"thoughts of fear, nervousness and apprehension will go straight to the dog via your own body language"
"Dogs who do not respect each other will make eye contact,
If this happens for a long period of time, they will be waiting for one or the other to lose concentration for a split second, then attack"


Image of a dog collar

Aggressive dogs

What is aggression? Aggression is usually related to bad or dangerous behaviour. A 'word' that means us harm, especially from a dog (Every living being shows some form of aggression).

We can accept aggression in human beings, which can cause tension and nervousness when we are about to meet. But as a human being we can often do something about this behaviour by confronting the aggressor in a positive way, and trying to calm the situation down before any unpleasantness arises. We may also have the opportunity not to meet at all, thus saving a confrontational meeting of negative behaviour.

Dogs do not always have this 'opportunity' when meeting other dogs. They are often 'put on the spot' so to speak by meeting another dog, perhaps coming around the corner, or when out for a walk, or another dog running up to it when walking off the lead in an open space. You will always see the body language of your dog change if another is approaching. Sometimes you will see your dog sniffing the air or it's hackles go up and his body language changes from being relaxed to defensive. By seeing this as a warning, you should consider doing something straight away to stop any confrontational behaviour.

A handler's thoughts of fear, nervousness and apprehension will go straight to the dog via the lead or just by your own body language. Once you give this negative energy to your dog, he will also become one of the four things mentioned above. But as a dog, he will not think 'let's turn around and walk away', or 'what shall I do now'. He will rely on his handler as pack leader to make a decision. If this is not forthcoming, he will make the decision himself and his body language will change. He will sniff the air, make eye contact or go into a stiff stance with hackles up and tail up straight. Dogs who do not respect each other will make eye contact. If this happens for a long period of time, they will be waiting for one or the other to lose concentration for a split second, then the other one can go in and attack. There is such a term 'fight and flight distance'. Dogs too close will nearly always fight, dogs at a 'flight' distance have the opportunity to turn and take flight.

So what kind of dog will be aggressive? Is it in the genes before the dog is born or is it because they are ill treated at sometime in their life? Or is it not aggression at all, but just the case of 'I'm nervous' so don't come too close to me? Like humans, dogs need their own 'space'. Invade this space and some unpleasantness can occur. This is where we, as handlers, need to tell the difference between aggressiveness or just indomitable spirit.

The best way to deal with two fighting dogs is to throw something over them, a coat, blanket or jumper (they are usually near to hand). This will part the dogs and enable you to call your dog off. Never try to part fighting dogs by grabbing their collars, as they will undoubtedly attack you, often by mistake.