the picture of the dog with the bone and the cat. The dog has a direct stare and may be resource guarding the bone. The cat seems like she’s going to go away on her own, so I would ignore. However, if the dog becomes more threatening, I would intervene.
Now you’re going to watch a video of what these aggressive displays look like between dogs. Again, dog language is very fluid and it happens really quickly. The more you practice watching, the more observant you will become as your eye learns to pick up on the different behaviors. We’re going to include slow motion footage because that’s a good way to help you learn to see things in a group of dogs.
Dog Incident Language
When working with dogs, you will see a wide range of aggressive displays and it is helpful for you and your co-workers to be able to talk about the incidents you see using the same language. We often hear the dogs got into a fight regardless of what behavior the dogs were showing and whether or not the dogs made contact. To be more consistent in our language we have come up with these incident terms. Write the definition in your workbook for each term.
Snark
A snark is an aggressive display in which one dog makes a strong vocalization but the other dog does not respond back. This might happen if the dog gets bumped while laying down and he gets up and barks a loud bark of protest but the other dog simply keeps moving along.It’s a sign of displeasure and you don’t want it to happen over and over, but it’s really low on a scale of serious aggressive displays.
Tiff
A Tiff is the same type of situation as a snark, except both dogs respond. There is no physical contact with each other but both dogs are barking or growling at each other. Generally, moving near the dogs and talking to them will cause them to stop. Neither a snark nor a tiff last very long.
Scuffle
In a scuffle, there is contact made and not just vocalizations. The dogs might move in the air and their front legs or chest may touch, they may whip around toward the other dog or they may muzzle punch or run into the other dog. The difference between this, a snark or a tiff, is that the dogs are moving more, there may even be snapping which doesn’t make contact.
A scuffle is more than just the vocalizations of the snark and tiff. A scuffle normally doesn’t last more that three to five seconds, and can usually be interrupted by making a loud noise.
Fight
With a fight, the dogs actually make physical contact lasting longer than 10 seconds. They are trying to establish some type of rule over status or possibly over resource. Fights can be scary and it takes quick action to get all the dogs settled down if a fight does occur in your playgroup. A fight may or may not end in injuries. Remember that well-socialized dogs play with their mouth a lot.They can bite without injuring the other dog if they choose to do so. However, fights are obviously not appropriate in playgroups.
Injuries
We will discuss some common injuries you may see in your playgroups. Dogs can get injured in playgroups, but not just from fighting with other dogs. Look at the list of injuries in playgroup and write down whether you consider the injuries are from playing or fights. We will discuss the answers as we continue and you can take notes.
Nick on the ear
This is probably an injury from play, unless it is a deep puncture or a tear. Small nicks happen when dogs mouth one another’s necks, heads and ears, but the nick is usually not something to worry about in regards to aggression.
Surface nick on the face, neck or thigh
Again, this is probably a result of play. We equate this to kids that get scraped knees on the playground. All the activity and racing around during the off-leash playgroup setting can result in some superficial injuries, especially if the dog has a thin coat like Whippets, Dalmatians or Greyhounds.
Deep puncture wound
Now this is probably the result of a bite. Dogs that deliver deep puncture wounds to other dogs are not appropriate in an off-leash play setting.
More than one puncture wound
That would also be an injury from a fight and would be even more serious because it means the dog bit more than once.
Bite Level Assessment
This is Dr. Ian Dunbar’s bite level assessment chart that we will use at K9 Club. This chart shows the way you can assess the bite of a dog. Just as aggression is on a continuum, so are bites. A dog bites with the exact intensity he desires, and a dog can bite five times in the amount of time it takes you to pull your hand away from him or her.
If a dog snaps at you and you pulled your hand away just in time to prevent a bite, I’d venture to say it wasn’t the fact that you’re faster than the dog. You didn’t get bitten because the dog chose not to bite you.
You’ll notice on this chart that a Level 1 bite is one in which no contact was made. Many people will classify that as a nip or a snap and then quickly add, “But it didn’t make contact, or break the skin.” That’s good information to know, but in your center it’s important to be able to assess the bite so everyone is speaking the same language. A snap that didn’t make contact is still a bite, it’s just a Level 1 bite. So when we’re talking to other employees or your supervisor, you want to classify it the correct way.
So, take a minute and read through the chart below. You will find a copy of the chart in your employee handbook as well.
Dogs that display Level 3 bites and higher are not appropriate in an off-leash playgroup setting and need behavioral work with an experienced trainer.
This is a good chart to use because sometimes it’s hard to make an honest assessment when a dog bites, particularly if the dog is one of the favorites among the staff. By looking t the bite objectively you will be able to make better decisions that are not just bared on emotions.
K9 Club’s Policy on Dog Fights
Here is our Fight Policy Report , which you will have a copy of in your employee handbook and can review at anytime. Here is our Incident Report that will be used to document any incidents or fights.
If a fight breaks out between two dogs, you need to act quickly to stop the dogs from fighting while at the same time keeping yourself safe. It’s best not to grab the dogs, although that tends to be everyone’s first response. You need to be very conscious about trying other things before grabbing the dogs.
This infographic shows a list of a few generic actions you can try, but again remember to refer to our policy on handling fights. You can usually start by making loud noises. Yelling, banging something or dropping something on the ground can startle the dogs enough to get them to stop fighting. Pushing a chair or other object between the dogs can help break them up as well. Once the dogs are separated, you want to leash them quickly and move them away. Put them into an enclosure so they can settle down. As we have learned in previous lesson fights tend to spread like wild fire.
The added confusion of a fight in an off-leash setting is that the other dogs in the room will often try to get involved. If a fight breaks out, someone needs to try to separate the fighting dogs, but all other staff members should be moving all the other dogs out of the area so they don’t join in on the fight. This can be a dangerous time for everyone. After things settle down, you’ll need to check the dogs for injury. Puncture wounds are hard to see, especially on long-coated dogs. Be sure to check the dogs multiple times throughout the day. Sometimes you won’t notice a wound until an hour or two goes by and it begins to bleed.
So you’ve had a fight break out
After you’ve had a fight, and things have settled down, you want to document it on
the incident form. We have cameras, and staff will use the video replay as a teaching tool to learn what went wrong, and how you can prevent that sort of fight in the future. This is not a time to place blame, it’s a time to honestly assess what happened and see if there are ways to improve for the future. You want to see if there were problems with the way you were supervising or were there early warning signals that went unnoticed from the dogs. You’ll also want to assess the injuries and the temperaments of the dogs to decide if they should continue in an off-leash play setting.
As you work with dogs you’ll see all kinds of behaviors including the aggressive displays you’ve learned about in this module. Understand which dog might need help when you see a dog showing an aggressive display. Respond appropriately to the dogs as soon as you see low-level displays so you can prevent the aggression from escalating.
Using the handouts provided you have the proper tools to know how to stop a fight and how to document the injuries and help make assessments on whether or not a dog should continue in playgroup. All these things make you better able to protect yourself in the off-leash play setting and also keep all the dogs safe.