06-10-2011, 09:32 AM
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#1 (permalink)
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Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: West Warrwick, RI
Posts: 7,729
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What is aggressive behavior in dogs?
Linked below is a great article that explorew what constitues aggressive behavior in dogs vs agnostic behaviior that is actually part of conflict resolution
Dogs Use Non-Aggressive Fighting to Resolve Conflicts
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Perhaps a more useful term to describe growling at a potential bone thief or the interaction between Denny and Meadow is “agonistic behavior.” Ethologists, who often use this term when studying nonhuman animals, define agonistic behaviors as those that occur between individuals of a particular species in conf lict situations. Examples of agonistic behaviors in dogs include threats like muzzle-puckering and growling; submissive behaviors like crouching, lowering the head and tucking the tail; offensive behaviors like lunging and snapping; defensive behaviors like retracting the commissure (lips) while showing the teeth; and attacking behaviors like biting. With the exception of biting that results in punctures or tears, none of these behaviors necessarily indicates intent to do harm. They simply reveal emotion (e.g., anger or fear), communicate intention (e.g., to maintain control of a resource or to avoid an interaction) or function as a normal part of play fighting (e.g., growling, snapping or inhibited biting). To determine if an interaction meets the criteria for “agonistic behavior,” an observer must focus on an objective description of the communicative patterns displayed rather than automatically jumping to judgments associated with the use of the term “aggression
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Last edited by Mikey T; 06-10-2011 at 09:35 AM.
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