Aggression: the rat edition

Since we’re talking about aggression, I have to tell you about our rats. We’ve had the older trio for a year now and the young once arrived in the beginning of March. They could move into a shared cage after two weeks and during that time we had opportunity to observe plenty aggressive behaviors (see video below).

The truth is that we know very little about the social life of rats. And whatever we do know is not 100% applicable to our situation because they looked either at wild rats, or laboratory rats. At the moment we have 6 rats and while we do let them out to roam for 2-3h a day, their territory is much more limited and they live in a much smaller group than wild rats.

Continue reading “Aggression: the rat edition”

Medication in behavior work

Even though the stigma surrounding psychotropic meds for humans has decreased in the past decades, many dog owners are still afraid of pharmacotherapy. They worry that medication will change their dog’s personality, turn their companion into a “zombie”. Many still believe that medication is a last result, but actually in some cases behavior modification can be quicker and more effective if it is paired with a medical intervention.

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Help, my dog is aggressive! Part 2

(Disclaimer: It is not my goal to diminish the problem. Aggressive behaviors are not acceptable in our society and showing them can have serious consequences for the dog and their owner, as well as for the victim. Living with an aggressive dog can also cause a lot of stress and anxiety for the owner. It might be a good idea to see a therapist yourself!)

“Aggression” is one of the most frequent reasons for seeking out professional help.  Basically, any strong reaction (barking, lunging, snapping) in any context can get labeled as “aggression” and people usually assume bad intent behind it. While some dogs certainly aim to bite, many – if not most – show aggressive behaviors simply in order to get more space. When dealing with any kind of problems, it is important to separate our narrative from the facts.

This post examines what aggression is and how it can be analyzed. Catch up on what aggression isn’t in part one.

two dogs snarling at each other over a toy Continue reading “Help, my dog is aggressive! Part 2”

Help, my dog is aggressive! Part 1

(Disclaimer: It is not my goal to diminish the problem. Aggressive behaviors are not acceptable in our society and showing them can have serious consequences for the dog and their owner, as well as for the victim. Living with an aggressive dog can also cause a lot of stress and anxiety for the owner. It might be a good idea to see a therapist yourself!)

“Aggression” is one of the most frequent reasons for seeking out professional help.  Basically, any strong reaction (barking, lunging, snapping) in any context can get labeled as “aggression” and people usually assume bad intent behind it.

While some dogs certainly aim to bite, many – if not most – show aggressive behaviors simply in order to get more space. When dealing with any kind of problems, it is important to separate our narrative from the facts. This post’s goal is to look at some common misconceptions about aggression, which may be clouding our judgement.

This part focuses on what aggression is not. Read part 2 to learn how aggression can be defined and analyzed.

Aggression is not anger

When talking about aggression people often equal aggression with anger (as defined in our society).

They might say that the dog:

  • lashed out
  • was angry
  • “hates me”
  • “is jealous”

There are two problems with this.

Continue reading “Help, my dog is aggressive! Part 1”

Help, my dog is a resource guarder! Part 2

Resource guarding (food, toys, etc.) is a common problem among dog owners. In the first post I talked about how we define resource guarding, what does it look like and what are the usual causes. Now we will discuss the options you have if your dog is a resource guarder:

  • management – making everyone safe again
  • emergency interventions
  • training

Continue reading “Help, my dog is a resource guarder! Part 2”