The bottom line on raised hackles
It’s so important to read your dog’s entire body language and to take context into consideration if raised hackles present. If you don’t, you could create a problem where there wasn’t one before. You could turn a fearful or shy dog into an aggressive one because of how you respond.
The best way to handle a dog with raised hackles is to redirect his attention until you can better understand the triggers and see a pattern. If the reaction persists and escalates, consult a behaviorist who can help you help your dog feel less of whatever triggers them.
Understanding your dog’s body language is crucial to helping our dogs live an emotionally happy and healthy life.
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About the author:
Jill Breitner is a professional dog trainer and dog body language expert. She is a certified Fear Free Professional, Fear Free Professional for Foundation for Puppies and Kittens, as well as Certified in Animal Behavior and Welfare. She is the author of the Dog Decoder, a smartphone app about dog body language. Join Jill on her on her Facebook page.
Are you familiar with the saying, “Raise one’s hackles?” Maybe you’ve used the idiom before when talking about a person, or maybe you’ve actually seen it in action with your dog. Either way, raising one’s hackles is a gesture you should pay attention to, especially with your dog.
You know how you sometimes get goosebumps when you experience certain feelings such as fear, anger, or excitement? Hackles work in the same way. According to Adrienne Farricelli, “These muscles are innervated by the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system and are therefore not under conscious control” (Farricelli, 2018). In other words, raised hackles are an involuntary response brought on by some type of adrenaline rush.
Regardless of what is causing your dog to raise his or her hackles, it is up to you to calm them down and make them feel safe. If your dog is exhibiting aggression and is in situation that could escalate into something dangerous for him or her or others, you need to find a way to distract them and remove them from the area (Farricelli, 2018). On the other hand, if your dog is clearly nervous and not a threat to others, he or she may just need for you to comfort them.
Hackles are the hairs that run along a dog’s spine. They typically begin at the neck and extend to a dog’s tail. Below a dog’s skin are muscles that are attached to his or her hackles. These muscles are called arrector pili (Byer). As these muscles become activated, air becomes trapped between hair shafts causing your dog’s hackles to stand up (Farricelli, 2018). The phenomenon of a dog’s hackles standing up is called piloerection. How piloerection presents itself, or the pattern it takes on when raised, is different in each dog. Some dog’s hackles will stand in line along their backbone, and you may notice hackles across the shoulders, along parts of the back, or even at the base of the tail (London, 2012).
Hackles are important because they act as a defense mechanism. When your dog raises its hackles, he or she is able to appear larger, taller, and more intimidating (Farricelli, 2018). Think of it like a puffer fish or a porcupine. When a puffer fish puffs up and a porcupine’s quills stand up, they are trying to intimidate and instill fear in a predator. Whether there is a threat or not, a dog that is unsettled or unsure of his or her surroundings may raise his or her hackles as an unconscious layer of protection.
Why Do Dogs Raise Their Hackles?
Your dogs hackles up is not a body language but it is a behavior that causes much concern and confusion among doggie folk. Hair doesn’t talk yet it does tell the emotional state of a dog. The medical term for the hackles going up is piloerection. Pilo refers to ‘hair’ in medical terms. So, when a dog’s hackles go up although it is a form of communication, it is communicating a state of being and is an involuntary reflex triggered by an unknown sudden occurrence putting a dog in a state of arousal. It communicates arousal and can mean that the dog is afraid, excited, unsure, nervous or angry. One must look at the rest of the body parts talking and the context in which this is happening so that you can understand and evaluate what is going on and only then can you know how to respond.
The hackles can go up just at the shoulders but if a dog is highly aroused the hair can stand up from their neck all the way down to the tip of their tail. Please don’t confuse the hackles going up with aggression. This confusion at a time of such arousal in a dog could be what turns a fearful dog into an aggressive dog in an instant as aggression is a fear based behavior.
Learning dog body language and emotional states is key to understanding dogs and helps us know how we can best help them when they are feeling insecure, fearful or anxious.