The Development (Or Potential For Development) Of Aggression In Dogs

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Welcome to Off Leash and Unfiltered. Trigger warning. I'm Kati Peppe, delivering the truth in dog training.

Hey everybody, this is your host, Kati Peppe. Before we jump in, I just wanted to take a quick second and remind you to hit the subscribe button because that helps us so, so, so much. We appreciate every subscribe and follow, and we have so much valuable information we wanna share with you. So we don't want you to miss an episode. Without further ado, let's jump in. Hey everybody. Hey everybody. I didn't have my microphone. Thanks for joining me today for another episode of the Off Leash and Unfiltered podcast. I hope you're having an amazing and incredible day, whatever it is you're doing right now.

And our day's going pretty well because it's like 70 degrees outside, which is awesome. Um, I hate to say it, but I'm still not ready to let go of summer, and it's almost November, and you know what? It feels like summer outside, so I love it.

Um, all right, we have Bella's going home tomorrow. It's exciting. And Rider's just over halfway through his program. And we have Zoe that came in and she is a crate pooper, and pee, so <laugh>, she has peed and pooped in her kennel more than she has gone outside. So that's been fun. Um, I knew she had some accidents in her kennel, but it wasn't supposed to be a frequent thing, so this is somewhat of a surprise. So we're hoping we can rectify that. Um, super unfun, but she's been just brilliant with everything else. So she is really high energy, really food motivated and has just been picking up on everything super fast.

She's been fun to work with, but we could do without the crate peeing and pooping. Hmm, yep. So we have that going on. And what else? What else? Um, nothing, nothing that I can think of.

Um, but we'll keep you posted with any new stuff that's happening. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, all those places if you don't already. And we're not on TikTok right now, but that will probably change. It'll probably change. I'm getting sucked back in. Everyone keeps telling me you'd be on TikTok. Why? Why do I have to be on TikTok? I don't like TikTok <laugh>, but I'm considering it. So you might see me around there eventually. All right, guys, we're gonna dig in more on the aggression piece today. Um, I think this is a great listen, even if you don't have an aggressive dog, okay?

03:00 — Kati says even dogs that have never bitten can develop aggressive behavior, especially while…

Even if your dog is really, really good and has never even thought about, um, laying teeth on anybody, especially if your dog is young, because, well, you're gonna find out. Just take a listen. Um, so first and foremost, and I probably said this on our last episode, aggression is not present or not present, okay? So everybody kind of approaches the subject. And I used to be one of those people, I'm included in here too, as my dog is either aggressive or not aggressive, right? Like your dog either has the aggressive behaviors or they don't, and that is completely and utterly false.

I want you to hear this. Write, write this down if you have to or play it over again. All dogs have aggression. Even if your dog has never bitten anybody, even if your dog has never gone after another dog, your dog has aggression. They might not have aggression issues, but they have aggression because all aggression really is, is it's hardwired violence. It's, it's in there, okay? Um, and all dogs will do it given the right situation. Now, what changes from dog to dog is their proclivity toward such behaviors. How likely are they to do it?

In other words, what is their threshold? What does it take to provoke my dog to bite, right? That's really the nuts and bolts of it. And that looks different for every dog, right? But just because you have a dog who can tolerate a whole lot of bologna before they bite, it doesn't mean your dog would never hurt a fly. It doesn't mean your dog doesn't have a mean bone in their body. It doesn't mean your dog doesn't have any aggression. It's in there. It's just what would it take to see it, right? And you might never see it, and that's great, and I'm happy for you, but it's there.

And I think the first step, and this is true for people too, the first step in becoming like the best version of yourself, yourself and the most responsible version of yourself in staying on the right track, <laugh>, right? Sticking to being that best version is acknowledging what you're actually capable of, what, what that dark side of you actually is, even though it might be buried way down there in the depths of your psyche or whatever, okay? I'm not a psychologist. I don't pretend to be. Um, we all would like to think we're just perfect and virtuous people, and that we, we're not capable of doing something bad or something violent.

