Understanding DOG AGGRESSION and Body Language - Growling, Biting, Barking, & Stress Signals Part 1

In this dog training video, I give you a breakdown of overt stress signals - commonly called aggression - and what those signals mean. This is an analysis of dog behavior in both objective and subjective terms. This is a part 1 of a 4 part series on dog behavior, specifically as it pertains to stress indicators.
Watch my MOST COMPREHENSIVE Tutorial on Aggression & Reactivity Next: Most Complete Aggressive Dog Training Tutorial (using Positive Reinforcement) • Most Complete Aggressi...
I am a positive reinforcement dog trainer, and I work with clients from all over the world to help recover their dog from anxiety, fear, depression, and other mental health illnesses. It is my mission to educate through the power of science and to spread love and compassion to every dog owner.
Watch the whole 4 Part Series on Dog Body Language & Stress Signals:
Part 1: Aggression in Dogs/Overt Stress Signals • Understanding DOG AGGR...
Part 2: Calming Signals (Subtle Signs of Stress) • Understanding Dog BODY...
Part 3: Appeasing Behaviors (Ways Dogs De-esculate Tension) • Understanding Dog Body...
Part 4: Displacement Behaviors (Displaying Discomfort or “awakwardness”) • UNDERSTAND DOG BODY LA...
Grisha Stewart and Behavior Adjustment Training 2.0 (BAT 2.0) grishastewart.com/
Photo and Video Sources in order of appearance: Cheryl Mulick mastersdegreedogtraining.com/r...
Keith Causey
www.aspcapro.org/resource/7-t...
(the rest are stock images)
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Disclaimers: Jenna Romano is not a veterinarian. Always consult a veterinarian before giving your dog any food. Use of this information is strictly at your own risk. Jenna Romano will not assume any liability for direct or indirect losses or damages that may result from the use of information contained in this video including but not limited to economic loss, injury, illness or death to you or your dog.

[@getacalmdog]

Watch my MOST COMPREHENSIVE Tutorial on Aggression & Reactivity Next: Most Complete Aggressive Dog Training Tutorial (using Positive Reinforcement) kzbin.info/www/bejne/poa2gomalqaJa8U

[@pawsitivelyintrepid]

I love your scientific approach to educating the world about dog behavior. Thank you for taking the time to record such a thorough video on dog behaviors.

[@sheiladixey4584]

Hi, I just found your videos this week. I LOVE them & have been watching every free moment. I am desperate.!!!😰My 2 neutered male rescue dogs (Freckles, 5yo bloodhound/pit & Scout, 3yo GSD) used to be BFF’s. Scout sometimes escalated things bc he couldn’t calm down at night (we think), always wants to play and would poke, poke, poke Freckles when F wanted to sleep (or maybe S wanted F’s bed?🤷🏼‍♀️). Freckles would airbite. We'd try to stop the Scout from bothering F-w/o much luck. Sometimes Freckles would just get frustrated, get up & walk away. Although they loved to play chase out back together all day, this particular behavior was becoming increasingly problematic. To us, it appeared Scout was being more aggressive at times/couldn’t stop when he'd get to that point. A few weeks ago, they got into a huge fight over food. In an effort to stop the brawl (wh/ was very bad), we picked up water bottles, squirting while trying to throw chairs between them. Unfortunately, my water bottle turned out to be cleaning vinegar! It got in Scout’s eye! Freckles meanwhile was bleeding all over the head & ears. Since then, Scout will growl if he even sees Freckles behind the gate (we were told to keep them separated). We're trying to walk them together on separate sides of the street which works well. But once we get home, we separate them to keep Freckles safe, and then Scout absolutely HATES Freckles again!!! They've been separated 3 weeks now. I don’t feel like things are improving, except when they take walks. IDK what to do. I am afraid for Freckles’s safety. Scout seems to be holding a HUGE grudge for his injured eye that he "thinks" Freckles inflicted. IDK how much longer I can keep going this way. I love both dogs so much, and they used to love one another😭. Can you offer us any recommendation whatsoever as to how to rectify their relationship? I already brought a trainer here for hundreds of dollars last weekend. Yet we are no further along in this mess. TY!!

