Soul-Food and Aggression

I always enjoy dog training, making people and dogs lives better, but occasionally something happens that fills me up. One of those things happened yesterday.

I casually know a gentleman with a handsome, one-year-old German Shepherd. I see this pair semi-regularly in the neighborhood, and had noticed that the GSD (we’ll call him Wolfgang*) had a certain tension that can become aggression. This is pretty common around a year old; the teenage years are always tough. Wolfgang’s owner, who we’ll call Bob, knows I’m a dog trainer and stopped me one day without his dog in tow to ask me if I knew of anyone looking for a GSD. Wolfgang had bitten him.

I immediately offered to see Wolfgang and Bob, and put them on my pro bono program (which, luckily, is currently empty).

Yesterday was the day, so off I went to Bob’s house. We started in safety mode, with Wolfgang in his crate and us sitting near it to chat. Wolfgang was pretty comfortable with us there, which was good to see, and I got a full history.

Bob spends hours a day working with his dog. Wolfgang knows more commands than my service dog, Scout, and gets more than enough exercise. Bob has done as much research as a layperson can do, has watched a bunch of training videos and read training books. Bob is one of the best dog owners I’ve ever seen. He’s gotten both bad and good advice online, as happens, and had missed some subtle cues that I’ve seen seasoned dog trainers miss in body language, because body language isn’t really taught unless you realize it’s a nuanced way of communication among dogs and you go looking for it.**

I was sitting beside Wolfgang’s crate when he gave a couple of whines. The next time he whined, I brushed his crate with my elbow and said, “No, we don’t whine.” Instead, he started to growl.

Without turning to look at Wolfgang, I smiled at Bob and said, “We’re going to completely ignore that. We’re not going to look at him or talk to him. We’re going to pretend like we’re so unconcerned and unimpressed with his growling, like he’s such a lack of a threat that his growl is unimportant to us.” This was, of course, only really possible because he was in his crate, and therefore was without threat. Since he couldn’t do more to intimidate, and since we didn’t react at all, the growling soon subsided, replaced by stress panting and moving to the back of his crate. Why? He wasn’t used to being completely dismissed when he threatened someone. I was a near stranger; I should have been frightened, but instead I was confident. He didn’t know what to do with that.

A dog very far down the road toward an aggressive mindset doesn’t usually care if they’re ignored. It will de-escalate (assuming any provoking behavior is stopped), but it doesn’t bother them. A dog who is just trying out aggression, though, will be thrown by it. Wolfgang was totally thrown.

I looked at him and said friendly words. He averted his gaze (denying my stressful existence), tail low (doesn’t want to engage), but eventually relaxed again. For the first time he started showing guidance-seeking behaviors: glancing at “dad” for reassurance, snuffling me when I was close enough, laying near us with a curved spine, low wags when he stood, flopping his ears sideways, relaxing his facial muscles until the skin of his face looked saggy and soft. I pointed them out to Bob as things to look for, and when he remained in that state, I knew it was time to get him out of his crate.

By the end of the session we’d had some “alpha-dog” fights: for instance, I asked him to sit, he refused, I used the leash to lift his head (NOT his feet, just enough to make him have to raise his head so that his weight shifts more to his haunches and then, eventually, his haunches get tired and he sits), he refused to sit for several more minutes and then, finally, got tired and sat. These are proper fights: no aggression, no yelling, no pinning, no biting, just seeing who is the most stubborn. This is how dogs do it with each other.

Wolfgang responded beautifully. This is one of the key things most people miss, this “alpha dog” fight that is really a matter of who can out-stubborn the other. This is how dogs decide who they’re going to listen to, and it’s places like this where most people fail. It doesn’t matter so much to us, but it matters a LOT to dogs.

By the end of the session Bob had Wolfgang listening not just to his commands, but to his body language and voice. Even better, Bob was an attentive student who was also able to explain what had been going on, what they’d tried in the past, what certain areas meant (ex: the field behind the house was associated with off-leash play and going potty), and then also able to adjust what he’d been doing — not because it was wrong, but because other things are now taking priority — and learn, and apply, a lot of new information.

Was everything perfect when I left? No. Were things back on the right path? Oh, YES. Because Bob’s situation is changing we may still need to find a home for Wolfgang, but I fully expect Wolfgang to make a complete recovery.

As I left, there was a lot of hope, and I knew Bob had done well and would continue to do well, now that he had the information he needed. It was one of those soul-filling moments that remind me why I train dogs.

Jenna

TIP: Unless a dog is coming at you in a frenzied aggression, one of the first warnings a dog will give that they’re about to lash out is stillness. Whether they’ve been chewing, panting, wagging, glancing around, or any other small movements, those will all freeze. This freeze is dog language for: “Stop now, or I will lash out.” If you see that, remove your hands and step away. Your dog is communicating. Listen. (And then call a professional.)

*Many details have been made up to protect Bob and Wolfgang’s identity, of which this is one.

**If you’d like to start looking for it, I recommend following my TikTok or YouTube channels, both @TranslatingDog, and searching for science articles on dog language. I also recommend “The Genius of Dogs,” in either audio or hardback forms, by Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods, and watching Netflix’s “Inside the Mind of a Dog.” Alternately, you can join me for my April retreat, where we’ll be learning a LOT of it and practicing all weekend.