Au contraire, my friend, it's in there. Um, and I think the first step in actually being a civilized, responsible human being is knowing that, right? You know that you're capable of such things, and so you implement a moral structure, a value structure.

Well, okay, so we're talking about dogs, right? Dogs don't have a moral structure, but you can impose rules and boundaries, which is very similar, okay? Um, but people don't do that always because they don't view their dog as having these traits, so they don't view it as necessary, but your dog does have those traits, right? So the first piece you consider is what is the threshold for my dog, right? Is, is my dog—is bite their first go-to? Do they just see something and want to go bite it, right? That's like the lowest threshold. Um, do they see something?

07:00 — Discomfort, avoidance, and reactions to someone entering a dog's space can reveal different thresholds.

And it's not a big deal, but if that thing approaches them, they wanna bite it, that'd probably be the next threshold.

Um, does my dog tolerate something that makes them uncomfortable coming up to them, getting in their space and touching them, but they really don't like it and they'd prefer to move away? And then maybe if they couldn't move away and the thing didn't respond to their cues, like growling and such, they would bite. So that might be the next threshold, and that's starting to get into the realm of typical. Um, and then you have dogs that will just tolerate a lot, a lot of discomfort, a lot of nervousness, um, strangers getting in their space, right?

The vet poking 'em with needles, and even though they don't like it, or even though they might be afraid, they don't bite, they don't even threaten to bite, they don't growl.

Um, they couldn't care less who comes near their food, right? That's like the lowest threshold. And but here's the thing with society today: we all expect our dogs to be in that, at that end of the spectrum. It's just not realistic. It's just not realistic. That's a fantasy land. So everybody thinks if my dog doesn't stay firmly planted in that end of the spectrum where they will tolerate people in their food, strangers getting in their face, touching them, even sticking them with needles, doing things that are uncomfortable, um, if my dog can't do that without lifting his lip, then there's something wrong with my dog.

No, there's nothing wrong with your dog, right? And I'm not saying don't address these things. I'm not saying don't work on it necessarily. Um, especially as you move toward the other end of the spectrum, right? Where the dogs are very aggressive, you obviously have an obligation to work on that.

I'm just saying it's not, it shouldn't be surprising. It's not abnormal for your dog to exhibit some level of aggression in certain contexts. It's very, very normal. The other thing you have to consider is how old is my dog? So when I, I've told this story before, when I got my first Rottweiler and I was 18 years old, she was fantastic, but after she passed away 14 years later, um, we waited some time, but then we got another one. And I drove to Ohio to get her, and 10 minutes after we put her in the car, <laugh>, I knew she wasn't right.

10:00 — Kati describes a puppy who bit at 12 weeks old when restrained or made…

I knew this, this was not typical, and I was right. Long story short, I was right. So we got her, she was about 12 weeks of age, and she would bite. She bit me on the ride home. She would bite if you really did anything she didn't like: if you tried to restrain her, if you tried to tell her no, if you tried to reprimand her, if you tried to take something away from her. She was an intense resource guarder. And guys, at 12 weeks of age, that's really young, okay?

So a lot of times if you see these things when your dog is that young, that's a red flag. And we should be going, we need to do something about this stat, right? Of course, that's always the case. If you have a dog that's exhibiting, um, intense aggression toward, especially towards somebody in their family, it doesn't matter what age they are, but that tells you right off the bat kind of how your dog is wired, right? Because if you're seeing that now, you have to assume it's gonna look 10 times that when they get into adolescence and advance through the maturation process.

Because typically what we see is puppies are pretty laid back and mellow most of the time, not always, right? So we're talking about genetics here, and there's a lot of variation, but the most intense, genetically ingrained behaviors with a lot of drive and intensity behind them, those are the dogs that you'll see exhibiting the stuff when they're really young, right?

