Aggressive dogs: One simple change that makes all the difference

Drop That Label...

A while ago, I was in the company of several dog trainers.  The conversation came round to discussing the sort of cases we were all working on.  One trainer mentioned that all he seemed to work with is reactive and aggressive dogs.  The other trainers all nodded and agreed that they were seeing an increase in reactive and aggressive dogs.

I kept quiet and thought how lucky I was because I couldn't remember the last dog, or any dog, that I worked with that was aggressive.

However later, when I mulled the conversation over I realised quite a few of the dogs, I was working with at the time, could be labelled as aggressive or reactive.  I had just never considered labelling them in that way.

When I work with a dog, I see them as a whole.  The good bits, the loving bits, and the bits that cause their owner challenges.   Therefore, it has just never occurred to me to label a dog, who barks for no more than a few minutes per day, as aggressive or reactive.  After all, the dog is so much more than that.

It is so damaging to our perception of dogs to give them a label that relates to only a small percentage of their behaviour.  

Even when we just label the actual behaviour as aggressive or reactive, it doesn't describe what the actual behaviour is, under what conditions it occurs and what the function of the behaviour is.

Labels stick and once you've started calling your dog reactive or aggressive you will see that as part of who they are rather than looking at it as a behaviour they use is some situations.  When we think of it in terms of behaviour, and we know behaviour can be changed, we can then look at how we can help our dogs use different behaviour.

My other issue with labelling a dog is that it moves us away from thinking about how a dog is feeling when he performs that behaviour.  A dog who is barking and lunging on his lead may get the label as reactive but it doesn't help anyone understand if he is scared, frustrated or over excited?  

If a client tells me their dog is aggressive, my first questions are always;

• What does your dog do when they are being aggressive?
• In what environments does the behaviour occur?
• What needs to happen for your dog to behave this way?
• What happens after your dog has behaved this way?
• And what do you think your dog wants to achieve with this behaviour?

Understanding those things always gives a very different picture of a dog, than one who has been labelled as aggressive or even behaving aggressively.  The answers allow us to think of how we can help that dog feel and behave differently.

So often I hear of people who's confidence in their ability as dog owners or their trust in their dog has been shattered because someone else has called their dog aggressive.  Usually this happens after the other person has witnessed the dog barking and pulling on their lead.

So next time we see our own dog, or someone else's dog, behave in a way we think isn't cool, stop before you slap that damaging label on the dog.