Dog Aggression Part II

In my previous article on aggression in dogs, I relied primarily on my early observations and the writings of Armin Winkler. Then I met Rocky.

I had never worked with a dog like Rocky. He displayed an exceptionally high level of aggression combined with an extremely low threat threshold—a dangerous combination. Beyond learning how to train him, my greatest challenge was understanding what truly drove his behavior. How could I explain his reactions in terms of drives and emotions? None of the explanations I had learned from Armin fully fit what I was seeing.

Determined to understand Rocky, I immersed myself in the scientific literature on aggression. Surprisingly, there were few well-written books on the subject. One stood out: *On Aggression* by Nobel Prize winner Konrad Lorenz. Lorenz’s work, combined with my subsequent experience training aggressive dogs, fundamentally changed my understanding of canine aggression, and those insights form the basis of this article.

Rocky was a confident dog, yet even minor perceived threats could trigger an aggressive attack. If prevented from reaching the object of his aggression, he would instantly redirect that aggression toward the person restraining him—usually me. It was the strongest example of redirected (reverse) aggression I have ever encountered.

This behavior raised an important question. Low threat tolerance is generally associated with fear, but Rocky showed none of the typical signs of a fearful or highly defensive dog. For example, when restrained and confronted, he did not bark excessively, lunge, or display the exaggerated defensive behaviors commonly seen in fearful dogs.

Rocky also possessed an exceptionally strong prey drive. Prey drive is not aggression, but frustration can influence aggressive behavior. During walks, if Rocky spotted a squirrel and I restrained him with the leash, he often redirected his frustration toward me and attempted to bite. None of the theories I knew at the time adequately explained this pattern.

The answer came from Lorenz’s concept that aggression is itself a drive. Like other drives, it has a stimulus, a behavioral expression, and a goal. Lorenz also proposed that drives can reinforce or inhibit one another. This single concept explained Rocky’s behavior.

Rocky had an unusually strong aggression drive. Although his defensive drive appeared relatively weak, even a small defensive stimulus could activate his powerful aggression drive. Likewise, frustration of his intense prey drive readily intensified aggressive behavior. In other words, seemingly minor triggers were enough to activate an aggression drive that was already exceptionally strong.

Compare Rocky with a Labrador Retriever, a breed that generally has a much lower innate tendency toward aggression. Even a fearful Labrador typically requires much greater pressure before expressing aggression. Likewise, a Labrador with a strong prey drive can often tolerate significant frustration without redirecting aggression toward its handler. Rocky, by contrast, required very little frustration before displaying redirected aggression.

The interaction between drives can also work in the opposite direction. I once trained a dog with strong aggressive tendencies related to resource guarding and territorial behavior. However, that dog was also somewhat fearful. When confronted with sufficient social pressure, its defensive drive overrode its aggression, causing it to retreat rather than attack. As Lorenz suggested, one drive can suppress another.

Understanding aggression in this way changed how I evaluate every dog I train. I routinely ask:

• Does this dog appear to possess a high level of innate aggression?
• Which other drives are especially strong?
• Under what circumstances do those drives reinforce—or inhibit—aggressive behavior?
• What specific stimuli trigger aggression? Since drives are activated by identifiable triggers (for example, a running squirrel activating prey drive), recognizing those triggers helps predict when aggressive behavior is most likely to occur.

This framework has proven far more useful than viewing aggression as a single emotion or personality trait. Instead, it allows us to understand aggression as one component of a complex system of interacting drives that varies from dog to dog.

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