I almost made it through last week unscathed, almost.
On Wednesday I slammed the car door on my finger, subsequently causing it to turn several shades of red and purple, and on Friday I was bitten by Junior, a friend’s dog.
Now any idiot can slam his finger in the car door, I’m proof of that, but dogs generally don’t bite without cause. On this day, I had the misfortune of learning through experience, the meaning of “Redirected Aggression” which I’ll explain in bit.
As a young adult, Junior was attacked by three dogs and injured quite severely. Understandably, he’s not crazy about other dogs now, but up until last week, he’d never bitten anyone.
My friend had to work late on Friday and she asked if I could take Junior out for a walk. During our walk Junior and I passed by a van parked on the street. In the passenger seat of the van was a dog that started barking and bearing his teeth at us as we were passing by. I kept walking, trying to control Junior until we were past the van, when he bit me, at which point I said only one word and to no one in particular. I’ll give you a hint; that word has four letters in it. I didn’t hit or punish Junior in any way, I knew that the trigger was the other dog and that he hadn’t intended on harming me. Thankfully he didn’t break the skin and I got away with only two quarter sized bruises on my leg.
The technical term for Junior’s behaviour is called Redirected Aggression. Redirected Aggression can happen when a dog is aroused into an aggressive state by a person or animal (in this case another dog), but is prevented from attacking. The dog then attacks the nearest available target, animate (me), or inanimate, in order to release its aggression.
One example of this type of aggression is demonstrated when someone is trying to break up a dog fight. Sometimes, the person breaking up the fight gets bitten. Another example of redirected aggression can be seen two paragraphs up.
What To Do About Aggression
Always check with your veterinarian first, to rule out medical causes for aggressive behaviour. From there,
treating aggressive behavior could involve a combination of behavior modification techniques (habituation, counter conditioning and desensitization), surgery (such as neutering/spaying), avoidance and management (such as leash or head halter).
What Not To Do
Punishment won’t help and, in fact, will probably make the problem worse. If the aggression is motivated by fear, punishment will make your dog more fearful, and therefore more aggressive. Attempting to punish or dominate a dominantly aggressive dog is likely to cause him to escalate his behavior in order to retain his dominant position. This could lead to a bite or a severe attack. Punishing territorial, possessive or protective aggression might elicit additional defensive aggression.
To learn more about Canine Aggression and Body Language, click the link below.
Canine Body Language: A Photographic Guide Interpreting the Native Language of the Domestic Dog
I'm a dog guardian to Sweety, my 15 year old Border Collie & Zeus a stray American Pit Bull Terrier that I rescued in October of 2009. I write about canine health and nutrition focusing mainly on topics relating to feeding a raw meaty bones diet.
