Dogs of Distinction

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Owners are often at a loss to understand why their dog sometimes fights with other dogs after what appears to be a benign sniff between dogs. Many owners have witnessed the scenario of the sniff, stiffen, growl and scuffle (sometimes escalating to a full-on fight). A University of Mendel study (Rezic, Viziova, Dobesova, Havlicek, & Pospisilova, 2011) of 1870 dogs (both genders , a variety of sizes and both mixed and pure bred dogs) explored the occurrence of several behaviors including showing a threat and biting between dogs in one on one encounters while walking with their owners and researchers identified possible contributing factors. The study did not answer why fights sometimes happen but they found some interesting frequencies. Threat displays happened twice as often between dogs on leash than between dogs off leash. Dogs showed threat signals to another dog of the same sex three times as often as they did to a dog of the opposite sex, and dogs bit other dogs of the same sex five times as often as they did a dog of the opposite sex. The dogs in the study also bit other dogs four times as often if the person walking each dog was a man than if the walker was a woman. This could be for a variety of reasons. For example, a woman may be more likely to notice the subtle change in body language in the dog and avoid meeting other dogs altogether or, perhaps, a dog who has had a history of threatening displays toward other dogs is now only walked by the adult male of the household. Overall, dogs respond well to behavior modification to desensitize individual dogs to other dogs so reactive behavior does not have to be a permanent response for these dogs.

New Zealand