Identifying Aggression in Dogs: Offensive VS Defensive
Dogs operate very honestly and clearly. They show their emotions and needs through body language. Whether they are trying to show aggression or appeasement behaviours, youll see changes to posture and expression. Identifying aggression in dogs is fairly straight forward with a little bit of learning.
Signs of dog aggression all come at certain thresholds. A dog will show signs of aggression in escalating patterns in order to convey their intent. All of these signs will exist at different thresholds. When a dog is said to be sub-threshold, they are willing to encounter and accept the current situation without showing signs of aggression or agitation. When you spend time socializing and building desirable behaviours for things that dont have a naturally conditioned positive response, like nail trimming or grooming, you are actually building your dogs threshold. If a dog is put off, they may initially show subtle signs of aggression. They may pin their ears, lightly curl their lip, offer a low growl, etc. These are all warnings. If their warnings work, they will continue to operate at that threshold in a recurrent situation. If the warning doesnt work, they will up their behaviour to the next level, which may include a snarl, snap or bite. We can build these thresholds with the right information and the right approach by adding more tolerance to the dogs ladder of thresholds and reinforcing each step. Your approach will most certainly differ depending on the reason for the dogs aggression. In initial simplification, aggression can be divided into two main types: offensive and defensive. Identifying the dogs intent will help you address the unwanted behaviour and build your dogs thresholds.
Offensive aggression occurs when a dog is feeling the need to be assertive in a situation. Perhaps they are facing another dog or guarding an object. Youll see motion forwards and differences in their body postures. Some differences are subtle and others are obvious. A dog whos feeling assertive will likely have their ears motioning forward, they may have hackles and tail raised to make them appear larger. Their chest will be forward and their eyes will be locked onto what they are trying to intimidate. Offensive aggression is quite rare in dogs when dealing with humans. Most often, if a dog is behaving aggressively, it is either a conditioned response or a defensive response. Unfortunately, dogs are often misdiagnosed as being overtly or offensively aggressive when they are regarded by individuals that lack the proper training. Its a normal human response to assume the dog is being overt or “mean,” when they are actually worried and responding defensively. It is quite possible to create an conditioned offensive response in a dog by inadvertently rewarding it. For example, if a dog is protecting a bone from a human because they are worried it will be taken away, they may growl. If that works (I.e. the human leaves them alone), they will learn that this sort of behaviour is rewarded (I.e. they got to keep their bone). If this situation is presented again, they rely on their history of growling to get their way and are empowered if it works again. If it doesnt work they may try snarling the next time. This creates an offensive response through conditioning and builds the wrong behaviour.
A dog who is behaving defensively will display different body language. Theyll likely try to shrink away. Youll see them tuck their tail to protect their genitals and belly, avert their gaze and make attempt to flee the situation. If this dog is not allowed to flee the situation, theyll be forced to fight. Most likely, this is their last resort. Defensive aggression is the more common type of aggression seen in dogs. Most dogs are happy to go along to get along. Its only when they are threatened that theyll resort to aggressive body postures and language to try to convey their concern. Seeing aggression at its earliest warning is not always easy. Often, dogs show sub-threshold warnings that are very slight and may be easily missed. Things like slight differences in their ear carriage, averting their eyes, slight lip licks, etc. Educating yourself in the cues your dog may offer will help you help them and will help to keep everyone safe.
Hi! Im Shannon Viljasoo and I joined the McCann team in 1999 while training Quincey, my wonderful and spirited Rottweiler, to have good listening skills. Im the Director of Online Training and Content for McCann Professional Dog Trainers and I enjoy writing about dogs and dog training for the McCann blog. I currently share my life with 2 Tollers (Reggie & Ned) and I love helping people develop the best possible relationship with their 4-legged family members.
Cant come to us? Dont miss out on our expert training methods. Learn from the professionals online.
“You all do a wonderful job! Keep up the good work – we will be back. McCanns is like Harvard University for puppies!”
Defensive means to defend oneself. Aggression means “hostile or violent behavior toward something.” When combined, defensive aggression means defending oneself by using aggression. Every living being has an automatic defensive response when encountering a perceived threat; we flee, fight or freeze. This reaction is hardwired into our brains. It’s a defense mechanism. We flee if this is an option. If not, we freeze or fight.
Just as the word describes, “freeze” means a dog will stop and stand completely still. This makes the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up. Yikes! This dog is terrified. If this happens, remove your dog from the situation immediately. If pushed, a “freeze” will turn into a fight. Their options have been limited.