So take for instance hunting dogs. If you buy a real well-bred hunting dog who is bred to hunt game, coon dogs, bear dogs, things like that, they're not gonna be a mellow fellow at 12 weeks of age. They're gonna already be exhibiting that drive, drive to get to the prey animal, right? Lots of vocalization, lots of pulling and straining to get toward the thing, um, or scratching and clawing if they're behind a fence, like that sort of thing, right? They're all of their effort, all of their physical and mental effort just pouring into getting to the thing, right?

13:00 — Kati says strongly ingrained behaviors can appear early and often intensify as dogs grow…

It's not a thing that's taught. It's a thing that's ingrained. They're born that way. And so you see it very young, and generally speaking, that stuff intensifies as they get older because typically what we see is puppies are pretty laid back and mellow, right? Two months, three months, four months of age, they're very mellow. And then once they get to the, hmm, 8, 9, 10 months through 18 months, we see these behaviors start to surface. And that's a little more typical, right? You might have a dog that's born with a tendency to protect its food a little bit or high-value resources, um, or maybe not like other dogs a lot.

Um, but you won't see that until they enter into that adolescent period, until they reach full maturation at 12 to 18 months of age. And, and then you start to see it. That's very typical. Almost everybody that calls us with a reactive dog says, "He's a year old. He's a year and a half old," right? And the other funny thing is, kind of off topic, but they always have something else to relate it to, right? "It's because my wife got pregnant. It started when my wife got pregnant. It started after he had a bad interaction with the neighbor's dog."

It started after some jerk kicked him on the trail. Um, and most of the time those things probably have nothing to do with it.

I'm not saying they couldn't, they might, right? But probably not. Especially if the event happened like two months before the reactivity surfaced and people do that, they'll look back and go, well, way back then this happened. So that must be why this is happening. Now, that's not how dogs work, guys. That's not how learning works. It's not how behavior works. If something triggers a behavior, it triggers it now, not three months from now. Most of the time reactive behaviors, aggressive behaviors, were in there all along and they're just triggered by something along the way as the dog comes into maturity and has full, and it's not always really completely full, but it has a fuller, uh, manifestation of their genes, right?

You're just starting to see who your dog really is. That's pretty normal.

But if you have a dog, um, that's really intense and driven and really genetically ingrained in them, like they're really heavily wired to be a certain way, you will often see it when they're really young. And so if you have, if you get a puppy and they're resource guarding at nine weeks of age, you should take note of that because that's probably going to mean something for the rest of your dog's life, right? So a lot of these dogs that just start to exhibit a little bit of the stuff as they get into 12, 18 months of age, a lot of times it's as simple as you just firming up a little bit, providing some consequences for that behavior, teaching them that, that you control resources, right?

Holding them accountable for some stuff, and your dog right back in line. But if you have a dog that's guarding things severely at nine, 10 weeks of age, 12 weeks of age, if you have a dog that's trying to attack other dogs at 12 weeks of age, you have a dog that's probably going to need a lot of leadership, right? They're gonna need a firm leader probably for the rest of their lives because your dog is telling you who they are before they've even hit adolescence. And that's not something to ignore.

But I think it's important to remember, even if your dog is seemingly soft and sweet and has no issues at all, if your dog is under seven, eight months of age, doesn't really mean much. You don't know the full extent of who your dog is yet. There's no way to know because they're, they're not, it's not manifesting yet because it just doesn't, right? And it might be that nothing changes. So I'm not saying every dog becomes a monster after adolescence, I'm just saying you don't see it until then. And that's why so, so, so many people blame themselves, right?

18:00 — A previously easy puppy may begin lunging, snapping, or guarding bones around a year…

Because they got this puppy that was wonderful, and then around a year old, all of a sudden things are going off the rails. They're pulling on the leash, lunging at other dogs. They're trying to snap at other dogs. They're snapping at people, they're guarding their bones, right?

