Factors Associated w/ Aggressive Responses in pet dogs

Breed-specific laws (and the ineffectiveness of them) are a common theme on this blog. I feel that all too often people read about an incident in the newspaper, and are quick to react with some type of legislation in response to the incident without taking the time to understand what it is that leads dogs to be aggressive in the first place. This is especially notable as most dogs never show aggression to their owners, or to others, and there are very few significant canine-related aggression issues each year in spite of there being roughly 72 million owned dogs in this country.

But even with the small numbers, dog aggression is a concern to some, and as I find reliable studies that address these issues, I try to post them because I always think more information is better than less information...which leads us to today's study: Factors Associated w/ Aggressiver Responses in Pet Dogs. (the entire study is at the link).

The study, like some similar studies, relied on the C-BARQ questionaire for people to report different factors in their dog's aggressive behavior. The study itself has some sample bias issues, as well as some issues that come with owners rating behavior via C-BARQ -- but the sample size is quite large (852 dog ownerss) and I think the results are interesting enough to share as they do add to the dogs/aggression data out there.

 The dogs were rated on 3 different types of aggression: Stranger Directed Aggression, Owner Directed Aggression and dog-directed aggression. I'll get into a few of considerations, but first, I'll just list the factors that seemed to be important for the different types of aggression.

For all three types of aggression, the presence of physical punishment was seen as an important factor -- although dogs aged 5-10 were the primary ones impacted by this for Owner-Directed Aggression.

Breed was also a possible factor in all three types of aggression -- with Golden Retrievers scoring the lowest in all three segments and mixed breeds being the highest. The breeds ranked in order very differently from there depending on the type of aggression shown.

Dog Characteristics: Other than breed, male dogs, dogs that had not been spayed or neutered and dogs older than 10 years of age were more likely to score higher on owner-directed aggression. (more on the effects of spaying/neutering on behavior here)

Owner Characteristics: These seemed to have little effect on the likelihood of the dogs to be more likely to show aggression. Owner's age, education, and experience with raising dogs did not have significant association with aggression. Male owners were less likely to score their dogs high on owner-directed aggression than female owners.

Living conditions: Dogs that lived in houses with yard space and more household members scored significantly higher on stranger-directed responses and dog-directed responses -- but not for owner-directed. Dogs in rural areas scored higher in stranger-directed aggression and dogs that lived in households with other dogs scored lower on owner-directed aggression.

Owner-dog interaction: As well as the physical punishment, dogs acquired as puppies scored higher on stranger-directed aggression than those adopted as adults. Dogs that spent more than 5 hours daily with their owners scored lower on owner-directed aggression. Dogs acquired for guarding purposes scored higher on stranger-directed aggression.  Dogs that were kept outside of the house scored much higher on owner-directed aggression than ones that moved freely between inside and outside the home and ones that mostly lived inside the home.

Some of the study's commentary and observations:

There were a lot of similarities between enviornmental factors in stranger-directed aggression and dog-directed aggression.

The results of breed being a factor in aggression is consistent with other studies (more on breed differences in aggression here)

Dogs being kept outside having a stronger tendency toward aggression toward owners but not toward strangers may be the result of agressive dogs being "banished" outside, or because dogs kept outside my have lower owner involvement and thus correlate with this aggression.

Dogs living in rural areas and houses with yard space may be moe aggressive toward strangers because owners are more tolerant, or even encourage, these aggressive behaviors for protection -- even when guarding is not a primary reason for acquiring the dogs. Dog with houses with yard space are more frequently exposed to unfamiliar people and dogs walking by the property -- elicting the dog's territorial response.

The study data could be skewed because owners elected to fill out the survey. This self-selected group may be more homogenous than a random subset -- thus, there is likely a lower degree of variation thanif a random sample had been used.

The study does not attempt to show causal relationships between dog-aggression and environmental factors, but only to show relationshps that may lend support for the possibility of reducing aggressive behavior through proper owner management.

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I don't know that there is anything revolutionary in this study. In part, because of the inability to completely determine causal factors, but also because even with strong correlation, people who know and understand canine behavior know that behavior is made up of a complex group of circumstances. Breed, Breeding (even within breeds), environment, how animals are cared for, how they are raised, trained, punished, rewarded, spay/neuter status, when they are removed from their litters, etc all play roles in canine behavior. Because of this complexity, it is difficult to determine causal factors because it is nearly impossible to isolate all of the other factors from each other.

However, as science continues to add to the knowledge base of this field, it is increasingly ridiculous for legislation to be passed that focuses solely on a small factor that may or may not have a causal part in aggression.

It's important for cities to focus on what science and experts say about canine behavior -- and focus legislation on the BEHAVIOR of an animal, vs what it looks like. It really is the only solution..

