Genetic and hereditary factors play a major role in aggression. Protective breeds such as Dobermans, Akitas, and Rottweilers are expected to be more aggressive than Golden Retrievers and Labrador Retrievers. Feisty terriers were bred to kill small game, and they still retain this characteristic.
Inbreeding can create unstable temperaments, and hormones can contribute to aggressive tendencies in intact male dogs, females in heat or in a false pregnancy, and females nursing puppies.
Environment -- living conditions, lack of socialization, excessive punishment, being attacked or frightened by an aggressive dog, being spoiled or given too much unwarranted praise by owners, being isolated from human contact or being exposed to frequent teasing by children or aggravation by joggers --can also influence aggression.
Obviously, dogs are not people. They have a pack order that determines their social rank, a pack order that is established and maintained by body language. Some dogs occupy dominant or alpha status, and some have low rank or omega status. When dogs live with people, they look at humans as members of the pack and try to establish their place in the social order by challenging the more submissive family members, particularly the children. If dogs display a dominant gesture such as growling while guarding the food dish, and they are not corrected for this behavior, they have established a bit of dominance to build on with any or all family members. If these dominant gestures remain uncorrected, the dog slowly but surely gains in status over one or all family members.
The subtle signs of dominance usually go unnoticed or are explained away until the dog bites the human for infringement on his alpha position. The owner misunderstands the progression of behaviors and blames the dog for biting "for no reason." These dogs frequently end up at animal shelters and are destroyed because their owners misunderstood the development of aggressive behavior.
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