And it's just, oh, well, I didn't socialize 'em enough. I didn't, we didn't do this. We didn't do enough of that. Nope. Guess what? Nothing to do with that. So hopefully that puts your mind at ease a little bit. It's not your fault. Okay, guys, I've met dogs that have never been socialized that are fantastic. There, all this, all this focus is put on socialization. And I'm not saying it's bad to do some socialization. I'm not saying it's bad to give your dog exposure. It's fantastic to do so. Um, but all this focus, the entirety of the dog's behavior is being blamed on, well, what did you do as an owner?

And the truth is, most of the time doesn't have much to do with that at all. It has to do with your dog's genetic makeup. And you, my friend, have zero control over that. At least once you bring the dog home, <laugh>, right? Before that, you could choose a different dog. Uh, but you don't know what you don't know.

So if your dog starts to exhibit some of this stuff as they get into 8, 9, 10, 12 months of age, 18 months of age, guys, not a big deal, right? So we would recommend in that case training, and by training, I don't mean just stuffing biscuits in your dog's face. I mean, sure, teaching them commands, right? Using lots of food if they love food, but then advancing into, now there's accountability for it. Now I require it. You have to do it. It's not optional. There's a downside if you don't do it, okay? That's important because what that does is it shifts the dynamic a little bit.

It shifts the dog's state of mind. It shifts your relevance, it shifts their view of you.

Suddenly they're not top dog anymore. Suddenly it's like, oh, I guess I have to care what this person thinks. Oh, and I guess they're making the decisions and calling the shots. That's so important because otherwise, guys, if you have a dog that's exhibiting some of those behaviors, reactive or aggressive behaviors, and you don't have that kind of relationship, right? I'm not trying to be a bully here, but someone has to be making the decisions. And if you don't have that kind of relationship, then your dog is just gonna do whatever comes naturally. And your dog is telling you this is what comes naturally.

And so you're either okay with that or you're not. And so having a relationship where you teach the dog, you can only do things I'm okay with, right? You have to listen to me and you, there are certain things you can't do. And that's it. And there, there, there's a rule, and it's actually enforced. If you don't have that kind of relationship, then your dog will just do the stuff because it's just normal dog stuff. Again, it's not abnormal, it's just unacceptable, right? It's not safe, it's not fun, <laugh>.

Um, but it's normal. Dogs will just do what comes naturally. And unfortunately, we all expect dogs now to be teddy bears. And so, and again, like that's why you can't trust people when they say their dog is friendly, right? First of all, because no dog is friendly in all situations. That dog doesn't exist. Just because they have been to this point does not mean that you won't encounter a situation where they're not. That's just stupid thinking. To think that there's absolutely nothing that could provoke your dog is silly. Now again, your dog might be at that end of the spectrum where their threshold is really, really high, and they're very social and they have a lot of tolerance.

22:00 — Kati cautions that unfamiliar people and dogs introduce uncertainty, even when a dog usually…

And I, I get it guys. I'm not saying all dogs are monsters. I, I totally get it. All I'm saying is when you introduce a question mark, a dog you don't know, a person you don't know, you don't know what they're gonna do, you don't know how your dog's gonna feel about it. There's no way to really know what's gonna happen. The risk might still be low, but it's there. And so something to keep in mind, right? And that's why we just don't let people touch our dogs. We just don't, they don't need to.

We don't, there's no reason to do that. Have I on occasion, for a specific goal for training purposes or things of that nature? Yes. Right? It's a judgment call. It's always a judgment call. But me personally, I'm never gonna go out into public and go, oh, should I let that person touch my dog? No. The answer is just no. Right? And that way, I don't even have to think about it. I don't have to think about it. I don't have to worry about it. I don't have to try to judge, oh, well, what's this person like?

Well, how does my dog feel about it? Well, what, what do I think is gonna happen? Well, what if this happens? No, it just doesn't matter. You don't have to touch my dog. My dog's not here for you.

And guys, I don't owe anyone an explanation. You don't owe anyone an explanation. So I have people ask me a lot, like, how do you deal with people that wanna come pet your dog? And these customers, they don't all have aggressive dogs, right? They just have dogs that are excitable. They just don't want the excitement. They don't want their dog learning to like get excited about strangers or, or prioritize strangers over them. Um, or they, you know, they just don't wanna do it. And that's their right. And they ask me how to deal with people without sounding bitchy.

