Play fighting can look and sound like the real thing.
Last month I attended the Western Veterinary Conference in Las Vegas. Yes, I know, it’s a tough job but someone has to do it. *s* During the week-long event, back to back seminars by veterinary experts offered the latest information on everything from chicken antibiotics and ferret care, to large animal info and—of course—cat and dog treatments.
Some of y’all know that I also write puppy-licious information at puppies.about.com and I’d just posted a series of articles on kinds of aggression. Guess what? The labels for one of the most common kinds has changed! So yet again, I’ve updated those articles as well as the ComPETability: Dog book (stay tuned shortly for the audio and print versions!), and wanted to share the information here.
It’s now called conflict aggression, but it used to be termed dominance aggression. The new descriptor makes lots more sense, though, because dogs that display this type of aggression act anything but “dominant” and instead do appear to be conflicted about how to act and what to do.
9 KINDS OF AGGRESSION & WHAT TO DO
Status Related Aggression can develop as the young dog matures and tries to find his or her place in the canine family group.
Sibling Rivalry has to do with interdog aggression and can be especially problematic when the younger pooch decides to challenge the older dog.
Fear Aggression is one of the most common types. Fear components can be part of nearly all the other kinds of aggression!
Conflict Aggression (used to be termed dominance) includes resource guarding (his bowl, toys, your bed!) and is directed at people.
Leash Aggression happens toward other pets or people when the dog is confined on a leash.
Territorial Aggression has to do with defending turf. We want dogs to protect us and our property–but it can go too far.
Predatory & Play Aggression can be normal for playful dogs–but can turn predatory toward smaller pets or infants.
Excitement Aggression often happens in doorways and hallways when the pooch gets too wound up.
Alliance Aggression appears to be uncommon but happens when one dog guards the owner from the other pets in the home–when you aren’t there the dogs get along.
Of course, aggression in and of itself isn’t necessarily evil and within the right context can be perfectly normal. Aggression always happens for a reason. Dogs and pups can be provoked into aggression by all kinds of clueless human behavior–it makes sense to the dog, of course! So to prevent dangerous aggression that can get you bit and lose your dog his home or even his life, it’s vital to learn how to understand doggy language.
Does this help with understanding canine aggression? What have been your experiences with your pets? How have you managed or prevented/avoided the problem?
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Woof! Woof! Golden Thanks for sharing these information. Lots of Golden Woofs, Sugar
Sugar, thanks so much for visiting the blog (and for your Mom’s help with the comments *s*).
Good article. Now I understand why my facebook has been full of aggression feeds. Lol
HA! Louise, preaching to the choir (woofing to the pack?) for lots of FB folks. *s*
I’m glad to see the terminology has changed.
Maybe that will help remove some of the confusion in how to deal with it. Need to poke through this post again and all the links when my brain is working a little better.
Karyl Cunningham recently posted…Brief lesson on fear avoidance
Karyl, my brain is all fuzzy today, too. Lots of reading online till my eyes don’t want to focus…:)
Thanks so much for this great list. I wrote about what I learned about dog aggression this week too. We don’t have sibling aggression anymore; we worked through that when our littermates were puppies. It was surprisingly easy and took confidence and patience on our part
Kimberly, The Fur Mom recently posted…A Dog Parent Learns About the Signs of Dog Aggression
Hey Kimberly, thanks for posting your link about aggression! The more we all can learn, the better for the dogs.
I’m not sure how to classify my dog’s aggression. I have 2 rescue border collies & the one (acquired when she was 18 mos old, she’s now about 6 yrs) was always intolerant of other dogs, didn’t like “playing” with them at the dog park (she gets along fine with my other resident dog).
I tried various things, but over time, it simply continued to escalate no matter what I tried, so I no longer take her to the dog park unless there is no one else there (although I do walk her regularly & have her in almost continual obedience classes — she’s fine as long as I can keep her onleash around other dogs).
She loves people. But she becomes prickly with dogs in her space — or just when there is a lot of “disorder,” rough-house play nearby, etc. Which category would this fall under? Excitement? Conflict? Territorial?
Hi Donna,
It’s hard to know for sure. Aggression can have components of different types. Prickly over other dogs in her space makes me think territorial, while the ‘disorder’ would fall under excitement or even fear aggression. Some insecure dogs react with fear aggression when routine changes or the unexpected happens–that could be a component of the disordered/unexpected rough housing.