Training : Intact Males: From other owners: Brian McCorkle & boys...

Written by Brian McCorkle
mccorkle@bu.edu
copyright 2001 Brian McCorkle

Several weeks ago I wrote about a sudden increase in dog-on-dog aggression with Chief. I'm pleased to report that the situation is much improved through a variety of strategies described below (we've gone from 7 dogfights in one week to zero fights for 10 days). Several owners of intact males younger than Chief asked for details about what I learned so that they might be forewarned. For those who are interested, here's a summary:

Canine males generally hit puberty between 6 and 12 months, but the canine brain does not fully mature until roughly 2 years give or take 6 months. The rush of testosterone at puberty begins to develop secondary sex characteristics, but the male canine brain doesn't really respond to testosterone in an adult fashion until roughly 2 years +/-.

When it starts, it's like the first time a human has alcohol -- they literally don't know how to handle the rush. (Of course, with a neutered male there's no testosterone to respond to, so this behavioral phase does not happen and any dog-on-dog aggression observed is due to other causes). Testosterone is not steady-state but flows in response to situations.

When the young adult male who's still figuring out the world sees another male, he may respond almost as if drunk on the resulting testosterone surge, "losing his head" as well as any awareness that you the owner exist, and getting into fights. And because he's trying to establish his place in the world, the male this age is particularly sensitive to relative rank, and is prone to get into fights with dogs who threaten his precious male ego (okay, I'm anthropomorphizing here, but you catch my drift, eh?)

A friend put it in perspective -- think high school. The stupid fights after school, gangs, kids killing themselves by taking risks while driving, vandalism, etc. etc -- general sophomoric behavior. My neuropsych professor used to say that adolescence was the "human analog" for brain damage -- you take an organism with a completely functioning brain, and then a hormone wave comes along and selectively knocks out a function, like judgement about what's safe, or remembering tasks, or following verbal directions, or even seeing things like signs telling them specifically what to do. Then the hormone is metabolized and the "normal" kid re-emerges. Chief was the same way -- perfectly fine 98% of the time, but every now and then he just succumbed to the testosterone, like someone having their first drink who gets looped on 1/2 a glass.

Fortunately, as in humans, many dogs eventually grow out of this adolescent phase and become much more tolerant of other males in middle age (remember the Swiss saying, "3 years a young dog, 3 years a good dog, 3 years an old dog"). Some don't, and for them, neutering effectively eliminates about 2/3's of the aggressive cases. The reason is not because the dog becomes less aggressive.

Rather, because he no longer smells like a male, other male dogs ignore him and his posturing, giving him less to be offended about. Therefore, if 2 dogs in the same household fight, the solution is NOT to neuter the dominant one, but to neuter the less-dominant one. This increases the social distance and reduces the dominant dog's perceived need to assert himself. However, if 2 dogs from different households get into bad fights at this point, they often remember and may still fight even if both are neutered.

Okay, there's scads more I found out, but what did we do to regain control?

1) No surprise -- training, training, training. ANY obedience work helps establish the owner as pack leader. Also, the "No Free Lunch" protocol helped reinforce that with Chief.

2) Varying the walks. We had fallen into a rut -- virtually every day
twice a day for over a year, we walked the same route in the same park with the same dogs, and Chief was acting territorial about "his" park and "his" pack of dog buddies when unfamiliar males appeared. However, when he meets male dogs in other settings, there's MUCH less likelihood of problems.

3) Preventative leashing. At first, Chief was never off-lead except on our property. Then, as he became more secure with "wait" and "come" again, he was allowed off-lead in parks provided we could see that there were no unknown dogs in the area. Any time an unknown dog appears, Chief is leashed immediately. Any time when we can't see around a corner or over the crest of a hill, we leash Chief before proceeding. In addition to maintaining physical control, it reinforces our place as pack leaders. (Notice how this depends on training, training, training so he'll stop long enough to be leashed).

4) Changed leashes. Instead of clipping a leash to his collar, we now use what some people call an "English lead" -- a thick cord with a slip collar built in. The result is something very much like a lariat used by cowboys to lasso cattle. It's MUCH easier and quicker to slip over his head than grabbing a collar and attached a leash.

5) Lots of studies show the relationship between testosterone and social hierarchy in mammals. The mere act of going through some obedience exercises results in a drop in the dog's testosterone level. Prior to getting into potentially difficult situations, having Chief do several sits and downs for treats makes him much more manageable. Following one of this "mini-boosters", if Chief heads towards another dog I can say "Leave it!" and he turns away.

6) A little Tincture of Time works wonders. Even in one short month, he's no longer quite so blown over by the testosterone rush.

7) Oh, did I mention training? <grin>

Anyway, there's lots more but this is already overly long. I'm thinking it might be useful to gather some of the sources and resources into a list if anyone wants it. In my copious free time -- perhaps after I finish grading papers and finals...

At 11:10 AM 11/20/00, N.D.Arnold wrote:
>I remember sometime ago you all talking about signals >the dog can give to other dogs to signal stuff. I was just wondering which subtle signs could cause nearly every dog I meet to try and 'have a go' at my leo.

Nadine, you don't say in your post whether your boy is intact or what his age is. But let me tell you what I discovered the hard way last year, in case it is helpful to you or other owners of males. It's a bit of a dissertation, so if you're not interested, delete now <grin>

Intact male dogs apparently give off the strongest odor of male hormones in early adolescence (makes sense -- that's when the greatest amount of sex-related physical changes occur, so lots of hormones are needed). This is often (but not always) signaled by beginning to raise their legs to pee (but some dogs delay lifting until long after puberty). So, at that point they smell more "male" than at any other point in their, or any other, dog's life.

