When a dog feels threatened, they usually do one of three things; 'freeze' (become motionless and hope that the threat goes away), 'flee' (run away from the threat to safety) or 'fight' (show aggressive behaviour by growling, baring teeth, snapping or biting to force the threat to go away). Dogs will naturally avoid fighting and use it as a last resort because it poses a risk to their own safety through possible injury. However, certain circumstances will teach dogs that fighting will work best and encourage him to use aggression more often.
For example:
A dog is on his lead and is tied up outside a shop whilst his owner is inside. He has not been socialised properly with all types of people and is frightened of strangers. A passer-by who likes dogs but has never had one of his own and doesn't know how to tell if a dog is scared or happy by reading the body language, approaches the dog intending to stroke him.
- The dog sees the stranger coming and feels threatened, so he freezes.
- The stranger keeps moving towards the dog, so the dog realises that freezing hasn't worked.
- The dog then tries to flee, but his lead is tied to a metal post and prevents him from running away from the threat - and the stranger is still getting closer.
- The dog starts to growl as the stranger puts his hand out to stroke him and then as this still does not work, he lunges and snaps at the man's fingers.
- This finally brings the desired result, as the man backs-off and hurries away.
The dog has learned the valuable lesson that snapping and showing aggression is the best way to remove a threat and is far more likely to use aggression in the first instance, rather than as a last resort.