[@DeniseOkesonMessner]

Wonderful video, I can’t wait for the rest of the series. I can absolutely tell when my boy Rocky sees something that interests him, a dog, cat, or human (usually a human he sees as a threat elicits a bigger response) his head pops up, the leash goes slack, he gets much closer to me, his gait changes and his ears go foreword. I’m only successfully getting him to redirect to me about half the time before he blows up. I have worked with trainers and I feel like I’m still missing something. I’m really glad I found your channel and possibly a better solution for my pup.

[@getacalmdog]

Hi Denise, thank you so much for saying such wonderful things. I'm so glad you're here. You have made EXCELLENT observations in your dog. I'm looking forward to helping you through youtube in the future. If you have any specific questions for me, you are welcome to DM me on instagram @dog_liaison. Thank you again for watching and taking the time to comment.

[@gooddogtrainingservices5351]

Denise Okeson-Messner the instant you see the dog mark reward and move away. It needs to start far enough away and quickly enough so there is no reaction and you get a strong reinforcement history of the behavior to have a high probability it will respond. Even practice a lot with no triggers. Identify, Mark, turn, walk away. You have about 2-3 seconds after your dog is aware of a trigger before they start overthinking. Good luck and try to avoid any situations that trigger while you build a solid foundation for the skill

[@cherylgratton7940]

Thank you so much!!! My Siberian Husky is about to be in dog therapy after a few aggressive incidents. This is great information. I tell everyone about your channel, and I am watching every one of your videos and taking notes.

[@tatianasenderowicz7695]

Thank you so much for this video series. I have a question regarding a situation that has now happened several times with my pitbull mix. A dog will approach while at the park, and my dog will sometimes demonstrate signs of arousal-piloerection, and a sort of stiff body language (this is not the case with every dog he meets). After, he has in these incidents turned his back and tried walking away. Then what has happened is that the other dog follows him sniffing him or in general getting too close. At this point now my dog has turned around and snarled and done that air-nipping thing you discuss in these videos. It sounds and looks scary and without knowing better we have tried to correct this behavior...now I know better from your video. In those situations the other dog's owners have told me that that is unacceptable behavior from my dog even though he was showing clear signs that he doesn't want the other dog near him. At this point I really try to limit random dog interactions for this reason and I feel like most of the time other dog's owners aren't paying attention to the cues. My question is, in this situation how should I go about intervening if I am already removing my dog from the situation but the other dog is still following?

[@tammerahc]

Louise displays aggressive behavior . Thanks for clarification that it’s a behavior not her!

[@helenkaine23]

Hi Jenna! Great video! Thank you for all the information. What do you think about using medication (like Prozac etc) WITH the BAT in order to get better result with urban living dog? there’s no way we’ll go through a day without encountering at least one trigger that my dog will react to (we live in a high rise). So I was thinking to help him with the medication but there’re lots of controversial opinions on that

[@getacalmdog]

Hi Helen, thank you for asking such an important question. First, I want to give the disclaimer that I am not a veterinarian; and so ethically, I can only speak about my personal experiences and you have to take it with a grain of salt. With that said, I do think there is a place for medication in certain treatment plans FOR CERTAIN DOGS. The dogs that do well on a Prozac-type treatment are the dogs that have a hard time returning to baseline homeostasis after going over threshold. With that said, my personal experience has led me to believe that vets sometimes prescribe medication without also prescribing a learning plan. To me, you should not have medication without the intent of also helping the dog learn. That's like putting a bandaid on a missing limb and hoping you can stop the bleeding. I have personally worked with two separate dogs that were on trazadone and suffered seizures as a symptom. I know that statistically speaking, it is unusual for this to happen. Nevertheless, it did to me and so for that I am particularly biased against trazadone. With all that said, I personally recommend using CBD oil or some other natural calming aide before using prozac or clomicalm. It's not that those meds don't have a place. They do. But I think that if I can solve a problem with CBD, then that is preferable. Unfortunately, we do not have enough research on specifically the efficacy of CBD. Science has not been able to do long term tracking of the use of CBD on dogs for a span for 5/10/15 years. Mostly, this is because CBD is a "newer" methodology and I think there just hasn't been enough time. I am eager for those studies to come out, however. The testimonials of dog owners who have used CBD on their dog are promising. I hope this helped you!

