Is Covid to blame for increased dog aggression?
"Welshpool is a haven for animals of all kinds, especially dogs. No matter the weather, residents of Welshpool enjoy walks with their canine companions, which is great for dogs’ socialising, as they’re a very sociable animal who avidly enjoy the company of their peers.
However, in recent months it’s been clear that some of the dogs who usually enjoy local outings have been more prone to expressing reactive behaviour towards other dogs.
I’ve been training with dogs in Welshpool since 2022, and almost half of my clientele own reactive dogs, with some previously displaying aggression towards other dogs. I’m fortunate enough to work with people who actively aim to help their dogs overcome their mental and emotional barriers, to manage their behaviour around other dogs.
One of the biggest concerns for the welfare of dogs was when COVID-19 struck. It impacted dogs’ social skills, and it increased separation related behaviour when the world started to move forward again. In studies undertaken by Veterinary Sciences, they found that dogs who showed potential signs of separation-related problems prior to COVID-19 seemed to more than likely worsen and develop further behavioural issues during lockdown.
In 2023, new surveys showed that half of the vets in the UK reported a rise in owners’ concerns of their dogs’ increasing aggression. 87% of the dogs were believed to be under the age of three years old, which highlighted the longer-term effects on puppies bought over lockdown. Almost 24% of vets also reported an increase in the number of pets they had treated who were injured due to aggressive behaviour by dogs.
The key behaviours I have been asked to help manage from owners who bought puppies just before or during lockdown all wanted to target their social skills and/or aggression. Some clients admitted that when restrictions started to be released, they brought their dogs out and let them interact with most dogs they’d see on their walks. While that approach has worked for some people, it has had the opposite effect on others.
What we also need to look at it is which breed of puppies people bought and which older dogs they already owned, pre-pandemic. Some dog breeds such as Basset Hounds, Boston Terriers, Bulldogs, Cockapoos and Golden Retrievers. Whereas dog breeds such as Chihuahuas, German Shepherds and Rottweilers, are known to present reactive and/or aggressive behaviour towards other dogs.
Even then, not every dog is the posterchild for their stereotype. I have worked with Golden Retrievers and Labradors for reactive behaviour and aggression towards other dogs, but that doesn’t mean there’s a distortion in the make-up of their DNA.
While aggression can be passed down through the DNA of both male and female parents, whether that’s due to their breed group and innate behaviours or from trauma experienced by one or both parents that was never worked on, it can also be presented due to trauma that our canine companions experience in their waking life.
This is where I’m going to separate a little bit from COVID-19 related behavioural issues and move towards the impact of other dogs in the community who can contribute towards reactivity and/or aggression.
Some of my clients have pinpointed timeframes in which their dogs started to react to their four-legged peers, and they expressed that their behaviour changed when they’d experienced other dogs who were off-leash headed towards them and trying to interact with them without their active participation. Some of the off-leash dogs were aggressive, while others simply had no idea of the boundaries that exist between them. During these interactions, I was told that the dogs either had poor recall or that the owners didn’t intervene, and behaviour escalated.
I reached out to members of the community and to clients, for an insight into experiences that they had.
One member of the community recited an experience with her reactive rescue dog, who she has been working really hard with on behaviour modification to counter-condition his emotional response around dogs and managing his behaviour. She was walking one of her usual routes with her dog as they passed a field with horses who are regularly tended to.
She recited: “As I got to the wide metal gate, I saw her (an off-leash dog) and continued but suddenly heard from behind me a growling, barking and scrambling sound. A huge sheepdog appeared and rounded on my already reactive dog and started lunging at him, growling, and snarling ferociously.
“I screamed my neighbours’ name. I could hear her calling it back, but it wasn’t taking any notice.”
What followed in the recollection of events was nothing short of cruel, as the anonymous member of the community expressed her shock as the sheepdog’s owner came forward and performed verbal and physical acts of cruelty. Incidents have since followed with that same dog attacking other dogs, with one resulting in incredible vets’ fees.
Some members of the community have wonderful intentions and feel that by letting their sociable dogs approach reactive dogs, that it will help them overcome the behaviour.
It’s something that I’ve had people say to me and my clients, but as kind as their intentions are, it’s not the answer. It will only fuel fear and potential reactivity in the other dogs. I have had several members of the community express to me that dogs should be dogs, and we should “let them sort it out themselves”.
What we must remember as that they’re not wild animals anymore, they’re a domesticated companion. While they have inborn behaviours, including aggression and protective instincts for some breeds, we have the opportunity to prevent those behaviours from being presented to other dogs in the community.
How can we help reactive dogs?
As a dog trainer who approaches situations with a reward-based approach, my advice is that you work at your dog’s pace and use plenty of space when you start to reintroduce your dog into the community.
If your dog isn’t reacting when you do this, it means their comfortable enough to take it all in. You can use treats to feed them in order to incorporate what is called counter-conditioning, in which you present your dog with a stimulus that induces a negative emotional response and pair it with a stimulus that induces a positive emotional response.
