Three Types of Aggressive Behavior in Dogs

Since writing about aggressive behavior in dogs last week, I’ve decided to return to the topic.  There are quite a few different causes of aggressive behavior in dogs.  Knowing just what makes your dog feel the need to defend themselves can go a long way towards correcting the behavior and keeping anyone from being nipped or worse.

The article, Signs of an Aggressive Dog by Lynn Roberts, DVM provided by Petsit.com (http://www.petsit.com/content91.html) describes several types of aggressive behavior and how to recognize them so your dog doesn’t feel the need to elevate to biting.

There are three types of aggressive behavior, fear aggression, dominance aggression and territorial aggression.  As Lynn Roberts describes it, fear aggression can be the result of unfamiliar situations;

Fear Aggression. Fear aggressive dogs may bite if they encounter an unfamiliar person or a person who engages in behaviors that induce fear, such as abrupt approaches. Fearful dogs engage in typical behaviors, such as lowered body posture and tail position, ears pointing backwards and commissures of the mouth pulled back (fearful grin).

While dominance aggression is the kind of behavior that a person should really watch out for and really be careful of the dog displaying it.

Dominance Aggression. This type of aggression occurs typically if the dog is challenged over a resource that it values enough to engage in a fight. The motivation to show aggression can vary between individuals as well as from situation to situation. Dominant aggressive dogs engage in typical behaviors such as staring, head up, tail up, stiff gait, growling and baring the teeth.

Territorial aggression according to Roberts is more related to fear and can be avoided if the person understands that the dog is trying to protect certain areas that they consider their territory.

Territorial Aggression. Territorial aggression is fundamentally protective and may therefore be partly fear-based. The fear response is triggered by the perceived threat to a highly valued resource-the dog's "home turf". Territorial aggression usually occurs in a specific area that the dog guards.