At the time this happens, Leo males are already pretty darn big - probably 70-100 lbs or 30-50 kilos, and rather tall. So relative to the males of most breeds, they smell more male than an adult male, and they're bigger than most adult males, and they're taller than most adult males. In other words, they smell and look threatening to the males of most breeds, especially of largish breeds who are used to being the biggest dog around.

BUT -- they're not adults, they're still goofy adolescents who aren't very sure of themselves. Already that alone is enough to make some adult males, especially medium-to-large NEUTERED males (German Shepherds, Labs, Goldens), attack. Most dog aggression is fear-based, and they're used to being the largest around and suddenly they feel threatened, but they sense the Leo pup's vulnerability, so they attack. To us it looks completely unprovoked.

BUT it's even more complicated than that. The adult males have a whole
series of behaviors that they use to communicate, establish dominance,
etc., that begin from the moment they become aware of another dog. We
humans, being a wee bit on the slow side, usually only see the 5th or 10th behavior in the chain, like mounting or growling., but it begins very early.

Some examples of dominant behavior include staring (non-aggressive behavior is to look away), walking straight towards another dog (non-aggressive behavior is to curve around, maybe standing nose-to-butt while allowing themselves to be sniffed also), tail up like a flag but very stiff (subordinate dogs hold tails loose and wavy), and stiff legs.

Some other I'm-NOT-a-threat behaviors include sitting, lying down, yawning, standing *very* still like they're holding their breath, licking their own lips, licking the lips of the other dog, rolling over, and submissive peeing. There are a bunch of others, but these are the most obvious. Some you have to learn to read in your own dog but are hard (for humans) to read in other unfamiliar breeds. For example, Leos "on alert" have ears up and forward, but it looks different in subtle ways when they're curious versus when they're defensive; when they see their favorite "pack buddies" (human or canine) the ears go back and down. But Akitas have ears like cats, and often swivel their ears back and down when they're annoyed, such as by over-rambunctious puppy face-licking.

So anyway, there's this whole host of "dominance" or challenging signals and what Turiid calls "calming signals". Dogs are pack animals, and need to know exactly where in the social order they stand. But the poor adolescent Leo hasn't figured all this out, and just goes blithely on his puppyish way, neither being dominant nor properly submissive. This increases the anxiety of the already-threatened male dog, especially if it's neutered and large-but-not-giant. Again, most dog aggression is fear-based, and they're afraid, and the lack of appropriate signals increases their anxiety and fear, so they attack.

Notice I emphasized neutered males of large-but-not-giant breeds. Intact males are much less likely to feel threatened by an adolescent. Instead, they *usually* seem to ignore the adolescent Leo until he gets right in their face in a way they consider rude. And medium and small breeds are used to being towered over anyway.

When the attack comes, a common reaction by the Leo male is a confused
"what did I do?" look, with no fighting back. But you can tell it upsets them, and it sure as heck upsets the owners, too.

Is there hope? Yes -- eventually the male Leo realizes that the attacker is only half his size, and stands up for himself. For my Chief, he looked around at the Lab attacking his flank and realized he was looking DOWN at this dog, and he snarled once and that was the end of it. He started walking taller and stopped being attacked -- by OTHER breeds.

Unfortunately, that was when the intact adult Leos started to take offense. The young males (think college age and 20's) are very rank-oriented, and once the adolescent Leo starts acting more mature, suddenly they feel a need to put the new kid on the block into his place. The older males (think middle-age) seem more secure in their own maleness, and generally are less likely to get into it. But now that Chief's 1.5, I am always cautious around large (over 100 lbs/50 kilos) males of any large/tall breed -- Rottweilers, GSDs, Leos, Greyhounds, Dobermans, etc.

In any case, there are definitely things you can do to help with aggression towards your own dog. You can never train all the "other dogs", but you *can* teach your dog the skills to avoid confrontations.

First, straight away, get Turid Rugaas's books or videos or go to a
seminar. She teaches dogs how to speak Canine with better manners, by
giving out what she calls "calming signals". Very helpful.

In the meantime, have your male lie down (preferably) or sit whenever
meeting a new dog. That goes a LONG way to reducing the perceived threat, and is the only way for Leos to play with most small dogs anyway, so it's a useful life skill.

Do NOT allow your dog to perform any of the following behaviors to another dog:
--pointed staring,
--walking stiff-legged straight at another dog,
--tail up and stiff,
--head held a little tooooo high,
--rumbling (may be so soft that you only feel it through the leash)
--putting his head across the back of another dog,
--and, of course, mounting.

If (or should I say when) your dog does any of these, either 1) step between the 2 dogs, or 2) turn your dog to face the other way, or 3) lead your dog away using as little (but also as much) force as necessary. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Also, demonstrate to your dog that you are in charge (#1 = the alpha stands in front; #3 = the alpha decides where the pack goes). If you're in charge, he can relax; if you're NOT in charge, he feels that he needs to be.

Finally, remember that dogs on a leash feel restricted. Most dog aggression is fear-based. Therefore, dogs on leashes are MORE likely to attack than dogs off-leash, sort of like a trapped badger. On more than one occasion I have seen two male dogs tolerate or ignore each other well off-leash, but once one gets put on leash, the LEASHED dog feels threatened and tries to attack. So if you're walking and you see someone reach to leash their dog, give them a very wide berth.

Brian, Chief (who stopped getting attacked when I instituted these steps), and Beaumont (who at 4 months is still blissfully ignorant of the adult male world)