Food influences dogs’ emotions and decision making, so you can utilise counter-conditioning to help rewire the emotions they feel around their triggers.
You can also utilise positive reinforcement. So, once you’ve spent time, whether that’s days, weeks or months working on counter-conditioning, continuing to use space you can ask your dog to present a behaviour. The sit command is a great example.
When your dog presents the behaviour that you want, you can reward them with a treat. Don’t ask them to do too much around their negative stimulus at first, even when you’re working at a distance. If they don’t notice that it’s slowly getting closer and they all of a sudden catch a glimpse of them approaching, it can set them back.
I don’t advise that you ask them to do much either, as it can become a habit of the owner to avoid the stimulus. While your dog will smell and hear the presence of their triggers, it’s important that they can see them. That way, you’ll know that your dog is choosing to actively engage with you.
With time, space, and a dog-centred approach, you can start to reintroduce your dog into the community by closing in on the space, and when doing so, you can utilise quieter times of the day to do. Say your dog is reactive towards other dogs and children, taking them out on a Saturday to revise how they’re doing isn’t a great idea, compared to taking them out on a Wednesday morning, when the world is waking up, but most people are working with their children at school.
Remember – a walk is never just a walk to your dog. They’re constantly using their nose and working their mind. If you plan is to take your dog somewhere for exposure, whether you’re at the beginning steps or so far up the ladder and working towards more exposure but the stimulus isn’t present, don’t turn back and go home. Just walk with your dog and let them experience what it’s like to have a calm, peaceful time out.
Advocate your dog! You can purchase leads that say “training”, “nervous”, “I need space” and “no dogs”. You can also purchase collars and harnesses that state the same. What you can also do is verbally advocate for your dog. I’ve had to do it plenty of times when I’ve been out working with reactive dogs. Some people didn’t like that I asked them to leash their boisterous dogs, and others didn’t like that I told them that their children weren’t allowed to stroke nervous dogs, but I did what was in the dogs’ best interests.
I understand that it can induce anxiety if you feel that you need to verbally advocate for your dog but imagine what it’s like for them. The fear, the not knowing why their communication isn’t being understood, the tension as their triggers approach them because they’ve not been advocated for. You’ll find that more than anything else, verbally advocating for your dog will work best.
What can dog owners with friendly dogs do?
If you notice that someone is creating space, even if they haven’t advocated for their dog, keep walking. I appreciate that you feel drawn to telling them that your dog is friendly and that they might be able to help, but they’ve created space for a reason.
There’s a small chance the interactions could go well, but it’s not just the dogs that are nervous. If the owner is nervous, they’re going to communicate that through their body language, through smell and through the tension they create as they pull their dogs away on the lead.
It’s also important for your dogs to realise that they can’t interact with every dog. In fact, over-socialising your dog can lead to unwanted interactions and can create reactive behaviour if you all of a sudden stop letting them interact.
You can unknowingly communicate that there must be a problem with the dog you’re trying to ignore, and without guidance from your, your dog might feel that it’s their responsibility to protect you both.
If your dog has poor recall, put them on a leash and train them. You can work on engagement training by introducing new, fun commands. If you desensitise and habituate them to other dogs, they’ll feel less inclined to want to interact with them all of the time, but you must do both. If you just work on recall on a quiet day, and then your dog sees another dog on the leash, they can break from their engagement with you and head towards the other dog.
You can work on desensitising and habituation, and then you can assume that because you’ve done that, that your dog won’t approach other dogs. That’s not the case. When you see another dog on their leash, it’s kind to leash your own dog. Even if you know the dog and their owner, don’t assume. You could massively help another dog and prevent your own from experiencing harm or creating complex behaviours of their own.
When you understand the breed of your dog, their potential triggers, what is rewarding to them, what form of communication they respond best to in a reward-based approach, you can help set them up for success.
One of the most important things you can do is learn to understand dog body language. A wagging tail doesn’t always mean a dog is happy, just as a bark doesn’t always mean a dog is anxious. Yawning doesn’t always mean a dog is tired, just as licking your hand doesn’t always mean they’re being affection. There’s a whole world to dog body language, but it can massively help you in understanding your dog and how they’re communicating with you.
I appreciate that some people feel that we should just stop reactive and/or aggressive dogs from approaching public spaces but isolating them further increases their behaviour. It doesn’t help them, and it further fuels the current war on dogs.
Dogs teach us about unconditional love, and how to break down barriers to communication. They can help us create a better, more tolerant, and compassionate world, if only we meet them halfway and support their needs."
References for source links:
Veterinary Sciences: https://www.mdpi.com/2306-7381/10/3/195
Rising Dog Aggression, BVA: https://www.bva.co.uk/news-and-blog/news-article/new-survey-shows-concerning-rise-in-dog-aggression-following-pandemic-puppy-boom/
PICTURE: Christopher at a local beauty spot, with credit to Shutter and Tweed Photography.
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