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dominic
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Date Posted: 13:40:57 06/11/07 Mon
posted by frabo on longwood board
Article on Aggression
Posted on June 11, 2007 at 02:44:53 PM by Frabo
AGGRESSION
by Dr. Franz Killmann, Ph.D. (Biology)
Translated from German by Isabel Lambertz
The original meaning of the word "aggression" is NOT "to hold one's own".
The word Aggression comes from the Latin word "aggredi", meaning, "to attack", as in starting a fight as well as a general term "to approach a task", "to do something about it".
The root of the word is "gradus " = to step forward' and "gradior" = to stride, and seems to show a rather peaceable meaning. We also have this in our language, as the figurative term "to tackle [to attack] a task".
In a biological sense this describes a mode of behavior: to "protect yourself against harmful environmental influences, as well as actively discover your environment in order to survive and be able to reproduce".
Aggression for a living being is available as a sort of tool to overcome obstacles and resistances during the progression of goal-oriented behaviors and it is the energy that the organism mobilizes to ensure its own existence. Therefore it is a guarantor for its life and survival of the species.
A fight is merely one facet of aggression, however an important one.
For protection work this means the active dog
1. Must build up a relationship of dominance against a threatening, actively attacking helper and his resistance [to the dog].
2. Must vehemently oppose the frustrations and conflicts as they develop during the hold-and-bark, during the out, the obedience phases, and of course during the attack exercises; anywhere the dogs drive goals are blocked by the handler or the helper.
Without aggression behaviors this is impossible to achieve. If we suppress this aggression we give away a significant piece of motivation.
We frustrate the dog (possibly even over long periods of time) if we do not guide the aggressive dispositions of our dogs... because the natural triggers for aggressive behaviors, such as threats or posturing, cannot be modified by training. In a ritualized fight the dog learns to manage aggressive behaviors, a discharge accumulated aggression in an appropriate way, and therefore neutralizes its state of excitement.
That not only applies to protection, it applies to obedience as well and even tracking. Anywhere resistance is built against drive goals, the dog has to free up additional energy.
By throwing a ball one triggers prey/hunting behavior:
fleeing prey - run after it - catch and bite it - thrash it 'dead' and eat it.
If you hold the dog by the collar you are creating resistance (frustration) that the dog wants to overcome. He frees up energy, barks, e.g. tries to break free from you; if you have bad luck he bites you. As a skillful trainer you channel this energy into a faster go-out and pick-up. You want the dog to run and pick up (ie, the dumbbell) fast and immediately... therefore you prevent him from going, creating a resistance that the dog converts into motion energy. This is also aggressive behavior: mobilizing energy in order to reach a drive goal.
A dead prey does not trigger aggression. That is, figuratively speaking, food that the dog has in its mouth already. The resistance, the withholding, the quarrel over prey, are stimuli for setting free aggression. In obedience, we use this energy that the dog frees over frustration to create speed, attention, concentration, and tension.
Not every dog has the ability to respond to aggressive behavior from the decoy or handler...ie, threat stimuli, invasion of individual personal space, provocations... with situation-appropriate Aggression. This ability is inborn and cannot be learned. It is this potential that we encourage through learning processes and channel for our purposes. However, we cannot generate it if the dog has not inherited this set of behaviors.
Ideally the working dog has the whole spectrum of aggressive behaviors, including natural inhibitions, high reactivity, a medium stimulus threshold, and a pronounced prey drive.
Reality however, looks different.
A large portion of today's sport dogs have a diminished aggressive potential, often just barely enough to trigger from frustrations over exclusively prey. But no more for an active response: the renewed build-up of energy and tension, the defending in a situation of massive resistance through social frustration.
The point of the conflict is obvious and reached all too quickly. However, the "Dutch barking dog", Bart Bellon's dog, is a completely different caliber of dog. That kind of dog can, in the moment when resistance is increased, as the handler approaches during the H&B, put on more. (The anticipation of the call-out in the blind increases the intensity of this dog's bark).
This is not like the prey biter with little aggressive potential, who needs its handler to pat and verbally praise and be given the prey arm. Here the dog's energy increases through negative amplification, the increased frustration, and the control of the handler. The appearance of handler himself has become the substitute trigger signal for aggression.
I consider this quality of dog rare. We (at least among GSD people) only have a small number of dogs available that would be suitable for the old-style object guard of the old P.O. (trial rules).
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