And it's like, that tells me that you are a judgmental person because you obviously believe that that person is in the right. You obviously believe that you are obligated to let people touch your dog. Because if you didn't believe that, then why would it be bitchy to say no?

You don't have to say it with an attitude like I might <laugh>. Now, if someone asks me, like, they ask, like they ask politely, like, can I pet your dog? I'm not rude to that person, but I do say no. But why is it if you're, if you're one of those folks, like why is it that you view that as rude? Why is it rude to say no? It's not rude to say no, it's fine to say no. And you don't have to have a reason or an excuse. Now, most people are very understanding. If you say, no, my dog's in training, sorry, or something along those lines, you don't have to.

25:00 — She recommends a simple, polite no when someone asks to touch your dog.

I, my answer is just, sorry, no. We, we go about our business. And sometimes I'll say, thank you for asking, right? It's just, nope, you can't, you can't touch my dog. If you think that that's rude or mean or bitchy, I would challenge you on that. I think that's a you problem.

Why? So that's worth examining, right? That's worth taking a look at. Why do you feel that way? Why do you feel people should be obligated to let other people invade their space, touch their property, touch their dogs, any of those things? They're not. And neither are you. And it's really worth thinking about because again, no matter where your dog lands on this aggression spectrum, no matter what their threshold is, the other person or the other dog is always a question mark. You never know what you're introducing your dog to. And the, the last thing that you have to consider is your dog's physiology.

Like not just their brain and neurologically and like how they're wired in their nervous system, but just physically how are they built? So there's all this debate about pit bulls, and that might be another whole episode, right? Bully breeds. Um, they are a higher risk, and I'll stand by that and I'll die on that hill, and we can talk more about that another day. But it's not just behaviorally, guys, it's also because I do believe there are more instances with those types of dogs, and we can get into that later. But on top of that, more of those instances are going to be severe and more of them are going to be reported, right?

Because more of those people are going to be seriously injured or dead because the dog is just built different.

Okay? So if you have a chihuahua latch onto you versus a pit bull, right? Or an XL bully, that looks different, <laugh> hopefully you didn't need me to tell you that, but that looks different even if you have a big dog like a lab or a golden retriever. And yes, those dogs can bite too. In fact, I've probably been, I've probably had more attempted bites by golden retrievers than any other breed at this point in my career. Um, it's going to look different. So the thing about bully breeds is they are built to do damage physically.

They are big, they are muscular, they're powerful, they have big jaws, they tend to latch on and not let go, right? And then you have the behavioral piece, which is another story, but definitely plays into it, right? Where the drive gets triggered and you're, they're just in the dark side.

They, they go right to the dark side and it's just, we don't stop until one of us is dead, right? So that's another, that's another whole topic. But um, you have to consider your dog's physiological build. Um, so if I have a chihuahua or I have a Pomeranian and I'm out on the trail and I think my dog should say hi to all the other dogs, well, okay, you don't know those other dogs and people again, will say their dog is friendly, right? And they may be right and it may be fine. And you know what?

29:00 — She warns that a single bad interaction can have serious consequences for a very…

I'll go a step further and say, it probably will be fine. But the thing is, guys, it only takes one where it's not fine. And if your dog weighs eight ounces, well, that might just be the last dog they ever say hi to. And I'm sorry if it's me.

I'm just not okay with that risk. Because even if the risk is low, which I think it is reasonably low, you know, if you see a dog and visually you're not getting any red flags and you think it's safe, it's probably safe, right? But there's no way to know, and I'm just not, the stakes are too high. I am not okay with it. No, my little dog is not gonna go say hi to your dog that I don't know. We're just, we're not gonna do that today. 'Cause I'm not hiking out of here with my dog bleeding out.

