What are the signs of aggression?
Rescued animals tend to produce signs of aggression that correspond to their level of fear, frustration, anxiety, or resource possessiveness.
Typical signs of aggression in dogs include:
In cats, the signs of aggression may be more subtle, including:
Short of actually biting or scratching, most of these signs are warnings. Recognizing them may help to avoid a confrontation.
Why are some rescue pets aggressive?
Not all rescues are aggressive, and many acan easily adapt to their new family and home. For some, mild antisocial behavior may just be part of the acclimation process. Being reactive to every stimulus, or hiding under the bed are often temporary behaviors as they learn to trust their new humans and environment. With others, though, fear and anxiety from their past experiences can appear as aggression, which can be harder to manage.
To understand aggressive behaviors, it helps to have information about the history of the rescue, though that may not always be possible. Your new pet may have previously lived a cushy life indoors with a great family, but was given up due to finances, a death, bad behavior or other factors. Or they could have been rescued off the street where resources were limited and predators were a threat. And some very unlucky animals may have endured abuse or neglect. Living through these situations can create issues of abandonment, fear, anger or mistrust, or even PTSD. Like a veteran returning from war, these animals need time, patience and a lot of love to help them navigate their new life and begin to feel safe again.
Aggression can occur due to several factors, and knowing the type of aggression your rescue is exhibiting can give you the tools to help your pet overcome it. Types of aggression include:
Recognizing the cause of your rescue’s aggression is the first step to helping your furry pal adjust to their new life. Along with veterinary medical care and training, techniques such as trigger avoidance, desensitization, and reassurance can give you both the tools to succeed and live a happy life together.
Lucy was a proud owner of a German Shepherd called Harry. She had grown up with other German Shepherds and was very familiar with this breed and generally dogs. This big hearted woman had the capacity to love even more and decided to adopt a rescue Husky called Rich.
Today, more than 1-year on, Rich is 100% fine with people and other dogs. The signs of aggression have completely disappeared. Lucy, her family, Harry and Rich all live together.
I was smitten by Rich the moment I set eyes on him. Huskies are beautiful, majestic looking animals. They stand tall with pride and have an inspiring aura about them. Rich was friendly and curious, sniffing about my consultation room.
Rescue dogs have a special place in my heart. All three of my pets are rescued. Sometimes rescue dogs come with an unfortunate and undisclosed backstory. Aggression is a common tell-tale sign that emerges, sometimes after a few weeks of adoption.
While I had a strong suspicion that the issues were trust related, I had to be thorough. I first did a head to toe examination to ensure that Rich was not acting out of pain – hidden injuries can often cause grumpiness in dogs. Thankfully, Rich was free from injuries..
Dog shelter training – Predicting & Handling Aggression – Sue Sternberg
In no-kill shelters, overpopulation is an often-faced problem. Some individuals have better adoption chances than others, and over time, long-term dog populations develop. Our aim was to identify certain characteristics that long-term shelter dogs share and to investigate if long-term shelter dogs experience an impairment of welfare due to the restricted environment. In our study, long-term shelter dogs were more often of older age, male, of large size, neutered, and of a “dangerous breed”. They were also described more often as having behavioural problems regarding aggression and high arousal. The physical wellbeing of long-term shelter dogs was not impaired. However, they did show some stress-related behaviours, suggesting that they might be more affected by acute stressors and have more difficulties relaxing in the shelter environment. In sum, certain morphological and behavioural characteristics of dogs can be used to identify individuals at higher risk for a long-term stay. Thus, these dogs require special attention and effort to enhance their adoption chances. The results of this study serve as a scientific basis for developing such dog-specific strategies.
To identify characteristics that distinguish long-term (LT: stay > 1 year) from short-term shelter dogs (ST: ≤5 months) and to investigate if a long-term stay impairs welfare, we compared ST and LT dogs in Austrian no-kill shelters. Analyses including characteristics such as breed, sex, or age (shelter records), problem behaviour, and personality (questionnaires completed by staff) showed that LT dogs were significantly more often a “dangerous breed”, male, and older when admitted to the shelter. They were rated higher on “aggression” and “high arousal” and lower on the personality dimension “amicability”. A welfare assessment protocol including reaction toward humans (Shelter Quality Protocol), and in-kennel observations were used to assess the effect of the long-term stay. LT dogs tended to show more signs of aggression toward an unfamiliar human, but welfare assessment revealed no difference. During resting periods, LT dogs spent more time resting head up and had more bouts resting head down. Prior to feeding, they stood, vocalised, and yawned more. LT dogs are characterised by specific features such as being aroused easily and having difficulties to relax. Whether this is a result of the long-term stay or personality-associated, consequently causing lower adoption rates, remains to be determined.
