(Including problems occurring in poor welfare cases such as puppy farming, back yard breeding, puppies born from malnourished mums such as street dogs)
Poor socialisation will mean that the dog is missing information that will help it to live in a society with human beings and other animals. Aggression most often occurs through fears and anxieties so with poor socialisation, this fear is from a lack of understanding about what things are and how to be. For example, a lack of socialisation with other dogs and/or humans will mean that a puppy behaves more like a wild animal. Various experiments have been done keeping puppies isolated from humans, dogs, other animals and external influences. A wild animal has a heightened fight or flight response and as dogs are kept, most usually, in a more confined living spaces (garden or home) if there is nowhere to flee, then the response of the dog can become one of five things – Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fiddle about (avoidance) or Flirt (we might see this as the equivalent of hiding behind mum’s skirts). If fight is the option then the result is likely to manifest itself as aggression.
A lot of fear aggression is due to a negative experience or a lack of socialisation/habituation. A young puppy adapts to his environment and grows up not being fearful of noises, smells and sights encountered as long as they are introduced and become part of his understanding at an early age. Without this the dog can bite out of fear. The upside is that because fear aggression is mostly a learned behaviour, it is possible to help a dog overcome it by using various rewards such as food, touch, play and grooming. Using “habituation” techniques, it is possible to help the dog overcome his fears. Where things may be a little different is if a dog has developed issues due to a poor welfare background – such as being brought up in a “shed out the back” or bred on a puppy farm. It can also happen that developmental issues and fear increases in puppies that were born from a stressed or malnourished mum. In these cases a lot more may be involved and there are further complications in dealing with this and this is because there can be long term consequences.
So how does stress/anxiety/reactivity and poor welfare (including physical and mental abuse, poor breeding and so on) effect dogs and what are those long term consequences?
We have to understand the effects and what can happen in order to address them. Even if we can not resolve an issue, by understanding them we can avoid making them even worse and we can usually improve possible outcomes. We can help dogs build confidence and resilience or we can build in preventative actions.
The two main areas of the brain that are effected are:
The hippocampus
The amygdala
The hippocampus – is an important part of the limbic system, a cortical region that regulates motivation, emotion, learning, and the formation of both long and short term memories.
The amygdala – is responsible for the perception of emotions such as anger, fear, and sadness, as well as the controlling of aggression. The amygdala helps to store memories of events and emotions so that an individual may be able to recognise similar events in the future in particular those related to survival. It is an ancient part of the brain and one dogs have in common with us. it is what controls the fight, flight, freeze, fiddle about and flock instincts. When the amygdala is over active there is a heightened fear response which increases anxiety which in turn can increase reactivity and aggression. The amygdala is more reactive when there is sleep deprivation and stressed/anxious dogs sleep less as do over stimulated and aroused dogs. Often the two things are linked.
The Amygdala and Emotional Hijacking – why some behaviours seem to come out of nowhere. Many times I hear that dogs have reacted in a way that came out of nowhere and the carer did not see it coming. This is never true – it has always come from somewhere!
Sometimes we miss a myriad of tiny signals, or something called trigger stacking has taken place. This is where someone might say their dog has only reacted at the 10th dog they have seen but had ignored all the others up to that point. What has really happened is that the dog was a little concerned at dog 1, a little more at dog 2 and so on until there was an emotional explosion at dog 10. This in effect is neural take over – when the amygdala takes over.
As an ancient part of the brain and linked with survival, it has the ability to take a short cut past any thinking. This is why powerful, dramatic and emotional responses seem to come out of the blue and appear totally over the top – over reactive. In dogs, if there are any over stimulation or arousal issues (lacking calm/being impulsive or impatient about things) then responses can turn to serious aggression.
Dealing with over stimulation and teaching calm is one of the most important things we can do for our dogs and it is an area of training that is greatly over looked.
