Has anyone seen this before? - Page 2

Anika do not mistake and interchange  fear with defense. Those are related but not interchangeable terms.  That is common and mistaken equation. Ears back are sign of fear  and of protecting  of ears against possible injury and ears up are sign of alertness and confidence and attention. 
Ears back can be displayed in prey too....for example, when during the prey attack there is a danger of injury to the ears , ears go back instinctively just like when you wink when something may hurt your eye. Or ears may go back  in order to streamline the run during prey attack.Or ears can go back for some reasons , but not necessarily in defense. Thus ears back are not necessary to be displayed only in defense. Ears could be  forward - up in defense and then  it is a sign of confidence and dominance and then it would go  perfectly  along with by you described  scratching.  

anika, 
LOL, I learned about "leaking drive", not too long ago, myself! That was funny!   Oh, and I don't think that behavior is all that rare. I've seen all my male dogs do that pawing display after the act of peeing, at one time or another.

Thank you beetree, Notice the post did not say leaking drive, just leaking with overly stressed.

Prager- That is interesting. I have always been taught that in defense drive the dog is reacting from fear and the need to defend itself(ears back, teeth bared, tail down). That in fight drive they are not in fear but wanting to engage, wanting to fight(ears up, teeth not showing, tail up).
My first GSD bitch always was forward, ears up, tail up no matter what the helper did. They all said she had no defense drive. At a kennel I was working at a Police department returned a dog because the trainer could not get him to show defense, even though the dog never backed down nor missed a bite.

Frustration perhaps.

I've always wondered about hackles up........
Jyota will go to a helper, ears up, tail high, deep intense bark, eyes hard and hackles up, directing her attention to the face of the helper. The more she is engaged by the helper the more intense she becomes. She will only bite the sleeve and once its let go, will happily run in a circle and push it back into the helper. To me she's saying "bring it on, lets see what you got".
At home she is pushy and dominates our other dogs unless I am continuously watching.
For years, people have been telling me she is in fear drive, but it has never made any sense to me.
Thanks Hans.


 

This behaviour is your dog's stimulus response in drive. Has nothing to do with defensive drive or fearfulness. Your job now is to train a substitute response that replaces the digging or scratching . In training, you can train a Sit before outing the sleeve or a Down before you send the dog to the helper and then give the Go! command to send the dog.Some dogs turn in circles, others dig or come of with other stuff.

Anika it is confusion in definitions and it is also lack of understanding what prey, defense , fear, courage, fight drive, flight and confidence and lack of it is.
 These are not interchangeable terms, even so  many are part of each other. Defense is not fear and prey is not lack of fear. 
 

A dog that raises it's hackles around people, especially in protection work is insecure.  I do not have a big issue with a dog that raises it's hackles around other animals.  I do not like to see dogs that raise their hackles around people.  Now, some dogs will get excited chasing a ball and the hackles over the rear legs will go up, that is ok.  Some dogs with injuries or pain may have their hackles go up when running.  You need to know the difference.  A strong, confident dog will not raise it's hackles around people, either when meeting them casually or when working.  Weaker dogs will raise their hackles when approaching strangers, you get all kinds of mixed signals from the dog.  The dog is not sure how to approach you and is very unsure as to what response is correct.  

Ears back are not always a sign of fear or submission, they can be.  But, not always.  As mentioned, ears go back to protect them in a fight.  A dog will put it's ears back just before it bites as well.  When reading a dog the whole body language must be taken as one sign, taking out one sign will more often than not give you an incorrect reading.  The entire body must be read at once to get the complete picture.  It is similar to reading one chapter out of a chemistry book and thinking you are a chemist.  

JMO FWIW

Jyota will go to a helper, ears up, tail high, deep intense bark, eyes hard and hackles up, directing her attention to the face of the helper. The more she is engaged by the helper the more intense she becomes. She will only bite the sleeve and once its let go, will happily run in a circle and push it back into the helper. To me she's saying "bring it on, lets see what you got".
At home she is pushy and dominates our other dogs unless I am continuously watching.
For years, people have been telling me she is in fear drive, but it has never made any sense to me.

I think the people telling you that she is insecure are correct.  I'm willing to bet if you brought Jyota out and the helper really pushed her or challenged her right off the bat she would show you something completely different.  Be thankful that your helpers have never really pushed her too hard.  I have never heard it described as "fear drive?"  She is in "drive" and when the helper slips the sleeve, she is reassured that it is all just a game and everything is ok.  The slipping of the sleeve helps her get over the insecurity and conflict that she has.   

Can dogs raise their hackles in play? My girl would play with me & show her teeth, raise her hackles, growl, & bark, then charge me, grab my hands but never close her mouth to bite. She would then circle around & play bow,  still with hackles up & teeth showing, & come back at me again. We'd play this game to let off steam, or just for fun, people that hadn't seen her do this before would be freaked out, but she did it on command, & stopped on command; when I would say "That's it." she'd flop down, hackles would go away, she'd instantly be in a relaxed mode. And seeing that, I never thought having hackles up was that big a deal. So do most dogs hackle up in play? jackie harris