The general purpose of an animal shelter is the temporary housing and re-homing of unwanted, abandoned, and stray animals [1]. If a no-kill policy is practiced, as is legally required in Austria, some dogs may have a prolonged stay in the shelter, and over time, a population of long-term shelter dogs develops. Several studies revealed physical or other characteristics of dogs that were associated with (reduced) adoption rates and thus might influence the length of stay of dogs in shelters. The appearance of the animal, its personality, and the behaviour towards the potential adopter were the most important factors influencing adoption in a study in the USA [2]. Studies about preferred characteristics have not been consistent, which might reflect regional differences in preferences, but the following characteristics were often linked to a prolonged stay in shelters: found/stray dogs [3,4], older age [5], larger size [5,6,7], being sexually intact [8,9], being male [8,9,10,11,12], having dark or brindled coat colour [6,12,13], having short-haired coat [14], being of mixed breed [6] or being a member of the so-called “fighting breeds” [12]. In addition to those characteristics, an adopter’s choice may further be built on information on (problem) behaviour and a dog’s personality. An adopter survey revealed that the adoption chances increase if the dog shows affiliative behaviour when first making contact [2]. Although high arousal and problems with controlling a dog’s behaviour (e.g., pulling on the lead, chasing things, stealing food) are the most frequently reported undesirable behaviours by dog owners, aggression was named as the most problematic behaviour for dog owners [15]. In general, dog owners prefer personality traits such as playfulness, friendliness, sociality, obedience, affection, compliance, high energy levels, and non-aggressiveness [2,16]. In Austria in 2009, almost one-third of the dogs housed in shelters were considered difficult to rehome by the shelter manager [17]. Despite this high proportion of potentially long-term housed dogs, to date, there has been no information about dog characteristics influencing the length of stay of Austrian shelter dogs. Therefore, in the first part of the study, we aimed at identifying the characteristics that differentiate long-term from short-term shelter dogs in Austrian shelters. We hypothesise that the group of long-term shelter dogs share certain morphological and behavioural characteristics that distinguish them from those dogs that could be rehomed within a short period of time. We also expect that reports on long-term shelter dog’s behaviour show more different or more severe forms of problem behaviours and that they will be ranked lower in the favoured personality traits compared to short-term housed dogs.
Confinement in a shelter environment often prevents a dog from engaging in species-specific behaviour such as the exploration of new environments and contact to conspecifics [18]. In Austrian shelters, 66% of the dogs are kept singly [17]. Furthermore, shelter dogs are confronted with a new and often unpredictable environment, and they experience a loss of control [19]. In the long run, this may cause chronic stress and lead to decreased welfare in sheltered dogs [19,20]. Socially and spatially restricted dogs showed increased aggression, excitement, and uncertainty when challenged with an acoustic stressor [21]. Behaviours such as paw lifting, vocalisations, repetitive behaviours [20], circling, self-licking, panting [22], and holding the head up during resting [23] were reported as signs of chronic stress and may therefore be used as indicators for impaired welfare. Previous studies looking into the welfare of shelter dogs most often did not compare the welfare status of long-term and short-term shelter dogs (e.g., [22]), and if this distinction was made, the long-term group comprised individuals with a length of stay of up to several weeks [24]. However, in Austrian shelters the average length of stay of a shelter dog is 5 months [17] rather than several weeks, and some dogs are housed for more than a year or even for many years. Based on that, we considered dogs housed up to 5 months as short-term shelter dogs and dogs that were housed in the shelter for at least one year as long-term shelter dogs. Therefore, the second aim of our study was to explore possible effects of the long-term confinement on the dogs’ behaviour and welfare. We hypothesise an increase in chronic stress levels in long-term shelter dogs indicated by more common occurrence of welfare problems as indicated by a welfare assessment tool including approach behaviour towards humans [25,26,27] and a greater prevalence of stress-related in-kennel behaviours and hence an overall decrease of welfare compared to short-term shelter dogs.
This study (ETK-09/04/2018) was discussed and approved by the institutional ethics and animal welfare committee in accordance with ‘Good Scientific Practice’ guidelines (GSP) and national legislation.