Things that traumatised dogs might exhibit:
- PTSD
- Waking up from “nightmares” – growling, snapping (often at their rear end)
- Fear of the dark
- Cancers that they can pass on to offspring
- Bad teeth that need dental work throughout their life
- Toilet training problems – note that what a dog learnt to urinate on as a puppy often remains what they want to use for life. We might get them out of this habit, but it usually returns in old age.
- Puppy farmed dogs (or those bred in similar conditions) may NEVER be able to go on walks as going out can be highly traumatic. This is OK! Brain work and stable home life is fine – owners should be made aware of this rather as outsiders often criticise people for not walking dogs enough
- Running away, fearful responses, reactivity (growling/aggression)
- Mental traumas and inability to learn new things
- Noise phobias
The following are more likely in stressed, malnourished and abused dogs or in puppies from mothers who have experienced these:
- Stressed mums do not groom puppies as much – mums that groom puppies increase the receptors that suck up the stress hormone cortisol
- Long term or ongoing stress shrinks the hippocampus and early learning is impaired.
- Shrinking hippocampus reduces the number of glucocorticoid receptors (the things that suck up stress)
- Increased stress further shrinks the hippocampus (!)
- Increase of fear issues because the shrinking hippocampus effects the amygdala and now both are seriously effected.
- Increased reactivity to many things starts to occur – this is why we often see more aggression and food reactivity.
A downward spiral has occurred and dogs may end up living with this for their entire lives to a greater or lesser degree. The good news is that we can do quite a bit about it if we tackle it early enough.
Damage mostly starts in utero – BEFORE birth – so that puppies from malnourished and stressed mums are more prone to developing noise phobias and in general have a lower tolerance for noise. This is paired with an increased chance of fearfulness and many are impaired cognitively so that they will never fully recover or learn coping techniques or new behaviours.
Note also that at birth the amygdala is much closer to fully formed. Any experiences that occur in infancy will be locked into it – so this means that any upsets that take place will be there for life.
Shelter Dogs/Kennels – where barking is continuous eg at over 70DB, the hairs in dogs’ ears start to shave off and reduces sound protection and increases reaction to noise. This occurs for example where there is persistent barking. Kennels like this should always be avoided wherever possible and dogs from poor welfare backgrounds should ideally never be put in kennels where noise can be highly stressful.
One of the most valuable mantras to keep in mind with nearly all behaviours but in particular when dealing with situations such as those outlined above is:
REPAIR THE BRAIN BEFORE YOU TRAIN.
Interactive exercises involving brain work create the BIGGEST improvement in rehabilitating dogs or dealing with behavioural issues. This is why the latest fad for enrichment exercises by behaviourists is NOT as helpful as they try to claim.
Puzzle toys, using snuffle mats just to find treats, using scattered/hidden food rewards or setting up cardboard chaos games are not the most helpful in supporting dogs with behavioural issues and in need of rehabilitation. Yes, we need to give enrichment exercises but these also need to be socially enriching – ie scent driven exercises have to involve working with the human. This is GUIDED SCAVENGING, not just seeking out hidden food rewards which is easy!
True scent work is both tiring and uses the brain. Good scentwork activities involve human guidance and support – this means that those trainers or groups that use passive indications are less helpful and can create a loss of confidence even in bold dogs, let alone more anxious ones.
Games like cardboard chaos can leave a dog feeling lost, unsupported and afraid. It can be downright scary to a fearful dog, especially if a box moves when touched!
Enrichment exercises on their own serve little purpose – especially in building resilience against fear/anxiety.
The two most effective activities that a dog can do which work on neurogenesis and repairing the fear centre of the brain are those where all 4 limbs are used in a thinking way (so the dog is part of the decision making process) and the nose:
- Parkour
- Scentwork – which includes true scentwork (not just looking for food) such as that taught by Talking Dogs Scentwork (TDS) and activities such as Mantrailing (looking for a missing person).
**Note: There are other scentwork groups but I am most familiar with TDS and like their methods as they teach an active indication rather than a passive one. Passive indication can create more anxiety in a dog, it can take longer and in my personal opinion I find it less helpful to dogs that are more fearful and/or anxious about things.