 

Comments

[EmilyS]

as long as owners report on their dog's behavior, and as long as "aggression" is so poorly defined, reports like this have to be suspect.

How many Golden Retriever owner are going to report their dog's growling at another as "aggression"?

Or on the other hand: remember Suzanne Clothier's "He just wants to say hi". Not every growl is "aggression.

[Cheryl Huerta]

One has to wonder if studies like this one don't need to be taken with a grain of salt in that as you pointed out Brent it was the owners who filled the questionnaire out and what they put down as their responses went through their own personal 'filter'. It's difficult to get an 'objective' study when the very people who in part affect their dogs behavior are the ones offering up the information about their dogs behavior. One also has to take into account the dog owners personal views of what is acceptable or unacceptable behavior as well as what training methods are acceptable or unacceptable.

Science can take samples and give statistics but even then the samples and statistics are interpreted by humans and so it's very difficult to glean any hard and fast 'facts' from any study on canine behavior. Unfortunately you will find many 'trainers' and animal welfare people who take science, as long as it agrees with their personal philosophy, and uses it to justify their personal beliefs in canine assessment, rehabilitation and training methods.

Thanks for the interesting information.

[Geneva Coats]

You wrote: ".....male dogs, dogs that had not been spayed or neutered and dogs older than 10 years of age were more likely to score higher on owner-directed aggression."

This statement is incorrect, the results of the C-BARQ study showed a higher score for owner-directed aggression when the dog WAS spayed or neutered.

[Brent]

Emily/Cheryl -- no doubt that the study itself has some holes (which, I actually have more confidence in the study because they, themselves, were quick to point them out). Of the holes, certainly the human element in observation is a huge one.

Geneva, I'm not sure you're reading the information correctly

[charles]

hey my name is charles i have a 3 year old female jack russel full blooded she is very friendly towards me and listens well to me but i also have older dogs they are chiuawas and a couple younger chiuwas and my dog attacks them when they are near me or when they are eating and my family is afraid of my dog because she tryes to bite them i have done everything i could do to stop her from being like that but she continues so what else do i do plz help me email is at the bottom but if u dont get it it is [email protected] in the subject line plz state hey iam here to help you with youre dog ginger
thanks again any one reading this feel free to email for any advice thanks

[Animal Hospital Moorpark]

When we adopt a pet we need to take of the needs of the pets so that the pet remains healthy. Sometimes it happens that our pet gets aggressive. It may due to many reasons. It is seen especially in case of dogs. When the dog is not provided with the proper amount of food, when the pet is ill, and also there are many more reasons. This above information is extremely helpful in case to know the difference between Association and Aggression.

[DubV]

I thought breed wasn't a factor Brent and fatal attacks were the fault of nurture? This study and your comments on it are much more inline with my way of thinking than you would like to admit. I thought all doggie experts had agreed that breed was not a factor when certain breeds appear to kill people much more commonly? This message will self-destruct, please delete after reading.

[Brent]

Dub,

There is nothing in this or any other scientific data that would indicate that a certain breed is more likely to kill people than another breed because of its genetic makeup. If you read that in this report, then you're reading it wrong.

[DubV]

Breed is shown to be a factor when it comes to aggression. This is pointing toward underlying breed genetics. There really aren't too many dots to connect between breed influencing behavior, specifically aggression, and breed influencing likelihood of damaging a human. This study points to genetic differences among breeds leading to various levels of aggression. If this is true, then there must be a most aggressive breed, all else being equal. I don't see how that can be refuted other than vaguely saying that I just don't understand.

[Brent]

Dub,

Let me clarify.

#1) The study clearly states that it is designed to show correlation between a variety of factors and different typs of aggression -- not causal factors. And, in fact, was designed to create the discussion about ownership management to lend support to the idea of reducing aggression through responsible ownership. This couldn't be more clear in the research paper, or in my write-up.

#2) If you click through to the link to the study that focuses on the correlation of breed to acts of aggression (which was done by the same researchers), then you will note two other important factors:

a) Regardless of breed, the vast majority of dogs within the designated set did not show aggression. So aggression was NOT something that was inherent in some breeds vs others, but, instead, something very uncommon for dogs of all breeds

b) the type of dog that you seem to think is linked directly to aggression actually is below average in both owner and stanger-directed aggression.

So while there might be a "most aggressive breed" it would a) vary by whether you're talking other dogs, strangers or owhers - b) also be reliant on other ownership factors and c) the vast majority of dogs from all breed groups show no signs of aggression -- which would make it less likely that it is a genetic factor (which would mean that most of the dogs of that breed set would have it).

[EmilyS]

I would love to read DubV's definition of "aggression"

I imagine he thinks it's a single behavior that can be defined by some gene or set of genes..