I don't wanna do that today. Nope, we're good. And vice versa, if I have a large powerful dog, it's like I don't care how reliable my dog's been in the past, how tolerant my dog's been in the past, or how social I've thought my dog was in the past. They don't need to go say hi to people and dogs that I don't know, because if something did trigger them, I'm liable. And I know they're built to do damage, right? So those are considerations a hundred percent. Those are considerations to take into account when you're thinking, how urgent is this?

So obviously I'm a dog trainer, right? I'm gonna tell you, no matter what your dog is, no matter what their breed is, their size is, no matter when they start exhibiting the behavior, we just, we're gonna fix it, right? Of course I'm gonna say that and I stand by that and I think that's the right thing to do.

But for the average person at home, if you're trying to formulate what's the right next move, like what do I do next? What path should I take with my dog? It's like, sure, if you're gonna ask me my opinion, my opinion is no matter how old they are, no matter how big they are, no matter how intense it is, you should just try to fix it. You should address it, you should train them, you should make things better <laugh>. But in determining the urgency of it, it's like when did the behavior start occurring? How young was my dog when it started occurring?

32:00 — Her risk assessment considers bite threshold, what triggers aggression, and the dog's size.

How high or low is their threshold? How little or how much does it take to trigger the behavior? And three, how big or small are they? Right? Because if they're really small, they could be dangerous to others, but it could also just be really dangerous to them. You know, they run up to a big German shepherd with an attitude, that might be the last day they have an attitude, you know? How big or small are they? How are they built? How much damage could they actually do? Those are all things to think about. But ultimately, at the end of the day, if you just start young and you build the relationship you should have with your dog and they know you're relevant and they listen to you and they know that there's expectations and they know what is and isn't allowed, man, you're just golden in the first place, right?

And there are dogs that are just too much and they can never really be trusted off leash or they can never really be trusted around other dogs. And those dogs are rare.

And that's why 99% of people, if you just follow that recipe from the time your dog is young and you use the structure and you set the boundaries, and you teach the obedience, and you teach the manners, and then you start enforcing the rules, even if you have a dog with a tendency to do some of those things, you're probably never gonna see it. And that's why we wish, man, and we can wish all day, it's never gonna happen <laugh>, but we wish, like everybody would just take that route with their dog from day one and they don't.

And that's okay. It's not realistic, right? And we'd be out of the job if they did, I suppose <laugh>. But, um, that's, that's the truth. Like you'd probably never see it, right? And you also, it's worth saying like you might not do any of that stuff and you might never see it, right? There's a lot of dogs who just, their threshold is so high and their proclivity toward any kind of aggressive behavior is so low.

You don't need any rules. You don't need any boundaries, you don't need any consequences, and they're still never gonna show you any of that stuff. And that's wonderful. The pro- the thing is, there's no way for you to know that, right? So our philosophy is you set the groundwork from the beginning and then it doesn't matter, right? Because the one thing we do know for sure is that dogs are gonna do what dogs do. They're gonna do what comes naturally. And so if we just lay that groundwork from the beginning, we know we're gonna be in the best possible place and get the best possible version of our dog.

So do that, guys. <laugh> Thanks for joining me today. Hope you got something great outta this episode. And if nothing else, hope it gave you some food for thought, and we look forward to next time. Stay tuned for next time. Um, I don't know if it'll be the next episode or not, but very, very soon in the near future future, Joyce and I are gonna be sitting down together to do another episode where we're gonna be talking about, um, detailed go-home stuff. So what are our customers doing with their dogs after they go home from a board-and-train, um, to really nail everything down, keep everything on track, um, what do they do when things start to fall apart?

All that stuff. So really, really great listen. I think there'll be some good information in there. So I look forward to that and, um, we'll see you guys then. Bye. Hey guys, thanks for joining us today. I really hope you enjoyed the show. If there's a specific topic you'd like to hear discussed, you can send that to me directly via email or fan mail. Just jump down into the show notes. That information will be there for you. I really look forward to hearing from you. Thanks for supporting the show, and I look forward to next time.