Dogs will fight as a last resort when feeling threatened. Now, some dogs may choose to “fight” before “freezing” or “fleeing.” Usually, these dogs have underlying anxiety issues, meaning they’re in a constant state of “flee” or “freeze” behavior. You never want it to get this far. Your dog is basically fighting for his life; he is terrified.
During safe puppy play, puppies practice these behaviors if they’re unsure they will “flee” or “freeze.” Other puppies learn what these behaviors mean and ignore the scared puppy. If the other playing puppies ignore “flee” or “freeze” behavior, the scared puppy is most likely to “fight.” While pet parents think, “Good. This puppy is teaching my bully puppy a lesson,” the scared puppy is actually learning offensive aggression, meaning if I attack when scared, it works. Yikes! This is the perfect recipe for dog aggression behavior. That’s why puppies should only play during safe play sessions organized by professional dog trainers.
This breaks my heart. Defensive dogs are begging to be left alone because they’re terrified. Before preventing or managing defensive dog aggression, learn how to identify and understand the cause of defensive dog aggression.
The severity and frequency of aggression
A dog may bark, growl, lift its lips, snarl, snap, bite, latch on, or release. Bites can be single or multiple, inhibited (no injury or minimal injury) or uninhibited. Clients are questioned on the severity and frequency of the aggressive events. Generally when a dog is communicating, and if there is a bite, the bite will be inhibited (little or no pressure applied), single, and the dog will release volitionally. Severity of bite can in some cases be exacerbated by fear or pain. The veterinarian must determine whether the severity and/or frequency of the aggressive behaviors are appropriate for that given context.
Defensive aggression for the purpose of this article is defined as one individual “approaching or entering the animal’s space” and interacting with the animal (touching, handling); the animal reacts aggressively to the approach or physical contact. If the individual is far enough away, the dog may choose to flee from the perceived danger. However, if the threat is imminent or the individual too close thus making escape impossible, the dog may resort to aggressive behavior. The goal of the defensive aggressive behavior is to increase distance between the dog and the perceived dangerous individual.
Offensive aggression may be defined as aggression occurring without interaction (no touching, no handling, and not looking at the animal). The aggressive animal is the one approaching the individual (victim of aggression) regardless of what the individual was doing.
Predatory aggression is usually recognized by the behavior sequence: visual or auditory stimulation triggering a generally silent and direct approach or chase, capture, and kill the prey. The prey is rarely eaten. If a group of dogs exhibit predatory aggression, the chase may not be silent. Many dogs will chase small prey or animals without capturing or killing them. There is therefore a distinction between chasing (part of the predatory behavior sequence) and predatory aggression (chasing, capturing, and killing prey). Unfortunately, occasionally infants and small children are perceived as prey by dogs that exhibit predatory aggression.
The context (triggers and specific situations) and the dog’s body language are used in determining predictability of aggressive events. If the dog exhibits only defensive aggression (approach and contact are the triggers), the events are more predictable. If the dog exhibits offensive aggression (situation and initial trigger are often difficult to identify) the aggression is not as predictable, making this type of aggression more dangerous.
Relative risk for a young child unable to read and interpret canine body language will be higher: a young child will not understand the meaning of a warning growl.
What is A Defensive Dog
Publications in the veterinary literature describe various types of aggressive behaviors. Classification often varies depending on authors. Unfortunately labeling the type of aggression is often insufficient to assess the relative dangerousness of an aggressive dog. So what important questions do we need to ask?
Dangerousness does not necessarily equate with aggressiveness, although they are often used interchangeably. A 50-kg enthusiastic excited dog running right someone, knocking them down, and injuring them is dangerous. On the other hand, a growling dog that has never bitten is aggressive but not necessarily dangerous. Aggression has been defined as “spoken or physical behavior that is threatening or involves harm to someone or something” (1). Some definitions of aggression also include the display of threats in the absence of injury. Aggression, therefore, encompasses a wide variety of behaviors ranging from subtle body postures and facial expressions to explosive attacks. To complicate matters even more, aggression can be an expression of either normal or abnormal behavior. Description of the behavior sequence, context, frequency, and severity of aggressive events as well as health status of the dog allows veterinarians to tease apart appropriate normal from inappropriate abnormal behaviors.
Aggression can be the result of fear or anxiety. Anxiety is defined as anticipation of a future threat or danger (real or imaginary). Anxiety can be normal if the potential threat is real. Anxiety becomes a disorder if the perceived potential threat is imaginary. Dogs suffering from anxiety disorders (illness) are often unable to tell the difference between real threat and absence of threat. It is therefore important to realize that some aggressive dogs may in fact be ill and suffering from an anxiety disorder.