Just curious.
How do you tell the difference between a dog being protective and a dog being fearful?
How do you tell the difference between a dog being protective and a dog being fearful?
Very great article. I always think of aggression as a symptom, not the problem. Dont treat the symptom, treat the problem. Any aggression, in my opinion is fear based, either they are afraid of something happening to them, or they are afraid of something happening to something that belongs to them (owners, toys food, ect) these problems can be treated if you find out what your dog is scared about, and then build up the confidence in your dog that there is no threat to what he desires.Canine Aggression Frequently Asked Questions | Association of Pet Behaviour Counsellors
Great article about aggressions..
aw:
If you want to think about, it is true, as much is true for every motivation in the world. It's not to be a good Christian, it's fear to go to ****, it's not love, it is fear to be alone, it's fear something can happen to your children, your spouse, your friends. You don't fight to be a better person, it's fear not to fulfill your dreams, fear to disappoint your parents, fear to fail.
And don't even let me start on patriotism...
All aggression is based on fear? It may not be false, but is an over, over, over simplification of the subject.
Wonder how a human can know what the motivation of an animal is?And I wonder what the motivation for liking to fight is? I know in my rescue, it is insecurity - she wants to fight other dogs because she wants to be top dog, and she is insecure about her position.
Gryffon is happy to let others be top dog, but he will fight for real in protection training - his motivation is defense - there is a real and present threat, and he fights to defend himself and over come the threat. One could say that he is afraid of being overpowered and loosing, so there is an element of fear, but there is also an element of confidence and inner strength, because he feels himself capable of winning and overpowering.
I agree with most of what you have said. And though it's hard to statistically prove why most dog-bite incidents occur (fear, confusion, protectiveness) I can buy off on that statement of 'most random reactive aggression is fear based.'If we read the body language, there are always subtle clues to let us know the dogs emotional state....and most often random reactive aggression is fear based. A dog that is secure and confident does not go looking for trouble.
I agree for the most part. There are other motivators to bite and attack however. Take territorial aggression and social aggression. These aren’t necessarily driven by fear.Our GSD is more aggressive than any dog we've ever had (and we've had quite a few) so he has inspired me to read as much as I can find on the subject.
It appears that most opinions consider aggression triggered by fear to be a bad thing however there is another take on the subject that I find very interesting. A very successful dog trainer I follow on You Tube believes that fear is necessary for a dog to be protective because protection is the direct result of an aggressive reaction to a fearful situation.
Nature instills the fight or flight instinct in all creatures as a defense reaction to fear. Therefore a completely fearless cannot be expected to protect because it will not on its own identify any situation as dangerous. A dog that experiences fear and flees instead of standing their ground can also not be expected to be protective. Therefore this trainer concludes that the protective dog experiences fear and as result of that fear it reacts aggressively towards the source.
I understand that an overly fearful dog poses problems but a reasonable degree of fear and aggression are necessary in a protection dog.
I would be very interested in reading what others think of this.