Appreciating the Role of Fear and Anxiety in Aggressive Behavior by Dogs

Introduction

Most people have no difficulty in identifying overt aggression and fear, but the interaction between these is less frequently recognized. Fear is an emotional reaction associated with the presence of potentially harmful stimuli (by contrast, anxiety arises from the anticipation of such events, although the terms will be used interchangeably here) and is typically expressed in one of three obvious ways. When an animal judges that the most appropriate way to deal with such threats is to avoid them (i.e. take “flight”) then the commonly recognized fear response is elicited. If however, it decides to keep still, ("freeze") then the involvement of fear is perhaps less obvious, and if it attempts to eliminate the stimulus from its proximity (i.e. engage the "fight" response), the dog's behavior may result in inappropriate and potentially harmful interactions initiated by people, who frequently misunderstand this as some sort of dominance gesture. A dog’s initial choice of action may change in both the short term (i.e. there may be a switch in behavior) or longer term (i.e. the dog may use a different initial strategy in future similar contexts) depending on what seems to happen next from the dog’s perspective (e.g. the threat continues, intensifies or the dispute is resolv- ed). Thus, far from being an instinctive impulse, aggression is often a carefully (but quickly) evaluated strategy aimed at resolving a dilemma for the animal involving some perceived threat. [...]

Key Points

• Dogs can respond to a potentially harmful stimulus by flight, freeze or fight strategies
• It is essential to appreciate the factors that contribute towards fear inducement
• Dogs use a complex of body language that has to be taken together to understand their preferences in conflict situations
• There is no direct evidence of dominance as a motivating factor for aggression in dogs