[@BrendonRowe]

v great video. Our adolescent pup isn't aggressive but strong willed/high energy. He likes to treat us as another dog when excited. Especially on walks when he is getting to release some energy and it turns into him jumping and nipping us like another dog on the way. Any advice or book we should read?

[@getacalmdog]

Hi Brendon, thank you for asking a great question. It sounds like your pup is looking for you to give him more rowdy play and he perceives the walk as an opportunity to do that. Is it possible to drive him to a big open space like a park and out him on a 25 to 40ft leash for some silly, active play, and THEN switch to a 6ft leash for a more comfortable walk? PS. I have a recommended book section on my Instagram highlights @dog_liaison. But for now, I would check out some of Dr. Ian Dunbar's books. 😉

[@gooddogtrainingservices5351]

Yes THIS! 👍🏽

[@BrendonRowe]

@@getacalmdog best we can do is 20 ft leash. Most dog parks are super crowded. Also on a long leash he tends to be more interested in squirrels and other dogs :P Will check out the book! TY!

[@getacalmdog]

I get it. A lot of times the dogs are so unaccustomed to the long leash that they do behavior that's almost counterproductive to our goals. That happens. If at all possible, start using the long leash in your backyard or front yard to get him used to it as much as possible. Ideally the long leash feels as if he is off leash. If you have more questions, please DM me on Instagram. I'll be happy to help!

[@angelinacamacho8575]

​@@getacalmdogthere is also an app where people let you book their back or front yard for a few hours so dog owners can use them for their dogs to train and play.

[@Holly-po3wi]

Do you have any videos on how to handle a neutered male dog showing aggression to an intact male? My dog has shown a strong aggression to intact males (barking, snapping and lunging at the dog) and though today was the first time we had an opportunity to work through it a little, I still don’t know how to handle it. My dog is 3 now and was neutered at 1. He is a silly goofy friendly dog and usually just wants to play with other dogs.. We sat on a bench about 10 feet away from the intact dog to just get some desensitizing but was still scared to let them get close after 30 minutes of sitting there. He did do a bow towards the dog after 20 minutes or so but by then the other dog was really nervous to be near my dog now.

[@notapotato_]

My 11 week old puppy has started growling and snapping at me when I don't give a treat or toy to him when he wants it. For example, before I even start, he would sit when I haven't asked for anything yet, and when I don't give the treat, he snaps at me. He's never hurt me. But I don't know how I'm causing these behaviors or he just needs more exercise. Do you have any resources or books for this? Should I start getting in contact with a dog behaviorist? I would really appreciate any help you can give me.

[@getacalmdog]

It sounds like your dog is frustrated because he's looking for an opportunity to earn the treat but you're not informing him how to do that. Imagine if someone was dangling $100,000 in front of your face. Said "you can have this. I'll give this to you." But then they didn't tell you HOW to get it. They just kept dangling it there. You would get frustrated with them, too. First, if there's a reward in the space, make sure your dog knows precisely what is expected of him in order to get that reward. And make sure that information is delivered in a relatively timely manner. Puppies are impulsive by design. It's not their fault. They literally do not have the ability to show the same patience a cognitively matured dog can. You must be swift and clear with your expectations - and swift and clear with your rewards.

[@AndyPMusic]

I have a question, my old dog hated female dogs but she tolerated males, I was wondering if you had any idea why that could be the case. She was fixed by the way so it wasn't from that.

[@getacalmdog]

There are so many variables why this could be. In VERY general terms, it probably comes down to a perceived competition. But I know that's vague. Sometimes it's a matter of play strategy. Sometimes a matter of resources. Sometimes they have 1 bad instance with a female, and start to assume all females are like this. This goes more along the lines of confirmation bias. But again these are all just guesses. Take what I'm saying with a grain of salt. Haha

[@AndyPMusic]

Thanks for explaining. I also completely understand what you mean by "talking in vauge terms" lol, not every dog is the same, thus you should teach each dog on a case by case basis.

[@getacalmdog]

Precisely. I'm glad you understand. 🙂

[@mattie9419]

Dogs don't have human emotions at the end of the day it comes down to predator prey Aggressive dogs can appear find one moment and switch on a dime By the time you react it's too late Muzzles safe's lives and prevent serious injury

[@aprilcruz4274]

Needs more visual stimulus.

[@hixli7486]

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